ow 



zlviii INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 



fait So £? • 2J$, wwowy^ 



For Do r . C. Bewmount. 



pray S r , Accept this pore presant, by the as meane 

 hand that brings it from 



Y r . affec. servant, 



Izaak Walton.* 



Were we required to give a designation to Walton's 

 style of writing, we should say that naivett is his 

 perpetual characteristic ; and that whether he be 

 humorous, instructive, or affecting, we have to ac- 

 knowledge a degree of elegance which it were hope- 

 less to attain and impossible not to admire. 



The commendatory verses prefixed to the earlier 

 editions of the Complete Angler, by eminent per- 

 sons, friends of the author, were omitted for the first 



* Some little inscription similar to the foregoing, generally 

 accompanied those copies of his works which he gave to his 

 friends ; when they have occurred at sales, they have produced 

 several guineas above the value of the work itself. He also, 

 wrote his name in all his own reading books, and Sir H. Nicolas 

 has enumerated about twenty thus enriched, now preserved in 

 the Cathedral Library, Salisbury. 



