98 ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 



ments concerning animals and plants, judged by the 

 present standard of knowledge, are inaccurate. 

 Derived from ancient authors and translations of the 

 classics rather than from personal observation, they 

 were even at the time of printing them in 1653, old, 

 secondhand, and to some extent erroneous. 



However, some of the statements in Mr Harting's 

 book seem hardly derived from personal observa- 

 tion, for the following sentence occurs in a footnote 

 referring to the habits of the chub : 



They are so eager in biting that, when they take 

 the bait, you may hear their jaws snap like those of a 

 dog. 



Now in Sir John Hawkins' edition (published in 

 1760) the following passage occurs, referring to the 

 habits of the chub : 



They are so eager in biting, that, when they take 

 the bait, you may hear their jaws chop like those of a 

 dog. 



The statement will not, I think, be accepted as 

 accurate by modern anglers. 



In regard to the value of the Compleat Angler as 

 a practical guide to the art of angling, it must be 

 acknowledged that it does not deserve all the praise 

 which has been so liberally bestowed upon it by 

 many of its editors, who probably have not been 

 conversant with the earlier writers on the pastime. 

 For instance, Moses Browne (/th edition) writes : 



He seems an Original and Model to all that have 

 come after, as Virgil appears among the Writers 



