the ' Compleat Angler.' 



45 



range of circulation, and a greatly increafed popularity. Dazzled 

 as our eyes are with the fplendour of our recent typographical 

 fuccefTes, we may wonder at the amount of admiration excited, 

 forty years ago, by this pretty book, which was looked upon 

 as a marvel in its kind, pointed out as fuch on the fhelves of 

 libraries, or pafTed from hand to hand, amidft the encomiums 

 of delighted connoiffeurs. And a pretty book it is, even now, 

 the old drawings by Wale having been engraved for it, in 

 more finimed ftyle, by Cook and Pye, the woodcuts of fifh 

 fkilfully executed, and the editing performed by a practifed 

 and competent hand. 1 



Unfortunately, its publifher, not content with thefe ad- 

 vantages, thought it incumbent on him to add an " Intro- 

 ductory EfTay," from his own pen, the effect of which is to 

 mar the unity of the work. The writer, though worthy and 

 inoffenfive, was vain, vulgar and filly, and his effay is pre- 

 cifely what we mould expect from a fhopkeeper turned man of 

 letters, for the nonce. It is, in fact, a farrago of twaddle, from 

 end to end. In one paffage, he attempts to glofs over Walton's 

 humble pofition in early life, and eftablifh a claim for con- 

 sideration, not fo much on his own intrinfic merits, as on the 

 ground of his high relations and fine acquaintances ; a piece 

 of fnobbifhnefs, which draws down on him the juftly indignant 

 rebuke of Dr. Bethune : 



<c Impertinent is not a word flrong enough to characterize 

 fuch an attempt to put honeft Izaak's worth on another footing 



1 Mr. R. Thomfon, Author of the " Chronicles of London Bridge," 1 827. 



