THE COMPLETE ANGLEK. 261 



humour, and are so kind as to comply with it, usually flatter 

 me that way. But look you, sir, now you are at the brink 

 of the hill, how do you like my river, the vale it winds 

 through like a snake, and the situation of my little fishing- 

 house 'I 



YIAT. Trust me, 'tis all very fine, and the house seems at 

 this distance a neat building. 



Pise. Good enough for that purpose : and here is a bowl- 

 ing-green too, close by it ; so, though I am myself no very 

 good bowler, I am not totally devoted to my own pleasure, 

 but that I have also some regard to other men's. And now, 

 sir, you are come to the door, pray walk in, and there we will 

 sit and talk as long as you please. 



YIAT. Stay, what's here over the door? PISCATORIBUS 

 SACRUM.'"" Why then, I perceive I have some title here; for 

 I am one of them, though one of the worst ; and here below 

 it is the cypher too you spoke of, and 'tis prettily contrived. 

 Has my master Walton ever been here to see it, for it seems 

 new built ?t 



Pise. Yes, he saw it cut in the stone before it was set up ;: 

 but never in the posture it now stands ; for the house was 

 but building when he was last here, and not raised so high as 

 the arch of the door. And I am afraid he will not see it yet; 

 for he has lately writ me word, he doubts his coming down 

 this summer ; which, I do assure you, was the worst news 

 he could possibly have sent me. 



YIAT. Men must sometimes mind their affairs to make 



* There is, under this motto, the cypher prefigured in the title-page to the - 

 second part of this work. And some part of the fishing-house has been already 

 described ; but the pleasantness of the river, mountains, and meadows about it, 

 cannot, unless Sir Philip Sidney, or Mr. Cotton's father, were again alive ta 

 do it. 



t I have been favoured with an accurate description of this fishing-house, by 

 n person, who, being in that country, with a view to oblige me, went to see it. 

 The account he gave of it is, that it is of stone, and the room inside a cube of 

 fifteen feet ; that it is paved with black and white marble, and that in the 

 middle is a square black marble table, supported by two stone feet. The room 

 is wainscoted, with curious mouldings that divide the panels up to the ceiling. 

 In the larger panels are represented, in painting, some of the most pleasant of 

 the adjacent scenes, with persons fishing ; and in the smaller, the various sorts 

 of tackle and implements used in angling. In the farther corner, on the left, 

 is a fire-place with a chimney ; on the right, a large beaufet, with folding- 

 doors, whereon are the portraits of Mr. Cotton, with a boy servant, and 

 Walton, in the dress of the time. Underneath is a cupboard ; on the door 

 whereof the figures of a trout and a grayling are well portrayed. The edifice 

 is at this time (1748) in but indifferent condition ; the paintings, and even the 

 wainscoting, in many places, being much decayed. Hawkins (son of Sir John ) 



