Ixiv BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



himself to have been an admirable fly-fisher, "whose 

 contests with salmon are painted to the life." Absurd as 

 he is, there are many pages in his grandiloquent work 

 worth reading, and though but two hundred and fifty of 

 the edition were printed, copies are sometimes to be met 

 with, which deserve a place in an angler's library. The 

 following passages, in which he speaks of Walton, will 

 give the reader some idea of his style, and justify our 

 supposition that it was he who so ruffled the meek spirit 

 of our father Walton : 



" You may dedicate your opinion to what scrib- 

 bling practitioner you please : the Compleat Angler if 

 you will, who tells you a tedious fly-story extravagantly 

 collected from antiquated authors, such as Gessner, 



Dubravius, &c Some will be solicitous to 



puzzle themselves about baits and seasons ; so that I fore- 

 see it will aggravate and fret their intoxicated patience ; 

 where, note, each may search (as already noted) in the 

 mouldy records of Aldrovandus, Dubravius, Gessner, or 

 Isaac Walton (whose authority to me seems alike au- 

 thentick, as is the general opinion of the vulgar prophetic." 

 (Preface.) 



"Arnoldus. . . . Indeed, the frequent exercise of fly- 

 fishing, though painful, yet it's delightful, more especially 

 when managed by the methods of art, and the practical 

 rules and mediums of artists. But the ground-bait was 



•with painted flies, and would have been incapable of the extravagancies 

 of I. Walton." 



Truly a most worthy judge of morality, and a most worthy book in which 

 to record his ethical condemnation of a man as notorious for keeping the 

 commandments as his lordship was for breaking them. 



Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas ! 



As a contrast to this, read Wordsworth's (the author of Hartleap Well, 

 whose happy lot it is to fish the Dove) Sonnet to 



" Meek Walton's heavenly memory," 

 on his " Lives." 



