^T. 62.] LIFE OF JZAAK WALTON. Ixi 



appears to have been acquainted with Walton ; and the passages 

 in which he alludes to him are the following : — 



"Aenoldus. Indeed, the frequent exercise of fly-fishing, though 

 painful, yet it's delightful, more especially when managed by the methods 

 of art, and the practical rules and mediums of artists. But the ground-bait 

 was of old the general practice, and beyond dispute, brought considerable 

 profit ; which happened in those days, when the curiosity of fly-fishing was 

 intricate and unpracticable. However, Isaac Walton (late author of the 

 'Compleat Angler') has imposed upon the world this monthly novelty, 

 which he understood not himself j but stuffs his book with morals from 

 Dubravius and others, not giving us one precedent of his own practical 

 experiments, except otherwise where he prefers the trencher before the 

 troUing-rod ; who l^ys the stress of his arguments upon other men's 

 observations, wherewith he stuffs his indigested octavo ; so brings himself 

 under the angler's censure, and the common calamity of a plagiary, to be 

 pitied (poor man) for his loss of time, in scribbling and transcribing other 

 men's notions. "These are the drones that rob the hive, yet flatter the bees 

 they bring them honey. 



" Theophilus. 1 remember the book, but you inculcate his en-atas ; 

 however, it may pass muster among common muddlers. 



"Arnoldus. No, I think not; for I remember in Stafford; I urged 

 his own argument upon him, that pickerel weed of itself breeds pickerel. 

 Which question was no sooner stated, but he transmits himself to his 

 authority, viz., Gesner, Dubravius, and Aldrovanus, which I readily opposed, 

 and offered my reasons to prove the contrary ; asserting, that pickerels 

 have been fished out of pools and ponds, where that weed (for aught I 

 knew) never grew since the nonage of time, nor pickerel ever known to 

 have shed their spawn there. This I propounded from a rational conject- 

 ure of the heronshaw, who to commode herself with the fry of fish, because 

 in a great measure part of her maintenance, probably might lap some 

 spawn about her legs, in regard adhering to the segs and bulrushes, near 

 the shallows, where the fish shed their spawn, as myself and others 

 without curiosity have observed. And this slimy substance adhering to 

 her legs, &c., and she mounting the air for another station, in probability 

 mounts with her. Where note, the next pond she happily arrives at, 

 possibly she may leave the spawn behind her, which my Compleat Angler 

 no sooner deliberated, but dropped his argument, and leaves Gesner to 

 defend it ; so huffed away, which rendered him rather a formal opinionist, 

 than a reformed and practical artist, because to celebrate such antiquated 

 records, whereby to maintain such an improbable assertion. 



" Theophilus. This was to the point, I confess ; pray go on. 



"Arnoldus. In his book, intituled the ; Compleat Angler,' you may 

 read there of various and diversified colours, as also the forms and propor- 

 tions of flies. Where, poor man, he perplexes himself to rally and scrape 

 together such a parcel of fragments, which he fancies arguments, convincing 

 enough to instruct the adult and minority of youth, into the slender margin 

 of his uncultivated art, never made practical^le by himself I'm convinced. 

 Where note, the true character of an industrious angler, more deservedly 

 falls upon Merril and Faulkner, or rather Isaac Owldham, a man that 



