64 American Fisheries Society 



men is twenty-five lines in Walton's autograph signed 

 "Iz. W.," being Sir Henry Wotton's ode to spring quoted 

 in the "Compleat Angler." Charles Cotton is repre- 

 sented by three lines signed "C-C-Ton," a curious form 

 of Cotton's signature. 



Of much greater rarity than the above are seventeen 

 lines signed "Robert Venables." The owner knows of 

 no other example in a Waltonian Collection. Venables 

 was the author of Part III of the fifth edition of "The 

 Compleat Angler." Of great interest also in the original 

 probate copy of Izaak Walton's will, dated August 9, 

 1683, beautifully written on a sheet of vellum, nearly 

 three feet square and with the greater portion of the 

 old seal still attached to it. This treasure mounted in 

 a silver frame with glass front and back occupies a 

 prominent place in the library. The owner had twenty- 

 five facsimile copies made for distribution amongst 

 friends ; also twenty-five transcripts of the same in clear 

 English print. 



Many more examples of Waltoniana could be men- 

 tioned were there time and space to describe them. 



The manuscript was the first portable form of trans- 

 mission of men's thoughts, and in the library are manu- 

 scripts on pages of vellum containing perhaps the earli- 

 est mention of fish-ponds and the culture or raising of 

 fish for food. The old monks who were often, if not 

 the authors, most certainly the scribes of the manu- 

 scripts, had the liveliest kind of interest in fish and its 

 culture, since on their many fast days, the church al- 

 lowed them fish food. 



The earliest manuscript in the collection is undoubt- 

 edly a copy of the work of Bartholomaeus Glanville, "De 

 proprietatibus rerum" — concerning the nature of things. 

 It was written in 1300. This portly volume was 

 formerly owned by the University of the Sorbonne in 

 Paris, and was loaned to the students and scholars of 

 Paris for a stipulated sum of money per day. This was 

 quite on the principal of the modern circulating library. 

 The work is in Latin and was the encyclopaedia of the 



