132 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



have been tersely and painfully described as being " in the 

 Bombastes Furioso style, and sufficiently ridiculous to be 

 somewhat amusing." Moses Browne (another unpoctical 

 name) published his Piscatory Eclogues in 1729. He is not 

 to be confounded with the William Browne of the last 

 century, whose productions Blakey in his Angling Litera- 

 ture confounds with those of Sannazarius, a translation of 

 whose Piscatory Eclogues appeared in 1726. Browne's 

 Eclogues are nine in number, and the author seems to have 

 made Virgil and Theocritus his models for composition. 

 They are very fair reading, especially when we remember 

 that the author produced them in his twenty-third year. 

 The following lines will give an idea of his style : — 



" When artful flies the angler would prepare, 

 The tack of all deserves his utmost skill ; 

 Nor verse nor prose can ever teach him well 

 What masters only know, and practice tell ; 

 Yet thus at large I venture to support, 

 Nature best foUow'd best secures the sport. 

 Of flies — the kinds, their seasons, and their breed, 

 Their shapes, their hues, with nice observance heed ; 

 Which most the trout admires and where obtain'd, 

 Experience best will teach you, or some friend ; 

 For several kinds must every month supply, 

 So great's his passion for variety ; 

 Nay, if new species on the stream you find, 

 Try — you'll acknowledge fortune amply kind." 



In 1733. Simon Ford, D.D., wrote a neat Latin poem 

 Piscatio, which he inscribed to Archbishop Sheldon, the 

 founder of the " Theatre " at Oxford, and a friend of 

 Walton's, who mentions him in the " Fourth Day" as having 

 " skill above others " in taking barbel. The Piscatio has 

 been translated and adapted several times. Williamson, 

 mentioned in Chapter V., was a bit of a poet, and some of 



