Izaak Walton 



ward, The Book of St. Albans, space will 

 not permit more than a brief extract, as 

 a taste of its quality, and as a sample of 

 her ladyship's kindly views on the sub- 

 ject of the gentle art. In a chapter deal- 

 ing with the many excellences of fishing 

 as compared with other popular sports of 

 the time, our noble authoress saith : " If 

 in fysshing his sport fail him, the angler 

 atte the leest hath his holsom walke and 

 is mery atte his ease, a swete ayre of the 

 swete savoure of the meede floures that 

 maketh him hungry : he heareth the me- 

 lodyous armony of fowles : he seeth the 

 young swannes, heerons, duckes, cotes, and 

 many other foules with theyr brodes : 

 whych me seemeth better than alle the 

 noyse of houndys, the blasts of homes and 

 the scrytt of foules that hunters, fawkeners 

 and fowlers doe make. And if the angler 

 take fysshe, surely, thenne, is there noo 

 man merrier than he is in his apytyte." 

 How much Walton was indebted to Dame 

 Berners's Treatise, it is impossible to say, but 

 from one or two correspondences between 

 the two writers, it is obvious that Walton 

 must have been familiar with the book. 



A well-known work entitled The Expe- 

 rienced Angler, or Angling Improved, written 

 by another famous expert, Colonel Robert 

 282 



