10 E. B. CROFT — IZAAK WALTON AND THE EITEE LEA, 



"How do the Blach-hird and Thrassel, with, their melodious 

 voices, bid welcome to the cheerful Spnug, and in their fixt 

 Months warble forth such ditties as no Art or Instrument can 

 reach to ? Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their particular 

 seasons, as namely the Leverock, the Tit-lark, the little Linet, and 

 the honest Rohin, that loves mankind both alive and dead. But 

 the Nightingale (another of my airy creatures) breathes such sweet 

 lowd musick out of her little instrumental throat, that it might 

 make mankind to think Miracles are not ceased. He that at 

 midnight (when the very laborer sleeps securely) should hear (as 

 I have very often) the clear aires, the sweet descants, the natural 

 rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might 

 well be lifted above earth and say, ' Lord, what Musick hast thou 

 provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou aifordest men such 

 musick on earth.' " 



The Hunter, in praising his favourite pastime, mentions the 

 '•' stately stag, the generous buck, the wild boar, the cunning otter, 

 the crafty fox, and the fearful hare," and amongst other vermin 

 the " mouldwarp." The reference to the wild boar is very in- 

 teresting, as Mr. Harting tells us in his paper on " Animals which 

 have become extinct within historic times," that shortly before the 

 date of the publication of this book the wild boar had become very 

 scarce ; but it is evident from the text that hunting the wild boar 

 was known as a pastime to Walton, who was born in 1593 ; there- 

 fore it seems probable that Mr. Harting is correct in his supposition 

 that this animal was not extinct so early as 1620.* 



Mouldwarp is the Anglo-Saxon name for the common mole 

 {Tal'pa europea). An old mole-catcher who lives near me always 

 sends in his bill for catching so many "moulds" — and I hope that 

 if his grandson in the National School follows his example. Her 

 Majesty's Inspector will not be too severe upon him for spelling 

 the word correctly, instead of in the modern abbreviated style. 



After commending his hounds, our Huntsman asks Piscatoe to 

 describe the pleasures of angling, which he docs with such eloquence 

 that when Auceps leaves them at Theobalds Park wall, he does so 

 full of good thoughts, not only of the fisherman, but of his recrea- 

 tion, and Venator refuses to tell any more about the chase, being 

 very desirous to hear concerning the antiquity of angling. 



Thus discoursing, our travellers reach the Thatched-house at 

 Hoddesdon, where they part, mutually agreeing to meet the otter- 

 hounds very early next moruing. The position of the Thatched- 

 house has been a matter of dispute since 1750, when the Pev. 

 Moses Brown, at the instigation of Dr. Samuel Johnson, published 

 a new edition of the ' Complete Angler,' in which he states that 

 it is seventeen miles from London by the Ware road, and that it is 

 supposed to be a thatched cottage once distinguished by the sign of 

 the Buffalo's Head, standing at the farther side of Hoddesdon, on 

 the left of the road going towards Ware. A member of this Society, 



* See ' Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc.,' Vol. I, p. 18. 



