346 LLFE or COTTON. 



publication of such, a book as the " Complete Angler" of Mr. 

 Walton had attracted his notice, and probably excited in him a 

 desire to become acquainted with the author ; and that, setting 

 aside other circumstances, the advantageous situation .of Mr. 

 Cotton, near the finest trout-river in the kingdom, might conduce 

 to beget a great intimacy between them. Certain it is, that by 

 the year 1676 they were united by the closest ties of friend- 

 ship : Walton, as also his son, had been frequent visitants to 

 Mr. Cotton, at Beresford; who for the accommodation of the 

 former, no less than of himself, had erected a fishing-house on the 

 bank of the river, with a stone in the front thereof, containing a 

 cipher that incorporated the initials of both their names. 1 



These circumstances, together with a formal adoption, by 

 Walton, of Mr. Cotton for his son, 2 were doubtless the induce- 

 ments with the latter to the writing of a Second Part of the 

 " Complete Angler," and, therein, to explain more fully the art 

 of fishing either with a natural or an artificial fiy, as also the 

 various methods of making the latter. The book, as the author 

 assures us, was written in the short space of ten days : and 

 first came abroad, with the fifth edition of the First Part, in the 

 above year 1676 ; and ever since, the two parts have been con- 

 sidered as one book. 



The Second Part of the " Complete Angler" is, apparently, an 

 imitation of the First. It is a course of dialogues; between the 

 author, shadowed under the name of Piscator, and a traveller, 

 the very person distinguished in the First Part by the name of 

 Venator, and whom Walton of an hunter had made an angler : 

 in which besides the instructions there given, and the beautiful 

 scenery of a wild and romantic country therein displayed the 

 urbanity, courtesy, and hospitality of a well-bred country gentle- 

 man, are represented to great advantage. 



This book might be thought to contain a delineation of the 

 author's character ; and dispose the reader to think that he was 

 delighted with his situation, content with his fortunes, and in short 

 one of the happiest of men. But his next publication speaks a very 

 different language : for living in a country that abounds, above 

 all others in this kingdom, in rocks, caverns, and subterraneous 

 passages : objects that, to some minds, afford more delight than 

 stately woods and fertile plains, rich inclosures, and other, the 

 milder, beauties of rural nature he seems to have been prompted, 

 by no other than a sullen curiosity, to explore the secrets of that 

 nether world ; and, surveying it rather with wonder than philo- 



1 As given on our title-page. 



2 Explained in a note on a passage in the first chapter of this second 

 part. See page 353. 



