208 A Seventy -Four Years' Interval. 



copy of the fifth edition came from 

 Stafford, it may be one given by Walton 

 to some friend there. In 1 7 14 it belonged 

 to a John Yeomans, who has written his 

 name about it considerably, and in 1715 

 added this warning : 



"JOHN YEOMANS His Booke 1715. 



Steal not this Booke 

 for fear of shame 

 for hear y see 

 the onors name." 



Although one may possess, as I do y 

 copies of nearly all the hundred or more 

 of editions of this little work, none can 

 have such a charm for the reader as one 

 of the first five: it adds so infinitely to 

 the interest to know that this old-fashioned 

 type and spelling was every word and 

 letter of it seen by Walton and Cotton, 

 and the collector will always value any 

 one of these most highly. 



It is somewhat curious that, although 

 five editions of The Compleat Angler were 

 called for between 1653 and 1676, no 

 other edition appeared, or at any rate is 

 known, between that date and 1750, 

 when Moses Browne edited a reprint of 

 it, giving very poor copies of Walton's 

 fish, but adding full-page illustrations by 

 H. Burgh, some of which are, I think,, 



