Introduction xxxiii 



Treatise, in which, it is probable, Walton read, and 

 followed the pleasant and to him congenial spirit of 

 the mediaeval angler. All these writers tooled with 

 huge rods, fifteen or eighteen feet in length, and 

 Izaak had apparently never used a reel. For 

 salmon, he says, "some use a wheel about the 

 middle of their rods or near their hand, which is 

 to be observed better by seeing one of them, than 

 by a large demonstration of words ". 



Mr. Westwood has made a catalogue of books 

 cited by Walton in his Compleat Angler. There is 

 ^lian (who makes the first known reference to 

 fly-fishing); Aldrovandus, De Piscibus (1638); 

 Dubravius, De Piscibus (1559); and the English 

 translation (1599); Gerard's Herball( 163 3) ; Gesner, 

 De Piscibus (s.a.) and Historia Naturalis (1558); 

 Phil. Holland's Pliny (1601); Rondelet, De Pisci- 

 bus Marines (1554) ; Silvianus, Aquatilium Historiae 

 (1554): these nearly exhaust Walton's supply of 

 authorities in natural history. He was devoted, as 

 we saw, to authority, and had a childlike faith in the 

 fantastic theories which date from Pliny. " Pliny 

 hath an opinion that many flies have their birth, or 

 being, from a dew that in the spring falls upon the 

 leaves of trees." It is a pious opinion ! Izaak is 

 hardly so superstitious as the author of The Angler's 

 Vade Mecum. I cannot imagine him taking " Man's 

 fat and cat's fat, of each half an ounce, mummy finely 

 powdered, three drams," and a number of other 

 abominations, to " make an Oyntment according to 

 Art, and when you Angle, anoint 8 inches of the 

 line next the Hook therewith". Or, "Take the 

 Bones and Scull of a Dead-man, at the opening 

 of a Grave, and beat the same into Pouder, and 

 put of this Pouder in the Moss wherein you keep 

 your Worms, but others hke Grave Earth as well" 

 No doubt grave earth is quite as efficacious. 



