14 



The Chronicle of 



crous relief, felf-pilloried by his own ponderous pompofity of 

 ftyle and arrogance of judgment. 1 



Was it through the decline of faith, and the waning of the 



1 " Richard Franck, Philanthropies, " he ftyles himfelf. He was author of 

 " Northern Memoirs, calculated for the Meridian of Scotland'' (1694), in 

 which he eilimates Walton thus : — 



" Arnoldus. Ifaac Walton fluffs his book with morals from Dubravius 

 and others, not giving us one precedent of his own practical experiments, 

 except otherwife, when he prefers the trencher before the trolling-rod ; who 

 lays the ftrefs of his arguments on other men's obfervations, wherewith he 

 fluffs his undigefted octavo ; fo brings himfelf under the Angler's cenfure, and 

 the common calamity of the plagiary, to be pitied (poor man !) for his lofs of 

 time in fcribbling and tranfcribing other men's notions. Thefe are the 

 drones that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees they bring them honey. 



" Theophilus. I remember the book, but you inculcate his errata ; how- 

 ever, it may pafs mufter among common muddlers. 



M Arnoldus. No truly, I think not." 



Curt and conclufive, of a furety ! So by no ftrefs of courtefy, may this 

 defpifed and muddling abortion of poor Ifaac's be permitted to pafs mufter! 

 And thereupon, one falls to thinking of the very many editions through which 

 the condemned work has, after all, contrived to pafs. How it has been illuf- 

 trated by great artifts, annotated by learned profeffors, been loved by readers of 

 all claffes, in all times, and treafured up as one of the moft precious literary heir- 

 looms of the age that produced it, while the pretentious ' Northern Memoirs' 

 can now hardly be had for love or money, and are ticketed ' very fcarce' in the 

 catalogues of antiquarian bookfellers. Curt and conclufive too, if thou couldft 

 but have forefeen it, Mafter Richard Franck, Pbilanthropus ! 



That there are fome good points, however, about ' Northern Memoirs,' 

 cannot be denied. Its author was no cockney angler. He had gone further 

 afield than paftoral Thames, or fuburban Lea ; he had thrown his fly on the 

 waters of the great lakes, and had done battle with fahno ferox in his faftneffes. 

 But his book, on the whole, is as heavy and indigeftible a lump of turgid 

 rhetoric as ever encumbered the angler's book-fhelf, or perhaps any book-fhelf 

 whatfoever, if the truth be told. 



