FIRST DAY.] ISAAC WALTON. 5 



comb." * I must say, a practice of this great fisher- 

 man, where he recommends you to pass the hook 

 through the body of a frog with care, as though you 

 loved him, in order to keep him alive longer, cannot 

 but be considered as cruel. 



HAL. I do not justify either the expression or the 

 practice of Walton in this instance ; but remember, I 

 fish only with inanimate baits, or imitations of them, 

 and I will not exhume or expose the ashes of the 

 dead, nor vindicate the memory of Walton, at the 

 expense of Byron, who, like Johnson, was no fisher- 

 man : but the moral and religious habits of Walton, 

 his simplicity of manners, and his well-spent life, 

 exonerate him from the charge of cruelty; and the 

 book of a coxcomb would not have been so great 

 a favourite with most persons of refined taste. A 

 noble lady, long distinguished at court for pre- 

 eminent beauty and grace, and whose mind possesses 

 undying charms, has written some lines in my copy 

 of Walton, which, if you will allow me, I will repeat 

 to you : 



Albeit, gentle Angler, I 

 Delight not in thy trade, 



* From DON JUAN, Canto xn. Stanza cvi. 



* And angling, too, that solitary vice, 



Whatever Izaac Walton sings or says : 

 The quaint old cruel coxcomb in his gullet 

 Should have a hook and a small trout to pull it." 



