578 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



and Co., of Tavistock Street, only this year. Mr. Westwood 

 very rightly does not approve of the " emendations " and 

 " modernizations " in the orthography and syntax made by 

 Mr. Arber in the reprint above mentioned, considering that 

 they "rob the verse of much of its ancient air and aspect." 

 He therefore gives us a " strictly faithful and literal tran- 

 script of the edition of 1613 ;" and this is certainly the 

 reprint of which anglers and lovers of old literature should 

 possess themselves. The length of the poem in this reprint 

 runs to nearly forty pages of four stanzas each. It is 

 " excellently well " done. 



And now let us look into the poem itself. J. D.'s 

 work has probably met with more general commendation 

 from critics than any work connected with angling (hardly 

 excepting the Complete Angler] in the whole range of 

 literature. Beloe, in his "Anecdotes of Literature and 

 Scarce Books," says of it that " perhaps there does not 

 exist in the circle of English literature a rarer volume :" 

 and Dr. Badham (attributing it, like Walton, to "Davors") 

 calls it an "elaborately beautiful poem;" while in his 

 preface to Stock's reproduction of Dame Berners, the 

 Rev. M. G. Watkins holds that J. D.'s "verses have, 

 perhaps, never been surpassed." J. D. was a poet as well 

 'as an angler born, and after Walton's immortal work, no 

 higher compliment has ever been paid to the sport of 

 angling. The poem contains much point, elevation of 

 thought and sweetness, and subtlety of rhythm, as well 

 as subtlety of diction in handling what, in itself, may 

 be considered a prosaic subject, when mere instructions in 

 in the art of angling are attempted in verse. It is replete 

 also with apt classical allusions. To give a just idea of 

 its scope and nature, perhaps it would be well to present 

 the author's table of 



