ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 45 



which The Secrets of Angling is held by literary 

 authorities, I quote the following from Mr Watkin's 

 valuable article on John Dennys in the Dictionary of 

 National Biography : 



As for The Secrets of Angling itself, it is sufficient 

 to say that no more musical and graceful verses were 

 ever written on the art of angling. The author has 

 chosen a measure at once sweet and full of power, and 

 its interlinked melodies lure the reader onward with 

 much the same kind of pleasure as the angler experi- 

 ences, who follows the murmuring of a favourite trout 

 stream. 



Four editions, 1613, 1620 (?), 1630, and 1652, and 

 several reprints of The Secrets have been published. 



Of the first edition only three perfect copies are 

 known, and from one of these in the Bodleian 

 Library I have taken the following copious extracts, 

 selected chiefly on account of their practical bearing. 

 I am able also, thanks to the courtesy of the Librarian 

 of that Institution, to present a photographic facsimile 

 of the title-page. 



The book is thus dedicated by the printer, Roger 

 Jackson : 



To the worthy, and my mvch respected Friend, 

 Mr John Harborne, of Tackley, in the County of 

 Oxford, Esquire, Worthy Syr, this Poeme being sent 

 vnto me to be printed after the death of the Author, 

 who intended to haue done it in his life, but was 

 preuented by death : I could not among my good 

 friends, bethinke me of any one to whom I might 

 more fitly dedicate it, . . . R. I. 



