book. In the title-page is a cipher composed of the initial letters of both their names; which cipher, Mr. Cotton tells us, he had caused to be cut in stone, and set up over a fishing-house, that he had erected near his dwelling, on the bank of the little river Dove, which divides the counties of Stafford and Derby.

Mr. Cotton's book is a judicious supplement to Walton's; for it must not be concealed, that Walton, though he was so expert an angler, knew but little of fly-fishing; and indeed he is so ingenuous as to confess, that the greater part of what he has said on that subject was communicated to him by Mr. Thomas Barker, and not the result of his own experience. This Mr. Barker was a good-humored, gossiping old man, and seems to have been a cook; for he says, "he had been admitted into most of the ambassadors' kitchens, that had come to England for forty years, and dressed fish for them; for which," he says, "he was duly paid by the Lord Protector." He spent a great deal of time, and, it seems, money too, in fishing; and, in the latter part of his life, dwelt in an almshouse, near the Gatehouse, Westminster. In 1661, two years before the first publication of Walton's work, he published a work in 12mo. called the "Art of Angling," to which he affixed his name. He published in 1653 a second

"I will

* Walton, in the first edition, page 108, says, tell you freely, I find Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that has spent much time and money in angling, deal so judiciously and freely in a little book of his of angling, and especially of making and angling with a fly for a

edition, in 4to. under the same title, but without his name; and in 1659, he published the third edition of it, under the enlarged title of “Barker's Delight, or the Art of Angling." And for that singular vein of humor that runs through it, a most diverting book it is.

And of Cotton it must be said, that living in a country were fly-fishing was, and is, almost the only practice, he had not only the means of acquiring, but actually possessed more skill in the art, as also in the method of making flies, than most men of his time.

His book is, in fact, a continuation of Walton's, not only as it teaches at large that branch of the art of angling which Walton had but slightly treated on, but as it takes up Venator, Walton's piscatory disciple, just where his master had left him; and this connexion between the two parts will be clearly seen, when it is remarked, that the traveller, whom Cotton invites to his house and so hospitably entertains, and also instructs in the art of fly-fishing, I say this traveller, and Venator, the pupil of Walton, come out to be one and the same person. There is a great spirit in the dialogue; and the same conversable, communicative temper appears in

trout, that I will give you his very directions without much variation, which shall follow." In his fifth edition he again mentions the use which he had made of Barker's book, but in different words: "I shall give some other directions for fly-fishing, such as are given by Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that has spent much time in fishing, but I shall do it with a little variation."

it that so eminently distinguishes the piece it accompanies.

The Descriptions of Flies, with the materials for, and different methods of making them, though they may admit of some improvement, are indisputably the most exact and copious of all that have ever yet been published.

At the end of the Second Part were some verses of Cotton's writing, which he calls the "Retirement, or Stanzes Irreguliers." Of them, and also of the book, take this character from Langbaine : "This book is not unworthy of the perusal of the gravest men that are lovers of this innocent recreation; and those who are not anglers, but have a taste for poetry, may find Mr. Cotton's character better described by himself, in a copy of verses printed at the end of that book, called the 'Retirement,' than any I might present the reader from Colonel Lovelace, Sir Aston Cockaine, Robert Herrick, Esq., or Mr. Alexander Brome; all which have writ Verses in our author's praise; but, in my poor judgment, far short of these 'Stanzes Irreguliers.'" In short, these books contain a great number of excellent rules and valuable discoveries; and it may, with truth, be said, that few have ever perused them, but have, unless it was their own fault, found themselves not only better anglers, but better men.

A book, which had been published by Col. Robert Venables, some years before, called the "Experienced Angler, or Angling Improved," which has its merit, was also now reprinted; and the the booksellers prefixed to it a general title of "The Universal

Angler"; under which they sometimes sold the three bound together. It has a preface signed I. W. undoubtedly of Walton's writing.

And here it may not be amiss to remark, that between the two parts of the "Complete Angler" there is an obvious difference; the latter part, though it abounds in descriptions of a wild and romantic country, and exemplifies the intercourse of hospitable urbanity, is of a didactic form, and contains in it more of instruction in the art it professes to teach, than of moral reflection: whereas the former, besides the pastoral simplicity that distinguishes it, is replete with sentiments that edify, and precepts that recommend, in the most persuasive manner, the practice of religion, and the exercise of patience, humility, contentedness, and other moral virtues. In this view of it, the book might be said to be the only one of the kind, but that I find somewhat like an imitation of it extant, in a tract entitled "Angling improved to Spiritual Uses," part of an octavo volume written by that eminent person, the Hon. Robert Boyle, an angler, as himself confesses, and published in 1665, with this title: "Occasional Reflections upon several subjects; whereto is premised a Discourse about such kind of thoughts."

Great names are entitled to great respect. The character of Mr. Boyle, as a devout Christian and deep philosopher, is deservedly in high estimation; and a comparison between his Reflections and those of Walton might seem an invidious labor. But see the irresistible impulse of wit! The book here rcferred to was written in the very younger years of

the author; and Swift, who had but little learning himself, and was better skilled in party politics than in mathematics or physics, respected no man for his proficiency in either, and accordingly has not spared to turn the whole of it into ridicule.*

[After giving an analysis of the "Lives," Hawkins proceeds:] Such were the persons whose virtues Walton was so laudably employed in celebrating; and surely he has done but justice in saying that "These were honorable men in their generations.” — EcCLUS. xliv. 7. And yet so far was he from arrogating to himself any merit in this his labor, that, in the instance of Dr. Donne's Life, he compares himself to Pompey's bondman, who, being found on the sea-shore gathering up the scattered fragments of an old broken boat, in order to burn the body of his dead master, was asked, "Who art thou that preparest the funeral of Pompey the Great? hoping, as he says, that if a like question should be put to him, it would be thought to have in it more of wonder than disdain.

The above passage in Scripture, assumed by Walton as a motto to the collection of Lives, may, with equal propriety, be applied to most of his friends and intimates; who were men of such distinguished characters for learning and piety, and so many in number, that it is a matter of wonder by what means a man in his station could obtain admittance among so illustrious a society; unless we will suppose, as doubtless was the case, that his integrity and amiable

See his "Meditation on a Broomstick."