NOTES. 375 



preceding the commencement of the work itself, contains a 

 short Table of Contents to the thirteen chapters of which that 

 edition is composed, and which is introduced in the following 

 manner : " Because in this Discourse of Fish and Fishing I have 

 " not observed a method, which (though the Discourse be not 

 " long) may be some inconvenience to the Reader, I have 

 " therefore for his easier finding out some particular things 

 " which are spoken of, made this following Table. The first 

 " chapter is spent in a vindication or commendation of the Art 

 " of Angling." After having gone through the whole number 

 of chapters, the Table concludes with, " These directions the 

 " Reader may take as an ease in his search after some particular 

 " Fish, and the baits proper for them; and he will shew him- 

 " selfe courteous in mending or passing by some few errors in 

 " the Printer, which are not so many but that they may be par- 

 " doned." In the Second Edition, there were twenty-one chap- 

 ters, entitled as they are in the foregoing pages ; and the Third 

 Edition was the first which had an index. 

 Page 2. Tlw Thatched House in Hoddesdon. 

 In the First Edition, there are but two characters introduced 

 in Chapter I. : Viator, or the Wayfarer, whose name in the Se- 

 cond impression was changed to Venator, or the Hunter, and 

 Piscator, the Fisherman. Instead therefore, of the dialogue as 

 it now stands, the opening passages were originally as follow : 

 Piscator. You are wel overtaken Sir; a good morning to 

 you ; I have stretch'd my legs up Totnam Hil to overtake you, 

 hoping your businesse may occasion you towards Ware, this 

 fine, pleasant, fresh, May-day in the morning. Viator. Sir, 

 I shall almost answer your hopes ; for my purpose is to be at 

 Hodsden (three miles short of that town) I wil not say, before 

 I drink, but before I break my fast : for 1 have appointed 

 a friend or two to meet me there at the Thatcht-house, about 

 nine of the clock this morning ; and that made me so early 

 up, and, indeed, to walk so fast. Pise. Sir, I know the 

 Thatcht-house very well: I often make it my resting place, 

 and taste a cup of ale there, for which liquor that place is very 

 remarkable; and to that house I shall by your favour accom- 

 pany you, and either abate of my pace, or mend it, to 

 enjoy such a companion as you seem to be, knowing that (as 

 the Italians say,") etc. Pages 1-2. The Thatcht-house is 

 stated bj the Rev. Moses Browne, in a note in his Third edition 

 (d t lie ( Complete Angler, Land. 1772, 12mo. p. 1, to be " seven- 

 *' teen miles from London on the Ware road." It is now quite 

 unknown ; but it has been supposed, that a thatched cottage, 

 once distinguished by the sign of the Buffalo's I lead, standing 

 at the farther end of Hoddesdon, on the left of the road in going 



