334 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Page 87. Mercator says, etc. 



Gerard Mercator was born in 1512, at Ruremonde in Flanders, and was 

 a man of such intense application to mathematical studies, that he neg- 

 lected the refreshments of nature. He engraved and colored with his 

 own hand the maps to his geographical writings. He wrote several books 

 of Theology ; and died at Duisburg in 1594. Hawkins. 



Page 88. Sir George Hastings, 



The party referred to by Walton has been usually supposed to be the 

 Hon. Henry Hastings of Woodlands, near Cranborne in Dorsetshire, who 

 died October 5, 1650, at the age of ninety-nine. His character was 

 written with great humor and ability by Lord Shaftesbury, and was in- 

 scribed under his portrait at Winbourne St. Giles ; it may be also found 

 printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxiv. p. 1 60, and in Hutchins's 

 History of Dorset, Edit. 1803, vol. ii. p. 510, with other particulars. It 

 is, however, more probable that the person to whom Walton alludes was 

 either Sir George Hastings, the son of Henry, who died October 25, 

 1651 ; or Sir George, the nephew of Henry, the brother of Henry, Fifth 

 Earl of Huntingdon, who is recorded in Richard Smith's Obituary to have 

 died of the plague on June 4, 1641. See Peck's " Desiderata Curiosa," 

 vol. ii. lib. xiv. p. 19. Collins's Peerage, Edit. 1779, vol. Hi. p. 97. 



Page. 89. Albertus observes, etc. 



Albertus Magnus, a German Dominican, and a very learned man. 

 Urban IV. compelled him to accept of the Bishopric of Ratisbon. He 

 wrote a treatise on the Secrets of Nature, and twenty other volumes in 

 folio ; and died at Cologne in 1280. Hawkins. The passage in the text 

 is from Topsell's History of Serpents, No. 42 in the preceding list, p. 180 

 of that volume. The quotation from Bacon will be found at p. 194, 

 Century ix. of No. 3. See also Dr. Franklin's letter to M. Dubourg, 

 "On the prevailing Doctrines of Life and Death." 



Page 92. 7^he Royal Society, etc. 



See No. 37 in the foregoing list, pp. 2170-2175 ; the list alluded to is 

 on the last page. This passage did not appear until Walton's last edition. 

 The word sleight on the same page is from the Icelandic Slaegd or thq 

 Anglo-Saxon Slyth, Deceit, or Deceitful. . 



Page 94. That smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe. 



Christopher Marlowe, or Marloe, was a poet of considerable eminence, 

 and is called by Phillips "a kind of second Shakespeare." He is sup- 

 posed to have been born about 1562, and in 1587 he became M. A. at 

 Bene't College, Cambridge ; after which he commenced actor and drama- 

 tic writer. There are extant five Tragedies of his writing, and a Poem en- 

 titled Hero and Leander, which was finished by George Chapman. The 

 song attributed to Marlowe in the text is printed with his name in Eng 



