238 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part ii. 



Viator. Stay, what's here over the door ? " Piscatoribus 

 Sacrum." * Why then, I perceive I have some title here ; for 

 I am one of them, though one of the worst. And here, below it, 

 is the cipher too you spoke of; and 'tis prettily contrived. Has 

 my master Walton ever been here to see it ; for it seems new 

 built .? t 



Piscator. Yes, he saw it cut in the stone before it was set 

 up ; but never in the posture it now stands : for the house was 

 but building when he was last here, and riot raised so high as the 

 arch of the door. And I am afraid he will not see it yet : for 

 he has lately writ me word, he doubts his coming down this 

 summer ; which, I do assure you, was the worst news he could 

 possibly have sent me. 



Viator. Men must sometimes mind their affairs to make 

 more room for their pleasures. And 'tis odds he is as much 

 displeased with the business that keeps him from you, as you are 

 that he comes not. But I am the most pleased with this Httle 



* There is, under this motto, the cipher mentioned in the title-page [of Part II.] And 

 some part of the fishing-house has been described ; but the pleasantness of the river, 

 mountains, and meadows about it, cannot ; unless Sir Philip Sidney, or Mr Cotton's 

 father, were again alive, to do it. — Izaak Walton. 



t In the edition of 1784, Sir John Hawkins says, "I have been favoured with an 

 accurate description of the Fishing-house, by a person [Mr White, since of Crickhowel] 

 who, being in that country, with a view to oblige me, went to see it. The account he 

 gave of it was, that it was of stone, and the room inside a cube of fifteen feet ; that it 

 was paved with black and white marble, and that in the middle was a square black 

 marble table supported by two stone feet The room was wainscoted with curious 

 mouldings that divided the panels up to the ceiling. In the larger panels were repre- 

 sented, in painting, some of the most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with persons fish- 

 ing ; and in the smaller, the various sorts of tackle and implements used in angling. In 

 the further corner, on the left, was a fireplace with a chimney ; on the right a large 

 buffet, with folding doors, whereon were the portraits of Mr Cotton with a boy-servant, 

 and Walton, in the dress of the time. Underneath was a cupboard ; on the door whereof 

 the figures of a Trout and of a Grayling were well portrayed. At this time the edifice was 

 in but indifferent condition ; the paintings, and even the wainscoting, in many places, 

 being much decayed." 



To which Mr Bagster adds, that on visiting it, Sept. 5th, 1814, he found it in a much 

 worse condition than is here described. The pavement, the glass from the windows, and 

 the wainscoting, gone ; the inscription over the door tolerably legible, with the date of 

 1674 beneath : and on the keystone which forms the arch of the doorway Cotton and 

 "Walton's cipher. Above the roof, beneath the ball and vane, are the remains of a small 

 htone sundial. The fireplace in the further corner of the interior, had at each corner 

 the initials of Cotton, thus JjC- under that on the left, IZ . aid. that on the right 



"^^ . .. . „ . 



In June 1825, the publisher of the former edition and Mr Stothard visited Beresford 

 Hall, which was then rented by a widow named Gibbs. It had undergone many altera- 

 tions in the interior, and very little of the original ornaments remained, with the exception 

 of two carved mantelpieces, and one or two panes of stained glass ; but since that 

 period, some of the roofs have fallen in, consequently it is fast going to decay. The 

 Fishing-house was much in the state described above. The stone walls, fireplace, 

 and outer doors, were the only parts remaining. The stone table had been removed, 

 and all the windows had either fallen to decay or been taken away ; but the motto and 

 cipher on the keystone of the arched doorway was entire. The manor, hall, and about 

 eighty-four acres of land, were sold by auction on the loth August 1825, and was pur- 

 chased by William Viscount Beresford for ^5500, which included ;£75o for timber. 



