brokes, and sytches, and in some rinnyng waters the 

 lordes tenaif tes haue lybertie by custoe" to fysshe with 

 shouenettes, trodenettes, small pytches, and suche 

 other." * To recapitulate the various English writers 

 upon fishing, according to the science of angling, 

 would prove too voluminous for a brief essay. Such 

 an attempt must commence with the " treatyse of 

 fyshynge wyth an angle," of 1496, by Juliana Berners, 

 and after enumerating near two hundred various publi- 

 cations connected with the subject, conclude with the 

 late edition of Walton's Complete Angler, as re-edited 

 by, and with the subsequent additions of Sir John 

 Hawkins, t Several inquiries have been made re- 

 specting 

 r 



* Boke of surveyeng and improume'tes, 1523. 



f- Although this work [the Complete Angler] seems to be little more 

 than a treatise on fish and fishing, the 1 reader, whether he is a proficient in 

 angling or not, will find abundant entertainment in it. It is written in dia- 

 logue, and is interspersed with several pieces of excellent old English 

 poetry, and discovers such a vein of natural humour, and harmless plea- 

 santry, as has rendered it the delight of the most ingenious for more than a 

 century. The author, Mr. Walton, was intimate with the wits of King 

 James the First's time; of whom, and of many other remarkable persons, 

 there are, in this edition, many curious anecdotes. Cuts are now added of 

 thejprincipal scenes, designed by Mr. Wale, and engraved by Mr. Ryland, 

 in which the characters are dressed in the habits of the times : which cuts, 

 the reader may be assured, cost, in designing and engraving upwards of one 

 hundred pounds." Bookseller's advertisement of first edition by Hawkins t . 

 from Newspaper July, i 760. The late edition of this work forms a hand- 

 some volume in quarto, and in two different sizes octavo. The embellish- 

 ments are by Mr. Philip Audinet, who has again copied from the original 

 designs of Wale : to these are added some portraits, and the fish are engraved 

 from a set of new designs, made for the purpose. 



The following extract from the preface to the experienced Angler (another 

 eld and raluable publication) by Col. Venables, claiming the superiority of 



thla 



