172 "Landing the Grayling? 



when the " corrections " are often more 

 erroneous than the original ? 



To writers like " Ephemera " is due 

 the vague impression which some anglers 

 have who have not read Walton, that he 

 was merely a bottom or live-bait fisher, 

 and knew next to nothing of fly-fishing or . 

 spinning with a minnow. This statement" 

 is far from being correct. Again, both/ 

 Walton and Cotton have suffered by the 

 want of angling knowledge of their illus- 

 trators. Who does not remember the 

 picture entitled " Landing the Grayling," 

 which has appeared in so many editions 

 of Walton, in which the angler is repre- 

 sented as catching hold of the line to pull 

 the fish in ? And yet over a century before 

 this engraving was made Walton wrote 

 thus : 



" Piscator. Look you scholar, you see 

 I have hold of a good Fish : I now see it is 

 a Trout, I pray, put that net under him, 

 and touch not my line, for if you do, then 

 we break all. Well done scholar, I thank 

 you." 



And Cotton, in the very incident de- 

 picted, makes Piscator Junior call out 

 " Bring hither that landing net, Boy." 

 / It is true, as I have previously men- 

 / tioned, that Walton quotes Barker's direc- 

 ^\ tions for fly-fishing and fly-making " with- 



