coaches very properly ridiculed; and no native angler 

 under fifty is now to be found in the whole realm 

 of Cockaigne who ever walked twenty -miles in one 

 day, either on "business or pleasure, in his life. Pretty 

 milk-maids, like Maudlin, who can sing you a choice 

 song "by Kit Marlow, no longer dwell on the hanks 

 of the Lea. Ale-houses, cleanly enough, you may 

 find between Stratford and Ware, but not one with 

 twenty ballads stuck about the wall: nay, in the 

 principal houses on the Lea, which are resorted to 

 by Anglers, there is not a portrait of Walton to be 

 seen. The mere cockney angler knows nothing of 

 Walton ; and is utterly incapable of appreciating his 

 beauties. " Barley-wine, the good liquor that our honest 

 forefathers did use to drink of; the drink which pre- 

 served their health, and made them live so long, 

 and to do so many good deeds," can scarcely be so good 

 or so inspiring as in the days of Walton; since few 

 of the anglers of the Lea now drink it, like their 

 honest and amiable predecessors, in the evening, 

 after their day's sport, but cheer their spirits with 

 kindred ether six-pennyworths of gin and water. 



The London angler's excursions on the Lea sel- 

 dom extend beyond the Rye House, about half a 

 mile to the north-east of Hoddesdon; and the inn 

 there, the King's Arms, is certainly the most plea- 

 santly situated of all the houses frequented by an- 

 glers on that river. The accommodations are also 

 good; and he who would wish to try a few days' 

 fishing in the Lea, cannot take up his quarters at a 



il 



