PREFACE. 



SlNCE the first publication of this treatise, 

 upwards of twenty thousand have been sold ; by 

 this encouragement I have undertaken to pre- 

 sent the public with this new edition, corrected 

 and carefully revised : and where the angler will 

 meet with many recent observations, not to be 

 found in any other halientic production, which 

 I make no doubt will be equally well received : 

 I may say, without boasting, that it is uni versally 

 liked, few noble or gentlemen anglers not giv- 

 ing it a place in their libraries. Angling is 

 of very great antiquity, which good old Isaac 

 Walton, the Father of anglers, has fully de- 

 monstrated. Not only kings and princes, but 

 even queens and ladies of the first rank, have 

 taken a delight in this rational and pleasing re- 

 creation. In the various authors who have writ- 

 ten on this subject, I have never observed the 

 name of our immortal Hard, Shakespear^ men- 

 tioned: he certainly was alover of this diversion, 



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