A Waltonian Handkerchief. 
A very interesting relic came into the posses¬ 
sion of Charles C. Worthington, of Washington, 
a number of years ago. those from whom he 
purchased it could not enlighten him as to its 
origin, and recently he sent Forest and Stream 
a description and a photograph of it, with a 
request for information. Merely by a coinci¬ 
dence we were enabled to give him some data 
relating to it, and have obtained his permission 
to reproduce the photograph of the old hand¬ 
kerchief. 
Some years ago Mr. Worthington purchased 
from a farmer’s family in Pennsylvania an old 
print, but these good people had forgotten how 
and under what circumstances it had come into 
their possession. The fact that the old piint 
was on silk, and its quaintness interested its 
purchaser, and although he could not find any 
reference to it, he rightly surmised that it was 
a souvenir, and in some way connected with 
the memory of Izaak Walton; indeed, Waltons 
name and the date of his birth and death appear 
on the portrait. 
We wrote to Mr. Worthington, asking for 
further data, and his reply in part follows: 
“As this print is now in my country resi¬ 
dence, I wrote to one of my men, instructing 
him to send further description of it. and I 
inclose his letter. I think there is little, doubt 
that the date as he makes it out—1830—is cor¬ 
rect, as it is, as I recall it, quite distinct. The 
color is a deep brown. ’ 
In reply to a letter from Mr. Worthington 
asking for a description of dates and names, 
Charles W. Mills wrote to him, in part, as fol¬ 
lows: 
“On examining that interesting old handker¬ 
chief I find that on the jar in the print is the 
inscription: 
JOHN POTTS, 
Delic et Sculp, 1830. 
“The letter ‘N’ in ‘John’ looks much like an 
‘e’ and is not plain. The letters ‘ic’ in Delic 
also are not plain. This, of course, means 
drafted and engraved. Just inside the border 
and underneath the print is the following: 
Potts (1) O x Potts engravers, 
New Mills, D i y o v sil, 
“This is printed on one line and the last two 
words are entirely indistinct. If a date is there 
given, it cannot be distinguished, even with a 
reading glass. The second word also cannot 
be made out. The dimensions are: width, 35 
inches; length, 33H inches. The border is not 
red, but the same color as the rest of the hand¬ 
kerchief. You will note that the name on the 
jug or pitcher is Potts and not Hudson.’’ 
Some time prior to the receipt of Mr. Worth¬ 
ington’s first letter we saw in the London Field 
a reproduction from a photograph of “The. Ang¬ 
ler’s Companion,” and the note accompanying it. 
This gave the probable date of issue of the 
handkerchief as 1883, and the name of the en¬ 
graver C. Hudson. We quote the editor, Hugh 
T. Sheringham’s, remarks, as follows: 
“H. Bellamy, well known in the dramatic 
world as well as among Thames anglers, has 
very kindly sent for our inspection an interest¬ 
ing relic of the bicentenary of Walton's death 
which fell in 1883. It consists of a large yellow 
silk handkerchief edged with red on which has 
been printed a kind of epitome of the angler s 
craft. In the center, as may be seen from the 
illustration here given, appears the benign coun¬ 
tenance of Izaak Walton himself, but of a some¬ 
what youthful Walton, not of the fine old man 
who looks at us from the frontispiece of Bag- 
ster’s edition of ’The Compleat Angler,’ pub¬ 
lished in 1815. This is the Walton (if in truth 
it resembles him at all) who took an interest 
in (perhaps wrote?) ‘The Lover of Amos and 
Laura,’ in 1619, not the man who died full of 
years and grace in 1683. Behind the portrait 
is an emblematical collection, an urn bearing 
part of the words ‘Piscatoribus Sacrum,’ a cast- 
net, etc., and in front is a pitcher with the let¬ 
tering of the engraver (‘engraved by C. Hudson, 
1883’). The other* details of the picture, labels 
giving portraits and names of different fish, with 
concise inscriptions as to their haunts and baits 
which will catch them, the creel,- the book, rods, 
landing net, water and a group of three fisher¬ 
men, are clear in the illustration. Round the 
top and side margins is a compendious table of 
baits, and at the. bottom appears the notation 
of the two parts of ‘The Angler’s Song,’ ‘set by 
Mr. Henry Lawes,’ which in the earlier editions 
of ‘The Compleat Angler’ is quaintly printed 
with the tenor and bass parts on opposite sides 
of the same page, so that the pair of anglers 
may sing it with the book between them. At 
each corner of the handkerchief is a medallion 
showing three artificial flies. 
“Beyond the engraver’s name and the date we 
can find no clue to the circumstances in which 
the handkerchief was given to the world, but 
1883 was rather rich in Waltonian activity and 
saw a good many memorials of one kind and 
another, besides being the year of the gieat 
Fisheries’ Exhibition. The form of ‘The Ang¬ 
ler's Companion’ was probably suggested by the 
old habit among tackle makers of issuing a 
broadsheet which gave a list of the angler s 
fishes, their seasons, baits and so on. Ustonson 
published one of these in the eighteenth century 
entitled ‘The Angler’s Assistant,’ and according 
to ‘Bibliotheca Piscatoria’ the same sheet was 
used by other shops with very slight variation. 
A copy which lies before us, bound up with a 
book dated 1754, bears the inscription: .‘Sold by 
M. Sheepy under the Royal Exchange in Corn- 
hill. price 6d.’ ” 
The illustration in The Field, though not very 
clear, is identical with our illustration from Mr. 
Worthington’s copy, save as to details noted, 
hence it is quite clear that Mr. Worthington’s 
“Companion” is an original one, and not a copy, 
or a print from a plate made later than 1830. 
This belief is borne out by the style of the 
picture, and seems to have been confirmed by 
Mr. Sheringham in a note which appeared in 
The Field of Dec. 18 last. 
This was occasioned by the receipt of the 
following from John Shaw Pagan, of Ieith- 
shire: 
“Your illustration of, and remarks upon, Mr. 
Bellamy’s Waltonian handkerchief interested me, 
as I have one of these ‘Angler s Companions. 
I always understood, however, that mine be¬ 
longed to the late John Shaw, Drumlaurig, my 
grandfather, who died in the sixties (ih6S?). 
Unfortunately my handkerchief has not been too 
well cared for, and the original coloring can 
only be guessed at. It seems, however, to be 
identical with your illustration except as to the 
lettering and date on the vase in the center. Of 
these I cannot be quite sure, but I have shown 
the handkerchief to others and we agree as to 
the date being 1839. Your illustration gives the 
impression that Mr. Bellamy s Companion has 
a greater length than breadth. Mine is 33 inches 
in length and 36 inches from side to side silk 
also.” 
Mr. Sheringham’s comment follows: 
“Mr. Bellamy’s handkerchief is a fraction over 
33 inches long and about an inch less in width. 
The date, 1883, is plain enough. Our corres¬ 
pondent’s interesting note suggests that it was 
a ‘re-issue,’ if one may so term it, probably to 
celebrate the bicentenary. Certainly the style of 
the decoration and picture is more in keeping 
with 1839 than 1883.” 
In the photograph from which the plate on the 
following page was made, the date, 1830, is quite 
plain, though it is possible the cypher might be 
mistaken for a “9” because of the lines formed 
by the engraver. This date appears under Potts 
name on the shoulder of the jug beside Walton’s 
portrait and inside the rope handle of that vessel. 
The other inscription referred to by Mr. Mills 
is immediately over the title, beginning at a point 
immediately over the letter “1 in Angler s. 
Apparently when Hudson engraved the 1883 plate 
he omitted these inscriptions and substituted his 
own name. 
As to the differences in the sizes of Mr. 
Pagan’s and Mr. Worthington’s Companions, it is 
possible slight trimming may have accounted for 
this or the margins of one may be wider than 
in the other handkerchief. 
It will be noted that the season for grayling 
and pike is given as the entire year; perch, 
spelled’“pearch,” May to August; salmon, March 
to September. For trout the caption reads 
“March to Michs,” evidently referring to Mich¬ 
aelmas, Sept. 29. The reference to trout is in¬ 
teresting. and follows: “In purling streams and 
eddies of stony bottom rivers, all day. In cold 
weather from 6 until 9 in the morning, at the 
bottom ; in hot weather, top to midwater. Flies 
No. 1 to 5. Worms No. 1, 2, 5 to 8. Always 
imitate the fly on the water.” In the margin at 
the left No. 1 refers to the stonefly and its habi¬ 
tat; No. 2 to green drake; No. 3 to the oak fly; 
No. 4 to the palmer; and No. 5 to the ant fly. 
All the game laws of the 'United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
