CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAY. 109 



And now, scholar, I think it will be time to repair to our angle- 

 rods, which we left in the water to fish for themselves ; and you 

 shall choose which shall be yours ; and it is an even lay, one of 

 them catches. 



And, let me tell you, this kind of fishing with a dead rod, and 

 laying night-hooks, are like putting money to use ; for they both 

 work for the owners when they do nothing but sleep, or eat, or 

 rejoice, as you know we have done this last hour, and sat as 

 quietly and as free from cares under this sycamore, as Virgil's 

 Tityrus and his Meliboeus did under their broad beech-tree. No 

 life, my honest scholar, no life so happy and so pleasant as the 

 life of a well-governed angler ; ' for when the lawyer is swallowed 

 up with business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving 

 plots, then we sit on cowslip -banks, hear the birds sing, and 

 possess ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver 

 streams, which we now see glide so quietly by us. Indeed, my 

 good scholar, we may say of angling, as Dr Boteler* said of 

 strawberries, " Doubtless God could have made a better berry, 

 but doubtless God never did ; " and so, if I might be judge, God 

 never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than 

 angling. 



I'll tell you, scholar ; when I sat last on this primrose-bank, 

 and looked down these meadows, I thought of them as Charles 

 the Emperor did of the city of Florence : " That they were too 

 pleasant to be looked on, but only on holydays." As I then sat 

 on this very grass, I turned my 'present thoughts into verse : 'twas 

 a Wish, which I'll repeat to you : + — - 



VARIATION. 



7 No life, my honest scholarj no life so happy and so pleasant as the angler's, unless 

 it be the beggar's life in summer ; for then only they take no care, but are as happy as 

 we anglers. — i.st edit, 



an ordinance of ParliameHt, and while it was agitating, as a theological question, 

 ' whether, of the two, preconceived or extemporary prayer be most agreeable to the 

 sense of Scripture ? — H. 



* The person here mentioned 1 take to be Dr William Butler, an eminent physician 

 of our author's time, styled by Fuller, in his IVorthies, Suffolk, 67, ihe jEsculapius of 

 the age : he invented a medical drink, called ** Dr Butler's Ale," which, if not now, was 

 a very few years ago sold at certain houses in London which had his head for a sign. 

 One of these was in Ivy Lane, and another in an alley leading from Coleman Street to 

 Basinghall Street. He was a great humourist ; a circumstance in his character which, 

 joined to his reputation for skill in his profession, might contribute to render him 

 popular. — H, Dr Butler was born at Ipswich about 1535, and educated at Clare Hall, 

 Cambridge. He died Jan. 29, 1618, and was buried at St Mary's Church, Cambridge. 



t It cannot be doubted that the following beautiful stanzas which occur for the first 

 time in the third edition, were written by Walton, The allusion to " Kenna," which 

 probably referred to the maiden name of his wife "Ken," is not to be found in the third, 

 orjottrth edition, in both of which the word " Chlora " is substituted for it, which, with 

 the substitution of one vowel for another, formed the anagram of his first wife's name — 

 Kachel. 



