PREFATORY ADDRESS

TO THE

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN.

NATURE maintains so unvarying a course in all her operations, that no man of sound judgment will expect any thing very new in a Treatise on the ART OF ANGLING, especially if he have been lucky enough to have possessed himself of the works of Mr. Isaac Walton, and Charles Cotton, Esq. the fathers of the art, who have treated so profoundly, and so judiciously on it, as to leave little more to those who follow in the same track, than to

improve upon their (now) antiquated language. Of the former, particularly, it has been observed, that “ he seems an original and model "to all who have come after, as Virgil ap

pears among the writers (ever since) of Georgics and Pastoral." Another author has observed," this art seems to have arrived at its

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highest perfection, almost at once, and to "have been the same in Mr. Walton, as that "of Poetry was in Homer. The improve"ments that are made by the generality of "late writers are indeed so few, and for the "most part so trivial, rather adding to and per

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plexing his words, like the commentators on "the Greek Poet, than either clearing up or

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enlarging his sense, that one cannot but won"der at seeing so much done, to so little pur

*See "The Compleat Angler, or Contemplative Man's "Recreation," in two parts, by the ingenious and celebrated

There are so many other, and so highly respectable writers in favour of this pleasing recreation-this friend to contemplation,

that the bare recapitulation of their names will be its sufficient eulogium. The learned Dr. Perkins, Dr. Whitaker,* Dr. Nowell,† Sir Henry Wotton, R. Nobbes,‡ Col. Venables,

Mr. Isaac Walton and Charles Cotton, Esq. published by Moses Browne, author of Piscatory Eclogues, &c. First Edition, London, 1750. Mr. Walton wrote his part of the Compleat Angler, so long back as 1653. He published five Editions during his life-time: all the editions are now very scarce.

* Queen's Professor in Cambridge in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

+ Dean of St. Paul's, London, whose portrait has been preserved in Brazen-nose College, (to which he was a liberal benefactor,) in which he is drawn leaning on a desk with his Bible before him, and under one hand are lines, hooks, and other fishing tackle, and above him angling rods of several sorts, to denote his attachment to the art.

Mr. Nobbes published a treatise entitled, "The Com66 pleat Troller," in 1682, now very scarce.

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Mr. Leonard Mascal,* &c. &c. all evinced their love for the art in theory as well as practice: and Sir Henry Wotton describes it as an employment for his idle time, which was "not then idly spent ;-for angling was, after " tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer "of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer "of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, "a procurer of contentedness, and that it "begat habits of peace and patience in those "who professed, and practised it." So numerous, too, have been the recent writers in its favour, that it would be absurd to offer any thing in its defence-unnecessary to say a syllable more in its praise.

All that remains, therefore, to an amateur and practitioner of the present day, is to invite

* Mr. Mascal wrote a Treatise on Fishing in the reign of Henry the Eighth, Anno 1524.