BIBLIOTHECA PISCATORIA. 73 



same subject but badly executed. One motto is the same, tlie 

 otlier reads : " Well feare the Pleasure, That j'ealds such treasure." 

 Tlie only known copy is in Mr. Denison's collection. Grace's ^(^3 



IDS.] 



The secrets of angling :... Augmented witli nianv ap- 

 proved experiments. By W. Lauson. Printed by T. H. for 

 John Harison, and are to be sold by Francis Coles at his shop 

 in the Old Bayley. 1652. 8°. 



[ A to F.iv in eights. 36 leaves, including frontispiece, which is 

 a print, on separate leaf, from the block used on the title of first 

 and second editions. John Harison's device of "The hare and sun" 

 takes the place of the woodcut on the title page. There are three 

 copies of this edition in the British Museum. Higgs' ^12 ; Prince's 

 ^4 I OS.; Corser's ;^2 7.] 



The secrets of angling. ..[ Edited by Sir Henry Ellis.] 



London, B. Triphook, 1811. pp. viii. 44. 



[ One hundred copies, struck off separately with index and short 

 advertisement, of a reprint in the "British Bibliographer," 1812. 

 Vol. ii., p. 465.] 



The secrets of angling. Reprinted ifi Edward Arber's 



"An English Garner," 1877. Vol. i., p. 140. 



[This poem is also noticed, with large citations, in an article in the 

 " Censura Literaria," 1809, vol. x. p. 266, which was appropriated 

 by Daniel and inserted m the supplement to his "Rural Sports," 

 1813. Its authorship was set at rest in 181 1, bv the evidence of the 

 books of the Stationers' Company, in which the work is entered as 

 being by "John Dennys Esquier." Sir Henrv Ellis gives the extract 

 in the edition edited by him in that year. Walton had previously 

 ascribed it to John Davors, and others (Howlett among them) to 

 Donne and Davies. The volume contains commendatory ver-ses 

 signed " lo Danes," and is dedicated by the stationer R. J. to Mr. 

 John Harbornc of Tackley, in the County of Oxford. Beloe savs of 

 the book that "perhaps there does not exist in the circle of English 

 literature a rarer volume." Sir John Hawkins confessed "he could 

 never get a sight of it." 



There is every reason to suppose that Mr. John Dennys, who is 

 shown by the pedigree of the Dennvs family to have died at 

 Pucklechurch in 1609, is the real author of the "Secrets," not the 

 grandson of Sir Walter Dennys, put forward for that honour, by 

 Sir Harris Nicolas. No date is associated with Sir Walter Dennvs, 

 but on referring to a more detailed pedigree from the same source, 

 it appears that ins eldest son, Sir William Dennys, " founded a guild 

 in the year 1520." We may therefore reasonably assign his birth 

 to the latter part of the fifteenth century, or to the very beginning 

 of the sixteenth. These premises are borne out bv the fact that 

 John, his second brother (author of the 'Secrets,' according to Sir 

 Harris Nicolas) left a son, Hugh Dennvs, who died in 1559, ^nd at 

 no immature age, since he was married and had four offspring. If, 

 therefore. Sir Harris Nicolas's assumption be correct, we must 

 ascribe the poem to the early part, or, at the latest, to the middle 

 of the sixteenth century, whereas its style and general character 



