LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. 13 



which the first of these was author, is in effect translated into 

 English by Mr Edward Topsel, a learned divine, chaplain, as 

 it seems, in the church of St Botolph, Aldersgate, to Dr Neile, 

 dean of Westminster. The translation was published in 1658, 

 and, containing in it numberless particulars concerning frogs, 

 serpents, caterpillars, and other animals, though not of fish, 

 extracted from the other writers above named, and others with 

 their names to the respective facts, it furnished Walton with a 

 great variety of intelligence, of which, in the later editions of 

 his book, he has carefully availed himself : it was therefore 

 through the medium of this translation alone that he was 

 enabled to cite the other authors mentioned above ; vouching 

 the authority of the original writers, in like manner as he else- 

 where does Sir Francis Bacon, whenever occasion occurs to 

 mention his Natural History, or any other of his works. 

 Pliny was translated to his hand by Dr Philemon Holland, as 

 were also Janus Dubravius De Piscinis et Pisdum Natura, 

 and Lebault's Maison Rustique, so often referred to by him in 

 the course of his work. 



Nor did the reputation of the Complete Angler subsist only 

 m the opinions of those for whose use it was more peculiarly 

 calculated ; but even the learned, either from the known cha- 

 racter of the author, or those internal evidences of judgment 

 and veracity contained in it, considered it as a work of merit ; 

 and for various purposes referred to its authority. Doctor 

 Thomas Fuller, in his Worthies, whenever he has occasion to 

 speak of fish, uses his very words. Dr Plot, in his History of 

 Staffordshire, has, on the authority of our author, related two 

 of the instances of the voracity of the pike, mentioned part 5. 

 chap viii. ; and confirmed them by t^ r o other signal ones, that 

 had then lately fallen out in that county. 



These are testimonies in favour of Walton's authority in 

 matters respecting fish and fishing ; and it will hardly be 

 thought a diminution of that of Fuller, to say, that he was 

 acquainted with, and a friend of, the person whom he thus 

 implicitly commends, a fact which the following relation of a 

 conference between them sufficiently proves : 



Fuller, as we all know, wrote a Church History, which, soon 

 after its publication, Walton having read, applied to the 

 author for some information touching Hooker, whose life 

 he was then about to write. Upon this occasion Fuller 

 knowing how intimate Walton was with several of the bishops 

 and ancient clergy, asked his opinion of it, and what reception 

 it met with among his friends ? Walton answered, that rt he 



