BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. liii 



flowers !' The concluding observation of Venables 

 applies to all readers : ' Make not a profession of any Re- 

 creation, lest vour immoderate love towards it should 

 bring a cross wish on the same.' " 



There w-ere five editions of Venables's work before 

 1694 ; the second was burnt in the great fire of London, 

 and the fourth made part, as has been said, of the Uni- 

 versal Angler. Copies of the first edition are very scarce. 

 The reprint by Gosden, in 1826, is beautifully got up, and the 

 small engravings of fish on India paper (inlaid) exquisite. 



We have now, happily, after a long, though I hope not 

 w^earisome travel, arrived at the venerable name of ISAAC, 

 or (as he, follow^ing an older orthography, used to write it) 

 IZAAK WALTON. The excellent account of his life 

 and writings written by the Rev. Dr. Zouch, and prefixed 

 to Walton's Lives (Nos. lxxxi., lxxxii. of this Library), 

 leaves nothing that need be added, except some few par- 

 ticulars and corrections gathered from other sources, prin- 

 cipally the elaborate Memoir by Sir Harris Nicholas, in 

 his magnificent edition of the Complete Angler pubHshed 

 by Pickering, 1836. 



We have no account of Walton from his birth in 1593, 

 at Stafford, until we find him living in London at the age 

 of nineteen, he having been probably apprenticed to a 

 relation of the same name as a sempster or haberdasher, 

 which trade he afterwards follow^ed. Of his education we 

 know nothing but as it shows itself in his writings, though 

 it is clear that he improved greatly the advantages he re- 

 ceived in his youth by extensive reading, and intercourse 

 with learned men. His knowledge of Latin, a few scraps 

 of which appear on his pages, was evidently very slight, 

 for, though he quotes from ancient authors, they were all 

 supplied to him in translations or citations in English books. 

 ^f his natural genius, his taste, his fine relish of poetry, 

 music, and the graces of style, we have abundant proof. 

 As early as his 26th year he seems to have won the 



