44 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



gentlewoman I would not whisper it at the "Walton's Head' 



or the " Walton's Arms," or hint it at the " Jolly Anglers," or the 

 "Rest," or any other resort of his so-called disciples, but to my 

 readers I will impart my private conviction, that there is now at least 

 little practically to be learnt from Izaak Walton's Complete Angler. 

 and that the reading of it is rather heavy work than otherwise." 



I am also " free to confess " that the practical angler 

 now-a-days cannot learn much of the art of fishing from 

 Walton ; but I will nob admit that Walton was a " very- 

 vain old gentlewoman/'' or that the reading of the Complete 

 Angler is " rather heavy work than otherwise." I dare 

 to say that Shakespeare wrote no little twaddle, and made 

 scores of jokes which would disgrace a modern schoolboy; 

 but I hold it rank heresy to say that the Complete Angler 

 is " prosy." There is such a thing as the deficiency of a 

 reader being visited on the writer. Dr. Johnson, a pretty 

 fair critic I suppose it will be admitted, but one whose 

 name will ever be execrated by all anglers for his abo- 

 minable observation about " a worm at one end of a line 

 and a fool at the other/' was one of the foremost admirers 

 of the Complete Angler ; and it was at his suggestion that 

 the Rev. Moses Browne published his third edition of 

 the Walton and Cotton (the 10th) in 1772. Another no 

 mean judge of literary merit, Charles Lamb (and he too 

 no lover of the angle) thus writes to Coleridge in October, 

 1796:— 



" Among all your quaint readings did you ever light upon Walton's 

 Complete Angler ? I asked you the question once before ; it breathes 

 the very spirit of innocence, purity, and simplicity of heart; there are 

 many choice old verses interspersed in it ; it would sweeten a man's 

 temper at any time to read it ; it would Christianize every discordant, 

 angry passion : pray make yourself acquainted with it." 



The panegyrics showered down on Walton's book, after 



