THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 109 



with him, and every one said the remaining shilling belonged to 

 him : and so they fell to so high a contest about it, as none that 

 knows the faithfulness of one gipsey to another will easily be- 

 lieve ; only we that have lived these last twenty years, are cer- 

 tain that money has been able to do much mischief. However 

 the gipsies were too wise to go to law, and did therefore choose 

 their choice friends Rook and Shark, and our late English Gus- 

 man,* to be their arbitrators and umpires ; and so they left this 

 honeysuckle hedge, and went to tell fortunes, and cheat, and get 

 more money and lodging in the next village. 



When these were gone, we heard a high contention amongst 

 the beggars, whether it was easiest to rip a cloak, or to unrip a 

 cloak. One beggar affirmed it was all one. But that was 

 denied, by asking her, if doing and undoing were all one. Then 

 another said 'twas easiest to unrip a cloak, for that was to let it 

 alone. But she was answered, by asking her, how she unripped 

 it, if she let it alone : and she confessed herself mistaken. 

 These and twenty such like questions were proposed, and an- 

 swered with as much beggarly logic and earnestness, as was ever 



* There is extant in the Spanish language, a book which has been trans- 

 lated into English and most other European languages, entitled The Life 

 of Gtisman d'Alfarache, containing an account of the manjfccheats and 

 rogueries practised by him. In imitation of this book, Mr. Richard Head, 

 who wrote a play or two, and is mentioned by Winsfotiby as a poet, pub- 

 lished The English Rogue described in the Life of Merlton Latroon, a 

 witty extravagant, whom he makes to have been a member of a gang of 

 gypsies ; the hero of this book was generally called the English Gusman, 

 and there would be no doubt that Walton alludes to it, but that the third 

 edition of the Angler, in which this passage first occurs, was published in 

 1664, whereas the English Rogue bears date 16G6 ; if there was an earlier 

 edition of the latter, the thing is clear. — Hawkins. Sir Harris JVicholas 

 says, " The allusion is to a work which had appeared three years before : 

 ♦ The English Gusman ; or, the History of that unparalleled Thief 

 James Hind, written by Gleorge] Flidge], Ito., Lond., 16.52.' Hind 

 appears to have been the grandest thief of his age ; the son of a sad- 

 dler at Chipping Norton, and apprenticed to a butcher. In the rebel- 

 lion he attached himself to the royal cause, and was actively engaged in 

 the battles of Worcester and Warrington. In 1651, he was arrested by 

 order of parliament, under the name of Brown, ' at one Denzy's, a barber 

 over against St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet street;' which circumstance may 

 have introduced him to Walton's notice." 



