vi Preface. 



gentle poetry, it is to be feared, has won but few 

 listeners, has drawn this fancy picture of the commotion 

 in St. Dunstarfs Churchyard on a May morning of 

 the year 1653, when Richard Marriott first published 

 the famous discourse^ little dreaming that he had been 

 chosen for the godfather of so distinguished an immor- 

 tality. The lines form an epilogue to twelve beautiful 

 sonnets a propos of the bi-centenary of Walton's 

 death : 



14 What, not a word for thee, O little tome, 

 Brown-jerkined, friendly-faced of all my books 

 The one that wears the quaintest, kindliest looks 

 Seems most completely ', cosily at home 

 Amongst its fellows. Ah ! if thoit couldst tell 

 Thy story how, in sixteen fifty -three, 

 Good Master Marriott, standing at its door, 

 Saw Anglers httrrying fifty nay, three score, 

 To buy thee ere noon pealed from Dunstarfs bell : 

 And how he stared and . . . shook his sides with glee. 

 One story, this, which fact or fiction weaves. 

 Meanwhile, adorn my shelf, beloved of all 

 Old book / with lavender between thy leaves, 

 And twenty ballads round thee on the wall" 



Whether there was quite such a rush as this on 

 its publishing day we have no certain knowledge, 

 though West wood, in his " Chronicle of the Compleat 

 Angler" speaks of " the almost immediate sale of the 

 entire edition" According to Sir Harris Nicolas, 

 it was thus advertised in The Perfect Diurnal 1 : 

 from Monday, May 9th, to Monday, May i6th, 

 1653 : 



" The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative 

 Marfs Recreation, being a discourse of Fish and 

 Fishing, not unworthy the perusal of most Anglers, of 

 1 8 pence price. Written by Iz. Wa. Also the 



