Preface. ix 



impiety to many, but which, as a personal predilection, 

 I venture to risk there is no Cotton ! The relation 

 between Walton and Cotton is a charming incongruity 

 to contemplate, and one stands by their little fishing- 

 house in Dove dale as before an altar of friendship. 

 Happy and pleasant in their lives, it is good to see 

 them still undivided in their deaths but, to my mind, 

 their association between the boards of the same book 

 mars a charming classic. No doubt Cotton has 

 admirably caught the spirit of his master, but the 

 very cleverness with which he has done it increases 

 the sense of parody with which his portion of the book 

 always offends me. Nor can I be the only reader of 

 the book for whom it ends with that gentle benediction 

 "And upon all that are lovers of virtue, and dare 

 trust in his providence, and be quiet, and go a 

 Angling " and that sweet exhortation from I Thess. 

 iv. ii " Study to be quiet" 



After the exquisite quietism of this farewell, it is 

 distracting to come precipitately upon the fine gentle- 

 man with the great wig and the Frenchified airs. 

 This is nothing against "hearty, cheerful Mr. Cottoris 

 strain" of which, in Waltorfs own setting and in his 

 own poetical issues, I am a sufficient admirer. Cotton 

 was a clever literary man, and a fine engaging figure 

 of a gentleman, but, save by the accident of friendship, 

 he has little more claim to be printed along with 

 Walton than the gallant Col. Robert V enables, who, 

 in the fifth edition, contributed still a third part, 

 entitled " The Experienced Angler : or, Angling 

 Improved. Being a General Discourse of Angling" 

 etc., to a book that was immortally complete in its 

 first. 



