84 INDEBTED TO FORMER AUTHORS. 



The charge of a want of humanity has been 

 brought against him, and from this we would 

 willingly rescue him. We must however endea- 

 vour to do it at the expense of his piscatory skill, 

 which some of his honest disciples will, perhaps, 

 think an act of treason. 



In expressing an opinion that Walton did not 

 deserve the name of an angler, in the modern ac- 

 ceptation of the word, we know that we shall 

 excite the astonishment of many of his admirers. 

 We must, however, honestly avow our conviction, 

 that "our good father" was almost as ignorant of the 

 mystery of fishing, as the contented looking cock- 

 neys that may occasionally be seen every summer 

 dozing in a punt near Richmond Bridge. The old 

 Cromwellian trooper, Richard Franck, was probably 

 right when he hinted that Walton had derived 

 his knowledge of fishing from " antiquated authors 

 and mouldy records." We chance to have a few 

 of these " mouldy records " in our possession, on 

 which we set no little store, and on looking into 

 some of them, we are bound to admit that many 

 of the hints given by Piscator to his (e honest 

 disciple," have been taken from these rare " trea- 

 tyses of fysshynge." It is evident, that his own 

 skill in the art consisted in watching his float, as it 

 glided gently down one of the pretty streams he 

 has so delightfully described, while his hints and 

 instructions to anglers were derived from those 



