the c Compleat Angler. 5 



27 



only public and perhaps my laft attempt in which I mall aim 

 to pleafe myfelf or others in this way." 



There is no life-belt like vanity in literary aquatics, and 

 armed with this accoutrement, Browne ftrikes out, perfiftently, 

 in a fea that had grown over rough for him, and appeals, as 

 before, to the public for fupport and commendation, on the 

 primitive and offenfive ground of his tinkering and tampering. 

 " I mail be pleafed," he fays, tf to have the clofeft comparifon 

 made between us, with the acutefr. eye of the candid and 

 judicious, efpecially the Poetical Parts y that coft me much 

 labour, and indeed (the italics are ours) of neceffity required 

 my indifpenfable help." 



That the public did not refpond very cordially to this 

 pathetic and pofitive appeal, may be inferred from the fact, 

 that our irreverent editor's Walton-done-Browne feems to 

 have funk like a ftone, foon after this, into the depths of 

 Lethe, to be fimed up therefrom no more. 



But while we are fevere on the editor, let us be juft to the 

 man. Browne was a parvenu it is true, but a parvenu in the 

 moft honeft and honourable fenfe. From a very low rank in 

 life, he made his way upward, by dint of energy and talent, 

 and through much penury, neglect, and viciflitude, to the 

 dignified pofition of Vicar of Olney, and afterwards Chaplain 

 of Morden College, in Kent. In the record of his chequered 

 career, no noticeable blot is to be difcovered, and that he was 

 infected with the prevailing literary foibles of the time, is 

 by no means to be vifited on him alone. 



Even on Waltonian ground, it is well to accord him what 



