e readers, and given him a secure place in the
Pantheon of letters,--not a haughty eminence, but a modest niche, all
his own, and ever adorned with grateful offerings of fresh flowers.

This was great luck. But it was well-deserved, and therefore it has not
been grudged or envied.

Walton was a man so peaceful and contented, so friendly in his
disposition, and so innocent in all his goings, that only three other
writers, so far as I know, have ever spoken ill of him.

One was that sour-complexioned Cromwellian trooper, Richard Franck, who
wrote in 1658 an envious book entitled NORTHERN MEMOIRS, CALCULATED FOR
THE MERIDIAN OF SCOTLAND, ETC., TO WHICH IS ADDED THE CONTEMPLATIVE AND
PRACTICAL ANGLER. In this book the furious Franck first pays Walton the
flattery of imitation, and then further adorns him with abuse, calling
THE COMPLEAT ANGLER "an indigested octavo, stuffed with morals from
Dubravius and others," and more than hinting that the father of anglers
knew little or nothing of "his uncultivated art." Walton was a Churchman
and a Loyalist, you see, while Franck was a Commonwealth man and an
Independent.

The second detractor of Walton was Lord Byron, who wrote

"The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb in his gullet
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it."

But Byron is certainly a poor authority on the quality of mercy. His
contempt need not cause an honest man overwhelming distress. I should
call it a complimentary dislike.

The third author who expressed unpleasant sentiments in regard to
Walton was Leigh Hunt. Here, again, I fancy that partizan prejudice had
something to do with the dislike. Hunt was a radical in politics and
religion. Moreover there was a feline strain in his character, which
made it necessary for him to scratch somebody now and then, as a relief
to his feelings.

Walton was a great quoter. His book is not "stuffed," as Franck
jealously alleged, but it is certainly well sauced with piquant
references to other writers, as early as the author of the Book of Job,
and as late as John Dennys, who betrayed to the world THE SECRETS OF
ANGLING in 1613. Walton further seasoned his book with fragments of
information about fish and fishing, more or less apocryphal, gathered
from Aelian, Pliny, Plutarch, Sir Francis Bacon, Dubravius, Gesner,
Rondeletius, the learned Aldrovandus, the venerable Bede, the divine
Du Bartas, and many others. He borrowed freely for the adornment of
his