Izaak Walton 



of angling, at any rate, it will never cease 

 to be a classic, or to body forth the de- 

 lightfully unalloyed personality of the 

 writer. Of course few learners have con- 

 sulted the book for practical guidance. 

 Compared with a really modern handbook 

 of angling, like Stewart's or Pennell's, or 

 that of Francis, The Complete Angler is, 

 perhaps, to the followers of that art what, 

 say, the Book of Tobit might be, in these 

 days, to evangelical " fishers of men " of 

 the school of Wesley or of Spurgeon. "A 

 quaint and curious volume," in all truth, 

 to be read rather at the fireside than on 

 the road to Loch-Leven or to the Tay. 

 Just imagine a New Brunswick angler 

 harking away over the hills to the Resti- 

 gouche, expecting, by the help of its lore, 

 to tackle and extract from that prime river 

 a beauty of thirty pounds ! Few anglers 

 with these ambitions filling their breasts 

 would ever dream of consulting that ven- 

 erable volume, with all its kindliness, to 

 know how to fulfil them. 



The quaint dialogue form of The Com- 

 plete Angler, by means of which the stu- 

 dent is admitted to the secrets of that art, 

 was, perhaps, the best that Walton could 

 have chosen for the exposition of his 

 theme. But, to present-day readers at all 



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