Oldys and Hawkins. 2 1 1 



Compleat Angler, it was to that indefatig- 

 able antiquary William Oldys, Norroy 

 King-at-Arms, that we owe the principal 

 facts about Walton and Cotton which have 

 come down to us, and not to Sir John 

 Hawkins, to whom they have been in- 

 variably credited. Mr. Thorns, when 

 editor of Notes and Queries, was the first, 

 I believe, to point out how much we owe 

 to Oldys. 



The illustrations of fish in Hawkins's 

 edition, although better than Browne's, are 

 still much inferior to those in Walton's 

 first edition. The copper-plate full-page 

 views of scenes described in the book 

 were engraved by Ryland from designs by 

 Wale. Browne complained, and not with- 

 out justice, I think, that some of these 

 illustrations came near being copies of 

 those in his book. If S. Wale, Jun., had 

 not seen the picture of the anglers lunch- 

 ing under the sycamore tree in Browne's 

 edition, or that of the meeting between 

 them and the milkmaid and her mother, 

 it is difficult to account for the similarity 

 between his designs and those of Burgh. 

 The plates of music are beautifully en- 

 graved in Hawkins, as one would expect 

 from the author of A History of Music, 

 and he added some most useful engrav- 

 ings of tackle, including a winch, of 



