THE LITERATURE OE FISHING. 47 



An angler and author contemporaneous with Walton, 

 worthy of mention, was Colonel Robert Venables, who in 

 1662, i. e. during the period in which Walton brought out 

 the several editions of his work, as already mentioned, 

 published his Experienced Angler ; or Angling Improved, 

 being a General Discourse of Angling. This is fair reading, 

 and has gone through six editions, the last dating 1825. 

 Venables was known to Walton, and doubtless they often 

 " compared notes " together. In The Innocent Epicure, 

 or Angling, a poem published in 1697, the author of 

 which is unknown, the line — ■ 



" Hail, great Triumvirate of Angling ! Hail ! " 



refers to Walton, Cotton, and Venables. In 1675 the 

 Accbmplisht Lady's Delight contained " Secrets in the 

 Art of Angling," but these were taken from Walton and 

 Barker. William Gilbert w#s another author in Walton's 

 time. He published his Angler's Delight, containing 

 the whole art of neat and clean Angling, &c, in 1676, (the 

 date of the fifth edition of the Complete Angler,) the 

 work being dedicated to Sir Richard Fisher. He gives 

 his readers " the method of fishing in Hackney Marshes, 

 and the names of the best stands there," and bids them 

 " go to Mother Gilbert's, at the Flower de Luce, at Clap- 

 ton, near Hackney, and whilst you are drinking a pot of 

 ale, bid the maid make you two or three pennyworth of 

 ground bait and some paste (which they do very neatly 

 and well)." From him too we learn that barbel fre- 

 quented London Bridge in his time. 



But as I have remarked in reference to the publication 

 of Dame Juliana Berners' treatise that it gave no stimulus 

 to angling authorship, so I note in reference to Walton's 



