XXXIX 



THE appearance of a new edition the hundred-and 

 something-eth of The Compleat Angler or the Izaak Wal 

 Contemplative Man's Recreation, gives a wel- ton and 

 come excuse for poring once more over the Anotner 

 well-conned chapters. 1 It is abundantly illustrated, 

 admirably printed, and judiciously edited by one whose 

 friends will recognise as himself well qualified for the 

 title of the Compleat Angler. Mr. Dewar, as a Hamp- 

 shire man, exults in the discovery that Izaak Walton, 

 besides his farm near Stafford, rented one of nearly a 

 thousand acres, called Novington or Northampton, near 

 Overton. 



The history of this book is really one of the most 

 remarkable in English literature. Angling, indeed, has 

 risen recently to rank abreast of any field sport; but 

 treatises on sport how prone they are to resolve them- 

 selves into monotonous chronicles of wild things slain, 

 varied only by technical instruction wearisome to all 

 except eager tyros, and by rhapsodies which appeal only 

 to the enthusiast. All of these chronicle, instruction, 

 and rhapsody hold their place in Walton's pages; but 

 from beyond and behind them breathes an indefinable 



1 Edited by George A. B. Dewar, and published, in two volumes, by 

 Freemantle and Company, London, 1901. 



