TO 



MY MOST WORTHY FATHER AND FRIEND, 

 MR. IZAAK WALTON, THE ELDER. 



IR, Being you were pleased, some years past, to 

 grant me your free leave to do what I have here 

 attempted ; and observing you never retract any 

 promise when made in favour of your meanest 

 friends ; I accordingly expect to see these fol- 

 lowing particular directions for the taking of 



a trout, to wait upon your better and more 



general rules for all sorts of angling. And though mine be 

 neither so perfect, so well digested, nor indeed so handsomely 

 couch'd as they might have been, in so long a time as since your 

 leave was granted ; yet I dare affirm them to be generally true : and 



263 



