The Chronicle of 



ftormieft and moft turbulent of times ! Quiet-hearted men 

 there rauft ftill have been in England, vvhofe feet never ceafed 

 to brum the dew from meadow and river bank — who, while 

 houfe was divided againft houfe, and hand raifed againft hand, 

 ftill fought their paftime and philofophy in their accuftomed 

 haunts, and feated under honeyfuckle hedges in the heat of the 

 day, fcanned the pages of the " Contemplative Man's Recrea- 

 tion," while the river rippled and the throttle piped, or 

 fummed up their fport at nightfall, in wayfide hoftels, fuch as 

 the father of the craft was wont to eulogife, with a buckfome 

 hoftefs to bid them welcome, " lavender in the windows," and 

 " twenty ballads ftuck againft the wall" ... A pleafant fide 

 picture enough, if contracted with the difcord and defolation 

 going on elfewhere — with the hurtling (almoft within earfhot, 

 perchance,) of hoftile fquadron with fquadron — the Cf thunder 

 of the captains and the ftiouting," and the " garments rolled in 

 blood." 



It was about the merry month of May, the angler's month, 

 par excellence, that this book, the various phafes and meta- 

 morphofes of which we have undertaken to chronicle, was 

 advertifed in the broad-meets of the day as Cf newly extant, at 

 eighteen-pence price." 1 



And we may picture to ourfelves, if we will, the fober- 



1 In the " Perfect Diurnall"(Lond. 4to. p. 2716), it was thus announced, 

 from Monday, May 9th, to Monday, May 16th, 1653 : — 



" The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, being a 

 Difcourfe of Fifh and Fifhing, not unworthy the perufal of moft Anglers, of 

 1 8 pence price. Written by Iz. Wa. Alfo the known Play of the Spanifh 



