4 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the sub- 

 ject, or reputation to the writer, than that of Dr. Donne." 



Sir Henry Wotton dying in 1639, Walton was importuned 

 by Bishop King to undertake the writing his Life also, which 

 Walton accordingly did. 



Before Walton's time the literature of angling had been 

 very scanty. In the year 1653, when he was sixty, Walton 

 published his " Complete Angler." It at once attained a 

 wide popularity, reaching a second edition in 1655? a third 

 in 1664, a fourth in 1668, and a fifth (the last in the author's 

 life) in 1676. Each edition was improved and altered from 

 its predecessor : in the second edition a new interlocutor, 

 Aticeps, was introduced ; the third and fourth editions had 

 several entire new chapters ; and the fifth contains no less 

 than eight chapters more than the first, and twenty pages 

 more than the fourth. 



When the fifth edition was being prepared, his friend and 

 adopted son, Charles Cotton, wrote a second part in pursu- 

 ance of a prior arrangement between Walton and himself. 

 This second part being approved of by Walton, was added 

 to the book, and they came out together. Mr. Cotton's 

 book had the title of the " Complete Angler ; being 

 Instruction how to Angle for a Trout or Grayling in a Clear 

 Stream " (Part II.), and it has ever since been received as a 

 second part of Walton's book. In the title-page is a cypher 

 which Cotton had caused to be cut on stone and set up 

 over the door of a small fishing-box that he had erected 

 near his dwelling on the bank of the Dove. 



Two years after the Restoration Walton wrote the Life of 

 Mr. Richard Hooker, author of the "Ecclesiastical Polity;" 

 he was enjoined to undertake this work by his friend Dr. 



