nly known
adventure in the long life of old Izaak. The peaceful angler, with a
royal jewel in his pocket, must have encountered many dangers on the
highway. He was a man of sixty when he published his _Compleat Angler_
in 1653, and so secured immortality. The quiet beauties of his manner in
his various biographies would only have made him known to a few students,
who could never have recognised Byron's 'quaint, old, cruel coxcomb' in
their author. 'The whole discourse is a kind of picture of my own
disposition, at least of my disposition in such days and times as I allow
myself when honest Nat. and R. R. and I go a-fishing together.' Izaak
speaks of the possibility that his book may reach a second edition. There
are now editions more than a hundred! Waltonians should read Mr. Thomas
Westwood's Preface to his _Chronicle of the Compleat Angler_: it is
reprinted in Mr. Marston's edition. Mr. Westwood learned to admire
Walton at the feet of Charles Lamb:--

'No fisher,
But a well-wisher
To the game,'

as Scott describes himself. {3}

Lamb recommended Walton to Coleridge; 'it breathes the very spirit of
innocence, purity, and simplicity of heart; . . . it would sweeten a
man's temper at any time to read it; it would Christianise every angry,
discordant passion; pray make yourself acquainted with it.' (Oct. 28,
1796.) According to Mr. Westwood, Lamb had 'an early copy,' found in a
repository of marine stores, but not, even then, to be bought a bargain.
Mr. Westwood fears that Lamb's copy was only Hawkins's edition of 1760.
The original is extremely scarce. Mr. Locker had a fine copy; there is
another in the library of Dorchester House: both are in their primitive
livery of brown sheep, or calf. The book is one which only the wealthy
collector can hope, with luck, to call his own. A small octavo, sold at
eighteen-pence, _The Compleat Angler_ was certain to be thumbed into
nothingness, after enduring much from May showers, July suns, and fishy
companionship. It is almost a wonder that any examples of Walton's and
Bunyan's first editions have survived into our day. The little volume
was meant to find a place in the bulging pockets of anglers, and was well
adapted to that end. The work should be reprinted in a similar format:
quarto editions are out of place.

The fortunes of the book, the _fata libelli_, have been traced by Mr.
Westwood. There are several misprints (later corrected) in the earlies