Izaak Walton 



morial of their friendship, in the quaint 

 interlocking, lover-like, of the initials of 

 their names ! Their book was now "com- 

 plete " in the most literal sense; and no 

 further changes were made upon it by 

 either Walton or Cotton, the former being 

 then in his eighty-third year. Few Eng- 

 lish classics have passed through so many 

 editions as The Complete Angler. Appealing, 

 as it does, to but a limited class of people, 

 the book has had a most unique success 

 since the first edition was published by Mr. 

 Marriott nearly two hundred and fifty 

 years ago, rivalling, in a way, the Faerie 

 Queene and the Pilgrim's Progress in the 

 departments of poesy and the higher life. 

 Not a year passes now but there are at 

 least several fresh editions or facsimiles 

 of it given to the world ; and, as I write, 

 I hear of other editions in preparation. 

 "The cry is, 'Still they come!'" thus tes- 

 tifying to the popularity of a work as pure 

 and good in style and manner as ever any- 

 thing written by an English author, and an 

 author, moreover, whose ordinary occu- 

 pation had been concerned with bales and 

 invoices and the distracting et ceteras of 

 commercial life in the heart of London ! 



Izaak Walton's title to an honorable 

 seat among the immortals of English lit- 

 287 



