256 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



where, by the way, I expect you should raise all the exceptions 

 against our country you can. 



Viator. Nay, sir, do not think me so ill-natured nor so 

 uncivil ; I only made a little bold with it last night to divert 

 you, and was only in jest. 



Piscator. You were then in as good earnest as I am now with 

 you : but had you been really angry at it, I could not blame you; 

 for, to say the truth, it is not very taking at first sight. But, 

 look you, sir, now you are abroad, does not the sun shine as 

 bright here as in Essex, Middlesex, or Kent, or any of your 

 southern counties ? 



Viator. ' Tis a delicate morning, indeed, and I now think this 

 a marvellous pretty place. 



Piscator. Whether you think so or no, you cannot oblige me 

 more than to say so ; and those of my friends who know my 

 humour, and are so kind as to comply with it, usually flatter me 

 that way. But look you, sir, now you are at the brink of the 

 hill, how do you like my river, the vale it winds through, like 

 a snake, and the situation of my little fishing house ? 



Viator. Trust me, 'tis all very fine ; and the house seems, at 

 this distance, a neat building. 



Piscator. Good enough for tnai purpose. And here is a 

 bowling-green, too, close by it ; so, though I am myself no very 

 good bowler, I am not totally devoted to my own pleasure, but 

 that I have also some regard to other men's. And now, sir, you 

 are come to the door : pray walk in, and there we '11 sit, and 

 talk as long as you please. 



Viator. Stay, what 's here over the door ? " Piscatoribus 

 Sacrum."* Why, then, I perceive I have some title here ; for 

 I am one of them, though one of the worst. And here, below 

 it, is the cipher, too, you spoke of, and 'tis prettily contrived. 

 Has my master Walton ever been here to see it, for it seems 

 new built ? f 



* There is, under this motto, the cipher mentioned in pages 299 and 312. 

 And some part of the fishing house has been described ; but the pleasant- 

 ness of the river, mountains, and meadows about it, cannot, unless Sir 

 Philip Sidney, or Mr Cotton's father, were again alive to do it. I. W. 



f I have been favoured with an accurate description of this fishing 

 house, by a person who, being- in that country, with a view to oblige me, 

 went to see it. The account he gave of it is, that it is of stone, and the 

 room inside a cube of fifteen feet ; that it is paved with black and white 



marble, and that in the middle is a square black marble table, supported by 



louldings that 



two stone feet. '1 he room is wainscoted with curious moi 



divide the panels up to the ceiling, in the larger panels are represented, 

 in painting, some of the most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with persons 

 fishing; and in the smaller, the various sorts of tackle and implements 

 used in angling. In the farther corner, on the left, is a fire-place, with a 

 chimney; on the right, a large beaufet, with folding-doors, whereon are 

 the portraits of Mr Cotton, with a boy-servant, and Walton, in the dress 

 of the time. Underneath is a cupboard, on the door whereof the figures 

 f a Trout and of a Grayling are well portrayed. The edifice is at this time 



