APPENDIX. 165 



a rat-catcher, who occasionally amused himself with 

 a sweep net or an eel spear in the intervals of his 

 regular vocation. 



In 1613 appeared " the Secrets of Angling, by 

 J. D., Esq." in verse ; which letters, as we learn 

 from Walton, are the initials of the name of John 

 Davors. Didactic poems, whatever pleasure they 

 may afford the reader, seldom afford him much 

 profitable information on the subject of which they 

 profess to treat ; the object of the writers always 

 excepting the compilers of grammars in Latin verse 

 being chiefly to display their talent in concealing 

 their fruit under a profusion of ornamental foliage ; 

 plucking a bough from every tree in the forest to 

 shade a vine which rather requires the sun. It is 

 almost needless to add that the work of J. D. cannot 

 justly claim to be an exception to the general charac- 

 ter of didactic poems. The " Secrets of Angling " are 

 certainly concealed with great taste under the orna- 

 mental parts of the poem, some of the best stanzas 

 of which may be seen in the Complete Angler. 

 From the date, 1653, of the first edition of Walton's 

 "Complete Angler" to the present time, may be 

 considered as the golden age of fly-fishing; and the 

 manufacture of the costly fishing apparatus of his 

 late Majesty George IV. "the case covered with 

 the best crimson morocco leather, the edges sloped 

 with double borders of gold ornaments, representing 

 alternately salmon and basket. The outer border 

 forming a rich gold wreath of the rose, thistle, and 

 shamrock, intertwined by oak leaves and acorns. 

 The centre of the lid presenting a splendid gold 

 R 



