58 American Fisheries Society 



second by Charles Cotton, Esq. ; the third by Col. Robert 

 Venables." This is the fifth edition of Walton, the first 

 of Cotton, and the fourth of Venables. Twenty pages 

 were added to this edition and further improvements 

 were introduced. This was the last edition published 

 in the author's lifetime. "The union of Walton and 

 Cotton has been perpetuated in all subsequent reprints, 

 but Venable's treatise, which, though meritorious, be- 

 longs to another order of composition, has been ex- 

 cluded." Such is the History of "The First Five." The 

 Angler's library that is built with these for a corner 

 stone, is certainly founded upon one of the firmest rocks 

 of English literature. Good copies of all five are in the 

 library. 



As previously stated the reprints of this famous book 

 have been many, from absolutely facsimile copies of the 

 "First Walton," of which there are several, two of them 

 magnificent volumes in folio embellished with pictures 

 by the greatest artists. 



It would seem impossible for any thing new in regard 

 to such a well-known book to be discovered, yet it was 

 the great good fortune of the owner of this library to 

 find in 1910 in the catalog of a well-known book auc- 

 tioneer in Boston, a small Walton and Cotton published 

 by Septimus Prowett in London, in 1826. It is a small 

 32mo. in its original violet unlettered cloth binding. 

 Printed on thin paper, this copy seems to be unique. 

 Diligent inquiry both in this country and abroad has 

 failed to find another copy or even the knowledge of 

 its existence. It is not known or mentioned by any of 

 the bibliographers of Walton, or to any of the collectors 

 of Walton that the owner has been able to find. Bought 

 at auction in Boston, it came in a collection of trashy 

 novels and other books of no value in a consignment 

 from Maine and if it had not attracted the cataloger's 

 eye by its size and the fact that it was printed on thin 

 paper, it would have been put into a lot of "and ten 

 others" and probably lost to sight forever. R. B. Mar- 

 ston, the editor of "The Fishing Gazette" of London, and 



