20 



The Chronicle of 



Mofes Browne's firft edition appeared, as has been fhown, 

 in 1750. It was fmall octavo in fize, and its general appear- 

 ance indicated but little typographical progrefs during the 

 hundred years that feparated it from its firft. prototype. The 

 woodcuts of fifh are efpecially coarfe and inferior to the corres- 

 ponding plates in the edition of 1653, and the praife to be 

 awarded to the more ambitious fcenic illustrations, muft be 

 reftricted to the choice of Subject, — a choice that has been 

 ratified and accepted as a rule by all after-ill uftrators, up to 

 the prefent time. 



The work is alfo adorned with a frontifpiece, in the fore- 

 ground of which a languid-looking fine gentleman, in a cocked- 

 hat .and bob-wig, with a fifh between his fingers, and a 

 couple of rods, or rather pokers, lying at his feet, is feen feated, 

 Jub tegmine fagi y by the fide of a ftream, in a penfive pofhure, 

 while, in the middle diftance, fits juft fuch another fine gentle- 

 man, with juft fuch another bob-wig and poker, his back 

 turned to the fpectator, and his legs, apparently, dangling 

 in the water. Thefe two love-lorn Adonifes reprefent, we 

 prefume, the ideal angler of the day, as he appeared in his 

 court coftume, in the fuburban purlieus of Putney or Iflington, 

 more engrafted with his ruffles than his fport, and in the habit 

 of inditing a fonnet to his " Miftrefs' eyebrow," when the 

 bleak left off biting. 



Browne's edition was preluded by an " Editor's Preface," 

 in which he certainly evinces much enthufiafm for his author. 

 But how little he was acquainted with the incidents of Walton's 

 life, and how very gradually, in this refpect, he flounders out 



