IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 133 



improve the 'delightful Science of Angling,' it is 

 hoped that, following the example of those eminent 

 men, Walton and Cotton, every Member will study 

 to ensure the Harmony thereof, by a steady ad- 

 herence to Good - humour, Temperance, and 

 Sobriety ; gratefully sensible of the Blessings of 

 that Constitution of Government, which, while it 

 protects our Rights, permits us, with our Brethren, 

 ' quietly to go a-fishing ! '" 



Then are set out ten ordinary club rules, the 

 seventh providing that any visitor introduced to 

 dinner was to be a gentleman attached to '' the 

 Contemplative Man's Recreation." This club, so 

 far as I can discover, no longer exists (see Notes 

 and Queries, 9th S. XL, p. 7). 



There appears to have been a Walton and 

 Cotton Club founded at Cambridge in 1825 ; but 

 my letter addressed there has been returned through 

 the Dead Letter Office. 



Bethune, in his edition of The Complete Angler, 

 tells us about the formation of a club, called " The 

 Lake Piseco Trout Club," for anglers who fished 

 the waters in Hamilton county, in the northern 

 part of the State of New York, and that they had 

 erected a fishing-lodge and named it "Walton 

 Hall," in honour of their patron saint, "with 

 convenient rooms for each member of the 

 Club." 



