The remarkably well-designed title-page engraved by Robert Vaughan, which precedes the printed title, bears the imprint, _London printed for R: Royſton | in Ivye lane_. 1650. and some copies have the following imprint on the title-page: _London, | Printed for Richard Royſton at the | Angel in Ivie-Lane. | MDCL._ Royston was the royal bookseller, and publisher of _Eikon Basilike_, which ran through fifty editions in the single year 1649. Taylor's work was also a popular venture, and reached a fourteenth edition in 1686. This edition contains "Prayers for our Rulers," which recalls the fact that these were stirring times when the book was published. Charles had been beheaded in January of the previous year, and Cromwell won his victory at Worcester, where Ash had his shop, in the year following. It was not without some worldly wisdom of living, then, that our author used the above heading, and later, when times were changed, altered it so as to make it read, "For the King." Duodecimo. COLLATION: _Frontispiece; ¶, twelve leaves; A-S4, in twelves._ IZAAK WALTON (1593-1683) 31. The | Compleat Angler | [Six lines, Quotation.] London, Printed by T. Maxey for Rich. Marriot, in | S. Dunſtans Church-yard Fleetſtreet, 1653. In the _Perfect Diurnall_, as well as in other broad-sheets, the following advertisement appeared from Monday, May 9, to Monday, May 16, 1653: "The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, being a Diſcourſe of Fish and Fishing, not unworthy the peruſal of moſt Anglers, of 18 pence price. Written by Iz. Wa. Alſo the known Play of the Spaniſh Gipſee, never till now publiſhed. Both printed for Richard Marriot, to be ſold at his ſhop in St. Dunſtans Church-yard, Fleet Street." Walton could hardly have expected his work to be anonymous when his very distinctive initials appeared so plainly in the advertisement. And even though they are not printed on the title-page of the book, they are signed to the dedication to his most honoured friend, Mr. John Offley of Madeley Manor, and at the end of the address "To the Reader of this Discourse: but eſpecially To the honeſt Angler." The name was added to the title in the fifth or 1676 edition, called _The Universal Angler._ Contemplative men did indeed find the work not unworthy their perusal, and Marriot, who seems to have been fortunate in the books he published, alone issued five editions during the life of the author. Between then and now we may count no less than one hundred and thirty different imprints. At Sotheby's, in 1895, a copy of this eighteen-pence book sold for four hundred and fifteen pounds, an earnest of its rarity and of the eagerness with which it is sought.