the ' Compleat Angler. 5 



57 



of former editions. Some of thefe, indeed, are fo charming as 

 to fuggeft the idea of a more extenfive ill uft ration of the 

 ' Compleat Angler,' confined entirely to this department of 

 art, which feems fpecially adapted for the adornment of books 

 treating of country purfuits and paftimes, and which poflefles 

 a frefhnefs, freedom, and artlefThefs that we feek for in vain 

 from the more ambitious burin. Vignettes we poflefs by the 

 Fofters and the Crefwicks of the day — (ketches of fylvan 

 fcenery, in which we almofty^ the leaves lifted by the fummer 

 wind, and hear the plaining of the waterfall as it tumbles, all 

 froth and foam, over the weir. Thus our bofky dells and 

 dingles, our green Engliih lanes, our filver-threaded brooks, 

 our wood- openings, with their delicate tracery of boughs againft 

 a pale fky, and their intricate network of leaves and fpray, 

 are fubjects that have pafTed of right into the hands of the 

 artift in wood, as their fitting interpreter. While, on the 

 other hand, in cafes demanding greater depth of tone and 

 treatment — the favage aufterity of bare rock and windy ravine, 

 the ruggednefs of immemorial forefts, with their gaunt and 

 blafted trunks, or the chaotic tumult of a fky blurred and 

 blackened with tempeft, a modern inftance, in Guftave Dore's 

 illu fixations of Dante's f Inferno/ prove that appeal may be 

 made with equal fuccefs to the fame fchool of engraving, a 

 fchool that, from its recent development, feems deftined to 

 rule paramount over all others. 



The next addition to our rapidly lengthening lift is the 



1 "The Complete Angler; or, the Contemplative Man's Recreation. By 

 Ifaac Walton. And Inftruclions how to angle for a Trout or Grayling in a 



The American 

 Editions, 1847, l 

 1848, and 1852. 



