the ' Compleat Angler.' 



plates of filver, feems negatived by the fact of their having 

 ferved for no lefs than five editions of ' The Compleat Angler,' 

 and the fame number of Venables' ( Experienc'd Angler,' an 

 amount of durability of which filver plates would hardly have 

 been capable. 



Sir John Hawkins, on the contrary, in his fourth edition 

 (1784), fays, cc there is great reafon to fuppofe that the plates 

 were of fleet." 1 



The fifh illuftrated in this edition are the trout, pike, carp, 

 tench, perch and barbel. The work confifts of thirteen chap- 

 ters, extending to 246 pages, 2 and the interlocutors are but 

 two, Pifcator and Venator. 



Copies of this edition, though rare at the prefent time, feem 

 to have been ftill more fo, as far as available purpofes went, 

 at the period of Hawkins' firft re-iffues, for that Editor not 

 only confeffes that he had never met with the fecond edition, 3 

 but leaves it to be inferred that the firft and third had equally 

 efcaped his refearch. Thus he aflerts erroneoufly, that fC the 

 c Compleat Angler' came into the world attended by laudatory 

 verjes by fever al writers of that day" and fixes the date of the 

 third edition at "about 1660." 



The genus angling-book collector exifted, in fact, at the 



1 " Life of Mr. Izaak Walton," p. xiii. 



2 Sigs. A 2 to R 3 in eights ; 14 preliminary pages, confining of Dedication, 

 Addrefs to the Reader, and Table of Contents. 



3 "Life of Mr. Izaak Walton," p. xxviii. 1760. In the edition of 

 1784 the avowal in queftion is fupprefTed ; but there is no internal evidence 

 that he had been more fuccefsful in his fearch at that period. 



