256 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



[seeing] you have already told me whither your journey 

 is intended, and that I am better acquainted with the 

 country than you are ; I will heartily and earnestly 

 entreat you will not think of staying at this town, but 

 go on with me six miles farther to my house,* where you 

 shall be extremely welcome ; it is directly in your way, 

 w r e have day enough to perform our journey, and, as you 

 like your entertainment, you may there repose yourself 

 a day or two, or as many more as your occasions will 

 permit, to recompense the trouble of so much a longer 

 journey. 



VIAT. Sir, you surprise me with so friendly an invita- 

 tion upon so short acquaintance ; but how advantageous 

 soever it would be to me, and that my haste, perhaps, is 

 not so great but it might dispense with such a divertise- 

 ment as I promise myself in your company, yet I cannot, 

 in modesty, accept your offer, and must therefore beg your 

 pardon : I could otherwise, I confess, be glad to wait upon 

 you, if upon no other account but to talk of Mr. I. Walton, 

 and to receive those instructions you say you are able to 

 give me for the deceiving a trout ; in which art I will not 

 deny but that I have an ambition to be one of the greatest 

 deceivers : though I cannot forbear freely to tell you, 

 that I think it hard to say much more than has been read 

 to me upon that subject. 



Pise. Well, Sir, I grant that, too ; but you must know 

 that the variety of rivers require different ways of angling : 

 however, you shall have the best rules I am able to give, 

 and I will tell you nothing I have not made myself as 

 certain of, as any man can be in a thirty years' experience 

 (for so long I have been a dabbler in that art) ; and that 

 if you please to stay a few days, you shall, in a very great 

 measure, see made good to you. But of that hereafter ; 



* Beresford Hall, situate a little to the north of Dovedale. In 

 1838 it was a large farm-house, and the property of the Marquis of 

 Beresford. Between it and the river side Cotton's fishing-house was 

 still standing. E. 



