xxxiv INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 



might be supposed to flow from favour or affection : 

 by far the greater part of those copies of verses, 

 prefixed, according to the custom of the time, to 

 the earlier editions, by friends of the author, might 

 be deemed liable to this exception ; besides that 

 they, in general, partake too much of metaphy- 

 sical conceit, to continue their attendance on an 

 author, whose mind was as unsophisticated as his lan- 

 guage was beautiful: — truly, indeed, may it be termed, 

 the " well spring of English, pure and undefiled." 



The Reverend Moses Browne, is the first writer 

 whose remarks are applicable to our present view 

 of the subject ; he revived the " Complete Angler" 

 after it had lain dormant for upwards of eighty 

 years ; and this task, be it never forgotten, was 

 performed at the instigation of Dr. Samuel John- 

 son ! Mr. Browne, in his Preface, shews a laudable 

 anxiety that the work should be known as a literary 

 production, and not as a mere book of fishing ; these 

 are his words : — • " Mr. Izaak Walton's Complete 

 Angler, which, (with the second part by Mr. Cotton, 

 of equal scarcity and value, I have the satisfaction 

 of restoring in the present manner to the public,) 

 has been always had in the greatest reputation, by 

 such as are acquainted with books, and have any 

 discerning in works of merit and nature. Not only 

 the lovers of this art, but all * others, who have no in- 

 clinations in the least to the diversion of angling that it 



* On the appearance of my first edition in 1823, Mr. D'ls- 

 eaeli (who somewhere speaks of the " Doric sweetness of 



