BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. xxxiii 



by your crafty meanes, and drawen upon londe. Also 

 that ye breke noo mannys heggys in going aboute your 

 dysportes ; ne open noo mannes gates but that ye shytte 

 theym agayn. Also, ye shall not use this forsayd crafty 

 dysporte for ne coveteseness,. to thencreasynge and spar- 

 ynge of your money oonly, but pryncypally for your 

 solace, and to cause the helthe of your body and specyally 

 of your soule. For whanne ye purpoos to goo on your 

 dysportes in fysshynge, ye woU not desyre gretly many 

 persones wyth you, whyche myghte lette you of your 

 game. And then ye maye serve God devoutly, in sayenge 

 affectuously youre custumable prayer. And thus doynge 

 ye shall eschewe and voyde many vyces ; as ydlenes, 

 whyche is the pryncypal cause to enduce man to many 

 other vyces, as is ryght well knowen. Also ye shall not 

 be ravenous in takyng of your sayd game as to mooche 

 at one tyme : whyche ye may lyghtlye doo if ye doo in 

 every poynt as this present treatyse showyth you in every 

 poynt. Which lyghtly be occasyon to dystroye your owne 

 dysportes, and other mennys also. As whanne ye have a 

 suffycyent mese ye sholde covet no more at that tyme. 

 Also ye shall beysye yourselfe to nourysth the game in all 

 that ye maye, and to dystroye all such thynges as ben de- 

 vourers of it. And all those that done after this rule 

 shall have the blessynge of God and Saynt Peter, whyche 

 he theym graunte, that wyth his precyous bloode vs 

 boughte." 



How true a feeling pervades all this, and how does it 

 come home to the heart of a genuine angler ! 



Though Walton does not speak of this ancient treatise, 

 he may have both seen and studied it ; for, as Hawkins 

 observes, "the difference between its Twelve sorts of Flies 

 and his is small, as well in the order as the manner of de- 

 scribing them." I may add, what has escaped the notice 

 of others, that, at the close of Walton's last chapter, the 

 prayer of Venator is a Protestant version of the promise 



B* 



