30 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



culinary nature, for the reader of The Complete 

 Angler is often instructed how to dress fish for 

 dinner ; indeed, Franck hints that the book became 

 popular because it taught the reader to cook as 

 well as to catch fish. 



Until Walton's time the principles of angling 

 were propagated mainly by tradition. An account 

 of angling among the ancients and down to Walton's 

 time is to be found in Dr Bethune's learned edition 

 of Tlie Complete Afigler, published in 1847 by Willy 

 & Putnam, of New York ; and the reader is also 

 referred to Angling Literature in England, by 

 Osmund Lambert (1881), and to Walto?i and the 

 Earlier Fishing Writers, by E. B. Marston (1894). 

 Only a few books on the subject of angling 

 had appeared in England when Walton brought 

 out his book. His discourse caused various 

 books to be written in his lifetime. In 1651 

 Thomas Barker wrote his book entitled The Art 

 of Anglhig, and in 1657 the second edition was 

 published under the enlarged title of Barker's 

 Delight; or, The Art of Angling. One of the 

 commendatory verses of that edition runs : — 



" Bark not at Barker, lest he bite ; 

 But if in angling thou delight, 

 To kill the trout, and cook the fish, 

 Follow his rules and have thy wish." 



In 1658 Richard Franck wrote a book entitled 

 Northern Memoirs, calculated for the Meridian of 



