2io Browne's Editions. 



Not content with making verbal altera- 

 tions in Walton's text, and improving 

 some verse which he correctly terms 

 doggerel, he even tampers with John 

 Dennys' fine lines quoted by Walton. 

 Still, his edition has its merits, and his 

 estimate of Walton and his work is so 

 true and so well expressed as to make 

 one regret all the more that he should 

 have been so unwise as to attempt to 

 "file off something of that Rust and 

 Uncouthness, which Time fixes on the 

 most curious finished Things." He added 

 a well-compiled appendix of thirty pages, 

 about rivers, haunts of fish, seasons, tackle, 

 baits, etc. 



Browne's editions of Walton were three 

 in number: 1750, 1759, and 1772. He 

 was a friend of Dr. Johnson, who advised 

 him to publish the work. 



Between the second and third issues of 

 Browne's editions, the first of a much 

 more notable series appeared viz., that 

 edited by John Hawkins in 1760. He 

 dates the dedication of this edition at 

 Twickenham, April loth, 1760, and quite 

 ignores Moses Browne except to pat him 

 on the back for his eclogues. He gave us 

 the first reliable account of the authors. 

 But, as I have pointed out at some length 

 in my "Lea and Dove" edition of The 



