Maboh 28, 1898.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



2BB 



WALTOIT AND COTTON'S FISHIN& HOUSE. 



As WAS briefly noted last week, acting on the suggestion 

 of Dr. J. A. Henshall, the members of the Chicago Fly- 

 Casting Club propose to build on some suitable site near 

 the Fisheries Building, in the World's Fair grounds, a 

 reproduction of the famous fishing house 

 of Walton and Cotton. Of all the objects 

 to be seen in the Exposition, it is quite 

 safe to assume the fishing house will be 



second to no other in interest for the 



fisherman who is familiar with the 

 "Com pleat Angler," but the fuU signifi- 

 cance of tlie little house built by Cotton 

 on the Dove should render it an object of 

 veneration by all men, whether anglers or 

 not, who value friendship. For the liouse 

 was, in its building and use and preserva- 

 tion for two centuries, not a simple 

 fishing lodge, but a testimony and mem- 

 orial of the enduring fi-iendship of two 

 "brothers of the angle." 



He has not read his "Compleat Angler' 

 aright, nor caught its true and finer spirit, 

 who finds it only a manual of fishing 

 lore. Izaak Walton is remembered to- 

 day, and will be remembered in the 

 yeai-s to come, not onl}^ as the "Fatiier 

 of Angling," but as a man singularly 

 blessed with friendships; tlie "Angler" is 

 not a simple book of fishing, it is per- 

 A'aded with those qualities of the man 

 which won him friends; and tliese are 

 the qualities that have contributed more 

 than auy other to give the book its abid- 

 ing place in literature. 



Among ah Walton's friends none are 

 better known to us to-day than Charles 

 Cotton, wlio, so intimate was the friend- 

 ship and so strong tlie aflfection between 

 tire two, used fondly to sj)eak of Walton 

 as his father, and of himself as Walton's 

 adopted sou. 



Cotton — we are writing now for those 

 who do not know their "Walton" — liad a 

 country place not far from London, Beres- 

 ford Hall, on the river Dove, and as all 

 good anglers living in the country did in 

 those days and do in ours, he used to in- 

 vite his city friend to come down and go 

 fishing with him. For their convenience 

 on the stream, and as Cotton tells us, Cor 

 a testimony and perpetuation of the 

 memory of their friendsliip, he built of 

 stone here on the Dove a little fishing- 

 house. Above its entrance was the in- 

 scription Piscatoribus Sacrum (Sacred to 

 Anglers), and the date of building 1674; 



while the initials of the two friends Avere ■ 



interwoven in a cipher. Surely Charles 

 Cotton builded better than he knew, for 

 tlirough the vicissitudes of two cen- 

 turies, sometuues falling into dpcay but 

 again restored by loving hands, this little 

 fishing house, testimonial of friendship 

 and brotherhood, has endured. And when its walls shall 

 be built up on the bank of one of the lakes of the World's 

 Fair, it vvdl there, too, stand not alone as a monument of 

 the antiquity and high place of angling, but as a token of 

 the blessed quality of friendship, and a reminder of the 

 manly a ffection wliich 

 two hundred years ago 

 buund together two 

 angling friends as 

 father and son. 



In the Second Part 

 (Cotton's) of tlie "Ang- 

 ler," C(jtt()n as Pisca- 

 tor, having fallen in 

 with a traveler. Via- 

 ttrr, and having found 

 him b(5tli an angler 

 and an admirer of 

 his friend AValtoii, 

 straightwa}^ invites 

 him to go home with 

 him and test the ti-out 

 and grayling fishing 

 of the Dove; andAvhen 

 Viator modestly liesi- 

 tates to accept the 

 hospitaUty so gener-- 

 ously offered, Cotton 

 seeks to allure him by 

 describing the fishing 

 house: "I will tell 

 you," he says, "that 

 my house stands upon 

 the margin of one of 

 the finest rivers for 

 fronts and grayling in 

 England — thatjljiave 

 lately^built a little fish- 

 ing house upon it, 

 dedicated to anglers, 

 over tlie door of which 

 you will see the two 

 first letters of my 

 father Walton's name 

 and mine, twisted in 

 cipher — that you shall 

 he in the same bed 

 he has sometimes been 

 contented with, and 

 have such country 

 entertainment as my 

 friends sometimes ac- 

 cept, and be as wel- 

 come, too, as the best 



friend of them aU." The invitation haying been accepted, 

 they go the next day to the stream, Cotton sending the 

 tackle on ahead: "Boy take the key of my fishing house 

 and carry down those two angle-rods in tlie hall window 

 tliither, with my fish paniiier, pouch and landing-net, 

 and stay you there till we come." 



Come to the sight of the house, Pheatur (Cotton) points 

 it out to his guest: "But [look you, sir, now you are at 



the brink of the hUl, how do you like nay river, the vale 

 it winds through, like a snake, and the situation of my 

 little fishing house ?" 



Viator — Trust me, 'tis all very fine; and the house 

 seems, at this distance, a neat building. 



Piscator — Good enough for that purpose. And here is 



raised so high as the arch of the door. Ajid 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 possible have sent me. 



Viator — Men must sometimes mind their alfairs, 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 little house of anything I ever 

 saw; it stands in a kind of peninsula, 

 too, with a delicate clear river about it. 

 I dare hardly go in lest I should not like 

 it so well within as without; but, by your 

 leave, I'll try. — Why, this is better and 

 better! Fine Hghts, finely wainscoted, 

 and all exceeding neat, with a marble 

 table and all in the middle! 



S 



WALTON AND COTTON'S FISHING HOUSE. 

 Vrom Marston's Edition of the "Compleat Angler. ' 



a bowling green, too, close ^by it; so, though I am myself 

 no very good bowler, I am not totally devoted to 'my own 

 pleasure, but that I have also some regard to other men's. 

 And now, we'll sit, and talk as long as you please. 



Viator — Stay, wliat's here oA^er the door? "Piscatoribus 



WAIiTON AISTD COTTON'S FISHING HOUSE. 

 From Marston's Edition of the "Compleat Angler.' 



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

 for I am one of them, though one of the Avorst. 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 buUt? 



Piscator — Yes, he saw it cut in the stone befoi'e it was 

 set up, but never in the postui-e it now stands, for the 

 house was but building when he Avas last here, and not 



Many pilgrunages must have been made 

 by British anglers to the fishing house on 

 the Dove; and from time to time descrip- 

 tions of it have been given. In the Hawk- 

 iils edition of 1784 Ave find these details: 

 '*I have been favored with an accurate 

 description of this fishing house, by a 

 person who, being in that coimtry, with 

 a view to obhge me, Avent to see it. The 

 account he gaA'e of it is, that it is of stone, 

 and the room inside a cube of fifteen feet; 

 that it is paved with black and white 

 marble, and that in the middle is a square 

 black marble table, supported by two 

 stone feet. The room is wamscoted Avith 

 curious mouldings that divide the panels 

 up to the ceiling. In the larger panels 

 are represented, in painting, some of the 

 most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with 

 persons fishing; and in the smaller, the 

 various sorts of tackle and implements 

 used in angling. In the further corner, 

 on the left, is a fire-place, Avith a chimney, 

 on the right, a large beaufet, Avith fold- 

 ing doors, whereon are the portraits of 

 Mr. Cotton, with a boy servant, and 

 Walton, in the dress of the time. Under- 

 neath is a cupboard, on the door whereof 

 the figures of a trout and of a gTayling 

 are Avell portrayed. The edifice is at this 

 time in but indifferent condition; the 

 paintings, and eA'en the wainscoting, in 

 many places, being much decayed." 



In his edition of 1833 Rennie records: 

 "Mr. Bagster, who visited it in I8i4, 

 found it much dilapidated, the AA^indows 

 unglazed, and the wainscot and pave- 

 ment gone, but the cipher still legible." 



Major's edition of 1844 quotes the ac- 

 count of a visit made by W. H. Pepys, 

 in April, 1811: "The fishing house is 

 situated on a small peninsida, round 

 Avhich the river flows, and was then 

 nearly enveloped Avith trees. It has been 

 a small, neat stone building, coA'-ered with 

 stone slates, or tiles, but is noAv going 

 I fast to^decay; the stone steps by which you entered the 

 door are nearly destroyed. It is of a quadrangular form, 

 I having a door and two windows in front, and one larger 

 j window on each of the other three sides. The door Avas 

 1 secured on the outside by a strong staple; but the bars 



and casements of the 

 windows being gone, 

 an easy entrance Avas 

 obtained. The mar- 

 ble floor, as described 

 by White in 1784, had 

 been removed; only 

 one of the pedestals 

 upon which the table 

 Avas formerly placed 

 Avas standing, and 

 that much deterior- 

 ated. On the left side 

 Avas the fireplace, the 

 mantelpiece and sides 

 of Avhich were in a 

 good state. The chim- 

 ney and recess for the 

 stove Avere so exactly 

 on the Rumford plan, 

 that one might have 

 supjiosed he had lived 

 at the time Avhen it 

 Avas erected. On the 

 right-hand side of the 

 room is an angular 

 excaA^ation or small 

 cellar, over Avhich the 

 cupboard or beaufet 

 formerly stood. The 

 wainscot of the room 

 is Avanting, the ceiling 

 is broken, and part of 

 the stone tiling admits 

 both hglit and Avater. 

 Upon examining the 

 small cellar, Ave found 

 the other pedestal 

 Avhich supported the 

 marble table; and 

 against the door on 

 the inside three large 

 fragments of the table 

 itself, Avliich were of 

 the black Dove-Dale 

 marble, bcA^elled on. 

 the edges, and had 

 been well polished. 

 The inscription over 

 the door, and tlie cipher of Walton and Cotton in the 

 keystone, were very legible." 



Our illustrations are copied from the beautiftd engrav- 

 ings in Mr. E. B. Marston's Lea and Dove edition (being the 

 one hundredth) of the "Angler " published in 1888. The 

 A'iews are from photographs showing the present condi- 

 tion of the fishing house, after its restoration by the 

 Beresford Hope family. 



