68 LITER A TURK OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



But though the time and treasure expended on these 

 many editions have raised a mighty monument to the fame 

 of Walton — m-e perennius — still it may be questioned 

 whether a further multiplication of them would answer any 

 good purpose, unless an edition has got something really 

 new and important to contribute to " Waltonology." It 

 seems unreasonable that authors should merely edit a 

 Walton, as some seem to have done, for the sole purpose 

 of overloading it with notes — more suitable for digestion 

 into the form of an " Angler's Manual." Perhaps to some 

 the raison d'etre of an edition of the Complete A ngler may 

 be the alleged fact that there are in existence five hundred 

 collectors who make a point of buying a copy of every one 

 that comes out ; but it is possible to have too much even 

 of a good thing. It is a different matter with editions 

 de luxe. Such an one was recently contemplated by 

 Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co., to be edited by 

 Mr. Francis Francis, whose illness is deplored by the 

 literary as well as angling world. All rejoice to hear that 

 he is now progressing towards recovery, and it is to be 

 hoped that the publishers with his assistance may yet be able 

 to carry out their intentions. What would the angler-biblio- 

 philist give for the production of another old Walton, which 

 may have hitherto escaped the notice of bibliographers ? 

 This is an age of discovery of antiquities, literary and 

 otherwise, and though we do not wish to give encourage- 

 ment to piscatorial Shapiras (or Saphiras), the finder of a 

 genuine old Walton on any skin would surely have his 

 reward. Are all cupboards, shelves, and chests, in out- 

 of-the-way nooks and corners yet exhaustively searched ? 



An admirable facsimile reprint of the first edition of the 

 Complete Angler was executed by Mr. Elliot Stock, of 

 Paternoster Row, in 1876, the veiy tint and texture of the 



