5 88 LITERA TURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



templating the picture painted of them, or too desponding 

 at the thought of how far they fall below the high standard 

 set before them. 



In 1614 also was published A Jewel for Gentrie, shortly 

 described in the Bibliotheca Piscatoria as " a repetition of 

 the book of St. Alban, somewhat methodised and polished." 

 And now we pass on to an important work published 

 shortly before the appearance of Walton's Complete A ngler. 

 This is Thomas Barker's Art of Angling, wherein are dis- 

 covered many rare secrets very necessary to be known by all 

 that delight in that recreation. It was published in 1651, 

 i.e. two years before Walton's book, and another edition 

 appeared, without the author's name, in 1653, i.e. the same 

 year as Walton's. In 1657 the work appeared with the 

 additional title of Barker's Delight prefixed, and by this 

 name it is generally known, though on the title-page it is 

 termed " the second edition," i.e. of the Art of Angling, of 

 which it is an enlargement. Another edition was published 

 in 1659, and there have been "Reprints" of this and the 

 editions of 1651 and 1653, but both these and the originals 

 are rare. Barker's Delight, having been called by himself 

 "The Second Edition," has led to much confusion, and 

 bibliographers, in dealing with him, unfortunately per- 

 petuated this by speaking of the different editions without 

 sufficient indications whether they are referring to the 

 original Art of Angling or the Delight, and even in the 

 Bibliotheca Piscatoria the reader gets sorely puzzled. 

 Barker seems to have been a chef, as he says in his 

 Delight : " I have been admitted into the most Ambas- 

 sadors that have come to England this forty years, and do 

 wait on them still at the Lord Protector's charge, and I am 

 duly paid for it." This statement, however, does not 

 necessarily imply that he was an actual cook, though his 



