362 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART II. 



clear river, that my father Walton himself will not dis- 

 approve ; though he did either purposely omit, or did not 

 remember, them, when you and he sat discoursing under 

 the sycamore tree. 1 And, being you have already told me 

 whither your journey is intended, and that I am better 

 acquainted with the country than you are ; I will heartily 

 and earnestly entreat you will not think of staying at this 

 town, but go on with me six miles further to my house, 2 

 where you shall be extremely welcome ; it is directly in your 

 way ; we have day enough to perform our journey, and, as 

 you like your entertainment, you may there repose yourself 

 a day or two, or as many more as your occasions will permit, 

 to recompense the trouble of so much a longer journey. 



Viat. Sir, you surprise me with so friendly an invitation 

 upon so short acquaintance : but how advantageous soever 

 it would be to me, and that my haste, perhaps, is not so 

 great, but it might dispense with 3 such a divertisement as 

 I promise myself in your company ; yet I cannot, in modesty, 

 accept your offer, and must therefore beg your pardon : I 

 could otherwise, I confess, be glad to wait upon you, if upon 

 no other account but to talk of Mr. Izaak "Walton, and to 

 receive those instructions you say you are able to give me 

 for the deceiving a trout ; in which art I will not deny, but 

 that I have an ambition to be one of the greatest deceivers : 

 though I cannot forbear freely to tell you, that I think it 

 hard to say much more than has been read to me upon that 

 subject. 



Pise. Well, sir, I grant that too ; but you must know 

 that the variety of rivers require different ways of angling : 

 however, you shall have the best rules I am able to give, 

 and I will tell you nothing I have not made myself as 

 certain of, as any man can be in thirty years experience, for 

 so long I have been a dabbler in that art ; and that, if you 

 please to stay a few days, you shall in a very great measure 



1 See Part I., chap. V., p. 144. 



2 Beresford-hall, situate a little to the north of Dovedale. In 1838 it 

 was a large farm-house (in the occupation of Mrs. Hannah Gibbs), and the 

 property of the Marquis of Beresford ; and the interior arrangements, as we 

 are told, are pretty much the same as in the time of Cotton. Between it 

 and the river-side is Cotton's fishing-house, still standing. E. 



3 i. e. allow. 



