Ixxx BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. 



The plates, which are numerous, better engraved 

 by the skilful but unfortunate Ryland* than designed by 

 Wale, were used in all the subsequent editions until 

 that edited bv his son, John Sidney Hawkins, in 1797, 

 when all, except those of the fishing-tackle, were 

 worn out. 



His subsequent editions were, like the first, in 8vo. : 

 1766 : 1775 (by now Sir John Hawkins) : 1784 (in which 

 " he was tempted to a revision, a correction of some mis- 

 takes, and the insertion of sundry such facts as he flattered 

 himself w'ould greatly improve it ;" besides amplifying the 

 notes, he made additions to the Life of Walton, and also 

 " thought proper to give an account of Mr. Cotton, chiefly 

 extracted from his own writings, less diffuse and desultory, 

 but containing a greater number of interesting facts, and 



* Some account of Ryland may not be uninteresting : He was the son 

 of a copper-plate printer, learned engraving under Ravenet, and studied 

 afterwards, with much profit, in France and Italy. His copper-plates 

 yielded impressions having the softness of chalk-drawings, and he was 

 appointed engimver to the King with a pension of jEOOO per annum. A 

 partnership with a print-seller named Bryer, in Cornhill, brought him to 

 bankruptcy, and in an evil hour he forced on the East India Company ar» 

 acceptance for jC71 14. A reward of £300 was offered for him by the 

 Company on April 2d, 17S3, and on the 16th he ^Yas taken in the garret 

 of a house at Stepney, occupied by a cobbler and his wife, having been 

 discovered by his name written in his shoe, over which he had pasted a 

 bit of paper when he gave the shoe to be mended. The cobbler's wife, 

 having secured the reward, returned with two justices, and Ryland, seeing 

 the carriage stop, instantly cut his throat so desperately, that on the 24th 

 his recovery seemed impossible. He made a discovery of two of his three 

 accomplices, and was afterwards executed. He is described in the ad- 

 vertisements as "about fifty years of age, about five feet nine inches high, 

 wearing a wig with a club or cue, and his own hair turned over in front ; 

 a black complexion, a thin face, with strong lines; his common counte- 

 nance very grave, but whilst he speaks rather smiling, and shows his 

 teeth, and has great affability of manner." 



The above account is compiled from various sources, but principally 

 a scrap cut from the " Political Magazine" of the above year, and kindly 

 furnished me by Edward D. Ingraham, Esqr., of Philadelphia, an accom- 

 plished bibliophile and lover of Walton 



