4 INTRODUCTION. 



our lines better twined, or our hooks surer 

 tempered, is not true ; it is our own tempers, 

 simply, that have not advanced. How fre- 

 quently have I observed some lonely being 

 seated on the brink of a dull river, or his own 

 preserve, watching a sleepy float, or, muffled 

 in half a dozen coats, poised in a punt off 

 Hampton's royal banks, waiting with wearied 

 eye the bite of a stray Perch 



" Or Barbel, Bream, or what else came athwart, 

 And patience deem perfection of the Art." 



Twas not the fashion, till of late, to imitate 

 so much the simple life of Walton ; many at- 

 tempts have been made to revive those hours, 

 but none successfully ; it would almost appear as 

 if the loss of so benevolent and amiable a 

 character had caused a gloom we have but just 

 recovered from. 



" Then some high mind, tired of the citie's din, 

 Look'd bold abroad, and found a soul within 

 That lack'd but opportunity to spread afar, 

 And leave a toilsome peace, for intellectual war." 



