THE COMPLETE ANGLER 255 



I must boast to you, that I have the good fortune to 

 know him too, and came acquainted with him much 

 after the same manner I do with you ; that he was my 

 Master, who first taught me to love angling, and then 

 to become an angler ; and to be plain with you, I am 

 the very man deciphered in his book under the name 

 of Venator ; for I was wholly addicted to the chace, 

 till he taught me as good, a more quiet, innocent, and 

 less dangerous diversion. 



Pise. Sir, I think myself happy in your acquaintance, 

 and before we part shall entreat leave to embrace you ; 

 you have said enough to recommend you to my best 

 opinion : for my father Walton will be seen twice in no 

 man's company he does not like, and likes none but 

 such as he believes to be very honest men ; which is 

 one of the best arguments, or at least of the best testi- 

 monies I have, that I either am, or that he thinks me, 

 one of those, seeing I have not yet found him weary of 

 me. 



VIAT. You speak like a true friend, and in doing so 

 render yourself worthy of his friendship. May I be so 

 bold as to ask your name ? 



Pise. Yes surely, Sir, and if you please a much nicer 



question ; my name is , and I intend to stay long 



enough in your company, if I find you do not dislike mine, 

 to ask your's too. In the meantime, because we are 

 now almost at Ashborn, I shall freely and bluntly tell 

 you, that I am a brother of the angle too, and, peradven- 

 ture, can give you some instructions how to angle for a 

 trout in a clear river, that my father Walton himself will 

 not disapprove, though he did either purposely omit, or 

 did not remember them,* when you and he sat discoursing 

 under the sycamore tree. [See part i. p 104.] And, being 



* The plain truth is, that Walton did not understand angling 

 for " a trout in a clear stream," viz., fly-flshing for it. Cotton knew 

 this well, but was too much of a courteous " cavalier " to say so 

 bluntlv. E. 



