JULY 159 



of art and the practical rules and mediums of artists. But the 

 ground-bait was of old the general practice, and beyond dispute 

 brought considerable profit, which hapned in those days when 

 the curiosity of fly-fishing was intricate and unpracticable. 

 However, Izaak Walton has imposed upon the world this 

 monthly novelty, which he understands not himself ; but stuffs 

 his book full with morals from Dubravius and others, not giving 

 us one precedent from his own practical experiments, except 

 otherwise where he prefers the trencher to the troling-rod; 

 who lays the stress of his arguments upon other men's observa- 

 tions, wherewith he stuffs his ill-digested octavo; so brings 

 himself under the angler's censure, and the common calamity of 

 a plagiary, to be pitied (poor man) for his loss of time in scrib- 

 ling and transcribing other men's notions. These are the drones 

 that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees they bring them honey.' 



Franck's essay, though written in 1658, as the title- 

 page testifies, lay for six-and-twenty years unprinted, for 

 in that year his fortunes suffered a shock. Cromwell 

 died in September ; the Royalist tide was rising apace ; 

 for men of revolutionary bent the atmosphere was more 

 congenial to the north of the Tweed than to the south 

 of that fair river. 



So Richard Franck packed up his tackle, shouldered 

 his rod, and made a really wonderful tour through Scot- 

 land, from river to loch and loch to river, from Galloway 

 to John-o'-Groat's, arguing interminably about religion, 

 catching many hundredweight of fine fish, and poking 

 fun at gentle Izaak, who, wheresoever he fared, by 

 willowy Lea or flowery Test, by lucid Itchen or Shawford 

 brook was as careful to prescribe how fish should be 

 cooked as in explaining how they might be caught. 



Franck added an account of his travels to the chapters 

 intended to demolish the 'scribling putationer,' as he 

 dubbed his rival, but before he found a publisher Izaak 



