136 Why Walton is Loved. 



us, dead. But if we had nothing but the 

 book itself to tell us what he was, we 

 should read his character aright. His 

 genial, broad-minded, generous, honest 

 spirit is stamped on every page. We shall 

 see presently in what estimation he was 

 held by some of the best men of his own 

 day and since. His book is aglow with 

 human interest, and in this lies its ever- 

 fresh, ever-enduring power to charm ; he 

 clothed the dry bones of a practical 

 treatise on fishing with so attractive a 

 garb of joyous love of nature and human 

 nature, that he must indeed be a "severe 

 sowre-complexioned " man who cannot 

 love him. 



In the " Amateur Angler's : ' copy of the 

 first edition is fastened a little manuscript 

 in faded ink, evidently written by some 

 admirer of Walton many years ago : the 

 only clue to the writer are the initials 

 W. E. I give some extracts from it : 



" In Longman's Catalogue for 1816. 



"No. 5435, Walton's Angler, first edition, 

 London, 1653, 4 4^. 



"No. 5436, Walton's Angler, enlarged by 

 Cotton, with Venables' Experienced Angler, 

 Russia, 1676, ^3." 



Then follows an account of the first five 

 editions taken from one of the editions 

 of Walton edited by Sir John Hawkins, 



