xlviii BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



Before becfinning to treat more particularly of Walton, 

 it may be well to speak of a very interesting book which 

 was published eleven years after the first edition of the 

 Complete Angler, fourteen before Cotton's second part, and 

 in 1()7G incorporated with those treatises under the title 

 of " The Universal Angler,'' I mean : " Tlie Experienced 

 Angler, or Angling Improvd, being a General Discourse 

 on Angling, Imparting the Aptest ^yays and Choicest 

 Experiments for the taking of most sorts of Fish in Pond 

 or Rivzr {by Col. Robert Venables). London : Printed 

 for Richard Marriott, and are to be sold at his shop in St. 

 Dunslan's Church-Yard, Fleet Street. 1G62." 8vo. 



All that can be ascertained of Venables is, that he served 

 in the Parliament Army from the year 1C43. In 1644 he w^as 

 Governor of Chester, and a year after of Tarvin. In 1G49 

 he was Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ulster (Ireland) 

 and had the towns of Lisnegarvey, Antrim, and Belfast, 

 delivered to him. His actions in Ireland are recited in an 

 exceedingly rare book : " A Historie, or Briefe Chronicle 

 of the Chief Matters of the Irish Warres.'" Lond. : 1650. 

 When Cromwell, at the instigation of Mazarin, in 1654 



worldly Fishers : "Some jisA with AVroe's nets of the Richest threds, and 

 these are Golden Fishers. Some angle for the Tributary fish with 

 Twentie-pence in her mouth, and these are Silver fishers. Some cast 

 their nets over a Scnle of Churches, and these are Steeple fishers. Some 

 fish witli a Shining Shell in their A^et, and these are Flattcrini; fishers. 

 Some fish for an Euge tuum et Belle, and tliese arc Vaine-glorious fish- 

 ers. Some fish with an Jlude aliquid hrevibus Gyaris, and these are 

 Audacious fishers. Some fish with a Poke-net for a dinner (forgetting 

 lerom to Nepotian: Facile contcmnitur clericus, qui Siepe vocatus ad 

 prandivim non rccusat), and these are Hungry fishers. Some fish wit^* a 

 net made of Strawes and Knots, and these are Passport fishers. Some 

 fish for Frugges that may croke against our Church, and these are 

 ScUmialicall fishers. Some fish in the Ayre, above the Claudes, and 

 these are Knthusiasticall fishers. Some fish above, beneath, side-slip, 

 and these are Ucitjuifarir fishers. Some fish for a jxiire of nnhackt 

 Gallows, and these an; Siniinarie fishers. Some fish for Princes^ Crowns 

 and Sceptres, and these arc Belzebub fishers. Some fish for soules, and 

 these are Christian fishers." 



