THE TREATISE. 19 



It will be seen how closely this prologue 

 follows the traditional sporting model. A 

 general review of all sports is made, with a 

 conclusion in favour of the one in which the 

 writer is interested. In this the book was 

 followed by other writers, and indeed has set 

 a stamp on angling literature which has lasted 

 to our time. Walton, who took his list of flies 

 from Mascall, who took it from the Treatise, 

 also followed this introduction ; for his dialogue 

 is but an expansion of the comparison of the 

 merits of different pursuits, cast into actual 

 conversation. In his first chapter* the Hunter 

 and the Falconer describe the joy of their 

 crafts, and the Fisherman answers and excels 

 them. It is very like the Treatise. And in 

 observations on the joys of nature, and in moral 

 and religious reflexions, the Treatise both 

 looked to the past and pointed a hand to the 

 future : developed by the Compleat Angler, it 

 determined the form of our angling literature, 

 and it is itself rooted deep in the Master of 

 Game. 



Having established the rank of the craft, the 

 Treatise describes the angler's tackle. It starts 

 with the rod, which in that day had to be home- 

 made. It was in two parts, a 'staffe' or butt, 

 and a 'croppe 5 or top. The wood for it must 

 be cut in winter between Michaelmas and 



*Of the second and subsequent editions. In the first edition 

 the Traveller is the principal interlocutor : in the second 

 edition he disappears, replaced by the Hunter and the 

 Falconer. 



