Izaak Walton 



events, the Conferences between " Pisca- 

 tor," " Venator," " Auceps," and the in- 

 teresting countryfolk they encounter, are 

 at times just a trifle prolonged and tedious, 

 and rather over-weighted with philosoph- 

 ic and sentimental saws. Moreover, they 

 oftentimes lack that spirit or "go" which 

 so distinguishes that capital companion- 

 work to The Complete Angler, viz., the 

 Nodes Ambrosiana of Christopher North, 

 our Scottish Walton, one of the keenest 

 and most daring anglers that ever " footed 

 it " over mead or heather, and as ardent 

 a lover of mountain air and the glorious 

 license thereof as ever breathed.* 



Yet there is a quality in Walton's writ- 

 ing that overcomes all drawbacks ; a qual- 

 ity to which surely no better testimony 

 could be offered than that of Washington 

 Irving in the Sketch-Book : " For my part 

 I was always a bungler at all kinds of 

 sport that required either patience or 

 adroitness, and had not angled above half 

 an hour before I had completely ' satisfied 

 the sentiment/ and convinced myself of 

 the truth of Izaak Walton's opinion, that 

 ' angling is something like poetry a man 



* An illustrated article on "Christopher North, the Scottish 

 Walton," by Mr. Cargill, was published in the Pall Mall Maga- 

 zine for November, 1895. 



292 



