254 ANGLERS' EVEiYINGS. 



The first line suggests the well-known maxim, "fish fine 

 and far ofif," which first took its present shape in Cotton's 

 second part of the Compleat Angler (chap. V.). The creel 

 (as a "little basket") and the landing-net, here first 

 make part of the requirements of the angler. 



In 1614 a partial reprint of the Booke of St. Albans 

 appeared under the title of Jnvcll for Gentry. In 165 1 

 came Thomas Barker, with his Art of Angling, and various 

 Secrets of Angling, which was reprinted in 1820. This 

 writer was certainly credited by Walton with having given 

 him much information upon fly-fishing. Thus Thomas 

 Barker and Izaak Walton have respectively written, one 

 a prose, and the other a verse introduction to TJie 



Experienced yi;/^/^r of Venables, signed J. W. T. B." 



Barkers Delight was the title of a later work published in 

 1659. It is dedicated to Edward, Lord Montague. A 

 portion of the dedication runs thus : — 



If any noble or gentle angler of what degree soever he be, have a 

 mind to discourse of any of those ways and experiments, I live in Henry 

 the Vllth's Gifts, the next door to the Gatehouse in Westminster, my 

 name is Barker, where I shall be ready, as long as please God, to satisfy 

 them and maintain my art during life. 



This sort of challenge almost carries us back to the 

 age of chivalry again. Meanwhile, between Barker's two 

 books comes Walton's Compleat Angler, the book which 

 was to revolutionise the general feeling with which angling 

 was regarded, and which was to raise the pursuit to the 

 dignity of an art. So well has it succeeded, that during 

 the lapse of upwards of two centuries, a distinct class has 

 been gradually growing into being. This class, by its 

 love for nature, and the almost enforced simplicity of its 



