368 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



logues of Lucian, with the title of " Burlesque upon Bur- 

 lesque ; or, the Scoffer Scoffed," I2mo., which has much 

 the same merit as the " Virgil Travestie." 



Angling having been the favourite recreation of Mr. Cot- 

 ton for many years before this, we cannot but suppose that 

 the publication of such a book as the " Complete Angler " 

 of Mr. Walton had attracted his notice, and probably excited 

 in him a desire to become acquainted with the author ; and 

 that, setting aside other circumstances, the advantageous 

 situation of Mr. Cotton near the finest trout river in the 

 kingdom might conduce to beget a great intimacy between 

 them ; for certain it is, that by the year 1676 they were 

 united by the closest ties of friendship : Walton, as also his 

 son, had been frequent visitors to Mr. Cotton at Beresford, 

 who, for the accommodation of the former no less than of 

 himself, had erected a fishing-house on the bank of the river, 

 with a stone in the front thereof, containing a cypher that 

 incorporated the initials of both their names. 



These circumstances, with a formal adoption by Walton 

 of Mr. Cotton for his son, were doubtless the inducements 

 with the latter to the writing of the Second Part of the 

 "Complete Angler." Afterwards he published a poem, 

 written, as it is said, in emulation of Hobbes's " De Mira- 

 bilibus Pecci," entitled " The Wonders of the Peak." This 

 he first published in 1681, and afterwards with a new edition 

 of the " Virgil Travestie " and the burlesque of Lucian. 



The only praise of this poem is the truth of the repre- 

 sentations therein contained ; for it is a mean composition, 

 inharmonious in the versification, and abounding in exple- 

 tives. Of the spirit in which it is written, a judgment may 

 be formed from the following lines, part of the exordium : 



