ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. iii 



He sings, too, of " the Medwaies silver streams," in which 

 the nymphs were wont — 



" With hook or net, barefooted wantonly 

 The pleasant dainty fish to entangle or deceive." 



But Francis Ouarles may fairly be claimed by anglers 

 as a poet-angler, as he not only caught but sang of 



" The broad-side bream, 

 The wary trout, that thrives against the stream ; " 



and of 



" The well grown carp, full laden with her spawn." 



He lived on well in the seventeenth century, and, judging 

 from the style, there can be little doubt but that Walton 

 wrote the " Address to the Reader " of his Shepherd^ s 

 Eclogues, which were printed in 1646 by John and Richard 

 Marriott, the latter of whom was Walton's publisher and 

 intimate friend. 



Just before the close of the sixteenth century we find the 

 following in Sable's Fisherman s Ta/e{iS9S)- After describ- 

 ing the delight of a spring morning, the poet continues : — 



" I shakt off sleepe, and tooke in hand a reede, 

 A reede whereto was bounde a slender line, 

 And crooked hooka, wherewyth, for my disport. 

 Walking along the bankes of silver lakes, 

 Oftimes I vsed, with false deceiuing baytes, 

 To pluck bright-scaled fish from christall waves. 

 Forthwith I bended steps vnto the streames, 

 And pleasant meares, not far from mine abode, 

 Needless it were here to rehearse what joyes 

 Each thing brought then vnto my dolefull minde. 

 The little menowes leapt aboue the waues 

 And sportive fish like wanton lambes did play." 



Old Michael Drayton, whom Charles Lamb eulogises 

 as the panegyrist of his native land, is in full song at the 



