PREFACE. V 



fpiciious, I believe it is all that can he expe^ed by 

 others, 



'The great Bijficulty was to find fufficient to ^ 

 add. For this^ heftdes my own Obfervatmis , 

 which I was not Jo vain as to depend ?nucb on, 

 unlefs they had the Concurrence of others^ I have 

 gathered up all that 1 coiddfrom the Converfa- 

 tion of my Angling Friends , whofe good Nature 

 in this refpecl I cannot but acknowledge. I have alfo 

 found fotncthing in one or two of the mofi modern 

 Books ^ which however I have been fparing in the 

 life cf., as thinkittg it fairer to let their Authors 

 fpeak for themfelves. The moji I have borrowed 

 is on the Articles of Thames and Rock-fifhing, 

 and that I have fo much reduced^ that it can be 

 no Prejudice to any larger Account. Almoft eve- 

 ry Angler about London knows as much of the 

 Thames as is necejfary^ and very few have 

 either Opportunity or Inslination to purfue the 

 other. 



But the great Advantage^ as well as Orna- 

 ment of this Book^ and which mufl eminently di- 

 fiingmfo it from all others^ is the Poetical Pa- ty 

 which cannot but be equally iifeful and enter taw- 

 ing. I dare fpeak fo highly of it^ becaufe a great 

 Number of the Lines are by Writers of the firfi 

 Rank, It was my remembring fo many ofthefe^ 

 and at the fame Time lighting on an ingenious little 

 Book called Tht Innocent Epicure, whichmore 

 than doubled ??iy ^antity^ that firfl put me in 



the 



