JET. 62.] LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. xlix 



was written and prepared for the press nearly three years before 

 it was published. This circumstance may perhaps be attributed 

 to the unsettled state of the times, the public mind being then too 

 violently agitated by political affairs to feel interested in works 

 unconnected with passing events, and least of all in a treatise on 

 the tranquil amusement of Angling. In the fifth edition, the date 

 of 1 649 is appended to Weaver's verses ; but as they were ad- 

 dressed not to the readers of the book, but " to my dear friend 

 Mr Iz. Walton, in praise of Angling, which we both love," it 

 admits of no inference as to the time when the treatise was 

 written. 



Some of the lines in the verses of the two Flouds are deserving 

 of notice. The elder, John Floud, has well described " The Com- 

 plete Angler " by saying that 



" There's none so low 



Or highly learn'd, to whom hence may not flow, 

 Pleasure and information : both which are 

 Taught us with so much art, that I might swear 

 Safely, the choicest critic cannot tell, 

 Whether your matchless judgment most excel 

 In Angling or its praise ; where commendation 

 First charms, then makes an art a recreation." 



Robert Floud's remarks on the resemblance between Walton and 

 his work, is the testimony of an intimate acquaintance to a fact, 

 of which every reader of the book must be conscious ; and which 

 is corroborated by Walton's saying, that the " whole discourse is 

 a kind of picture of my own disposition : " 



" This book is so like you, and you like it, 

 For harmless mirth, expression, art, and wit, 

 That I protest ingenuously, 'tis true, 

 I love this mirth, art, wit, the book, and you." 



The Dialogue, which is extended by one hundred pages of new 

 matter, is sustained by three, instead of two persons ; namely, an 

 angler, a hunter, and a falconer, under the names of Piscator, 

 Venator, and Auceps. " Viator," who was the second individual 

 of the dramatis personae of the first edition, disappears ; and the 

 conversation commences with remarks from each of the inter- 

 locutors in praise of his own pursuit. Tottenham Hill is still the 

 place, and the morning of May-day the time of their meeting ; 

 and the following account of the plan of the work may be con- 

 sidered interesting, because the directions respecting Angling, and 

 the numerous quotations and songs which are introduced, divert 

 the reader's attention from the regular order of events. 



Piscator, in ascending Tottenham Hill on a fishing excursion, 

 overtakes Venator a huntsman, and Auceps a falconer, and after 



d 



