\x BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



may readily have adopted it without following any particular 

 example. It is clear, however, that he had in his eye " A 

 Treatise on the Nature of God," attributed to Bishop 

 Morton, published in 1599. In both works the dialogue 

 occurs between two persons travelling the same way, one 

 of whom has overtaken the other, though the Bishop puts 

 his characters on horseback ; while Walton's, more appro- 

 priately, are on foot ; and, in the former, the learner over- 

 takes the teacher ; in the latter, Piscator " stretches his 

 legs" to get company on the "fine, pleasant. May-day 

 morning." The Bishop begins : " Well overtaken, Syr ;" 

 Walton : " You are wel overtaken, Sir." Here, how^ever, 

 the particular resemblance ends, except in the inquiry 

 about a lodging-place at the close of the day. 



The probability that Walton took a hint from Plutarch's 

 dialogue on the question " Whether Water or Land Ani- 

 mals are the most Crafty ?" which w'as within his reach 

 by the English translation of Dr. Holland from the French 

 of Amyot (1602), has already been stated. The spirit of 

 the dispute is much the same in both, for it is mainly 

 carried on betw^een a hunter and a fisher. It must, how- 

 ever, be remembered, that in all treatises on fishing from 

 the Halieutic fragment, called Ovid's, down to Gervase 

 Markham, a comparison is run between other sports in 

 favor of fishing, nor could it be more readily carried on 

 than by a dialogue ; so that all these conjectures as to the 

 source from which Walton took his plan may be hyper- 

 critical. 



The work was dedicated to "John Offley, of Madely 

 Manor, in Stafibrdshire, Esquire," with whom, and in 

 whose grounds, no doubt, he had often angled, after his 

 retirement from London ; for our author declares that Mr. 

 OlHey was a most skilful angler, and that he had received 

 many favors from him. 



In the first edition the dialogue is mainly carried on by 

 tw^o interlocutors, Piscator and Viator, afterwards called 



