Vlll PREFACE. 



superfluous to add to their number. But the publisher 

 placed before me such a valuable store of materials, the 

 accumulation of years, that it was quite evident the pro- 

 posed edition would surpass all its predecessors, and be a 

 great boon to the public ; I therefore willingly undertook 

 a task every way congenial to my tastes and feelings. 



If a full appreciation of the piety and virtues of the 

 Author, his honest simplicity of mind, his pure taste for 

 the beautiful in nature, and his pleasing eloquence, were 

 alone sufficient to qualify an editor of his immortal work, 

 I should yield to no one; but other qualifications are 

 requisite, and I must leave the reader to determine how 

 far they are exemplified in the volume before him. 



The two centuries which have elapsed since the first 

 edition of the ' Complete Angler,' have occasioned the 

 necessity of many historical illustrations, several corrections 

 of erroneous notions in matters of natural history, and 

 large additions on the practice of angling. These have 

 been collected from every available source, as will be seen 

 by the numerous authorities quoted. Indeed, it has been 

 endeavoured to combine all the advantages of preceding 

 editions in the present. The notes of Sir John Hawkins 

 have been taken bodily, excepting in some instances where 

 they had become obsolete, or superseded ; and the notes of 

 Browne, Eeniiie, Bagster, Sir Henry Ellis, Sir Harris 

 Nicolas, and others, have been culled to supply whatever 

 could add to the interest or iustructiTeness of the volume. 



