“It is said too, that many other like great fishes do hnunt the holes and sedges of the remoter parts of this river, but I have not myself soon them, nor do I know one who hath.” — the closing lines of the article accompanying the illustration.
The People’s Pleasures. No. V. — Temple Mills.. Signed Brunton, artist, and Dalziel, engraver.Fun (30 September 1865): 30. Courtesy of the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. Click on image to enlarge it.]
According to Wikipedia, “Temple Mills is a northerly part of Stratford, south of Leyton, located on the boundary of the London borough of Newham and Waltham Forest in east London. Temple Mills was home to a marshalling yard and wagon works belonging to the Great Eastern Railway.” The author's use of archaic language and phrasing like “Brother of the Angle” suggests that he is parodying or at least imitating Isaac Walton’s classic of the literature of fishing, The Compleat Angler (1653), but he does not do so very closely, though, like Walton, he cites other writers. “Own Complete Angler” refers to contemporaries, such as the mayor of Temple Mills, Marcus Stone, and Shirley Brooks, but oddly enough this piece written in quasi-Renaissance prose, which seems to celebrate the joys of fishing by oneself, doesn't seem to have very much to do with the Brunton’s picture of crowds of Londoners cluttering the suburban stream. — George P. Landow]
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Last modified 9 March 2016