ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 121 



Compleat Angler has rendered it so well known, as 

 to here need very little notice. 



The love of angling appears to have united Walton 

 and Cotton in a firm bond of friendship, for, apart 

 from their love of this sport and their Royalist 

 sympathies, they could have had but little in 

 common ; the one a retired tradesman, possessed of 

 a considerable property, the other, a dun-pursued 

 gallant, who had squandered what little property he 

 had inherited from a spendthrift father ; the one, " A 

 man well known, and as well beloved of all good 

 men," and the biographer of those pious men, Dr 

 Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr Richard Hooker, and 

 Mr George Herbert ; the other, a writer, who chose 

 " for the exercise of his poetical talent a burlesque 

 of an epic poem a version of the most licentious of 

 Lucian's dialogues and a ludicrous delineation of 

 some of the most stupendous works of nature in all 

 which we meet with such foul imagery, such obscene 

 allusions, such offensive descriptions, such odious 

 comparisons, such coarse sentiment, and such filthy 

 expression, as could only proceed from a polluted 

 imagination, and tend to excite loathing and 

 contempt." 



The addition of Cotton's portion to Walton's work 

 justifies the title of the Compleat Angler, by supplying 

 that instruction in fly-fishing, of which Walton's 

 portion was so noticeably deficient. 



Regarded in a strictly practical light, the Instruc- 

 tions how to angle for a trout or grayling in a clear 



