136 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



Walton did not make his fishing " pay." " It is 

 a good beginning of your art," he writes, "to offer 

 your first-fruits to the poor, who will both thank 

 God and you for it." And again we read : " Having 

 caught more fish than will sup myself and my 

 friend, I will bestow this upon you and your 

 daughter, for I use to sell none."^ 



Walton was very fond of backing his opinion ; 

 but it does not appear that money really passed. 

 Sometimes it is " twenty to one " if he had taken 

 up a certain rod; then it is an "even lay" as to 

 which rod catches, and at another time it is 

 "twenty to one" on his catching the biggest of 

 some twenty chubs. 



Mr F. C. Burnand has written a funny book 

 entitled The Incompleat Angler (Bradbury, Agnew 

 & Co.), consisting of amusing conversation between 

 Piscator, Venator and Auceps and others : it is 

 well worth perusing. 



The question has been raised by Mr Marston 

 whether Walton kept a horse. He observes 

 Walton could not go from London fishing " by 

 train or tram or 'bus, as the modern Londoner 

 does." Certainly Walton once refers to "my 

 horse " when referring to baits for bream. How- 

 ever, the question seems hardly worth pursuing, 



1 Walton tells us that Dr Nowell (1507-1602), Dean of St Paul's 

 Cathedral, who was a great angler, " usually bestowed all his fish 

 amongst the poor." 



