IZAAK WALTON. 601 



and very vain old gentle-woman .... I would not whisper it 

 at the "Walton's Head," or the "Walton's Arms," or hint at it 

 at the " Jolly Angler's " or the " Rest," or any other resort of his 

 so-called disciples, but to my readers I will impart my private 

 conviction, that there is now at least little practically to be 

 learnt from Izaak Walton's Complete Angler, and that the reading 

 of it is rather heavy work than otherwise." 



Every one has a right, as it is said, to his own opinion, 

 and to the pleasure derived from thinking that singularity 

 may be mistaken for cleverness. And there is such a 

 thing as the deficiency of a reader being visited on a writer. 

 But perhaps in reference to no book ever written has there 

 been such a universal cKorus of praise, from the day of its 

 publication to the present time ; and for once in a way the 

 showers of " commendatory verses," which after a fashion 

 of the time fell on the Complete Angler, were justly deserved. 

 A very long catena of eminent critics, past and present, 

 might be adduced who speak in the highest terms of the 

 book and the author's literary merits, which he showed 

 also in his admirable Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, 

 Herbert, and Sanderson. Not to go back very far, Dr. 

 Johnson, as before mentioned, was a great admirer of 

 Walton ; and Charles Lamb thus writes to Coleridge in a 

 letter dated October 28, 1796 : 



" Among all your quaint readings did you ever light upon 

 Walton's Complete Angler ? I asked you the question once before ; 

 it breathes the very spirit of innocence, purity, and simplicity of 

 heart ; there are many choice old verses interspersed" in it ; it 

 would sweeten a man's temper at any time to read it ; it would 

 Christianize every discordant, angry passion ; pray make yourself 

 acquainted with it." 



Hazlitt, Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, and Hallam, all 

 considered the Complete Angler as a triumph of literary 

 skill. The last-mentioned says that our " Golden age " of 



