ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 189 



the pulley, a baited hook is attached to the line and 

 drawn to the fish, who readily and unsuspectingly 

 takes it, and is then duly played and landed. 



The Complete Fisherman was speedily followed 

 by The Gentleman Angler. Containing Short Plain 

 and Easy Instructions, whereby the most ignorant 

 Beginner may, in a little Time become a proficient 

 Artist in Angling for Salmon, Salmon-Peal, Trout, 

 &c. ... By a Gentleman, who has made Angling 

 his diversion for upwards of twenty-eight years. 

 Printed for A. Bettesworth, 1726, with the appro- 

 priate motto : 



Si quid novisti rectius istis, 



Candidus imperti ; si non, his utere mecum. Hor. 

 (Ep. i., 6, 68). 



The author of this work was probably George 

 Smith, who compiled a dictionary of angling pub- 

 lished, under the title of The Angler's Magazine, 

 in 1754. 



An interesting preface commences in these modest 

 terms : 



I may, without vanity affirm, that the following 

 Treatise upon Angling, is the most perfect and 

 compleat of any that has hitherto appeared in print. 

 Other Books are generally so crowded with so many 

 superfluous and unnecessary Accounts of the value 

 which Foreigners set upon some kind of Fish, and 

 with reciting what was the opinion of Antients 

 concerning them that they seem calculated to please 

 men of speculation, rather than to instruct a young 



