IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 41 



(often attributed to Bishop Morton), a small volume 

 first printed in 1599, which not only commences in 

 nearly the identical words of, but bears, in other 

 places, a great similarity to The Complete Angler, 

 and there is so much resemblance between many 

 passages of Walton's work and Hereshachius' 

 Husbandry, by Googe, which was first printed in 

 1577, as to render it probable that he was indebted 

 to that work for some of his ideas. 



The subject-matter of the treatise is carried on 

 in dialogue between two interlocutors, Piscator (a 

 fisherman) and Viator (a traveller). A second 

 edition was demanded in 1655, and various im- 

 portant alterations were made, there now being 

 three interlocutors, "Piscator," "Venator" (a 

 hunter) and "Auceps" (a falconer), Viator being 

 eliminated. 



Of this most wonderful work five editions were 

 brought out during Walton's life, viz., in 1653, 

 1655, 1661, 1668 and 1676. A short discourse by 

 way of postscript, touching the laws of angling, 

 was first published with, and was printed at the 

 end of, the third edition of the book ; it is, how- 

 ever, omitted in most of the subsequent editions. 

 Who the writer was is not known, but he was 

 evidently learned in the law. The fifth edition 

 contained a second part, which Cotton wrote, and 

 this second part had the title TJie Complete Angler: 

 Being Instructions how to Angle for Trout or 



