Ixxvl iilBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



which he had been some time preparing (his preface is 

 dated March, 1749), as he says : "At the Instigation of an 

 ingenious and learned Friend, whose Judgment of Men 

 and of Books is sufficiently establis^ied by his own writings 

 in the Opinion of the World, Mr. Samuel Johnson, Author 

 of the Folio Dictionary of the English Language, who 

 may probably on another Occasion oblige the Publick with 

 the Life of Mr. Walton." (This last clause was omitted 

 in Browne's second edition, and the one before it substitut- 

 ed, no doubt at Dr. Johnson's request.) 



Browne was originally a pen cutter, but early devoted 

 himself to literary pursuits. At twenty years of age he 

 produced two dramatic pieces, one a tragedy, the other a 

 comedy, and was one of the chief poetical supporters of 

 the Gentleman's Magazine : in 1729, when only twenty- 

 five, he published, without his name, nine piscatory Ec- 

 logues, with the title of Angling Sports, w^hich he edited 

 again in 1730, and in an extended form in 1772. His 

 preface is an elaborate defence of Pastorals, especially the 

 Piscatory, against the strictures of Rapin and others. If 

 he had not told us of his early fondness for Walton's 

 Angler (which he calls "the elaborate apology," &c.), we 

 could have detected it in the Eclogues, many passages of 

 which were suggested by our author's book. The poetry 

 deserves no higher epithet than pleasing, though the read- 

 ing he shows does him no little credit. He seems to have 

 been always of a religious turn, and his publication of con- 

 templations in verse entitled " Sunday Thoughts," led to 

 the advice of his friends that he should obtain orders. In 

 17.53 (three years after his first edition of Walton) he was 

 ordained, and presented with the living of Olney, Bucking- 

 hamshire (John Newton's parish), and afterwards with 

 that of Sutton, and in 1763 he was elected Chaplain of 

 Morden College, from which he dates his preface to the 

 third edition of his Eclogues. Besides the books named, 

 he })ublishe(l Sermons, showing himself an orthodox 



