34 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



advantage by." After the year 1740 the works on 

 angling fast increased, and now their number is 

 legion. 



Hugh Miller might have considered Walton 

 his model when he gave the following advice : 

 *' Occupy your leisure in making yourselves 

 wiser men. Learn to make a right use of your 

 eyes ; the commonest things are worth look- 

 ing at — even stones and weeds and the most 

 familiar animals. Read good books, not forgetting 

 the best of all." Walton could say, with Sir Henry 

 Wotton, of angling : " 'Twas an employment for his 

 idle time, which was then not idly spent." We 

 picture him at one time walking alone by shadowed 

 waters and amongst odoriferous flowers, at another 

 time sitting under a honeysuckle hedge finding 

 " solitude the audience chamber of God." ^ 



He was " to catch men," by the example of a 

 godly life, unique holy living, a loving heart, 

 alacrity of spirit, cheerfulness, and by his writ- 

 ings. Living in a " world of opportunity and 

 wonder," he was to enjoy life and to obtain 

 knowledge and learning while pursuing a lawful 

 recreation. This attitude is beautifully expressed 

 in the six verses by J. Davors to be found set out 

 in the first chapter of The Complete Angler. The 

 singer prays for a quiet and happy life, and to have 

 what we read of in the Book of Job as the " hear- 



1 W. S. Landor. 



A 



