TO 

 MY MOST HONOURED FRIEND 



CHARLES COTTON, ESQ. 



SIR, You now see I have returned you your very pleasant 

 and useful discourse of The Art of Fly-fishing, printed 

 just as it was sent me ; for I have been so obedient to 

 your desires, as to endure all the praises you have ventured 

 to fix upon me in it. And when I have thanked you for 

 them, as the effects of an undissembled love, then, let me 

 tell you, Sir, that I will readily endeavour to live up to 

 the character you have given of me, if there were 

 no other reason, yet for this alone, that you, that 

 love me so well, and always think what you speak, 

 may not, for my sake, suffer by a mistake in your 

 judgment. 



And, Sir, I have ventured to fill a part of your margin, 

 by way of paraphrase, for the reader's clearer under- 

 standing the situation both of your fishing-house and the 

 pleasantness of that you dwell in. And I have ventured 

 also to give him a Copy of Verses that you were pleased 

 to send me, now some years past, in which he may see a 

 good picture of both ; and so much of your own mind 

 too, as will make any reader, that is blessed with a 

 generous soul, to love you the better. I confess, that 

 for doing this you may justly judge me too bold : if you 

 do, I will say so too ; and so far commute for my offence, 

 that, though I be more than a hundred miles from 

 you, and in the eighty-third year of my age, yet I will 

 forget both, and next month begin a pilgrimage to 

 beg your pardon ; for I would die in your favour, and 

 tiU then will live, 



Sir, 

 Your most affectionate father and friend, 



IZAAK WALTON, 



LONDON, 

 April 29, 1676. 



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