The Haunts of the different Fishes are afterwards described in Eight Stanzas of considerable Merit, followed by "The best Houres of the Day to angle. "From first appearing of the rising Sun, Till nine of clock low under water best The Fish will bite, and then from nine to Noon; Now lest the Angler leave his Tools behinde And so inforced with unwilling Minde, Must leave his Game, and back again retire To serve his turn when Need shall most require : A lesson short, of every Want's supply. Light Rod to strike, long Line to reach withall, And now we are arrived at the last In wished Harbour where we mean to rest, We strike our Sailes and stedfast Anchor cast, At the End of the third Book are the following Lines. Sir JOHN HAWKINS attributes these Initials to the R. ROE mentioned by WALTON. H. E. From a Work entitled the ANGLERS, consisting of Eight Dialogues, in VERSE, the two Songs, and Lines on Hunting the Otter, are taken. One is transcribed from the Second Dialogue which contains "Some general Rules of the Sport." When Musk odours, heart regaling, Yea, when Autumn's russet Mantle I will Fish, and I will Chant, 'till Feeble Age shall change my Cheer." The other is from the Fourth Dialogue, and in which the Severity of the Game Laws is happily versified. "Ye Sov❜reignes of Manors, in Verse (Dull Prose will dishonour your Name) The Muse shall your Triumphs rehearse, High sounding the Laws of the Game. The Farmer your Sport shall supply, Your Beagles his Fences shall break: One Hundred a Year gives the Right To challenge all Nature your own; Tell short of the Sum but a Mite, And your Ninety-nine Pounds are as none. Hare, Partridge, or Pheasant who eat (There's Law too for filching the Flood) Without a Permit for his Meat Five Pounds shall be squeez'd from his Blood. Vexations, and Suits, and a Jail Th' unqualified Gun shall chastise: And richly be paid for your Lies. For his MAJESTY'S Service, we'll press All Poachers and Anglers, beware.” The Lines upon Otter Hunting very much resemble the account in the Prose Dialogue of WALTON upon that Subject. "My Fortune then enjoyed that Scene of Blood, As the FATHER of the ART of ANGLING, a brief Sketch of the Life of Isaac Walton will be here introduced. "The harmless Tenor of his Way" no Man more conscientiously kept, and his intimate Friends, were selected from those eminent for their Loyalty, Piety, and Learning. ISAAC WALTON was born in 1593, at LONDON, where he followed the trade of a Sempster, or Milliner*. But on account of the *In the Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. 305, the OXFORD Antiquary has fixed the Place of his Nativity at STAFFORD, he has however left no Memorial of his Family, nor even hinted where or how he was educated, and says that previous to the Year 1643, WALTON |