THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 133 



is quite certain that he persuaded the old 

 London angler to pay him a visit, which was 

 several times repeated. Then when Walton 

 is preparing his fifth edition, what more 

 natural than that his experiences, under 

 Cotton's guidance, in fly-fishing should lead 

 him to desire to make his work more perfect 

 in this branch of the art, and accept his fly- 

 fishing friend's offer to supply the deficiency. 

 No practical fly-fisher and angler for trout and 

 grayling can read Cotton's clear, simple and 

 practical directions without feeling intuitively 

 that he was a perfect master of the art as 

 practised in his time, and killed more of these 

 fish with the fly than any angler before him, 

 or for a long time afterwards. I have often 

 fished the water which Walton and Cotton 

 fished in the neighbourhood of Hartington, and 

 down through Beresford Dale, and its lovely 

 sylvan scenery, and on past his favourite Pike 

 Pool through Dove Dale — the most exquisite 

 little Dale in this country — and I never fished 

 it without thinking of Cotton's directions as to 

 fishing fine and far off, and using fine tackle, 

 for the water is generally crystal clear, and 

 the trout and grayling both keen-eyed and 



