The Compleat Angler

First issued in 1653 and later enlarged, this prose pastoral is a dialogue on fishing as a way of life. Piscator walks the River Lea with Venator, a huntsman he converts to angling, teaching bait, fly, and the habits of chub, trout, and salmon, and breaking for songs, recipes, and inns. A later part by Charles Cotton takes the same spirit to the River Dove and the art of fly-fishing. The speakers praise contentment, early rising, and the country over the city. The book is a handbook and a meditation, not a novel and not a natural history in the modern scientific sense.

Bound in plain green cloth. Grey slipcase. Green page tops. (Title page shows date as MCMXLIX despite).