248 THE COMPLETE ANGLER, 



Pise. Well, sir, I grant that, too ; but you must know that 

 the variety of rivers require different ways of angling : how- 

 ever, you shall have the best rules I am able to give, and I 

 will tell you nothing I have not made myself as certain of, as 

 any man can be in a thirty years' experience (for so long I 

 have been a dabbler in that art) ; and that, if you please to 

 stay a few days, you shall, in a very great measure, see made 

 good to you. But of that hereafter ; and now, sir, if I am 

 not mistaken, I have half overcome you ; and that I may 

 wholly conquer that modesty of yours, I will take upon me 

 to be so familiar as to say, you must accept my invitation, 

 which, that you may the more easily be persuaded to do, T 

 will tell you that my house stands upon the margin of one of 

 the finest rivers for trout and grayling in England ; that I have 

 lately built a little fishing-house upon it, dedicated to anglers, 

 over the door of which you will see the two first letters of my 

 father Walton's name arid mine twisted in cipher [see title 

 page to Part IT.] ; that you shall lie in the same bed he has 

 sometimes been contented with, and have such country enter- 

 tainment as my friends sometimes accept, and be as welcome, 

 too, as the best friend of them all. 



YIAT. No doubt, sir. but my master Walton found good 

 reason to be satisfied with his entertainment in your house \ 

 for you who are so friendly to a mere stranger, who deserves 

 so little, must needs be exceeding kind and free to him who 

 deserves so much. 



Pise. Believe me, no : and such as are intimately acquainted 

 with that gentleman know him to be a man who will not 

 endure to be treated like a stranger. So that his acceptation 

 of my poor entertainment has ever been a pure effect of his 

 own humility and good-nature, and nothing else. But, sir, 

 we are now going down'" the Spittle Hill, into the town ; and 

 therefore let me importune you suddenly to resolve, and (most 

 earnestly) not to deny me. 



YIAT. In truth, sir, I am so overcome by your bounty, that 

 I find I cannot, but must render myself wholly to be disposed 

 of by you. 



Pise. Why, that's heartily and kindly spoken, and I as 

 heartily thank you. And, being [seeing] you have abandoned 



* "Adown thy vale, romantic Ashbourn, glides, 



The Derby dilly, with its six insides." 



The political reader will recollect this quotation by O'Connell, and applied to 

 the then Lord Stanley. ED. 



