PREFACE. SINCE the first publication of this treatise, upwards of twenty thousand have been sold; by this encouragement I have undertaken to present the public with this new edition, corrected and carefully revised: and where the angler will meet with many recent observations, not to be found in any other halientic production, which I make no doubt will be equally well received; I may say, without boasting, that it is universally liked, few noble or gentlemen anglers not giving it a place in their libraries. Angling is of very great antiquity, which good old Isaac Walton, the Father of ungers, has fully demonstrated. Not only kings and princes, but even queens and ladies of the first rank, have taken a delight in this rational and pleasing recreation. In the various authors who have written on this subject, I have never observed the name of our immortal Bard, Shakespear, mentioned: he certainly was a lover of this diversion, and no doubt often reclined, with his rod in his hand, on the banks of the" sweet-flowing Avon." There is scarce a Play of his, wherein there is not some simil or allusion to this amusement. I shall conclude this preface with some quotations from this Child of Nature. Leon. -I am angling now, Tho' you perceive me not how I give line. WINTER'S TALE. Pol. And I fear the angle that plucks our son thither. 3 Gen. And that which angle for mine eyes. Pol. Ham. Ham. Cleo. -See you now IBID. Yon bait of falshood takes this Carp of truth. A man may fish with a worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of a fish that fed of that worm. IBID. Thrown out his angle for my proper life. IBID. Give me mine angle we'll to the river, there ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA. Char. 'Twas merry when You wager'd ou your angling; when your diver IBID. Clau Bait the hook well, the fish will bite. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Urs. Maria. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish IBID. Here comes the Trout that must be caught I could produce many more examples, to make my observations good respecting our matchless Poet, but these I think are quite sufficient. The Art of Angling opens a wide field for the Naturalist, including so great a part of Natural Philosophy; so that we not only reap amusement, but instruction from it—And the more we contemplate the works of Nature, the more we shall admire the wisdom of God; and the more we reverence his wisdom, the greater will be the pleasure we shall derive from the contemplation of natural objects! T. B. CONTENTS. A Description of Fishes, according to Natural History, with the best methods of Breeding, and Feeding Carp, &c. A Description of the Fish generally angled for in England and Wales, with the proper Times and |