14 COMMENDATORY VERSES. 



Where with a fixt eye, and a ready hand, 

 He studies first to hook, and then to land 

 Some Trout, or Perch, or Pike ; and having done, 

 Sits on a bank, and tells how this was won, 

 And that escaped his hook, which with a wile 

 Did eat the bait, and Fisherman beguile. 

 Thus, whilst some vex they from their lands are thrown, 

 He joys to think the waters are his own ; 

 And like the Dutch, he gladly can agree 

 To live at peace now, and have fishing free. 

 1650.* EDW. POWEL, Mr. of Arts. \ 



TO MY DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW,? MR IZ. WALTON, 

 ON HIS " COMPLETE ANGLER." 



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 mjrth, art, wit, the book, and you. 



ROB. FLOUD, C. 



TO HIS INGENIOUS FRIEND, MR IZAAK WALTON, 

 ON HIS "COMPLETE ANGLER."! 1 



SINCE 'tis become a common fate, that we 

 Must in this world or Fish or Fishers be ; 

 And all neutrality herein's denied, 

 'Tis not my fault that I am not supplied 

 With those three grand essentials of your Art, 

 Luck, skill, and patience : for I have a heart 

 That's as inclinable as others be, 

 Whose fortune imps their ingenuity. 



* The date does not occur in the second edition. 



t Probably the Edward Powel "of the borough of Stafford, Minister," whose son 

 Charles took his degree of B.A. in 1666, became Rector of Cheddington, and was the 

 author of The Religious Rebel. Wood's Fasti Oxon., by Bliss, vol. ii. p. 289. An " Ed. 

 Powel," and most likely the same person, addressed some Complimentary Verses to his 

 " very worthy and most ingenious friend, Mr James Shirley," which are prefixed to 

 Shirley's Poems, 8vo, 1646. 



t Thus in the second, but the words " in-law" are omitted in the third and subsequent 

 editions. 



\ Elder brother of John Floud, M.A., before mentioned, and brother of Walton's first 

 wife. See Li/e of Walton. 



\ These verses occur in the second edition only. For what reason Walton omitted 

 them in the three subsequent impressions, which were published in his lifetime, it is not 

 easy to guess, unless it was because he thought slightingly of their merits. That it was 

 not from a quarrel with the author is certain, from his" having addressed "An humble 

 Eclogue" to him as late as May 1660, in which Walton calls him his "ingenious 

 friend." 



