ORIGINAL AND SELECTED NOTES. 



ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



PREVIOUS to entering upon the following series of illustra- 

 1 tive Notes, it may be advantageous to state what were 

 the books to which the Authors of the preceding work have 

 referred in the course of it ; and, so far as they now can be 

 ascertained, to specify the probable editions which they con- 

 sulted. By doing this Walton's principal authorities will ap- 

 pear at one view ; and by numbering each article separately, a 

 connection will be formed between them and the following 

 Notes, without the continual repetition of the title of any 

 volume which may be referred to. Walton, by an admirable 

 selection of his authors, was enabled to quote not only the 

 best, most learned, and most popular writers of his own time, 

 but he also was rendered capable of citing numerous ancient 

 classics, as well as the works of many eminent foreigners, whose 

 productions were generally written in Latin. The Complete 

 Angler was, perhaps, fully as much as any other work in the 

 English tongue, a progressive composition ; since each suc- 

 ceeding edition, down to the Fifth, which was the last pub- 

 lished in the author's life, contained some variation, addition, 

 or improvement on that which preceded it. Though Walton 

 certainly anticipated future impressions of his most entertain- 

 ing work, yet in the Preface to his First Edition, which was 

 afterwards considerably altered, he writes of such a circum- 

 stance with very great modesty. When speaking of the flies 

 which are used for the different months, he says : ' ' Of these 

 (because no man is born an artist nor an Angler) I thought fit 

 to give thee this notice. I might say more, but it is not fit 



