THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 173 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Angling Literature of the Eighteenth Century. 



WRITINGS on angling increased considerally in this 

 century, both in prose and in verse. We have The Genteel 

 Recreation ; or, the Pleasures of Angling, by John Whiting, 

 1700 ; The Innocent Epicure; or, the Art of Angling, 1701 ; 

 Piscatory Eclogues, by T. Ford, D.D., originally written 

 in Latin, and dedicated to Archbishop Shelden. This 

 work was translated by Tipping Silvester, M.A., Oxford, 

 1733. 



In the days of Charles II, and for many years after his 

 death, it was a common practice for ladies about the 

 court to angle in St. James's Park. Of this fact we have 

 many proofs ; and among others, the following elegant 

 lines from a poem on St. James's Park, by Waller : 



" Beneath, a shole of silver fishes glides, 

 And plays about the gilded barges sides ; 

 The ladies angling in the chrystal lake, 

 Feast on the waters with the prey they take ; 

 At once victorious, with their lines and eyes, 

 They make the fishes and the men their prize." 



The best satirical piece on angling, that appeared early 

 in this century, 1708, was The Contemplative Angler, by 

 the well-known Ned Ward, the author of the Turkish Spy. 

 In some particular spots it is rather coarse : but this 



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