I.

TIMM

A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY'S

RECREATIONS.

[THIS piece is introduced in Walton's Complete Angler (pp. 348-350. ed. 1655) with the following preface:"When you have pledged me, I will repeat the Verses which I promised you; it is a copy printed amongst Sir Henry Wottons Verses, and doubtlesse made either by him, or by a lover of Angling: Come, Master, now drink a glasse to me, and then I will pledge you, and fall to my repetition; it is a description of such Country recreations as I have enjoyed since I had the happinesse to fall into your company." When the "repetition" is concluded, Piscator says, "Trust me (Scholer) I thank you heartily for these Verses; they be choicely good, and doubtlesse made by a lover of Angling." Mr. Ellis, therefore, inserts part of them in his Collection under the name of Sir Henry Wotton (ii. 365).

Sir Egerton Brydges gives them the first place in his edition of the Poems of Sir Walter Raleigh, with the note:—

"Errors will seem to strike the hasty Critic in the commencement of this Collection, for A Description of the Country's Recreations has been generally printed as Sir Henry Wotton's. But it is clearly distinguished from Wotton's own in the Reliquiæ;' and though it is marked by the deep moral cast of that eloquent and instructive writer, it is not unbecoming the vigorous mind, the worldly experience, and the severe disappointments of Raleigh." That is to say, Raleigh might have written it, therefore he did write it ;—an argument which will scarcely stand. Yet Sir Egerton gives no other evidence, except the signature Ignoto in Rel. Wotton.,-evidence, however, which he thought so conclusive, that he claims for Raleigh all the other pieces in Rel. Wotton. which are marked in the same way. Now even if this word Ignoto were admitted to be a "slight designation of" Raleigh's" property" (as Ellis calls it) in the earlier Miscellanies, an admission against which I have a few objections to urge elsewhere, it is certainly none when Izaak Walton uses it, or we should have found Raleigh's name, not Wotton's, in the passage which I have cited above. It is evident, that Walton placed the piece among the doubtful poems when he edited Rel. Wotton., because he had no positive proof that Wotton wrote it; but it is equally evident that he knew nothing of any other claimant, from the expressions he used about it when he wrote the Angler. If he could not establish Wotton's claim, of course we cannot; but Wotton certainly ought to have the benefit of his editor's hesitation on the subject.

The Variations are from the copy in the Complete Angler (marked W.) and from one which is printed anonymously in Clifford's Tixall Poetry (pp. 297-300) with the title, "Rusticatio Religiosi in Vacantiis" (marked T.).]

• Hence it is retained in the Oxford ed. of Raleigh's Works, viii. 697, from which Mr. Tytler has taken it, and supplied it with a running commentary, fitted to Raleigh's circumstances. Life of Ral. p. 198, ed. 1840.

UIVERING fears, Heart-tearing cares,
Anxious sighs, Untimely tears,
Fly, fly to Courts!

Fly to fond worldlings sports,

[5] Where strain'd Sardonick smiles are [g]losing still,

And grief is forc'd to laugh against her will;
Where mirth's but mummery,

And sorrows only real be!

Fly from our Country pastimes! fly,

[10] Sad troop of human misery!

[15]

[20]

Come, serene looks,

Clear as the Chrystal brooks,

Or the pure azur'd Heaven, that smiles to see
The rich attendance of our poverty!

Peace, and a secure mind,

(Which all men seek,) we only find.

Abused Mortals! did you know

Where Joy, Hearts ease, and comforts grow,
You'd scorn proud towers,

And seek them in these bowers,
Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may

shake,

But blustring care could never tempest make,
Nor murmurs e're come nigh us,

Saving of Fountains that glide by us.