Getting Ottt the Fly Books 



sholde not by this meane utterly dystroye 

 it." The words in which the duties of an 

 angler are expressed are as serious as, in our 

 day, are deemed suitable to a marriage ser- 

 vice or the installation of a pastor. Would 

 that they all, from " I charge and requyre 

 you in the name of alle noble men" to the 

 closing benediction, "And all those that 

 done after this rule shall haue the bless- 

 ynge of god and saynt Petyr, whyche he 

 theym graunte that wyth his precyous 

 blood vs boughte," were burnt with the 

 "plumers wire" into the memory of every 

 greedy and ill-mannered angler. 



An evidence of the solace that is found 

 in angling is the fact that out of the 

 troublous times of King and Parliament 

 have come down to us at least three 

 works on the art. Walton, who mourned 

 his " monarch slain," Venables, whose 

 disastrous West India campaign brought 

 him to disgrace and the Tower, and the 

 Cromwellian trooper, Richard Franck, 

 wandering abroad, all consoled themselves 

 with the rod and writing of its joys. Per- 

 haps the chastening of sorrow joined with 

 the gentle art to sweeten that charming 

 letter which the Royalist Walton prefixed 

 to the book of the Roundhead Venables. 

 Charming books both have written ; and 



