book printed before the year 1550, to a turtle dressed
according to the rules of Mr. Farley, yet he can ever and anon sally
forth to enjoy a stroll along the river side, with Isaac Walton[192]
in his hand; when 'he hath his wholesome walk and merry, at his ease:
a sweet air of the sweet savour of the mead flowers, that maketh him
hungry.'[193]

[Footnote 192: "Let me take this opportunity of recommending
the amiable and venerable ISAAC WALTON'S _Complete Angler_:
a work the most singular of its kind, breathing the very
spirit of contentment, of quiet, and unaffected
philanthrophy, and interspersed with some beautiful relics
of poetry, old songs, and ballads." So speaks the Rev. W.
Lisle Bowles, in his edition of _Pope's Works_, vol i., p.
135. To which I add--Let me take this opportunity of
recommending Mr. Bagster's very beautiful and creditable
reprint of Sir John Hawkin's edition of Walton's amusing
little book. The plates in it are as true as they are
brilliant: and the bibliomaniac may gratify his appetite,
however voracious, by having copies of it upon paper of all
sizes. Mr. Bagster has also very recently published an
exquisite facsimile of the original edition of old Isaac.
Perhaps I ought not to call it a fac-simile, for it is, in
many respects, more beautifully executed.]

[Footnote 193: The reader may see all this, and much more,
dressed in its ancient orthographic garb, in a proheme to
the first edition of the merry art of fishing, extracted by
Herbert in his first volume, p. 131. I have said the
"_merry_," and not the "_contemplative_," art of
fishing--because we are informed that "Yf the angler take
fyshe, surely thenne is there noo man _merier_ than he is in
his spyryte!!" Yet Isaac Walton called this art, "The
_Contemplative_ Man's Recreation." But a _book-fisherman_,
like myself, must not presume to reconcile such great and
contradictory authorities.]

"But see--the hammer is vibrating, at an angle of twenty-two and a
half, over a large paper priced catalogue of Major Pearson's
books!--Who is the lucky purchaser?

"QUISQUILIUS:--a victim to the Bibliomania. If one single copy of a
work happen to be printed in a more particular manner than another;
and if the compositor (clever rogue) happen to have transposed or
inverted a whole sentence or page; if a plate o