292 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 



of; and 'tis prettily contrived. Has ************ eadou* 



J about it, cannot ; unl,*-. 



my master Walton ever been here to r p u* *<*. **- 



Mr. Cotton's father, 



see it; for it seems new built? 1 fcMqplMmiMNft 



Pise. Yes, he saw it cut in the stone before it was set 

 up ; but never in the posture it now stands : for the house 

 was but building when he was last here, and not rais'd 

 so high as the arch of the door. And I am afraid he will 

 not see it, yet : for he has lately writ me word, he doubts 

 his coming down this summer; which, I do assure you, 

 was the worst news he could possibly have sent me. 



Pita/. Men must sometimes mind their affairs to make 

 more room for their pleasures. And 'tis odds he is as 

 much displeas'd with the business that keeps him from 

 you, as you are that he comes not. But I am the most 

 pleased with this little house, of any thing I ever saw : it 

 stands in a kind of peninsula too, with a delicate clear 

 river about it. I dare hardly go in, lest I should not like 

 it so well within as without: but, by your leave, I'll try. 

 Why, this is better and better, fine lights, finely wains- 

 coted, and all exceeding neat, with a marble table and 

 all in the middle ! 



(1) ! !?. Mr. White, since of Cnckhowel, favoured Sir John Hawkins with 

 description of the Fishing .House. The account he gave of It was, that it wu 

 of atooe, and the room inside a coke of fifteen feet ; that it was paved with 

 black ad while marble, and that in the middle was a square black marble table 

 lapported by two stone feet. The room was wainscoted with carious mould- 

 ^iags that divided the panocls up to the deling. In the larger panoels were 

 ^represented, in painting, some of the most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with 

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

 *ed isi aagttag. In the further corner, on the left, was a fire-place with a 

 chimney; on the right a large beaofet, with folding doors, whereon were the 

 portrait* of Mr. Cotton with a boy-servant, and Walton iu the dress of the time. 

 Underneath was a cup-board ; on the door whereof, the figures of a Trout and 

 of a Grayling were well pourtrayed. At this time the edifice was in but indif- 

 ferent condition; the paintings, and even the wainscoting, in many places, being 

 much decayed. 



Since the above period Beresford Hall has been visited, and the Fishing-House 

 seems to kav suffered by the lapse of time, and was fast falling into decay. 

 The glass frost the windows gone, the pavement removed, and the wainscot de- 

 stroyed. The inscription was still legible over the door, and the date 1074. 

 Fhe cypher also of Walton and Cotton ou the key-stone of the arch of the door 

 (represented in the title-page of the second pan; waa still legible. 



