Iviii BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



and practices of divers in other nations, that have been 

 reputed men of great learning and wisdome. And amongst 

 those in this nation, I remember Sir Henry Wotton, a dear 

 lover of this art, has told me that his intentions were to 

 write a Discourse of the Art and in praise of Angling ; 

 and doubtless he would have done so, if death had not 

 prevented him ; the remembrance of which hath often 

 made me sorry ; for if he had lived to do it, then the un- 

 learned Angler {of which I am one) had seen some Treatise 

 of this Art worthy his perusal, which, though some have 

 undertaken it, I could never yet see in English." It is 

 possible that among the papers of the Provost he found 

 some memorandum on the subject ; for the passage in 

 which he gives Wotton's opinion of angling (chap, i.) seems 

 quoted rather from book than memory : " It was an em- 

 ployment for his idle time, which was then not idly spent ; 

 for angling was, after tedious study, ' a rest to his mind, a 

 cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of 

 unquiet thoughts, a moderator of the passions, a procurer 

 of contentedness, and that it begat habits of peace and 

 patience in those that professed and practised it.' " There 

 is a Latin turn in these sentences (strongly reminding one 

 of Apuleius' definition of Conscience, in his Golden Ass) 

 which Walton could scarcely have given or remem- 

 bered. His best reason, however, for his writing the 

 treatise is given by himself in his epistle to the reader 

 corrected for the third edition : " I wish the reader to take 

 notice, that in writing of it I have made myself a re- 

 creation of a recreation ; and that it might prove so to 

 him, and not read dull and tediously, I have, in several 

 places, mixed, not any scurrility, but some innocent, harm- 

 less mirth, of which, if thou be a severe, sour-complexion- 

 ed man, then I here disallow thee to judge ; for divines 

 say, there are offences given, and offences not given, but 

 taken. And I am the willinger to justify the pleasant part 

 of it, because, though it is known that I can be serious at 



