45

THE

COMPLETE ANGLER,

OR

THE CONTEMPLATIVE MAN'S RECREATION,

OF

IZAAK WALTON AND CHARLES COTTON.

WITH LIVES OF THE AUTHORS, AND VARIORUM NOTES, HISTORICAL
AND PRACTICAL.

EDITED BY EDWARD JESSE, Esq.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED PAPERS ON FISHING-TACKLE, FISHING STATIONS, ETC.

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

LONDON:

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

TO THE

THAMES ANGLING PRESERVATION

SOCIETY,

ITS ORIGINATORS IN 1838,

PRESIDENT,

(W. H. WHITBREAD, ESQ.)

TREASURER.

(ALGERNON PERKINS, ESQ.)

AND

HONORARY SECRETARY,
(HENRY FARNELL, ESQ.)

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,

IN ATTESTATION OF THE BENEFITS THEY

HAVE CONFERRED ON THE DISCIPLES OF WALTON,

BY

ONE OF THEIR MEMBERS,

THE PUBLISHER.

WALTON'S Complete Angler' ranks, by common consent, among the choicest morsels of our early literature, not as a mere manual of the piscatorial art, but as a work of imagination and truth, full of fine sentiment and virtuous precepts. Many of our best writers-Sir Walter Scott, Sheridan, Hallam, Washington Irving, Miss Mitford-have rung its praises; and Charles Lamb says, that "it would sweeten a man's temper at any time to read it, and Christianize every discordant passion."

It is, therefore, no matter of surprise that the demand for this beautiful pastoral is continuous, and that there are so many editions of it before the public; indeed so many, and some so recent, that it would at first view almost seem