THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 247 



VIAT. You speak like a true friend, and in doing so render 

 yourself worthy of his friendship. May I be so bold as to 

 ask your name ? 



Pise. Yes surely, sir, and if you please a much nicer ques- 

 tion ; my name is , and I intend to stay long enough 



in your company, if I find you do not dislike mine, to ask 

 yours too. In the meantime, because we are now almost at 

 Ashborn, I shall freely and bluntly tell you, that I am a 

 brother of the angle, too, and, peradventure, can give you 

 some instructions how to angle for a trout in a clear river, 

 that my father Walton himself will not disapprove, though he 

 did either purposely omit, or did not remember them,* when 

 you and he sat discoursing under the sycamore tree. [See 

 part i. p. 84.] And, being [seeing] you have already told 

 me whither your journey is intended, and that I am better 

 acquainted with the country than you are ; I will heartily and 

 earnestly entreat you will not think of staying at this town, 

 but go on with me six miles farther to my house,t where you 

 shall be extremely welcome ; it is directly in your way, we 

 have day enough to perform our journey, and, as you like your 

 entertainment, you may there repose yourself a day or two, or 

 as many more as your occasions will permit, to recompense 

 the trouble of so much a longer journey. 



VIAT. Sir, you surprise me with so friendly an invitation 

 upon so short acquaintance; but how advantageous soever it 

 would be to me, and that my haste, perhaps, is not so great 

 but it might dispense with such a divertisenient as I promise 

 myself in your company, yet I cannot, in modesty, accept 

 your offer, and must therefore beg your pardon : I could 

 otherwise, I confess, be glad to wait upon you, if upon no 

 other account but to talk of Mr. I. Walton, and to receive 

 those instructions you say you are able to give me for the 

 deceiving a trout ; in which art I will not deny but that I 

 have an ambition to be one of the greatest deceivers : 

 though I cannot forbear freely to tell you, that I think it 

 hard to say much more than has been read to me upon that 

 subject. 



* The plain truth is, that Walton did not understand angling for " a trout 

 in a clear stream," viz., fly-fishing for it. Cotton knew this well, but was too 

 much of a courteous " cavalier" to say so bluntly. ED. 



t Beresford-hall, situate a little to the north of Dovedale. In 1838 it was a 

 large farm-house, and the property of the Marquis of Beresford. Between it 

 and the river side is Cotton's fishing-house still standing. ED. 



