THE EXPERIENCED ANGLER: OR ANGLING IMPROVED. By Colonel Robert Venables.

(1662) 1969 new edition. 12mo (122 x 202mm). Pplx,x,iv,62. B/w illustrations, bibliography, preface by Isaac Walton. Green paper-covered boards, spine titled in gilt, gilt titles to brown label on upper board.

"Being a general discourse of angling; imparting many of the aptest wayes and choicest experiments for the taking of most sorts of fish in pond or river." A good manual on all kinds of freshwater fishing. Lots on baits and bait additives! This 1969 edition is reproduced from the edition of 1827. Pp ix-lvi (+9pp of notes) give a biographical sketch by C.G.A.Parker, followed by references and bibliographical notes on former editions. The dust-wrapper was added when the stock was bought by W.J. Williams & Son, remainder dealers, as an aid to selling through bookshops. Colonel Robert Venables was an officer under Cromwell in the Civil War. He achieved notoriety in the Anglo-Spanish War (1654-1660), when the English army was disastrously defeated in Hispaniola - the two generals in charge were arrested and Venables himself was sent to the Tower of London. They did, however, capture Jamaica which "was a poor island then, and Cromwell must be praised for encouraging its development without any delay. Soon it became the most flourishing colony in the New World". Venables' life and career are considered in detail in the first half of this book, which gives a valuable insight into aspects of the Civil War, and particularly the West Indian expedition. How many angling books have a preface by Isaac Walton?! "I have read and practised by many books of this kind... yet I could never find in them that height for judgment and reason which you [Venables] have manifested in this".