not consider it proper to talk of some fish "because they make us anglers no sport"; and he quotes the saying: "I envy nobody but him, and him. only, that catches more fish than I do." Yet a recent writer in his edition of The Complete Angler (published by Methuen & Co., 1901), can say he is "not sure if Walton ever deserved the fine name of sportsman in its truer sense!" A com Walton greatly disliked swearing. panion, he says, that feasts the company with wit and mirth and leaves out the sin (which is usually mixed with them), he is the man. He says, "good company and good discourse are the very sinues of virtue." With quaint humour he advises anglers to be patient and forbear swearing, lest they be heard and catch no fish, but he assures us that anglers seldom take the name of God into their mouths but it is either to praise Him or pray to Him; if others use it vainly in the midst of their recreations, so vainly as if they meant to conjure, he tells us it is neither our fault nor our custom; we protest against it. He says he loves such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another the next morning. Fancy in these days men praying before, and as part of, their recreation! Yet in "primitive" times they did. 1 Mercurius Hermon, in verses to Richard Franck, writes :"Sir, you have taught the angler that good fashion Not to catch fish with oaths, but contemplation." angle he says: turn to the fire, wet our whistles, What a number of times in his writings does Walton use this word primitive! At a meeting of brothers of the 'Let's e'en say grace, and and drink the other cup to and so sing away sad thoughts." The Treatyse of Fysshynge before mentioned contains this advice near the end: "Whanne ye purpoos to goo on your disportes in fysshynge, ye woll not desyre gretly many persones wyth you, whiche myghte lette you of your game. And thenne ye maye serve God deuowtly in sayenge affectuously youre custumable prayer. And thus doynge ye shall eschewe and voyde many vices." It may be worth observing that in no age has angling been considered repugnant to the clergyman's calling. Amongst many clerical votaries of the art who have lived since Walton's day may be mentioned— Dr William Paley, the author of Natural Theology, who died in 1805,' who had himself painted with a rod and line in his hand; Charles Kingsley, Canon of Westminster, who died in 1875; the Rev. John Russell, best known as "the sporting parson," or as "Jack" Russell, who died in 1883; Archbishop Magee, who died in 1891; the Rev. R. H. Barham, author of The Ingoldsby Legends, who died in 1845; the Rev. William Kirby, the entomologist, who died in 1850; the Rev. Theobald Mathew, called He was Senior Wrangler, and Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. the "Apostle of Temperance," a Roman Catholic priest, who died in 1856; the Rev. William Lisle Bowles, Canon of Salisbury, who died in 1850; Bishop Claughton of St Albans, who died in 1892; and the Rev. Morgan George Watkins, now living. Mr Watkins, in his preface to the above-mentioned facsimile reproduction of The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle (see p. 29), well says that the last two pages of it give us a portrait of the writer's conception of the perfect angler-" simplicity of disposition, forbearance to our neighbour's rights, and consideration in fishing or employment of its gentle art to increase worldly gain and fill the larder is equally condemned. She holds the highest view of angling; that it is to serve a man for solace, and to cause the health of his body, but especially of his soul. So she would have him pursue his craft alone for the most part, when his mind can rise to high and holy things, and he may serve God devoutly by saying from his heart his customary prayer. Nor should a man ever carry his amusement to excess and catch too much at one time; this is to destroy his future pleasure and to interfere with that of his neighbours. A good sportsman too, she adds, will busy himself in nourishing the game and destroying all vermin." I cannot refrain from quoting a paragraph from Salmonia; or, Days of Fly Fishing, which might have come from the pen of Walton instead of from that of the great philosopher and chemist, Sir Humphrey Davy. He thus describes the benefits of angling to the philosopher and the lover of nature: "It carries us into the most vivid and beautiful scenery of nature, among the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely streams that gush from the highest ranges of elevated hills, or that make their way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful, in the early spring, after the dull and tedious time of winter, to wander forth by some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to wander upon the fresh turf below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are filled with the music of the bee, and on the surface of the waters to view the gaudy flies sparkling like gems in the sunbeam, to hear the twittering of the water birds, with other like sights and sounds, and to finish all by catching a salmon, and carrying him home." CHAPTER IV THE COMPLETE ANGLER It containeth "wise sayings, dark sentences, and parables, and certain particular ancient godly stories of men that pleased God."-ECCLESIASTICUS (Prologue). "This book is so like you, and you like it, For harmless mirth, expression, art, and wit, I love this mirth, art, wit, the book and you." To my dear brother, Mr Iz. Walton, on his Complete Angler. ROB. FLOUD, C. 1 IN 1653 Walton published The Compleat Angler; or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing not Unworthy the Perusal of Most Anglers, adorned with exquisite cuts of some of the fish mentioned in it. The title-page had the motto: "Simon Peter said, I go a-fishing; and they said, We also will go with thee" (John xxi. 3). This motto has been omitted in all subsequent editions. The author's name did not appear on the title-page of this edition. Sir Harris Nicholas says that Walton framed his treatise upon A Treatise on the Nature of God 1 R. Floud was Walton's brother-in-law. 2 Generally supposed to be the work of Lombart. |