THE COMPLETE ANGLER;

OR,

_THE CONTEMPLATIVE MAN'S RECREATION_.


By

ISAAK WALTON.


Being a _Facsimile Reprint of the First Edition published in 1653.
With a Preface by RICHARD LE GALLIENNE.



PREFACE.


The "first edition" has been a favourite theme for the scorn of those
who love it not. "The first edition--and the worst!" gibes a modern
poet, and many are the true lovers of literature entirely insensitive
to the accessory, historical or sentimental, associations of books. The
present writer possesses a copy of one of Walton's Lives, that of
Bishop Sanderson, with the author's donatory inscription to a friend
upon the title-page. To keep this in his little library he has
undergone willingly many privations, cheerfully faced hunger and cold
rather than let it pass from his hand; yet, how often when,
tremulously, he has unveiled this treasure to his visitors, how often