TEE LITERATURE OF FISHING. 59 



" Let me live harmlessly, and near the brink 

 Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place." 



This lie has slightly altered from the original, which 

 stands thus : — 



" O let me rather on the pleasant brinke 

 Of Tyne and Trent possesse some dwelling-place." 



There are several other mere verbal alterations in the 

 six stanzas quoted ; but it is curious to notice that in the 

 first stanza Walton has altered Dennys's — 



" While they proud Thais' painted sheet embrace, 

 And with the fume of strong tobacco's smoke, 

 All quaffing round, are ready for to choke," 



into — 



" While some men strive ill-gotten goods t' embrace, 

 And others spend their time in base excess 

 Of wine or worse, in war or wantonness." 



But old Izaak, like the majority of " good " anglers, 

 was fond of his pipe, and could not brook the implied 

 libel on tobacco. 



Dennys's concluding lines are worth quoting. They 

 have a soft cadence about them : — 



" And now we are arrived at the last, 



.In wish'd harbour where we mean to rest ; 

 And make an end of this our journey past ; 

 Here then in quiet roade I think it best 

 We strike our sailes and stedfast anchor cast, 

 " For now the Sunne low setteth in the West." 



In 1631 Fletcher's Sicelides, a Piscatory, as it hath been 

 acted in King's College, was published; and the author 

 again broke out in Piscatorie Eclogs two years afterwards, 

 which Bclogs, (spelt Eclogues,) seem to have been edited 

 in 1771 by Lord Woodhouslee. The Innocent Epicure, or 

 Art of Angling, a Poem, sometimes attributed to N. Tate, 



