FISHING AS A SPORT. 79 



printed with our good old service-book/' is not correct. 

 Nowel drew up two admirable catechisms, the " greater " 

 and the " less," which were allowed and received by the 

 Church in the reign of Elizabeth, and of one of which 

 Whitgift says, " I know no man so well learned, but it 

 may become him to read and study that learned and ne- 

 cessary book." But the Catechism as it now stands in 

 the Prayer Book was not the work of the eld and reverend 

 angler. 



Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton College, was ano- 

 ther of Walton's contemporaries, and an intimate friend ; 

 an ardent fisherman, who discoursed well in prose and 

 verse on the art. Thus again Walton of this worthy, — 



" This man, whose very approhation of Angling were sufficient to 

 convince any modest censurer of it, this man was also, a, most dear 

 lover, and a frequent practiser of the art of Angling; of which he 

 would sa}", ' it was an employment for his idle time, which was then 

 not idly spent ; ' for Angling was, after tedious study, ' a rest to his 

 mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a, diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet 

 thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness ; and 

 that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and 

 practised it.' Indeed, my friend, you will find Angling to be like the 

 virtue of humility, which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of 

 other blessings attending upon it." 



Long after he was seventy years of age did Wotton 

 " sit quietly on a summer's evening, on a bank a-fishing," 

 and sang the praises of the angle. 



Then again there was Dr. Sheldon, Warden of All 

 Souls' College, Oxford, the founder of the Sheldonian 

 Theatre, and Archbishop of Canterbury, whom Walton 

 speaks of as a noted fisher for umber and barbel. " His 

 skill," he says, " is above others, and of that the poor 

 that dwell about him have a comfortable experience." 



