the ' Compleat Angler.' 



S3 



mode of the day. Of his graceful fervices as a book-illuftrator, 

 we have a lively remembrance, but the f Compleat Angler' 

 feems to have lain beyond his beat, his genius being of that 

 Watteauifh character, that luxuriates more in Arcadian revels 

 and the. fetes champetres of conventional life, than in the em- 

 bodiment of the fimple Englifh paftoral. He was no angler, 

 befides, and the fact betrays itfelf, as might be expected, in 

 many minute, but conclusive points. That his coftumes, in 

 thefe plates, are archaeologically correct, in a general fenfe, we 

 doubt not, but that they are correct in their application to the 

 angler, we refufe to believe. All frill and frippery, Pifcator 

 and his aflbciates are attired as if for a ftroll, fnuff-box and 

 cane in hand, among the fcented exquifites of the Mall, rather 

 than for rough encounter with brake and briar by the river 

 fide. Their faces, throughout, are weak and meaninglefs, and 

 Pifcator, in the falutation plate, were it not for the rod he 

 carries, might be miflaken for a beggar, in eafy circumftances, 

 imploring an alms. 



The views of the localities, alfo, fall fhort of the mark, for 

 though truthful and precife, they are flat and meagre in the 

 execution, and have an awkward knack of fprawling acrofs the 

 page. 



The biographies, on the other hand, prefent the reader with 

 feveral new facts, are very confcientious and laborious, and 

 leave but little in the way of data for any future gleaner in 

 the fame fcanty field. But here, again, we have an editor who 

 is no angler, a deficiency that is painfully felt as we perufe 

 thefe dryly written, matter-of-fact, unfympathetic pages, in 



