42 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



Grayling in a Clear Stream. In the title-page is a 

 cypher composed of the initial letters of Walton 

 and Cotton, with the words : — 



" Qui mihi non credit, faciat licet ipse periclum, 

 Et fuerit scriptis sequior ille meis." ^ 



All the later editions have been founded upon this 

 fifth edition. The second part consists of a 

 dialogue between two persons, " Piscator " junior, 

 (who was Cotton himself), and Viator, a supposed 

 friend of Walton's, who had been addicted to the 

 chase till taught by Walton "a good, a more 

 quiet, innocent and less dangerous diversion." 

 It has often been remarked that, considering 

 the state the country was in when the book 

 was first published, it is wonderful how it 

 could have been written, but it should be 

 remembered that it must have been well thought 

 out after many years of cogitation, since Walton 

 was sixty years old when the first edition was 

 published. Cotton writes, in 1675, that for some 

 years past he had often thought on the 

 subject which he " scribbled " in little more than 

 ten days' time, and which constitutes Part II. of 

 the book. 



Some attempts have been made during recent 

 years to discard Part II. altogether, and to pro- 



^ A translation of which reads : He who does not believe me, let 

 him make trial himself, and he will be fairer to my writings. 



