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 and Mis Friends 
 
 Stapleton Martin
 
 Izaak Walton and his Friends
 
 From the portrait in ttie National 
 Portrait Gallery. 
 
 By permission of Messrs 
 Walker &> Cockerell. 
 
 IZAAK WALTON 
 
 Frontispiece.
 
 IZAAK WALTON 
 
 AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 BY 
 
 STAPLETON MARTIN, M.A. 
 
 OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 BARRISTER- AT- LAW 
 
 SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED AND REVISED 
 
 ' One generation shall praise thy works to another." PSALM cxiv. 12, iv. 
 1 By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we quote." R. W. EMERSON. 
 
 ' The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages may be preserved by 
 quotation." CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED 
 1904 

 
 Dedicated 
 
 TO 
 
 MY WIFE 
 AND CHILD 

 
 PREFACE 
 
 WE have recently been informed that in a 
 biography " the person delineated should have 
 the power of permanently interesting his fellow- 
 men ; and next, that the delineator should be 
 able to recall him to life." 1 
 
 Izaak Walton, as years go on, is loved as a 
 man and writer more and more ; but whether I 
 have succeeded in re-animating him must be left 
 to the reader to determine. 
 
 This book is written chiefly with a view to 
 bring out the spiritual side of Walton's character. 
 I cannot find that anyone before me has attempted 
 to do this. Walton was (to borrow a splendid 
 phrase) a " God-intoxicated man," and to ignore 
 this fact seems fatal to any right estimate of 
 his character and life. 
 
 I venture to think that some little fresh in- 
 formation may be found in this book which may 
 
 1 See an article in the National Review of December 1901, 
 by Mr Asquith. 
 
 vii
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 be acceptable to Waltonians. It is, however, 
 written in the first instance for those who only 
 know of Walton as a " Fisherman " and as the 
 author of The Complete Angler ; and in hope that 
 this humble contribution to Waltonian lore may 
 not only instruct, but so enamour the reader 
 that he may for himself "rummage" Walton's 
 writings, the only way, I apprehend, to get to 
 the heart of the writer. 
 
 STAPLETON MARTIN. 
 
 THE FIRS, 
 NORTON, 
 
 WORCESTER.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAr. FACE 
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 i. A SHORT MEMOIR OP IZAAK WALTON . . 1 
 
 n. (1) WALTON AS A ROYALIST ..... 8 
 
 (2) WALTON AS THE RELIGIOUS MAN . . . 11 
 
 in. WALTON AS AN ANGLER ..... 23 
 
 iv. "THE COMPLETE ANGLER" . 40 
 
 v. CHARLES COTTON ...... 54 
 
 vi. COLONEL ROBERT VENABLES .... 64 
 
 vii. THE FISHING-HOUSE 69 
 
 vui. THE LIVES 
 
 (a) JOHN DONNE . ... ^ 78 
 
 (b) HENRY WOTTON . . . . . 91 
 
 (c) GEORGE HERBERT ... .97 
 
 (d) RICHARD HOOKER . . . 103 
 
 (e) ROBERT SANDERSON ... . 108 
 ix. (a) "LovE AND TRUTH" 113 
 
 (b) "THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS " . . . .118 
 
 x. WALTON'S DEATH 122 
 
 xi. "FARRAGO LIBELLI" p* 125 
 
 xn. SHORT SKETCHES OP SOME FAMOUS ECCLESIASTICS 
 WHO WERE WALTON'S FRIENDS 
 
 THOMAS BARLOW . . . . . 141 
 
 WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH . . . . 142 
 
 JAMES DUPORT 143 
 
 BRIAN DUPPA 145 
 
 ix
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DANIEL FEATLEY . . . . . .146 
 
 JOHN FELL . . .* . . . 148 
 
 THOMAS FULLER . . , . . . 150 
 
 JOHN HALES . , ... . . 152 
 
 JOSEPH HALL . ... . . 153 
 
 HENRY HAMMOND . . . . 154 
 
 CHRISTOPHER HARVEY . ... . .156 
 
 HUMPHREY HENCHMAN . . . . .157 
 
 RICHARD HOLDSWORTH . . . . .158 
 
 THOMAS KEN 159 
 
 HENRY KING . . . . . . .161 
 
 ABRAHAM MARKLAND . . . . .163 
 
 GEORGE MORLEY 164 
 
 THOMAS MORTON 166 
 
 JOHN PEARSON 4 .167 
 
 THOMAS PIERCE . ... 169 
 
 GILBERT SHELDON 170 
 
 JAMES SHIRLEY . . . . . .172 
 
 RICHARD SIBBES ...... 174 
 
 JAMES USSHEE 175 
 
 SETH WARD .... 176 
 
 SAMUEL WOODPORD . . . . .178 
 
 xin. COPY OP WALTON'S WILL 181 
 
 xiv. A SHORT NOTE ON WALTON'S FAMILY . . .188 
 
 xv. SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OP 
 
 (a) IZAAK WALTON . . . . .190 
 
 (b) CHARLES COTTON 202 
 
 (c) JOHN DONNE 226 
 
 (d) GEORGE HERBERT ..... 232 
 
 (e) HENRY WOTTON 239 
 
 (/) JAMES DUPORT . ... 242 
 
 (g) HENRY BAYLEY . . .247 
 
 INDEX . 249
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IZAAK WALTON ...%.. . Frontispiece 
 
 THE FONT IN WHICH WALTON WAS BAPTIZED To face page 2 
 
 CHARLES COTTON . ,, 54 
 
 BERESPORD HALL .... . ,, 56 
 
 THE BERESFORD MONUMENT . 70 
 
 COTTON'S FISHING-HOUSE ... ,, 72 
 
 JOHN DONNE 78 
 
 DONNE'S STATUE IN ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON ,, 84 
 
 HENRY WOTTON ,, 92 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT ....... 96 
 
 RICHARD HOOKER ....... 104 
 
 ROBERT SANDERSON . . . . . 108 
 
 WALTON'S TOMB ,,124 
 
 MEMORIAL WINDOW IN ST DUNSTAN'S CHURCH, LONDON ,, 126 
 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL . . . . ,, 144 
 
 WALTON'S STATUE IN WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL . 161 
 ANNE WALTON'S TOMBSTONE IN WORCESTER CATHEDRAL 188 
 THE WALTON BUST IN ST MARY'S CHURCH, STAFFORD 208
 
 IZAAK WALTON 
 
 (15931683) 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A SHOKT MEMOIR OF IZAAK WALTON 
 
 " We seldom find 
 ' The man of business with the artist join'd." 
 
 Curiosities of Literature. 
 
 IZAAK WALTON was born on the 9th of August 
 1593, in the parish of St Mary, in the town of 
 Stafford. Eesearch as to his parentage has 
 proved unsatisfactory, and nothing certain is 
 known on the subject beyond that his father's 
 name was Jervis Walton. The late Mr Thomas 
 Westwood, who died in 1888, and was a great 
 authority on Walton, wrote in 1873 (see Notes and 
 Queries, 4th S. XL p. 41) : "It may be we shall 
 never know which is the roof that sheltered 
 Walton's youthful head in Stafford, even if such 
 relic be still in existence." It has been conjectured 
 by Dean Stanley (Memorials of Westminster Abbey] 
 that he was named Izaak after the learned Isaac 
 Casaubon, who was a friend of Walton's father,
 
 and who died in 1614, and this seems highly 
 probable. 1 
 
 Walton married twice. His first wife, to 
 whom he was married at St Mildred's Church, 
 Canterbury, on the 27th of December 1626, she 
 being then aged nineteen, was Eachel, daughter 
 of William and Susanna Floud, of Chevening, 
 Kent, and she was maternally descended from 
 Archdeacon Cranmer, brother of the Arch- 
 bishop. 2 Rachel Walton died on the 22nd of 
 August 1640, and was buried at St Dunstan's in 
 the West, Fleet Street, London. There was issue 
 of this marriage seven children, all of whom died 
 young. 
 
 Walton married as his second wife, in 1646, 
 Anne, daughter of Thomas Ken, an attorney, and 
 half-sister to Dr Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
 the most remarkable man among the non-juring 
 prelates. Anne Walton died on the 17th of April 
 1662, and as she was buried in the Cathedral of 
 Worcester, it is generally supposed that her death 
 occurred while on a visit with her husband to 
 George Morley, who was then Bishop of Worcester, 
 
 1 Casaubon was also a friend of Sir Henry Wotton. We find 
 Wotton, writing in 1593 to Lord Zouch, saying : " I am placed to my 
 very great contentment, in the house of Mr Isaac Casaubon, a person 
 of sober condition among the French." 
 
 2 As regards the corruption of the Welsh name Llwyd (meaning 
 grey), or Lloyd into the English forms Floud, Floyd, etc., and as to 
 Crammer's pedigree, see The Perverse Widow ; or, Memorials of the 
 Boevey Family (Longmans & Co., 1898).
 
 THE FONT IX WHICH WALTON WAS BAPTISED IX ST MARY'S CHURCH, STAFFORD 
 To face page 2.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 3 
 
 and who soon after became Bishop of Winchester, 
 and from whom Walton has been said to have 
 "sucked wit and wisdom." By this second 
 marriage Walton had issue three children, short 
 particulars of whom are given in Chapter XIV. 
 
 It is a curious fact that none of Walton's 
 biographers, before Sir Harris Nicolas, 1 make any 
 mention of his first marriage, and very few of them 
 mention that by his second marriage he had issue 
 two sons, respectively called by the name of 
 Izaak. 
 
 Of Walton's youth we know nothing for certain. 
 We may well believe that it was spotless and that 
 he possessed "self-reverence, self-knowledge, self- 
 control," added to that which St Augustine has 
 called " a mind naturally Christian," and that he 
 sat "self-governed, in the fiery prime of youth, 
 obedient at the feet of law." This makes his life 
 much more interesting than if he had been a great 
 sinner before he became a great saint. I consider 
 that he must have received a very good education, 
 and that he must have read a great deal, having a 
 special knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. The 
 Lone of Amos and Laura? written in 1613, is 
 dedicated "To my approved and much respected 
 friend, Iz. Wa." In that year Walton was only 
 
 1 His full namea appear in the Dictionary of National Biography 
 as Nicholas Harriss Nicolas. 
 
 3 The unique first edition (1613) was sold at Sotheby's in May 
 1903. The second edition (1619) is in the British Museum.
 
 I* 
 
 4 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 twenty years old. This alone shows that his 
 devotion to literature must have begun early 
 in his career; indeed, he appears to have been 
 possessed of an almost immoderate thirst for 
 knowledge. Most of his biographers state Walton 
 had but an imperfect education, and knew Latin 
 very imperfectly " small Latin and less Greek." 
 The reasons given are poor. Walton could never, 
 says Lowell, " have been taught even the rudiments 
 of Latin," and he gives some instances which he 
 considers carry his point. It is enough for us, he 
 says, " that he contrived to pick up somewhere 
 and somehow a competent mastery of his mother 
 tongue (far harder because seeming easier than 
 Latin) and a diction of persuasive simplicity, 
 capable of dignity where that was natural and 
 becoming, such as not even the Universities can 
 bestow." 
 
 Bethune writes that Walton's "knowledge of 
 Latin, a few scraps of which appear on his 
 pages, was evidently very slight." I suggest he 
 was at least a fair Latin scholar. I do not forget 
 that many of his own quotations from ancient 
 authors might have been supplied to him in 
 translations in English books, which are known 
 to have been in existence in his day. 1 And I admit, 
 he says of himself, "when I look back upon 
 
 1 Walton quotes Thucydides in his Life of Sanderson; but a 
 translation of that writer's History of the Grecian War was printed 
 in 1628.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 5 
 
 my education and mean abilities, it is not with- 
 out some little wonder at myself that I am 
 come to be publicly in print," and he would not 
 boast "of acquired learning or study." However, 
 he must have conversed much with learned men, 
 and walking with wise men, without doubt, made 
 him wise. Canon Beeching points out in his 
 Religio Laici (Smith, Elder & Co., 1902) that it 
 is important to insist that Walton was a man of 
 education, and draws attention to his handwriting, 
 "which is beautiful and scholarlike." Early in 
 life he seems to have made friends with the best- 
 known literary men of the day, and with those 
 who "excelled in virtue." He appears to have 
 followed the counsel given to cleave unto him that 
 is wise, and be willing to hear every godly dis- 
 course, and when he saw a man of understanding 
 to get betimes unto him, and to let his foot 
 wear the steps of his door (Ecclesiasticus vi. 
 34, 36). 
 
 Walton came to London before the year 1613, 
 and was engaged in business in or near Chancery 
 Lane for many years. Perhaps the real nature of 
 his business will never now be discovered. It is 
 usually supposed that he was a linendraper, 
 sempster, haberdasher, milliner or merchant. 
 That he was an ironmonger, as has been lately so 
 confidently asserted, is improbable. It is true that, 
 on the 12th of November 1618, he was admitted
 
 6 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 a free brother of the Ironmongers' Company, and 
 that in the license for his marriage with Rachel 
 Floud he was described as of the " Cittie of 
 London, Ironmonger," but, as the master for the 
 time being of the Ironmongers' Company remarked 
 on the occasion of the unveiling of the Walton 
 Memorial Window at St Dunstan's Church in 
 1895, one who is free of the City of London "when 
 styling himself as a citizen, appends the name of 
 some trade or craft ; that, however, does not 
 necessarily indicate the trade or craft he actually 
 follows ; it simply means that he is a Freeman of 
 the Livery Company of the City of London which 
 bears such name." 1 It appears, therefore, that we 
 have no good reason for supposing Walton to have 
 been an ironmonger by trade. The same reasoning 
 that would make him out to have been an iron- 
 monger might just as well make him out to have 
 been an attorney, since he is described in several 
 documents and writings as "Gentleman," which, 
 until quite a recent date, has been the proper and 
 legal description of an attorney. 2 
 
 In a petition to the " Court of Judicature for 
 
 1 The Fishing G&zette, April 13, 1895. 
 
 2 William Combe in his Dance of Death wrote : 
 
 " And thus the most opprobrious fame 
 Attends upon the attorney's name. 
 Nay, these professors seem ashamed 
 To have their legal title named : 
 Unless my observation errs, 
 They're all become Solicitors."
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 7 
 
 determination of differences touching houses burnt 
 in London," presented in 1670, Walton is de- 
 scribed as " Isaac Walton, Gentleman." 
 
 Bethune says of Walton : " Gentleman he was 
 by orthography and spirit, but gentleman in any 
 other sense he cared not to be." 
 
 Of himself Walton writes: "I would rather 
 prove myself a gentleman by being learned and 
 humble, valiant and inoffensive, virtuous and com- 
 municable, than by any fond ostentation of riches, 
 or, wanting those virtues myself, boast that they 
 were my ancestors'.''
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 (1) WALTON AS A ROYALIST 
 
 " And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall 
 be a scorn unto them." HAB. i. 10. 
 
 "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." 
 
 ISAIAH i. 5. 
 
 IT is necessary that the reader should regard 
 the state the country was in when Walton lived, 
 if he would estimate rightly the man. 
 
 S. T. Coleridge wrote : 
 
 "I know no portion of history which a man 
 might write with so much pleasure as that of 
 the great struggle in the time of Charles I., 
 because he may feel the profoundest respect for 
 both parties. The side taken by any particular 
 person was determined by the point of view 
 which such person happened to command at 
 the commencement of the inevitable collision, 
 one line seeming straight to this man, another 
 line to another. No man of that age saw the 
 truth, the whole truth ; there was not light enough 
 for that. The consequence, of course, was a 
 
 8
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 9 
 
 violent exaggeration of each party for the time. 
 The King became a martyr, and the Parlia- 
 mentarians traitors and vice versd." 
 
 It has been well said that it is the privilege of 
 posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious 
 persons, and to set matters right between those 
 antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness 
 divided a whole age into factions. 
 
 We wonder if Walton ever hesitated as to 
 which party he would side with. He says, 
 in his Life of Bishop Sanderson : "I praise 
 God that He prevented me from being of the 
 party which helped to bring in this Covenant, 
 and those sad confusions that have followed 
 it." 
 
 However, his hesitation, if the sentence really 
 means he ever thought twice on the subject, was 
 not for long, as he became a strong partisan and 
 the trusted friend of the Royalists. 
 
 After the Battle of Worcester, the Koyalists 
 who took part in it dispersed. The follow- 
 ing extracts taken from Boscobel, or, The 
 Compleat History of His Sacred Majesties Most 
 Miraculous Preservation after the Battle of 
 Worcester, 3rd September 1651, by Sir Thomas 
 Blount, follow the account of the King's hiding 
 in the neighbourhood of Worcester: "His Majesty 
 having put off his garter, blue riband, George of 
 diamonds, buff coat, and other princely ornaments,
 
 io IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 committed his watch to the custody of the Lord 
 Wilmot, and his George to Colonel Blague, and 
 distributed the gold he had in his pocket among 
 his servants, etc., did advertise the company to 
 make haste away." And, quaintly adds the 
 writer : " Thus David and his men departed out 
 of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go " 
 (1 Sam. xxiii. 13). 
 
 "Colonel Blague remaining at Mr Barlow's 
 house at Bloorpipe, about eight miles from 
 Stafford, his first action was, with Mrs Barlow's 
 privity and advice, to hide his Majesty's George 
 under a heap of chips and dust ; yet the Colonel 
 could not conceal himself so well, but that he was 
 here, soon after, taken and carried prisoner to 
 Stafford, and from thence conveyed to the Tower 
 of London. Meantime the George was trans- 
 mitted to Mr Eobert Milward, of Stafford, for 
 better security, who afterwards faithfully 
 conveyed it to Colonel Blague in the Tower 
 by the trusty hands of Mr Isaac Walton." 
 Most biographers of "Walton give an account 
 of the George incident with the reference 
 to Ashmole's History of the Order of the 
 Garter. 
 
 Charles II., after an exile of twelve years, 
 landed in England on the 25th May 1660, and five 
 days later Walton wrote a joyous eclogue to Mr 
 Alexander Brome (one of Ben Jonson's sons) on
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 1 1 
 
 the event. By an Act of Parliament of 1660, 
 those of the parish clergy who had been turned 
 out of their benefices during the Civil War were 
 reinstated. In 1661 the New Parliament assured 
 the Church in possession of all the property 
 which she had held at the outbreak of the Civil 
 War, and replaced the bishops in the House of 
 Lords. 
 
 (2) WALTON AS THE RELIGIOUS MAN 
 " Pectus est quod facit theologum." NEANDER'S MOTTO. 
 
 Walton's friendship appears to have been con- 
 fined almost entirely to Churchmen and Koyalists, 
 though it is true he informs us in his will he had 
 a very long and true friendship with some of the 
 Koman Church. Very likely Dr Donne, Dean of 
 St Paul's Cathedral, 1 and Vicar of St Dunstan's 
 Church, Fleet Street, introduced him to a "set" 
 among the bishops and certain of the learned 
 clergy, in return, perhaps, for Walton's under- 
 taking various parochial duties. With the "taint 
 of trade " upon him Walton must have found him- 
 
 1 St Paul's Cathedral which in 1643 was completely restored, 
 suffered at the hands of the Puritans, but was being repaired again in 
 1663 when in 1666 it was entirely destroyed by the Great Fire. The 
 present St Paul's Cathedral was commenced in 1675. It was begun 
 and completed under one architect, Sir Christopher Wren, under one 
 Bishop of London, Dr Henry Crompton, and under one master-mason.
 
 12 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 self sometimes like a fish out of water in company 
 with the high-born and cultured Cotton, and in 
 that of scholars and Church dignitaries. He had, 
 says Lowell, " a genius for friendships and an 
 amiability of nature ample for the comfortable 
 housing of many at a time ; he had even a special 
 genius for bishops, and seems to have known 
 nearly the whole episcopal bench of his day." 
 Lowell gives us his own explanation of what he 
 means by "genius." 
 
 We may imagine that Walton was as good 
 a listener as he was a great converser and a 
 maker of good talk "across the walnuts and 
 the wine," never making harsh remarks ; a re- 
 peater of reminiscences, though no mere man of 
 anecdote, a man full of bonhomie. If these con- 
 jectures are right such a man would have been 
 a welcome guest anywhere, but especially among 
 the clergy. 
 
 Dr Johnson said : "It was wonderful that 
 Walton, who was in a very low situation in life, 
 should have been familiarly received by so many 
 great men, and that at a time when the ranks of 
 society were kept more separate than they are 
 now." Yet Johnson might have wondered how it 
 was that he was similarly treated by his superiors. 
 It is never recorded that Walton was on terms of 
 intimacy with any of the leading nonconformists 
 of his day. He might have known John Milton,
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 13 
 
 since Wotton called him friend, and he might 
 have known Richard Baxter, but we never 
 read that he even came into contact with either 
 of them. The Complete Angler and The Pilgrim's 
 Progress are two of the most popular books ever 
 published in the English language, yet Bunyan, 
 though an angler himself, would have been quite 
 an impossible companion for Walton, since his 
 views on the Book of Common Prayer would 
 alone have hindered, we may feel sure, their 
 friendship. 
 
 Bunyan's view of prayer was that it should be, to 
 use a phrase of Bishop Sanderson's, " open prayer;" 
 in other words, that prayer should be extemporary, 
 not preconceived. Judge Keeling cautioned 
 Bunyan thus: "Take heed of speaking irrever- 
 ently of the Book of Common Prayer, for if 
 you do, you will bring great damage upon your- 
 self." It is to be hoped few nonconformists will 
 be found in this age to say with Dr Horton, that 
 the Book of Common Prayer is a book of "un- 
 answered prayers." 1 
 
 Walton's views of the book may be gathered 
 from the following verses, written by his friend, 
 Christopher Harvie, which he quotes in The Com- 
 plete Angler, but I observe it is not to be found in 
 the first edition : 
 
 1 See the Dissolution of Dissent, by Eobert F. Horton, D.D. 
 (London : Arthur H. Stockwell, 1902).
 
 14 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 11 What ! Prayer by the Book? and Common? Yes; why not? 
 The spirit of grace 
 And supplication 
 Is not left free alone 
 For time and place, 
 
 But manner too : to read, or speak by rote 
 Is all alike to him that prays 
 In's heart, what with his mouth he says. 
 
 " They that in private, by themselves alone, 
 Do pray, may take 
 What liberty they please, 
 In choosing of the ways 
 Wherein to make 
 
 Their soul's most intimate affections known 
 To Him that sees in secret, when 
 Th' are most conceal'd from other men. 
 
 " But he that unto others leads the way 
 In public prayer 
 Should do it so 
 As all that hear may know 
 They need not fear 
 
 To tune their hearts unto his tongue, and say 
 Amen ! not doubt they were betrayed 
 To blaspheme, when they meant to have prayed. 
 
 " Devotion will add life unto the letter : 
 And why should not 
 That which authority 
 Prescribes esteemed be 
 Advantage got ? 
 
 If th' prayer be good, the commoner the better, 
 Prayer in the Church's words as well 
 As sense, of all prayers bears the bell." 
 
 Excepting the prayers in the Liturgy, many 
 regard Dr Jeremy Taylor's to be superior to all
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 15 
 
 others. The reader may be referred to the 
 published prayers of George Dawson of Birming- 
 ham, as being seemingly almost inspired. Dawson 
 thought he might perhaps go down to posterity in 
 his prayers. Some persons dread any new forms 
 of service with prayers not found in the Prayer- 
 book. Christopher Wordsworth, the late Bishop 
 of Lincoln, said : " It would indeed be a misfortune 
 deeply to be regretted, if Convocation in these days 
 were to present itself before the public in the 
 character of a manufactory of prayers " (see his 
 Life, p. 172, Eivingtons). 
 
 About the year 1644 Walton left London, 
 " finding it dangerous for honest men to be there." 
 He appears to have made money by his business, 
 and we expect he was an exception to the state- 
 ment that " a merchant shall hardly keep himself 
 from doing wrong" (Ecclesiasticus, xxvi. 29), for 
 we cannot conceive him effecting a "deal" to the 
 detriment of anyone, or being a party to "the 
 wrongful dealings of men." We expect those who 
 did business with him soon found : 
 
 " His Nay was Nay, without recall ; 
 His Yea was Yea, and powerful all ; 
 He gave his yea with careful heed, 
 His thoughts and words were well agreed, 
 His word his bond and seal." 
 
 Whilst engaged in his business and " midst the 
 crowd, the hum, the shock of men," we think he
 
 1 6 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 must have been one of those referred to in these 
 beautiful lines : 
 
 " There are in this loud stunning tide 
 
 Of human care and crime, 
 With whom the melodies abide 
 
 Of th' everlasting chime ; 
 Who carry music in their heart 
 Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
 Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." 
 
 JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 This " saint of the mart and busy street " seems 
 by opportunity of leisure to have given his mind 
 to literature, and his free-time to the study and 
 practice of angling. It is indeed difficult to know 
 exactly where to place him. He was saturated 
 with religion and with theology from his youth up, 
 and the man who only knows of him as a fisher- 
 man will receive a mighty revelation when he 
 discovers he was a most religious man, as well as 
 a theologian and a literary one, though also "un- 
 doubtedly the best angler with a minnow in 
 England," if we are to believe Cotton's statement 
 on the point. We may be permitted to wonder 
 where Walton would have found himself in the 
 ecclesiastical world if now alive. No " peacock " 
 ritualism, as Emerson expresses it, would, we may 
 be sure, have attracted him. The sight of the 
 churches staggering backward to the mummeries 
 of the dark ages would probably have made him
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 17 
 
 "tremble for the ark." He would have grieved 
 over those who, taking the pay and status of the 
 English Church, openly deny the principles of 
 the Reformation, and, hating the very name of 
 "Protestant," seek altogether to alter the geo- 
 graphical boundaries of that Church. 
 
 The late Bishop Harvey Goodwin, of Carlisle, 
 well said, " that any English Churchman should 
 doubt whether upon the whole the Church was 
 better or worse for being reformed, or should 
 regard the Reformation not as a necessity, but as 
 a crime this is to my mind absolutely wonderful " 
 ("The Message of the Spirit to the Church of 
 England," a sermon preached before the University 
 of Cambridge, 1869). 
 
 In no period has the Anglican Church, writes 
 Hallam, referring to the period 1650-1700, stood 
 up so powerfully in defence of the Protestant 
 cause. From the era of the Restoration to the 
 close of the century, the war was unremitting 
 and vigorous. And it is particularly to be re- 
 marked, he says, that the principal champions 
 of the Church of England "threw off that 
 ambiguous syncretism which had displayed itself 
 under the first Stuarts, and, comparatively at 
 least with their immediate predecessors, avoided 
 every admission which might facilitate a deceitful 
 compromise." Many of Walton's greatest friends 
 
 were out and out Protestants. 
 
 B
 
 i8 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Macaulay has said " that the school of divinity 
 of which Hooker was the chief occupies a middle 
 place between the school of Cranmer and the 
 school of Laud." Walton, in my opinion, must be 
 placed in Hooker's school, and must certainly be 
 classed as a " High Churchman." That he re- 
 ceived his knowledge of Christ from Donne's 
 teaching we can have no doubt at all. 
 
 He thus describes Donne's preaching: "Preach- 
 ing the Word so, as shewed his own heart was 
 possessed with those very thoughts and joys that 
 he laboured to distil into others ; a preacher in 
 earnest; weeping sometimes for his auditory, 
 sometimes with them ; always preaching to him- 
 self, like an angel from a cloud l but in none ; 
 carrying some, as St Paul was, to heaven in holy 
 raptures, and enticing others by a sacred art and 
 courtship to amend their lives ; here picturing a 
 vice so as to make it ugly to those that practised 
 it : and a virtue so as to make it beloved, even by 
 those that loved it not ; and all this with a most 
 particular grace and an unexpressible addition of 
 comeliness." 2 
 
 1 This is a phrase in a poem of Donne's. 
 
 2 Dean Milman said Donne's sermons " held the congregation en- 
 thralled, unwearied, unsatiated." "It is my full conviction" (says 
 Coleridge), " that in any half-dozen sermons of Donne or Taylor there 
 are more thoughts, more facts and images, more excitement to inquiry 
 and intellectual effort, than are presented to the congregations of the 
 present day in as many churches or meetings during twice as many 
 months."
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 19 
 
 In the most pathetic elegy Walton wrote on 
 Donne's death, beginning " Our Donne is dead," 
 he writes that Donne 
 
 " Went to see 
 That blessed place of Christ's nativity 
 
 Did he return and preach him ? preach him so 
 As since St Paul none did, none could ! Those know 
 
 (Such as were blest to hear him) this is truth." 
 
 And his agony (we can use no other word) on 
 Donne's death is vividly shown by the haunting 
 wail : 
 
 " Oh ! do not call grief back, by thinking on his funeral." l 
 
 Walton probably adopted the direction to 
 "decline the company and society of known 
 schismatics, not conversing frequently or familiarly 
 with them, or more than the necessary affairs of 
 life and the rules of neighbourhood and common 
 civility will require, especially not to give counten- 
 ance unto their Church Assemblies by our pre- 
 sence among them, if we can avoid it." 2 How- 
 ever, it appears from a letter of Walton's, dated 
 the 2nd of October 1651, that he attended a 
 " fanatical meeting called an Evening Lecture, in 
 St Dunstan's Church, where a brawling trooper 
 filled that pulpit which was once occupied by ye 
 learned and heavenly-minded Dr Donne " : 
 
 1 Jeremy Taylor, in his Holy Dying, writes : " I desire to die a dry 
 death, but am not very desirous to have a dry funeral." 
 
 2 See Bishop Sanderson's Judgment Concerning Submission to 
 Usurpers.
 
 20 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 " Where first I caught the rays divine, 
 And drank the Eternal Word." 
 
 CARDINAL NEWMAN. 
 
 This semi- delirious sectary was probably one 
 of those of whom Sydney Smith, the witty Canon of 
 St Paul's Cathedral, sarcastically said : " He could 
 gesticulate away the congregation of the most 
 profound and learned divine of the Established 
 Church, and in two Sundays preach him bare to 
 the very sexton." In the introduction to Walton's 
 Lives, written by Henry Morley (George Eoutledge 
 & Sons, 1888), he states that Walton "went to 
 church " at St Paul's, where Donne had been made 
 dean, and that he had "from the pulpit of St 
 Paul's first stirred in him the depths of spiritual 
 life." He never refers to St Dunstan's Church 
 and appears ignorant of the fact that it was the 
 church Walton attended. 
 
 Sir Leslie Stephen can imagine Walton " gaz- 
 ing reverently from his seat at the dean in the 
 pulpit, dazzled by a vast learning and a majestic 
 flow of elaborate rhetoric which seemed to the 
 worthy tradesman to come as from an ' angel in 
 the clouds,' and offering a posthumous homage as 
 sincere and touching as that which, no doubt, 
 engaged the condescending kindness of the great 
 man in life." How radically false this view is 
 Canon Beeching well points out. 
 
 Some of Walton's views of the nonconformists
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 21 
 
 of his own time will be found recorded in the 
 remarkable " digression," as he himself calls it, 
 which he makes on the subject in his Life of 
 Hooker. We must suppose Walton observed 
 Saints' days and fasting, for he sings : 
 
 " Each Saint's day 
 Stands as a landmark in an erring age, 
 
 To guide frail mortals in their pilgrimage 
 To the celestial Canaan ; and each fast 
 
 Is both the soul's direction, and repast." 
 
 He would also appear from his remarks in 
 the Life of Hooker to have approved of the 
 clergy being celibate, for he speaks of " those 
 corroding cares that attend a married Priest, 
 and a country Parsonage." 
 
 If the reader believes that Walton was the 
 author of the treatise Love and Truth, as to which 
 see Chapter IX., he will be fully acquainted 
 with his attitude to the nonconformists of his 
 time and as to his views of religion and habits 
 of worship, and he will be forced to rank 
 him nearer to Laud's school than to Hooker's. 
 Walton's views of heaven show that he had 
 not gone very deeply into the distinction between 
 it and Paradise, and he seems to have believed, 
 with certain Roman Catholic theologians, that 
 " perfectly cleansed souls pass at once to heaven." 
 His ideas also on the subject of our occupation 
 in heaven are rather antiquated ; he seemingly
 
 az IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 thought that its occupants would be engaged 
 in perpetual singing, and in " sweeping idle harps 
 before a throne." It is quite impossible to dis- 
 sociate Walton from his religion, as I have before 
 intimated. His character is best shown by apply- 
 ing two words to him, "distinctive" and "trans- 
 parent." " None but himself can be his parallel ; " 
 he was indeed quite a unique personage. Lowell 
 has written that Walton's "real business in this 
 world was to write the Lives and The, Complete 
 Angler, and to leave the example of a useful and 
 unspotted life behind him." 

 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WALTON AS AN ANGLER 
 
 " O come, and rich in intellectual wealth, 
 Blend thought with exercise, with knowledge, health ; 
 Long, in this sheltered scene of lettered talk, 
 With sober step repeat the pensive walk ; 
 Nor scorn, when graver triflings fail to please, 
 The cheap amusements of a mind at ease, 
 Here every care in sweet oblivion cast, 
 And many an idle hour not idly passed." 
 
 SAMUEL ROGERS (An fipistle to a Friend). 
 
 " He that wonders shall reign." Gospel According to the 
 Hebrews, quoted by Clem. Alex., Strom, ii. 9, 45. 
 
 WHEN residing in London, Walton must often 
 have left "City noise" for the purpose of fishing 
 in the rivers round it the Eiver Lea in particular. 
 Although most, but not all, of Walton's biographers 
 think it very improbable that he ever himself 
 used a reel, and although the Thames and other 
 southern rivers drew good store of sea-fish, they 
 nearly all think that most of his information on 
 salmon-fishing was derived from hearsay only. 1 
 
 1 See Salmon and Sea Trout, by Sir H. Maxwell, Bart. Walton 
 informs us that though some of our northern countries have as fat 
 and as large salmon as the Thames, yet none are of so excellent a 
 taste. 
 
 23 

 
 24 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Sir Henry Wotton in his old age built himself 
 a fishing-house near Eton. Walton styles him 
 " that under- valuer of money," and narrates that 
 he was "a frequent practiser of the art of 
 angling." Wotton is supposed to allude to Walton 
 in the line : 
 
 " There stood my friend," 
 
 in his verses entitled 
 
 " On the bank as I sate a-fishing." 
 
 Reliquice Wottoniance. 
 
 The friendship between Walton and Wotton is 
 remarked upon by Edward Jesse, in Favourite 
 Haunts and Rural Studies (J. Murray, 1847), 
 thus : 
 
 " Odd enough we should think it now-a-days, to 
 see a provost of Eton, a dignitary of the Church 
 and a linendraper in the same punt, bobbing for 
 eels or hooking gudgeons ! " 
 
 We must suppose Walton now and again 
 visited Stafford for fishing purposes, and when he 
 tells us he used to 
 
 " Loiter long days near Shawford Brook," 
 
 we are to infer that it is the water of that name 
 about five miles from Stafford that is meant, and 
 not the Shawford Brook near Winchester, although 
 he appears to have fished in Hampshire. This 
 latter brook is dear to anglers of this generation as 
 a trout stream.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 25 
 
 Walton also fished in Kent, for he says he 
 knew himself of a certain brook there that bred 
 trouts "remarkable alike to their number and 
 smallness," and he says he had seen in the be- 
 ginning of July, " some parts of a river not far 
 from Canterbury covered over with young eels 
 about the thickness of a straw." He writes of 
 himself as a man who is a master of his art, 
 thus cock sure of his knowledge, he says : "I am 
 sure I both can and will tell you more than any 
 common angler yet knows." 
 
 Cotton tells us Walton understood "as much 
 of fish and fishing as any man living," and that he 
 really did believe he understood "as much of it 
 (angling) at least as any man in England," and 
 that it was only because he had from his 
 childhood pursued the recreation of angling in 
 very clear rivers that he presumed to supplement 
 the instructions given by Walton in Part I. of The 
 Complete Angler. There is no life, Walton says, so 
 happy and pleasant as the life of a "well-governed 
 angler ; " it invites to contemplation and quietness ; 
 its lawfulness he justifies by appeal to the 
 Scriptures and to the practice of it by apostles, the 
 saints and primitive Christians. Our Saviour, 
 he says, never reproved the apostles for their 
 employment or calling, and he suggests that Christ 
 found the hearts of such men by nature fitted for 
 contemplation and quietness. He quotes some
 
 26 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 verses expressing this idea. The last stanza 
 runs : 
 
 " The first men that our Saviour dear 
 Did choose to wait upon Him here, 
 Bless'd fishers were, and fish the last 
 Food was that He on earth did taste : 
 I therefore strive to follow those 
 Whom He to follow Him hath chose." 
 
 Walton informs us very minutely how to fish 
 with frogs for pike, yet to use the reptile "as 
 though you loved him." It was, I presume, on 
 account of these directions he incurred the censure 
 of Byron, who wrote : 
 
 " And angling too, that solitary vice, 
 Whatever Izaak Walton sings or says : 
 The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet 
 Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it." 
 
 Don Juan. 
 
 He also called Walton "a sentimental savage," 
 and said of angling that it was "the cursedest, 
 coldest, and the stupidest of sports." 
 
 As if to resent the term "carnifex" being 
 applied to him, Walton says of himself: "I am not 
 of a cruel nature, I love to kill nothing but fish." 
 
 Bichard Franck (1624-1708) l of whom the 
 reader will read more later on quieted his own 
 qualms about taking life in sport, by quoting the 
 command: "Arise, Peter, kill and eat!" I here 
 remark that no good sportsman glories in the 
 
 1 Sir Harris Nicolas calls him Robert Frank, and Jesse calls him 
 Richard Franks, in their editions of The Complete Angler.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 27 
 
 death merely of his quarry, and takes "no com- 
 fort " in killing. He would rather hide his eyes, 
 if possible, over that part of the business, con- 
 sidering that it rather detracts from his enjoyment 
 than otherwise. We have the right to believe 
 that fish suffer no more pain when taken by a 
 fly or minnow than when captured by nets. 
 Unless we are strict vegetarians we surely have 
 every right to indulge in fishing and field sports, 
 but this is very far from justifying vivisection, 
 which allowing for the sake of argument that 
 discoveries have been, or may be, made by its 
 practice for the benefit of man and also beasts- 
 is so absolutely hellish that it should cease to be 
 tolerated in this country at least. The late Bishop 
 Westcott, of Durham, has written : 
 
 " If He who made us made all other creatures 
 also, if they find a place in His providential plan, 
 if His tender mercies reach to them and this we 
 Christians most certainly believe then I find it 
 absolutely inconceivable that He should have so 
 arranged the avenues of knowledge that we can 
 attain to truths which it is His will that we should 
 master only through the unutterable agonies of 
 beings which trust in us. Life is more than a 
 bundle of physical facts. Life in each distinct 
 form is a sacred gift to be dealt with reverently. 
 Life for the Christian is an energy not apart from 
 Christ. Better, then, than any precarious increase 

 
 28 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 of our acquaintance with phenomena, better than 
 any fresh supply of vital force drawn for man from 
 the mutilated beast, better than a brief span 
 possibly added to our earthly sojourn, is the pure 
 consciousness that we have not broken down the 
 barriers of a holy reverence, or sought relief for 
 our own pain by inflicting it on some weaker 
 being." No man by reason of his philosophy need 
 be afraid to adopt this reasoning. The words are 
 noble and fearless. 
 
 Franck wrote : "The creatures in the creation 
 (we must grant) were designed for nutrition and 
 sustentation ; yet no man had a commission so 
 large to take away life upon no other account than 
 to gratify his lust. Then the next question arising 
 will be, whether the rod or the net is rather to be 
 approved of. I have only this answer (since both 
 contribute to health and maintenance), the apostles 
 themselves used the one, why then may not the 
 angler plead for the other ? " 
 
 Walton insists strongly that angling is an art, 
 and an art worth the learning, and worthy the 
 knowledge and practice of a wise man ; he dis- 
 cusses the question whether the happiness of a 
 man consists more in contemplation or in action, 
 and declares his own belief to be that in angling 
 both meet together. The very sitting, he says, 
 by the riverside is the fittest place for contempla- 
 tion and for revelation. He learnt much about
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 29 
 
 fishing from The Treaty se of Fysshynge wyth an 
 Angle, a fourth part issued in 1496 to a second 
 edition of the Book of St Albans, printed by 
 Wynkyn de Worde in 1486 in three parts ; the 
 first part being on Hawking, the second in verse 
 on Hunting and the third on Coat Armour. The 
 writer of this Treatyse of Fysshynge has been 
 generally supposed to have been Dame Juliana 
 Barnes or Berners. A few years ago doubts were 
 raised (seemingly on no sufficient authority) as to 
 whether she really wrote or compiled it. A charm- 
 ing facsimile reproduction of The Treatyse was 
 brought out by Elliot Stock in 1880, and I possess 
 another privately printed in Edinburgh in 1885. 
 Walton, all admit, copied from this work, without 
 any acknowledgment, the writer's directions for 
 making flies. His other chief authorities were 
 Androvanus, Dubravius and Gesner, and the 
 reader gets a trifle weary of the mention of their 
 names and especially of the name of the latter. 
 Walton admits that a great deal of information on 
 fly-fishing was derived second - hand from one 
 Thomas Barker, whom he describes in the first 
 edition of The Complete Angler as a gentleman 
 that had spent much time and money in angling. 
 Barker had been "admitted into the most Am- 
 bassadors' kitchens that had come to England for 
 forty years, and drest fish for them." It was 
 probably he who gave Walton instructions of a
 
 30 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 culinary nature, for the reader of The Complete 
 Angler is often instructed how to dress fish for 
 dinner ; indeed, Franck hints that the book became 
 popular because it taught the reader to cook as 
 well as to catch fish. 
 
 Until Walton's time the principles of angling 
 were propagated mainly by tradition. An account 
 of angling among the ancients and down to Walton's 
 time is to be found in Dr Bethune's learned edition 
 of The Complete Angler, published in 1847 by Willy 
 & Putnam, of New York ; and the reader is also 
 referred to Angling Literature in England, by 
 Osmund Lambert (1881), and to Walton and the 
 Earlier Fishing Writers, by E-. B. Marston (1894). 
 Only a few books on the subject of angling 
 had appeared in England when Walton brought 
 out his book. His discourse caused various 
 books to be written in his lifetime. In 1651 
 Thomas Barker wrote his book entitled The Art 
 of Angling, and in 1657 the second edition was 
 published under the enlarged title of Barker's 
 Delight; or, The Art of Angling. One of the 
 commendatory verses of that edition runs : 
 
 " Bark not at Barker, lest he bite ; 
 But if in angling thou delight, 
 To kill the trout, and cook the fish, 
 Follow his rules and have thy wish." 
 
 In 1658 Richard Franck wrote a book entitled 
 Northern Memoirs, calculated for the Meridian of
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 31 
 
 Scotland. Wherein most or all of the Cities, 
 Citadels, Seaports, Castles, Forts, Fortresses, 
 Eivers, and Eiverlets, are compendiously described. 
 It was not, however, published until 1694, and a 
 new edition of it appeared in 1821, with a preface 
 by Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Franck was a practical fisherman and a very 
 independent man. His Northern Memoirs is a very 
 interesting book, but is now rarely read. It consists 
 of a dialogue carried on between Theophilus and 
 Arnoldus. In one place the latter says : " What 
 would you propound to yourself?" The former 
 replies : " The exercise of the rod and learn to 
 fish." Arnoldus "And who shall instruct us?" 
 Theophilus ''Ourselves: who should? You 
 shall be my tutor, and I'll be your pupil." Sir 
 Walter Scott, in his preface to the 1821 edition, 
 remarks that Franck seems to have entertained 
 peculiar and mystical notions in theology, yet, in 
 general, expresses himself as a good Christian and 
 well-meaning man. 
 
 Another interesting book written in Walton's 
 lifetime was The Anglers Vade Mecum; or, A 
 Compendious, yet Full, Discourse of Angling. 
 Chetham's name did not appear as the writer 
 in the first edition of 1681, in the preface 
 he says the author hath forborne to annex 
 his name ; not that he is ashamed to own it, but 
 wishes the reader to regard things more than
 
 32 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 empty names, which, if all would do, many would 
 not so long labour under the veil of ignorance as 
 they do. In after editions, however, he annexes 
 his name, not, he says, out of the common itch, or 
 ostentation, to be seen in print, but to evidence 
 that he's not ashamed to own the work. I think 
 that at least until the year 1740, when John 
 Williamson published The British Angler; or, A 
 Pocket Companion for Gentlemen- Fishers, little 
 advancement had really been made in the know- 
 ledge of the angler's art. In the preface to that 
 work, the writer states that the improvements that 
 had been made by the generality of writers since 
 Walton's time u are indeed so few, and for the 
 most part so trivial, rather adding to and perplex- 
 ing his words," that he could not but wonder at 
 seeing so much done to so little purpose ; and he 
 further states that the improvements that had 
 been made in experimental philosophy justified 
 his writing his own book. He probably had The 
 Complete Angler in view when he said, he rejected 
 " idle superstitious observances, and weak fabulous 
 accounts of natural causes." He also says: "The 
 great advantage, as well as ornament of this book, 
 and which must eminently distinguish it from 
 all others, is the poetical part, which cannot but be 
 equally useful and entertaining. I dare speak so 
 highly of it because a great number of the lines 
 are by authors of the first rank. It was my
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 33 
 
 remembering so many of these, and at the same 
 time lighting on an ingenious little book called 
 The Innocent Epicure, which more than doubled 
 my quantity, that first put me in the head of thus 
 adding a summary in verse to each chapter." The 
 full title of the interesting book referred to is TJie 
 Innocent Epicure ; or, The Art of Angling. A Poem. 
 It was published in 1697. The preface is by N. 
 Tate, who says : " The copy of this poem being 
 sent to me from the unknown author, with 
 commission to publish or suppress it, as I thought 
 fitting ; his indifference about the matter con- 
 vinced me that he was a gentleman who wrote it 
 for his diversion, or at least in kindness to those 
 who are lovers of that ingenious and innocent 
 recreation, concerning which he has made so 
 judicious observations. I immediately communi- 
 cated the sight of his manuscript to several 
 experienced anglers, (and some of them no enemies 
 to the Muses) who agreed in their opinions, that 
 notwithstanding the confinement that verse lays 
 upon a writer, it far excels anything that has been 
 published in prose upon this subject, even in the 
 useful and instructive part of the work. They assured 
 me, that it contains all the necessary rules that 
 have yet been delivered ; and those rules digested 
 into a much better method ; together with several 
 uncommon and surprising remarks, which many 
 who are reputed artists at the Sport, may receive
 
 34 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 advantage by." After the year 1740 the works on 
 angling fast increased, and now their number is 
 legion. 
 
 Hugh Miller might have considered Walton 
 his model when he gave the following advice : 
 " Occupy your leisure in making yourselves 
 wiser men. Learn to make a right use of your 
 eyes ; the commonest things are worth look- 
 ing at even stones and weeds and the most 
 familiar animals. Kead good books, not forgetting 
 the best of all." "Walton could say, with Sir Henry 
 Wotton, of angling : " 'Twas an employment for his 
 idle time, which was then not idly spent." We 
 picture him at one time walking alone by shadowed 
 waters and amongst odoriferous flowers, at another 
 time sitting under a honeysuckle hedge finding 
 " solitude the audience chamber of God." * 
 
 He was " to catch men," by the example of a 
 godly life, unique holy living, a loving heart, 
 alacrity of spirit, cheerfulness, and by his writ- 
 ings. Living in a " world of opportunity and 
 wonder," he was to enjoy life and to obtain 
 knowledge and learning while pursuing a lawful 
 recreation. This attitude is beautifully expressed 
 in the six verses by J. Davors to be found set out 
 in the first chapter of The Complete Angler. The 
 singer prays for a quiet and happy life, and to have 
 what we read of in the Book of Job as the " hear- 
 
 1 W. S. Lander.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 35 
 
 ing ear, and the seeing eye," for appreciating fully 
 the glories and beauties of the natural world with 
 its birds and fish. The last stanza runs : 
 
 " All these, and many more of His creation 
 That made the heavens, the angler oft doth see : 
 Taking therein no little delectation, 
 To think how strange, how wonderful they be ! 
 Framing thereof an inward contemplation 
 To set his heart from other fancies free. 
 And whilst he looks on these with joyful eye, 
 His mind is wrapt above the starry sky." 
 
 All this is just what the ordinary man cannot 
 understand it is " foolishness " to him. An 
 "athlete" is understood, and a "capuchin," as 
 Napoleon calls the religious man, is understood, 
 but only the few can reconcile the meaning of il 
 santo atleta the athlete sanctified. 1 We can 
 claim Walton as being rightly described as an 
 " athlete," for he states, " no reasonable hedge or 
 ditch shall hold me," when he expresses his eager- 
 ness to join in pursuit of the otter; so he was 
 able, we must suppose, to get across a country at 
 least on foot ! The careful reader will not accept 
 the ridiculous belief of some writers on Walton 
 that he only followed angling " as a pretext for a 
 day or two in the fields " ; on the contrary, it may 
 be taken for granted he was keen. He was not 
 first a lover of the picturesque, and merely, in the 
 second place, an angler. Walton says he does 
 
 1 Dante, Paradiso, XII. 55.
 
 36 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 not consider it proper to talk of some fish " because 
 they make us anglers no sport " ; and he quotes 
 the saying : " I envy nobody but him, and him 
 only, that catches more fish than I do." Yet a 
 recent writer in his edition of The Complete Angler 
 (published by Methuen & Co., 1901), can say he is 
 " not sure if Walton ever deserved the fine name 
 of sportsman in its truer sense ! " 
 
 Walton greatly disliked swearing. A com- 
 panion, he says, that feasts the company with wit 
 and mirth and leaves out the sin (which is usually 
 mixed with them), he is the man. He says, "good 
 company and good discourse are the very sinues of 
 virtue." With quaint humour he advises anglers to 
 be patient and forbear swearing, lest they be heard 
 and catch no fish, but he assures us that anglers 
 seldom take the name of God into their mouths 
 but it is either to praise Him or pray to Him ; if 
 others use it vainly in the midst of their recrea- 
 tions, so vainly as if they meant to conjure, he tells 
 us it is neither our fault nor our custom ; we pro- 
 test against it. 1 He says he loves such mirth as 
 does not make friends ashamed to look upon one 
 another the next morning. Fancy in these days 
 men praying before, and as part of, their recrea- 
 tion ! Yet in " primitive " times they did. 
 
 1 Mercurius Hermon, in verses to Richard Franck, writes : 
 
 " Sir, you have taught the angler that good fashion 
 Not to catch fish with oaths, but contemplation."
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 What a number of times in his writings 
 does Walton use this word primitive ! At a 
 meeting of brothers of the angle he says : 
 "Let's e'en say grace, and turn to the fire, 
 and drink the other cup to wet our whistles, 
 and so sing away sad thoughts." The Treaty se of 
 Fysshynge before mentioned contains this advice 
 near the end : " Whanne ye purpoos to goo on 
 your disportes in fysshynge, ye woll not desyre 
 gretly many persones wyth you, whiche myghte 
 lette you of your game. And thenne ye maye 
 serve God deuowtly in sayenge affectuously youre 
 custumable prayer. And thus doynge ye shall 
 eschewe and voyde many vices." It may be worth 
 observing that in no age has angling been con- 
 sidered repugnant to the clergyman's calling. 
 Amongst many clerical votaries of the art who 
 have lived since Walton's day may be mentioned 
 Dr William Paley, the author of Natural Theology, 
 who died in 1805, 1 who had himself painted with a 
 rod and line in his hand ; Charles Kingsley, Canon 
 of Westminster, who died in 1875 ; the Rev. John 
 Russell, best known as "the sporting parson," or 
 as "Jack " Russell, who died in 1883 ; Archbishop 
 Magee, who died in 1891 ; the Rev. E. H. Barham, 
 author of The Ingoldsby Legends, who died in 1845 ; 
 the Rev. William Kirby, the entomologist, who 
 died in 1850 ; the Rev. Theobald Mathew, called 
 
 1 He was Senior Wrangler, and Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
 
 38 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 the "Apostle of Temperance," a Roman Catholic 
 priest, who died in 1856 ; the Rev. William Lisle 
 Bowles, Canon of Salisbury, who died in 1850 ; 
 Bishop Claughton of St Albans, who died in 
 1892 ; and the Rev. Morgan George Watkins, 
 now living. Mr Watkins, in his preface to the 
 above-mentioned facsimile reproduction of The 
 Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle (see p. 
 29), well says that the last two pages of 
 it give us a portrait of the writer's conception of 
 the perfect angler " simplicity of disposition, for- 
 bearance to our neighbour's rights, and considera- 
 tion in fishing or employment of its gentle art to 
 increase worldly gain and fill the larder is equally 
 condemned. She holds the highest view of 
 angling ; that it is to serve a man for solace, and 
 to cause the health of his body, but especially of 
 his soul. So she would have him pursue his craft 
 alone for the most part, when his mind can rise to 
 high and holy things, and he may serve God 
 devoutly by saying from his heart his customary 
 prayer. Nor should a man ever carry his amuse- 
 ment to excess and catch too much at one time ; 
 this is to destroy his future pleasure and to 
 interfere with that of his neighbours. A good 
 sportsman too, she adds, will busy himself in nourish- 
 ing the game and destroying all vermin." I cannot 
 refrain from quoting a paragraph from Salmonia ; 
 or, Days of Fly Fishing, which might have come
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 39 
 
 from the pen of Walton instead of from that of the 
 great philosopher and chemist, Sir Humphrey 
 Davy. He thus describes the benefits of angling 
 to the philosopher and the lover of nature : "It 
 carries us into the most vivid and beautiful 
 scenery of nature, among the mountain lakes, and 
 the clear and lovely streams that gush from the 
 highest ranges of elevated hills, or that make their 
 way through the cavities of calcareous strata. 
 How delightful, in the early spring, after the dull 
 and tedious time of winter, to wander forth by 
 some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from 
 the purple bud, to wander upon the fresh turf 
 below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms 
 are filled with the music of the bee, and on the 
 surface of the waters to view the gaudy flies 
 sparkling like gems in the sunbeam, to hear the 
 twittering of the water birds, with other like sights 
 and sounds, and to finish all by catching a salmon, 
 and carrying him home."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 "THE COMPLETE ANGLER" 
 
 It containeth "wise sayings, dark sentences, and 
 parables, and certain particular ancient godly stories of 
 men that pleased God." ECCLESIASTICUS (Prologue). 
 
 " This book is so like you, and you like it, 
 For harmless mirth, expression, art, and wit, 
 That I protest ingenuously 'tis true, 
 I love this mirth, art, wit, the book and you." 
 
 To my dear brother, Mr Iz. Walton, on his Complete Angler. 
 
 ROB. FLOUD, C. l 
 
 IN 1653 Walton published The Compleat Angler; 
 or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation. Being a 
 Discourse of Fish and Fishing not Unworthy the 
 Perusal of Most Anglers, adorned with exquisite 
 cuts of some of the fish mentioned in it. 2 The 
 title-page had the motto : 
 
 " Simon Peter said, I go a-fishing ; and they 
 said, We also will go with thee" (John xxi. 3). 
 This motto has been omitted in all subsequent 
 editions. The author's name did not appear on 
 the title-page of this edition. 
 
 Sir Harris Nicolas says that Walton framed 
 his treatise upon A Treatise on the Nature of God 
 
 1 R Floud was Walton's brother-in-law. 
 
 2 Generally supposed to be the work of Lombart. 
 
 40
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 41 
 
 (often attributed to Bishop Morton), a small volume 
 first printed in 1599, which not only commences in 
 nearly the identical words of, but bears, in other 
 places, a great similarity to The Complete Angler, 
 and there is so much resemblance between many 
 passages of Walton's work and Heresbachius' 
 Husbandry, by Googe, which was first printed in 
 1577, as to render it probable that he was indebted 
 to that work for some of his ideas. 
 
 The subject-matter of the treatise is carried on 
 in dialogue between two interlocutors, Piscator (a 
 fisherman) and Viator (a traveller). A second 
 edition was demanded in 1655, and various im- 
 portant alterations were made, there now being 
 three interlocutors, "Piscator," "Venator" (a 
 hunter) and "Auceps" (a falconer), Viator being 
 eliminated. 
 
 Of this most wonderful work five editions were 
 brought out during Walton's life, viz., in 1653, 
 1655, 1661, 1668 and 1676. A short discourse by 
 way of postscript, touching the laws of angling, 
 was first published with, and was printed at the 
 end of, the third edition of the book ; it is, how- 
 ever, omitted in most of the subsequent editions. 
 Who the writer was is not known, but he was 
 evidently learned in the law. The fifth edition 
 contained a second part, which Cotton wrote, and 
 this second part had the title The Complete Angler: 
 Being Instructions how to Angle for Trout or
 
 42 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Grayling in a Clear Stream. In the title-page is a 
 cypher composed of the initial letters of Walton 
 and Cotton, with the words : 
 
 " Qui mihi non credit, faciat licet ipse periclum, 
 Et fuerit scrip tis sequior ille meis." * 
 
 All the later editions have been founded upon this 
 fifth edition. The second part consists of a 
 dialogue between two persons, " Piscator " junior, 
 (who was Cotton himself), and Viator, a supposed 
 friend of Walton's, who had been addicted to the 
 chase till taught by Walton "a good, a more 
 quiet, innocent and less dangerous diversion." 
 It has often been remarked that, considering 
 the state the country was in when the book 
 was first published, it is wonderful how it 
 could have been written, but it should be 
 remembered that it must have been well thought 
 out after many years of cogitation, since Walton 
 was sixty years old when the first edition was 
 published. Cotton writes, in 1675, that for some 
 years past he had often thought on the 
 subject which he " scribbled " in little more than 
 ten days' time, and which constitutes Part II. of 
 the book. 
 
 Some attempts have been made during recent 
 years to discard Part II. altogether, and to pro- 
 
 1 A translation of which reads : He who does not believe me, let 
 him make trial himself, and he will be fairer to my writings.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 43 
 
 duce Part I. by itself. This seems a great mistake, 
 considering how many years the two parts have 
 formed one book, and considering also how 
 pleasant in their lives Walton and Cotton were 
 together. 
 
 The Experienced Angler i or, Angling Improved, 
 by Colonel Robert Venables, was published in 
 1662, and was reprinted by some booksellers, and 
 bound as a third part to one of the editions of The 
 Complete Angler. Such copies were known by the 
 name of The Universal Angler. Walton wrote a 
 preface to The Experienced Angler signed I. W., 
 though he says he had never to his knowledge had 
 the happiness to see the author's face, and that he 
 had accidentally "come to a view of the dis- 
 course" before it went to the press. This work 
 is now seldom read, and as it differs so much in 
 style from both Parts I. and II. of The Complete 
 Angler, it is hardly likely it will ever again form 
 one book with it. 
 
 In Book-Prices Current, 1892, on p. 274, it will 
 be seen that The Universal Angler has had bound 
 up with it The Complete Tr oiler; or, The Art of 
 Trolling, making four volumes in one. This last- 
 named book is described in the preface to a book 
 entitled The Whole Art of Fishing (E. Curll, 1714) 
 as usually bound up with The Experienced Angler, 
 and Walton's and Cotton's Complete Angler. I 
 cannot, however, find The Whole Art of Fishing in
 
 44 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FJZIENDS 
 
 any catalogue or index at the British Museum, 
 though I happily possess a copy of it. 
 
 In the body of The Innocent Epicure, before 
 mentioned in Chapter III., Walton, Cotton and 
 Venables are referred to in the lines : 
 
 ! 
 
 " Hail ! Great Triumvirate of Angling ! Hail ! 
 
 Hallam has said of The Complete Angler, that 
 "its simplicity, its sweetness, its natural grace, 
 and happy intermixture of graver strains with the 
 precepts of angling, have rendered this book 
 deservedly popular" (Literary History, Vol. IV., 
 p. 323). Charles Lamb, in a letter to Coleridge, 
 wrote : " Among all your quaint readings did you 
 ever light upon Walton's Complete Angler? I 
 asked you the question once before ; it breathes 
 the very spirit of innocence, purity and simplicity 
 of heart ; there are many choice old verses inter- 
 spersed in it ; it would sweeten a man's temper at 
 any time to read it, it would christianise every 
 discordant angry passion ; pray make yourself 
 acquainted with it." Its remarkable power to 
 fascinate is most amusingly shown by Washington 
 Irving in one of his chapters in The Sketch Book. 
 William Hazlitt wrote : " Walton's Complete Angler 
 makes that work a great favourite with sports- 
 men ; the alloy of an amiable humanity, and the 
 modest but touching description of familiar inci- 
 dents and rural objects scattered through it, have
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 45 
 
 made it an equal favourite with every reader of 
 taste and feeling" (Plain Speaker). This high 
 authority also wrote : "I should suppose no other 
 language than ours can show such a book as 
 an oft-mentioned one, Walton's Complete Angler, 
 so full of naivete, of unaffected sprightliness, of 
 busy trifling, of dainty songs, of refreshing brooks. 
 of shady arbours, of happy thoughts, and of the 
 herb called heart's-ease ! " ("Merry England" in 
 Sketches and Essays). Miss Mary Russell Mitford, 
 in her Recollections of a Literary Life, says : 
 "Certainly it was not amongst the least of the 
 many excellencies of Izaak Walton's charming 
 book, that he helped to render popular so many 
 pure and beautiful lyrics." Thomas Westwood's 
 estimate of the value of the book is neatly given : 
 it "is essentially a book to be loved, and to be 
 discoursed of lovingly." 
 
 The following remarks I take from the Works 
 of Alexander Pope, with Memoirs of His Life, by 
 William L. Bowles, Vol. I., p. 135 : " Let me take 
 this opportunity of recommending the amiable 
 and venerable Izaak Walton's Complete Angler, 
 a work the most singular of its kind, breathing 
 the very spirit of contentment, of quiet and un- 
 affected philanthropy, and interspersed with some 
 beautiful relics of poetry, old songs and ballads." 
 It has been asked, see Notes and Queries (3rd 
 S., VIII., p. 353), who it was that wrote of
 
 46 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 The Complete Angler that it will hold its place 
 in our literature "as long as the white-thorn 
 blossoms in the hedgerows, and the lark carols 
 in the cloud." 
 
 We get at the Scotsman's estimate of Walton 
 by reading an article in Blackwood's Magazine for 
 October, 1823, soon after Major's edition of The 
 Complete Angler was brought out. The writer 
 says that Walton was more tenderly beloved in 
 England than in Scotland: "Such a being could 
 never have been in Scotland, and therefore we do 
 not thoroughly understand either his character 
 or the impassioned veneration with which it is 
 regarded. He is rather considered as a sort of 
 oddity; and the book itself is not so much felt, 
 as the real record of the experience of a flesh and 
 blood old man : as a pleasant, although somewhat 
 unnatural, fiction, too often bordering upon silli- 
 ness ; and to a grave philosophical people like us, 
 throughout tinged with a childish and Utopian 
 spirit." Of course, it was quite impossible that 
 such a book should not have fierce criticism 
 bestowed upon it, and Hazlitt says : " There are 
 those who if you praise Walton's Complete Angler, 
 sneer at it as a childish or old-womanish perform- 
 ance." The greatest by far of Walton's detractors, 
 however, was Richard Franck; this is what he 
 writes : " Isaac Walton (late author of The Compleat 
 Angler) has imposed upon the world this monthly
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 47 
 
 novelty which he understood not himself; but 
 stuffs his book with morals from Dubravius and 
 others, not giving us one precedent of his own 
 practical experiments, except otherwise where he 
 prefers the trencher before the trolling-rod, who 
 lays the steps of his arguments upon other men's 
 observations, wherewith he stuffs his indigested 
 octavo ; so brings himself under the angler's 
 censure, and the common calamity of a plagiary, 
 to be pitied (poor man) for his loss of time, in 
 scribbling and transcribing other men's notions." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in his preface when he edited 
 the book written by Franck, as to which see 
 Chapter III., states : " Probably no reader, while 
 he reads the disparaging passages in which the 
 venerable Isaac Walton is introduced, can forbear 
 wishing that good old man, who had so true an 
 eye for nature, so simple a taste for her most 
 innocent pleasures, and withal, so sound a judg- 
 ment, both concerning men and things, had made 
 this northern tour instead of Franck, and had 
 detailed in the beautiful simplicity of his Arcadian 
 language, his observations on the scenery and 
 manners of Scotland." Here I digress in order 
 to make some observations as to Walton's reasons 
 for writing his books. 
 
 In Boswell's Life of Dr Johnson, we read 
 of a letter which runs thus : " It gives me much 
 pleasure to hear that a republication of Isaac
 
 48 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Walton's Lives is intended. You have been in 
 a mistake in thinking that Lord Hailes had it in 
 view. I remember one morning, while he sat 
 with you in my house, he said, that there should 
 be a new edition of Walton's Lives, and you said 
 that they should be noted a little. This was all 
 that passed on that subject. You must, therefore, 
 inform Dr Home, that he may resume his plan. 
 I enclose a note concerning it ; and if Dr Home 
 will write to me, all the attention that I can give 
 shall be cheerfully bestowed upon what I think 
 a pious work, the preservation and elucidation of 
 Walton, by whose writings I have been most 
 pleasingly edified." 
 
 Later on, however, we read : " Pray get for 
 me all the editions of Walton's Lives. I have a 
 notion that the republication of them with notes 
 will fall upon me, between Dr Home and Lord 
 Hailes." 
 
 It has been said most men work for the 
 present, a few for the future. The wise work 
 for both for the future in the present, and for 
 the present in the future. In his epistle to the 
 reader in Walton's Life of Donne he informs us 
 that he wrote the Life of George Herbert chiefly 
 to please himself, but yet not without some respect 
 to posterity. In 1676, when the fifth edition of 
 The Complete Angler was given to the world, in 
 his epistle to the reader Walton says : "I did not
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 4 9 
 
 write this discourse to please myself but to please 
 others," and he says, " that in writing of it I have 
 made myself a recreation of a recreation," and 
 again : " I write not to get money but for pleasure." 
 In spite of this admission Walton was no fool 
 in the estimation of Dr Johnson, who remarked 
 that "nobody but a fool wrote except for money." 
 A modern thinker l has remarked that the desire 
 of posthumous fame, though a very high one, is a 
 very unusual ambition. We rather think with 
 Frederick Robertson, of Brighton, that most of us 
 "long to be remembered after death." Certainly 
 we must suppose that Walton desired fame in his 
 life and after. We remember his well-known 
 monogram, scratched by him on Isaac Casaubon's 
 tomb in the south transept in Westminster Abbey 
 in 1658, " earliest of those unhappy inscriptions of 
 names of visitors which have since defaced so 
 many a sacred space in the Abbey. ' O si sic 
 omnia ! ' We forgive the Greek soldiers who 
 recorded their journey on the foot of the statue at 
 Ipsumbul ; the Platonist who has left his name in 
 the tomb of Kameses at Thebes ; the Roman Emperor 
 who has carved his attestation of Memnon's music 
 on the colossal knees of Amenophis. Let us in 
 like manner forgive the angler for this mark of 
 himself in Poets' Corner" (Dean Stanley's Memorials 
 of Westminster Abbey}. 
 
 1 Dean Vaughan, Master of the Temple. 
 D
 
 So IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 We read of a stone near Madeley Pond on 
 which Walton is said to have carved his initials. 
 In some twenty of his own books now in 
 the Cathedral Library at Salisbury 1 can be 
 seen his name or initials (all, however, may not 
 be autographs), and now and again some book will 
 turn up at auction, ear-marked in that way, as 
 having been once in his possession, and therefore 
 fetching far more than its fair market value 
 on that account. 2 Johnson called Walton "a 
 great panegyrist," and once Boswell said to him : 
 "No quality will get a man more friends than a 
 disposition to admire the qualities of others. I 
 do not mean flattery but a sincere admiration." 
 Dr Johnson: "Nay, sir, flattery pleases very 
 generally." In his Life of Donne, Walton himself 
 says: "It is observed that a desire of glory or 
 commendation is rooted in the very nature of man ; 
 and that those of the severest and most mortified 
 lives, though they may become so humble as to 
 banish self-flattery, and such weeds as naturally 
 grow there ; yet they have not been able to kill 
 
 1 In the Winchester edition of The Complete Angler (1902), the 
 editor inserts a letter dated the 23rd of March 1901, from the librarian 
 of Salisbury Cathedral Library, in which he gives a list of Walton's 
 books in that library. This list varies from the list given by Sir 
 Harris Nicolas. 
 
 2 In the Cathedral Library at Worcester his name can be seen in- 
 scribed in a copy of the first edition of his Lives (1670), which he 
 presented to Mrs Eliza Johnson, to whom he bequeathed a ring by 
 his will.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 51 
 
 this desire of glory, but that like our radical heat 
 it will both live and die with us, and many think 
 it should do so, and we want not sacred examples 
 to justify the desire of having our memory to out- 
 live our lives." Man praises man. We must 
 construe his life like his will, with the " love my 
 memory" motto in view throughout it, and con- 
 clude that Walton's little weakness was love of 
 fame. 
 
 Of the many editions of The Complete Angler 
 brought out since Walton's death, I only mention 
 those that seem to me to be the best, with the 
 dates of the original issues : 
 
 Moses Brown . ' . . . 1750 
 
 Sir John Hawkins . . . 1760 
 
 S. Bagster ..-,., 1808 
 
 J. Major . . . . 1823 
 
 Sir Harris Nicolas . . . 1836 
 
 Dr Bethune . . . . 1847 
 
 R. B. Marston .... 1888 
 
 R. Le Gallienne . . . 1897 
 
 G. A. B. Dewar . ' . . 1902 
 
 With regard to the edition brought out by 
 Moses Brown in 1750, he tells us in his preface 
 that the book having by an unaccountable 
 neglect become of late years difficult to obtain, 
 though frequently inquired after by several who 
 desired it, it was thought the recovering it in such 
 a way would be reckoned a very acceptable ser- 
 vice ; accordingly, at the invitation of Dr Johnson, 
 he undertook this employment of introducing a
 
 52 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 favourite author of the last age who seemed 
 exposed to the unkindness of being forgotten. 
 He says he "pruned" away some inaccuracies 
 and redundancies and claimed to have used great 
 deliberation in these retouches ! The edition 
 brought out by Sir John Hawkins in 1760 con- 
 tains an account of the author's Lives, the informa- 
 tion given being derived from the researches made 
 by William Oldys. It was the late Mr William 
 John Thorns, formerly the editor of Notes and 
 Queries, who pointed out how much we owe to 
 William Oldys for information as to Walton and 
 Cotton. 1 This Oldys was a curious character, but 
 little is known of his early life. He became the 
 keeper of Lord Oxford's library, and superin- 
 tended the publication of the Harleiom Miscellany. 
 Formerly Norfolk Herald Extraordinary, but not 
 belonging to Heralds' College, he was appointed 
 Norroy King-of-Arms, by patent, in 1755. He 
 was fond of ale, but drinking it did not make 
 him inaccurate as a writer on our literary 
 history. Oldys had contracted to supply ten 
 years of the life of Shakespeare unknown to the 
 biographers, with one Walker, a bookseller in 
 the Strand; but Oldys did not live to fulfil the 
 engagement (see Curiosities of Literature under 
 "Oldys and his Manuscripts"). 
 
 Two small editions I value, one published by 
 
 1 See on the subject Mr Marston's works on Walton.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 53 
 
 Tegg in two volumes in 1826, the other published 
 by C. Tilt and others, in two volumes, in 1837 
 (32mo). This last is the smallest edition I can 
 find ever published. It has a note on page xi 
 in Vol. I., stating: "It has not been thought 
 necessary or desirable to introduce notes in this 
 edition of The Complete Angler, which is got up 
 rather in relation to its literary and poetical than 
 its technical character. To most readers they are 
 (un)necessary or readily supplied by the common 
 books of reference, while, on the other hand, they 
 have often only the effects of disturbing the tone of 
 the more agreeable thoughts excited by the text." 
 
 Inasmuch as a nice copy of The Complete Angler 
 can now be bought for a few shillings there seems 
 no reason for giving further information as to its 
 contents. It is worth remarking that the first 
 edition of the book was published "of eighteen 
 pence price." Messrs Sotheby, in May 1898, sold 
 a beautiful set from the Ashburnham Library of 
 the first five editions, in the original bindings, 
 for 800 ! l For a few shillings a facsimile reprint 
 of the first edition can be bought. 
 
 Americans are buying up all the best editions 
 of Walton. The reader may note that the second 
 edition of The Complete Angler is extremely scarce, 
 more so than the first edition. 
 
 1 In May 1903, they sold a copy of the first edition for 405.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 CHARLES COTTON 
 (B. 1630, D. 1687) 
 
 "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill 
 together our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped 
 them not ; and our crimes would despair, if they were not 
 cherished by our virtues." All's Well That Ends Well. 
 
 " It seems the world was always bright 
 
 With some divine unclouded weather, 
 
 When we, with hearts and footsteps light, 
 
 By lawn and river walked together." 
 
 WILLIAM WATSON. 
 
 ONE of Walton's friends was Charles Cotton, of 
 Ovingden, Sussex, who married Olive, daughter 
 of Sir John Stanhope, of Elvaston, Derbyshire, 
 by Olivia or Olive, his first wife, who was 
 the daughter and heiress of Edward Beresford, 
 of Beresford and Bentley respectively, on the 
 borders of Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The 
 ancient township of Beresford is now generally 
 regarded as part of Fawfield Head (see Kelly's 
 Directory of Staffordshire, 1900). About two 
 miles from Alstonfield stood Beresford Hall. 
 
 54
 
 To face page 54. 
 
 CHARLES COTTON
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 55 
 
 Beresford Dale forms the uppermost part of the 
 glen called Dovedale. 
 
 The Beresford estates came to the Cottons by 
 the aforesaid marriage. The Hall is now a ruin. 
 The only child of this marriage was Charles 
 Cotton, who was born at Beresford on the 
 28th of April 1630. It is doubtful whether he 
 was educated at Cambridge, as most of his 
 biographers state he was, but it appears he was 
 highly educated and had travelled abroad for some 
 time, and was a particularly good French scholar. 
 He obtained a captain's commission in the army, 
 and if we construe rightly some lines of his own 
 poetry he became a Justice of the Peace. He 
 married twice first his cousin, Isabella, daughter 
 of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, of Owthorpe, Notts, 
 Knight ; she died in 1670, having had issue three 
 sons and five daughters. About 1675 he married 
 his second wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir 
 William Russell, Baronet, of Strensham Park, 
 Worcestershire, and widow of Wingfield, Earl of 
 Ardglass, by whom he had no issue. The elder 
 Cotton died in 1658. 
 
 The friendship between Walton and Cotton 
 was no doubt due in the first instance to the fact 
 that the former was the friend of the latter's 
 father ; but a similarity of political opinions 
 existed between them, which must be noted, as 
 well as a common love of literature and angling.
 
 56 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 The men, however, were widely different, both 
 by birth and in character, and the strange- 
 ness of the close friendship has been often 
 discussed. 1 
 
 Nevertheless in this case the " kettle and the 
 earthern pot " seemed to agree together, though 
 Cotton was "much mightier and richer" than 
 Walton. Cotton became Walton's adopted son, 
 and he refers to Walton as " the truest friend any 
 man ever had," and writes that "he gives me leave 
 to call him father, and I hope is not yet ashamed 
 to own me for his adopted son." In the beautiful 
 verses written in 1672 to Walton he is gratefully 
 mentioned as being "the best friend I now or 
 ever knew." He became "father and friend and 
 tutor all in one." Although Cotton's chief claim 
 to fame may be said to rest on his contribution to 
 The Complete Angler, still he was famous for his 
 translations from various French writers, and 
 especially as being the translator of the Essays of 
 Montaigne. He wrote a good deal of prose, 
 poems and verse, a few specimens of which appear 
 at the end of this book. 
 
 In 1664 he published a burlesque poem entitled 
 Scarronides ; or, The First Book of Virgil Travestie, 
 
 1 Moses Brown, it may be remarked, one of Walton's earliest 
 editors, published The Complete Angler, as " by the ingenious aud 
 celebrated Mr Isaac Walton, and Charles Cotton, Esq." This shows, I 
 think, that the title of Esquire was not considered as a proper descrip- 
 tion of a man of Walton's traditional position in life.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 57 
 
 and in 1670 he published a new edition dealing 
 with the first and fourth books. Fifteen editions 
 of this work were produced. 
 
 . In 1670 he translated the History of the Life 
 of the Duke of Espernon, with a dedication to 
 Archbishop Sheldon. In 1675 he published his 
 Burlesque upon Burlesque ; or, The Scoffer Scoffed, 
 " being some of Lucian's Dialogues newly put into 
 English Fustian, for the consolation of those who 
 had rather Laugh and be Merry than be Merry 
 and Wise." He tells us in the prologue it was 
 written in a month and that : 
 
 " The subject is without offence, 
 Do but some smutty Words dispense, 
 We'll make amends with Rime, if not with sense." 
 
 In the epilogue he refers to the lewdness of the 
 age: 
 
 " Which made our Author wisely choose 
 To dizen up his dirty Muse 
 In such an odd Fantastic Weed 
 As every one, he knew, would read." 
 
 He tells us he wrote it "to please himself" as 
 well as the reader. In the same year he wrote the 
 Planter's Manual, being instructions for cultivating 
 all sorts of fruit trees. In the preface to the reader 
 he states that the treatise was only written for the 
 private satisfaction of "a very worthy gentleman 
 who is exceedingly curious in his choice of his 
 fruits, and has great judgment in planting." In
 
 58 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 1676 he wrote Part II. of The Complete Angler, 
 as to which see Chapter IV. He was the author 
 of various other books, and is generally be- 
 lieved to have written The Complete Gamester? 
 which is the earliest account of the game of 
 billiards in English. It is there said : " The 
 genteel, cleanly and ingenious game at billiards 
 had its first original in Italy (in another 
 place he says in Spain), and for the excellency 
 of the recreation is much approved of and played 
 by most nations in Europe, especially in England, 
 there being few towns of note therein which 
 hath not a public billiard-table, neither are they 
 wanting in many noble and private families in the 
 country for the recreation of the mind and exercise 
 of the body." In 1681 Cotton produced The 
 Wonders of the Peak, and in 1685 he published 
 his famous translation of Montaigne's Essays. 
 Although it is true Cotton could not have sung 
 in the words of Sir Lewis Morris : 
 
 " Nay, what care I though all verse shall die, 
 If only it is pure ; " 
 
 
 
 still, we must recollect the " peculiarities of the age 
 in which the author lived " before we judge him 
 too severely. He seems to have been a most 
 inconsistent man and inconsistent writer also, and 
 
 1 In the preface the author says, " It is not any private interest of 
 my own that caused me to adventure on this subject."
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 59 
 
 George Herbert's lines may well be applied to 
 him : 
 
 " O what a thing is man ! how far from power, 
 From settled peace and rest ! 
 He is some twenty several men at least 
 Each several hour." 
 
 Yes ! at different times he appears as serious as a 
 judge and as jocular as a Merry Andrew ! 
 
 Cotton was of a kindly nature, and, though 
 usually hard up, a generous giver. He enjoyed 
 " good company," with plenty of wine and 
 ale and tobacco, and delighted, to use his own 
 words, "to toss the can merrily round." His 
 language was also often not exactly ''Parlia- 
 mentary." Possibly 
 
 " He erred, he sinned : and if there be 
 Who, from his hapless frailties free, 
 Rich in the poorer virtues, see 
 
 His faults alone. 
 To such, O Lord of Charity, 
 
 Be mercy shown." 1 
 
 It is amusing to notice how many of his bio- 
 graphers repeat, one after another, his weak- 
 nesses, and on close examination show how little 
 original examination of the man and his writings 
 they have made, and nearly all state that Cotton 
 wrote because he was forced to write for money, 
 omitting all mention of what he says in his 
 
 1 William Watson.
 
 60 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 prefaces to his Burlesque upon Burlesque ; or, The 
 Scoffer Scoffed, and to The Complete Gamester. 
 
 In his charming verses to Walton on his Life of 
 Donne> written in 1672, he certainly shows his 
 appreciation of good men, and also that he him- 
 self at least with "mind," if not with "heart," 
 understood what religion meant. He desires to 
 be considered a worthy member of society, for he 
 says : " My father Walton will be seen twice in no 
 man's company he does not like, and likes none 
 but such as he believes to be very honest men, 
 which is one of the best arguments, or at least of 
 the best testimonies I have, that I either am, or 
 that he thinks me, one of those, seeing I have not 
 yet found him weary of me." 
 
 He appears to have refrained from fishing on 
 a Sunday, for he writes of killing fish "winter 
 or summer, every day throughout the year, those 
 days always excepted, that upon a more serious 
 account ought always so to be." He may have 
 considered Sunday a day when all that is 
 noblest in a man should predominate ; and that 
 it is a day for wit, intellect, spirit, light and 
 God: 
 
 "His greatness, not his littleness, concerns mankind." 
 
 Cotton was a Royalist to the backbone, and a 
 highly-accomplished man. He was a rider, and 
 as a native of a mountainous county could ride
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 61 
 
 over it fearlessly, disdaining " to alight where a 
 foreigner might prefer entrusting his neck to the 
 fidelity of his feet rather than to those of his 
 horse." 
 
 It is dangerous riding in Dovedale. There 
 was a bad road to Keynard's Cave, and it was 
 there that a Dean of Clogher lost his life many 
 years ago. His horse was carrying him, and a 
 lady behind him, when it lost its foothold and 
 rolled over a precipice. The Dean was killed, 
 but the lady's hair saved her by becoming 
 entangled in some bushes and arresting her 
 descent. 
 
 Cotton played at bowls, having a bowling-green 
 near Beresford Hall. He says of himself : " Though 
 I am no very good bowler, I am not totally de- 
 voted to my own pleasure ; but that I have also 
 some regard to other men's ! " He also, we may 
 fairly infer from what we have before said, knew 
 something of billiards and probably played with 
 Walton at the then popular game of shovel-board. 
 Sir Aston Cockayne, his cousin, has in some highly 
 eulogistic verses claimed, and rightly so, that 
 Cotton should be considered as a good all-round 
 man. Cotton wrote complimentary verses to him 
 on his Tragedy of Ovid. In February, 1687, Cotton 
 died in the parish of St James, Westminster, it 
 is generally supposed of a fever, without having 
 attained his coveted age of sixty years "try to
 
 62 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 live out to sixty full years old," he wrote in "The 
 Retirement." 
 
 No stone, monument, or tablet of any sort or 
 kind has ever been erected or put up in memory 
 of Cotton : 
 
 " No marble columns or engraven brass 
 To tell the world that such a person was." 
 
 Apart from his connection with Walton, I think 
 that Cotton has good reason to be remembered. 
 
 Cotton's Poems on Several Occasions were 
 published after his death in 1689. As to the ode 
 "Winter," written by him, the poet Wordsworth 
 says in his preface to his Miscellaneous Poems: 
 " The middle part of this ode contains a most lively 
 description of the entrance of Winter, with his 
 retinue, as a palsied King, 1 and yet a military 
 monarch, advancing for conquest with his army, 
 the several bodies of which, and their arms and 
 equipment, are described with a rapidity of detail 
 and a profusion of fanciful comparisons which 
 indicate on the part of the poet extreme activity 
 of intellect and a correspondent hurry of delightful 
 feeling." 
 
 Cotton's widow, and his eldest son, Beresford 
 Cotton, and also his four daughters Olive, 
 
 1 In the twenty-eighth stanza of " Winter," which contains fifty-three 
 stanzas, the line occurs : "The Entry of their Palsied King." In this 
 collection of poems there are two poems on Winter besides one on the 
 Great Frost.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 63 
 
 Catherine, Jane and Mary survived him. Beres- 
 ford Cotton became a captain in the army, and 
 served in Ireland. He is believed to have died 
 at Nottingham, a bachelor. He published in 1689 
 a translation from the French of the Memoirs of the 
 Sieur de Pontis, on which his father was engaged 
 at the time of his death. 
 
 The pedigree of Cotton will be found set out 
 in the edition of The Complete Angler, by Sir 
 Harris Nicolas, tracing his daughters' descendants 
 down to the year 1836 ; and it is carried one step 
 further by Mr B. B. Marston in his edition of 
 the book published in 1888.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 COLONEL ROBERT VENABLES 
 (1612-1687) 
 
 " I am a man 
 More sinned against, than sinning." 
 
 HE was a son of Robert Venables, of Antrobus, 
 Cheshire, a member of an ancient Cheshire house. 
 He served in the Parliamentary Army and held 
 various posts. In 1649 he was Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Forces in Ulster, and became Gover- 
 nor of Belfast, Antrim and Lisnegarvey. He 
 left Ireland in 1654, having gained great renown 
 there. "Cromwell demanded from the Spaniards 
 that they should treat the English as friends in 
 South America, and in regard to the trade of Spain, 
 that a clause should be struck out of the last treaty 
 which made it still possible for the Inquisition to 
 molest English merchants. But these were pro- 
 posals which seemed to the Spaniards little else 
 than insults." l Accordingly placing Admiral 
 William Penn at the head of the fleet, and 
 Venables at the head of the army with the 
 rank of general, Cromwell despatched them 
 
 1 Ranke's History of England, 1875, Vol. II., Chapter V. 
 64
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 65 
 
 hastily from England in 1654. The two chiefs 
 did not get on well together. The men Yenables 
 had to command were a raw rabble, and very 
 different from the men he had had under his 
 command when in Ireland. The expedition was 
 very badly equipped, much "stuff" being wanting. 
 After touching at Barbadoes, the troops landed at 
 Hispaniola, at the mouth of the Nizao, some twenty 
 miles from Santa Domingo, the city and port of the 
 island, without opposition. 1 The march there was 
 attended with disaster, chiefly on account of want 
 of water. Venables fell ill, and it was deemed best, 
 after various encounters and many repulses, to 
 withdraw from the island altogether and try for 
 better fortune against Jamaica. This they had, 
 and the island was easily captured. It has ever 
 since remained part of our possessions. Penn was 
 now delighted of the excuse to return to England 
 in order to report on the affairs that had taken 
 place. Venables soon after followed. Cromwell 
 was greatly " discomposed " on hearing of the dis- 
 aster and "shut himself up in his room, brooding 
 over it." He considered that the West Indies, if 
 prosperous, afforded facilities for future attempts 
 on the American continent. On their arrival in 
 England, Penn and Venables were committed to 
 the Tower. " Have you ever read," said Cromwell 
 
 1 Lingard, in his History of England, Vol. VIII., gives the distance 
 as forty miles. 
 
 E
 
 66 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 to Venables, " of any general that had left his 
 army, and not commanded back ? " Cromwell had 
 made up his mind not to set Penn and Venables 
 at liberty till they had formally acknowledged 
 their offences. Penn did this soon. Venables 
 held out longer, but also did so. Cromwell could 
 never be persuaded to trust either of them again. 
 " For Penn there was little to be said, as his 
 presence was manifestly required at the head of 
 the fleet remaining in the West Indies. Venables, 
 on the other hand, was guilty at the most of 
 saving his own life at a time when hundreds of 
 his officers and men were perishing. It was out 
 of the question that he could have lived long 
 enough to render efficient service in Jamaica " (see 
 The History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 
 by G. S. R. Gardiner, Vol. III., Longmans & 
 Co.). Venables became very bitter against 
 Cromwell, and became a Royalist, though remain- 
 ing to the end of his life an Independent. In 
 1660 he was made Governor of Chester, and in 
 1662 he published The Experienced Angler, of 
 which mention has been made in Chapter IV. 
 In his prefatory address he remarks on the under- 
 valued subject of angling that nothing passes for 
 "noble or delightful which is not costly; as though 
 men could not gratify their senses, but with the 
 consumption of their fortunes." How these 
 words agree with Wordsworth's
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 67 
 
 " The wealthiest man among us is the best : 
 No grandeur now in nature or in book 
 Delights us ! " l 
 
 Venables contends that "the minds of anglers 
 are usually more calm and composed than 
 many others, especially hunters and falconers, 
 who too frequently lose their delight in their 
 passion, and too often bring home more of 
 melancholy and discontent than satisfaction 
 in their thoughts ; but the angler, when he 
 hath the worst success, loseth but a hook or 
 line, or perhaps, what he never possessed, a 
 fish ! " 
 
 Amongst his general observations he says : 
 "Deny not part of what your endeavours shall 
 purchase unto any sick or indigent persons, but 
 willingly distribute a part of your purchase to 
 those who may desire a share " ; and he ends thus : 
 " Make not a profession of any recreation lest your 
 immoderate love towards it should bring a cross 
 wish on the same." There was a very nice reprint 
 brought out of the book in 1827, by T. Gosden. 
 Venables bought the estate of Wincham, in 
 Cheshire, where his descendants are still settled. 
 
 In the notes to Robinson's Discourse of the War 
 in Lancashire, printed for the Chetham Society, 
 p. 97, will be found the best information as to his 
 life, and it is thence that the information given 
 
 1 The Sonnets.
 
 68 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 of him in the Dictionary of National Biography 
 seems to be derived. 
 
 Venables was twice married ; first to Elizabeth 
 Rudyard, and secondly to Elizabeth, widow of 
 Thomas Lee, of Darn Hall, and daughter of 
 Samuel Aldersey. The reader can find the 
 story of the unfortunate expedition against the 
 Spaniards well narrated in Clarendon's History of 
 the Rebellion, though Dr Gardiner says the account 
 is not to be "trusted implicitly." 
 
 Venables was probably a disappointed man, 
 and the later part of his life is likely to have been 
 his happiest. The following lines of James 
 Thomson, the poet, seem to be applicable to his 
 last days : 
 
 "An elegant sufficiency, content, retirement, 
 rural quiet, friendship, books, ease and alternate 
 labour, useful life, progressive virtue, and ap- 
 proving Heaven."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE FISHING-HOUSE 
 
 "Methinks I see Charles Cotton and his friend, 
 The modest Walton, from Augusta's Town, 
 Enter the fishing-house, an hour to spend, 
 And by the marble table set them down." l 
 
 " Now we sit to chat." 
 
 Taming of the Shreto. 
 
 IN 1676 Cotton finished building the celebrated 
 little fishing - house, dedicated to anglers, "my 
 seat's best grace," as he calls it on the margin 
 of the River Dove " Princess of Rivers," near 
 to his house, Beresford Hall. Mr Edwards (the 
 Poet of the Dove as he has been called), after 
 describing the beauties of " Beresford's enchanting 
 glen," very finely writes : 
 
 "Enough, methinks, is told of Nature's grace 
 Poured freely on this stream, to anglers dear, 
 Diviner worth has sanctified the place. 
 That Fishing-House amid those firs which rear 
 Their tops above it, leads me to revere 
 The seal of Friendship warm as filial love. 
 Twined in one cypher, on the first appear 
 
 1 See A Journey to Beresford Hall, by W. Alexander. 
 69
 
 70 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Walton and Cotton's names ; there fixed to prove 
 
 A record of affection near their favourite Dove. 
 
 Cheerful, sage, and mild, 
 
 Walton's discourse was like the honey balm 
 
 Distilled by flowers. Along these waters wild, 
 
 Smit with the love of angling, he beguiled, 
 
 With his adopted son, the hours away ; 
 
 While Cotton owned the fondness of a child 
 
 For him, in whose glad company to stay 
 
 Had made the whole year pass like one sweet month of May." l 
 
 The following description of the fishing-house 
 was written by a Mr White for Sir John Hawkins, 
 in 1784 :- 
 
 "It is of stone, and the room inside a cube of 
 about fifteen feet ; it is also paved with black and 
 white marble. In the middle is a square black 
 marble table, supported by two stone feet. The 
 room is wainscotted with curious mouldings that 
 divide the panels up to the ceiling ; in the larger 
 panels are represented, in painting, some of the 
 most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with persons 
 fishing ; and in the smaller, the various sorts of 
 tackle and implements used in angling. In the 
 further corner on the left is a fireplace, with a 
 chimney, and on the right a large beaufet with 
 folding doors, whereon are the portraits of Mr 
 Cotton, his boy-servant, and Walton in the dress 
 of the time. Underneath is a cupboard, on the 
 
 1 The Dove, which has its source in the High Peak, a few miles 
 south of Buxton, is for many miles the boundary between Derbyshire 
 and Staffordshire ; it falls into the Derwent near Newton-Solney.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 71 
 
 door of which are the figures of a trout, and also 
 a grayling, well portrayed." 
 
 The Beresford family trace from John 
 Beresford, of Beresford, in the Parish of Alston- 
 field, in the County of Stafford, in 1087, and 
 from him the descent has continued to the 
 present time (Glover's Derbyshire, and Ly son's 
 Derbyshire}. 
 
 The bulk of the Beresford Estates were sold in 
 the year 1681, but conveyed back that year into the 
 family by John Beresford, of Newton Grange, in 
 Derbyshire. A portion of these estates, including 
 the fishing-house, was sold in 1825 to Viscount 
 Beresford, and shortly after that date the fishing- 
 house was repaired, and its appearance now 
 corresponds externally with the earliest descrip- 
 tions and pictures known of it. In the reign 
 of King Henry VI. a younger branch of the 
 Beresfords settled at Fenny Bentley, about two 
 miles north of Ashbourne, and the Manor was 
 held by the family for many generations. In the 
 chancel of the church are various monuments, 
 erected to members of the family, including one 
 of particular interest to Thomas Beresford, who 
 raised a troop of horse consisting only of his own 
 sons and retainers to fight for Henry VI. in his 
 French wars. 1 The present head of the house 
 
 1 The monument consists of a square alabaster altar-tomb with 
 figures of two bodies enveloped in shrouds, and upon the sides twenty-
 
 72 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 of Beresford is the Kev. Gilbert Beresford (see 
 Burkes Peerage for further information of the 
 family). 
 
 In October 1901 the fishing-house and other 
 adjoining property was sold to Mr Frank Green, 
 of Treasurer's House, York. A letter appeared 
 about that time in the Field newspaper suggest- 
 ing that the National Trust for the Preservation 
 of Historic Buildings or some other like body 
 should purchase the fishing-house. It has been 
 stated, however, in the Press, that " this property, 
 is preserved from being broken up and developed 
 for at least some considerable time to come." 
 
 Tissington Hall is the seat of Sir Richard Fitz- 
 Herbert, Bart., whose family has intermarried 
 frequently with the Beresfords, and certain estates 
 of the latter were acquired by the ancestors of the 
 present Baronet. 1 The Waterford Beresfords are 
 a younger branch of the English Beresfords, tracing 
 from the sixth son of Thomas Beresford before 
 mentioned, whereas the English Beresfords trace 
 from the fourth son. 
 
 In 1808 a copy of The Complete Angler, with 
 the bands of the book made of wood from the 
 
 one similar effigies for sixteen sons and five daughters, with a long 
 inscription in hexameter verses. There are seven other mural monu- 
 ments to the same family, dating from 1516 to 1815, and a brass to 
 Richard Beresford (1733). Three new windows have recently (t.., 
 in 1895), been erected by the Beresford (English) family. 
 
 1 Tissington has been in the Fitz-Herbert family since 1466 (see 
 Burke 's Peerage). The word was originally spelt " Tiscinctuna."
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 73 
 
 door of the fishing-house, sold for 63. The 
 fishing-house was reproduced at the World's Fair 
 at Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 300th 
 anniversary of Walton's birthday on 9th August 
 1893. 
 
 "THE FISHING-HOUSE 
 
 " What spot more honoured than this peaceful place ? 
 Twice honoured, truly. Here Charles Cotton sang, 
 Hilarious his whole-hearted songs, that rang 
 With a true note, through town and country ways, 
 While the Dove trout in chorus splashed their praise. 
 Here Walton sat with Cotton, in the shade, 
 And watched him dubb his flies, and doubtless made 
 The time seem short, with gossips of old days. 
 Their cyphers are enlaced above the door, 
 And in each Angler's heart, firm-set and sure. 
 While rivers run, shall those twin names endure 
 WALTON and COTTON linked for evermore 
 And ' Piscatoribus sacrum,' where more fit 
 A motto, for their wisdom, worth and wit ? " 
 
 One of Twelve Sonnets by T. WESTWOOD.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LIVES 
 
 " Lives of great men all remind us 
 
 We can make our lives sublime, 
 And departing leave behind us 
 Footprints on the sands of time." 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 " O God-lit cloud of witnesses, 
 Souls of the sainted dead." 
 
 E. HATCH. 
 
 " There ought to be death-beds worth going to." 
 
 GEORGE DAWSON. 
 
 " God give us men ! 
 
 Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; 
 Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy ; 
 Men who possess opinions and a will ; 
 Men who have honour, men who will not lie." 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 IT has been recently remarked that the 
 biographic memoir was in England a com- 
 paratively late growth. 
 
 "Meagre seeds of the modern art of biography 
 were indeed sown within a few years of Shake- 
 speare's death, but outside the unique little field 
 of Isaak Walton's tillage the first sproutings 
 
 74
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 75 
 
 were plants so different from the fully-developed 
 tree that they can with difficulty be identified 
 with the genus." ... "In the days of Walton, 
 of course what we now call conscientious bio- 
 graphy was unknown " (Mr Edmund Gosse in the 
 Nineteenth Century and After for February 1902). 
 
 In a letter dated the 10th of May 1678, com- 
 mencing, " My Worthy Friend, Mr Walton," the 
 then Bishop of Lincoln, Thomas Barlow, says : " I 
 am heartily glad that you have undertaken to write 
 the life of that excellent person, and, both for 
 learning and piety, eminent Prelate, Dr Sanderson, 
 Bishop of Lincoln, because I know your ability 
 to know and integrity to write truth." This 
 writer at least considers that what Walton wrote 
 would be exact. 
 
 "Besides The Complete Angler" Miss Mitford 
 writes, "Izaak Walton has left us a volume 
 containing four or five lives of eminent men, 
 quite as fine as that great Pastoral, although 
 in a very different way. His Life of Dr Donne, 
 the satirist and theologian, contains an account 
 of a vision (the apparition of a beloved wife in 
 England, passing before the waking eyes of her 
 husband in Paris), which, both for the cleverness 
 of the narration and the undoubted authenticity 
 of the event, is amongst the most interesting 
 that is to be found in the long catalogue of 
 supernatural visitations." It is right here to
 
 76 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 mention that this event as narrated has been 
 the subject of a great deal of criticism. It is 
 not narrated in the edition of 1670, but appears 
 in the fourth edition of The Life of Donne (1674). 
 
 The history of the publication of the Lives 
 is usually given as follows : 
 
 In a letter (undated), written by Wotton to 
 Walton as to the promise given by the former 
 to write the life of Donne, Wotton says he will 
 write again and set down certain general heads, 
 "wherein I desire information by your loving 
 diligence; hoping shortly to enjoy your own 
 ever welcome company in this approaching time 
 of the Fly and the Cork." Wotton dying before 
 he could write the life, Walton published his 
 Life of Donne in 1640, with a collection of his 
 sermons. In 1651 he published the life of 
 Sir Henry Wotton prefixed to the Reliquiae 
 Wottoniance of which he was also the editor. 
 In 1666 Walton published The Life of Richard 
 Hooker, which he wrote at the request of Dr 
 Sheldon, when he was Bishop of London. In 
 1670 he published The Life of George Herbert 
 (together with the other Lives). In 1678 he 
 published The Life of Dr Robert Sanderson. 
 
 The Life of Donne was at first a mere sketch. 
 Walton was always altering and retouching his 
 writings, like a true artist not finding readily 
 "a chisel fine enough to cut the breath of his
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 77 
 
 thought," and he has well " padded " The Life of 
 Donne in particular. Baxter was very different 
 in this respect ; of one of his books he says : 
 " I scarce ever wrote one sheet twice over, 
 nor stayed to make any blots or inteiimings, 
 but was fain to let it go as it was first con- 
 ceived." 
 
 The lives of Hooker and Herbert were 
 written when Walton was residing with Bishop 
 Morley at Winchester. The text of the lives 
 of Donne, Wotton, Hooker and Herbert is usually 
 taken from the fourth edition of 1675, and the 
 text of the life of Dr Sanderson from the edition 
 of 1678. There was a second impression of it 
 produced in 1681, which, however, does not 
 contain many alterations from the text of the 
 first edition. 
 
 Mr T. Westwood's communication to Notes 
 and Queries in 1865 should be read as to his 
 opinion on the editions of the Lives (see 3rd S. 
 VIII., p. 482). He considers no such editions as 
 1670 and 1675 ever appeared, and that the edition 
 of 1675 is really the second collective issue, and 
 he accounts for its being styled the " fourth " 
 on the title page by the fact that two of the 
 Lives were therein reprinted for the fourth time 
 those of Donne and Hooker. 
 
 From the beautiful verses written by Cotton 
 to Walton in 1672, and set out at the end of this
 
 78 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 volume, the reader can get at a glance a very 
 good idea of the lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker 
 and Herbert, so graphically has Cotton depicted 
 their characters and appropriated their very 
 language. But a study of the Lives should be 
 made by any reader as yet unacquainted with 
 them : 
 
 " the feather whence the pen 
 
 Was shaped that traced the lives of these good Men, 
 Dropped from an Angel's wing," 
 
 as Wordsworth has in a sonnet so beautifully 
 expressed it. 
 
 " These all died in faith, not having received 
 the promises, but having seen them and greeted 
 them from afar" (Heb. xi. 13). 
 
 " Rare Lives ! that whoso reads, to him is given 
 To pace the precincts of the courts of Heaven." 
 
 T. WESTWOOD. 
 
 (a) JOHN DONNE 
 
 (1573-1631) 
 "Diligent and believing." 
 
 Dr John Donne was born in the Parish of 
 St Nicholas Olave, London, in 1573; he was a 
 son of John Donne, a London merchant. His 
 mother was the daughter of a Mr John Hey- 
 wood. They belonged to the Church of Rome. 
 He was sent when in his twelfth year to Hart
 
 To J ace page 78. 
 
 JOHN DONNE
 
 1ZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 79 
 
 Hall, 1 Oxford. He was entered in 1592 as a 
 student at Lincoln's Inn with the intention of be- 
 coming a barrister. His tutors were instructed " to 
 instil into him particular principles of the Roman 
 Church." He early began seriously "to survey 
 and consider the body of Divinity as it was 
 then controverted betwixt the Reformed and the 
 Roman Church." Having a good competence, 
 he spent a large part of it in travelling abroad. 
 A runaway match, in 1601, with the third daughter 
 of Sir George More of Loseley in Surrey, caused 
 him to be committed to the Fleet Prison, and 
 also caused him to lose an appointment which 
 he held as a secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, 
 Keeper of the Great Seal of England. He sent 
 his wife a letter acquainting her with his dismissal 
 which ended thus : 
 
 "John Donne, Anne Donne, Undone." 1 
 The idea of taking Holy Orders appears to 
 have first been put into his head by Dr Morton, 
 who became Bishop of Durham, and who at the 
 great age of ninety-four, enjoyed, as Walton 
 describes it, "perfect intellectuals and a cheerful 
 
 1 Hart Hall was so called from Elias de Hertford, who lived in 
 the reign of Edward the First. In 1312 the name was changed to 
 Stapledon Hall. In 1739 it was by a Royal charter erected into a 
 college by the name of Hertford College in the University of Oxford. 
 
 2 Donne was very fond of making puns on his name. In some 
 verses to Sir Henry Wotton he ends thus : 
 
 " But if myself I've won, 
 To know my rules I have, and you have Donne."
 
 8o IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 heart." It was after much hesitation that Donne 
 became an " ambassador for the God of Glory " ; 
 this was due to some irregularities of his life 
 which, having been visible to some men, might, 
 he thought, bring censure upon him and upon the 
 sacred calling dishonour, although he had made 
 his peace with God against them. He was 
 ordained on the Feast of the Conversion of St 
 Paul, on the 25th of January, 1615, by Dr John 
 King, Bishop of London. 
 Donne wrote : 
 
 " If our souls have stained their first white, yet we 
 May clothe them with faith, and dear honesty, 
 Which God imputes as native purity." 
 
 He had had great expectations of a Crown 
 employment, but he counted all his Court-hopes 
 but "loss for Christ." "Now," says Walton, "the 
 English Church had gained a second St Austin ; 
 for I think none was so like him before his 
 conversion, none so like St Ambrose after it, and 
 if his youth had the infirmities of the one, his 
 age had the excellencies of the other ; the learning 
 and holiness of both. And now all his studies 
 which had been occasionally diffused, were con- 
 centred in Divinity. Now he had a new calling, 
 new thoughts, and a new employment for his wit 
 and eloquence. Now, all his earthly affections 
 were changed into Divine love; and all the faculties
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS Si 
 
 of his own soul were engaged in the conversion of 
 others ; in preaching the glad tidings of remission 
 to repenting sinners, and peace to each troubled 
 soul." In 1616 we find Donne chosen to be the 
 preacher at Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 In 1617 his wife died, aged thirty-six ; she was 
 buried in St Clement's Church, near Temple Bar, 
 London. Her death caused him extreme grief, 
 and for a time he retired from the world. "He 
 began the day and ended the night : ended the 
 restless night and began the weary day in 
 lamentations." 
 
 His first sermon, Walton states, after her death 
 was preached from the text in Lamentations iii. 1, 
 "Lo, I am the man that have seen affliction." Dr 
 Jessopp, in his life of Donne in Leaders of Religion 
 (Methuen & Co., 1897), states it to be "a fable" 
 that Donne preached a funeral sermon upon his 
 wife in St Clement's Church upon that text. His 
 reason is, that some ten years afterwards he 
 preached from the same text in St Dunstan's 
 Church a sermon that was not a funeral sermon. 
 Why Donne could not preach twice within ten 
 years from the same text a fresh sermon, I quite 
 fail to see. Walton writes without any doubt as 
 having himself heard the sermon preached in St 
 Clement's Church, 1 and to doubt him upon the 
 
 1 Only an eye-witness, I contend, could have written thus: "And 
 indeed his very words and looks testified him to be truly such a man ; 
 
 F
 
 82 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FXIEN&S 
 
 point is simply to make him a liar. In 1621 
 Donne became Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, and 
 in 1624 Vicar of St Dunstan's in the West, and 
 soon after became the greatest preacher in England. 1 
 St Dunstan, to whom the church is dedicated, was 
 Abbot of Glastonbury, and rose successively to be 
 Bishop of Worcester and London (holding both in 
 conjunction for about a year) and Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, dying in 987. The first mention of the 
 church in Fleet Street is in 1237. The great fire 
 of London was arrested within three doors of the 
 church. The present church was built about the 
 year 1830. In 1630 Donne began to "die daily." 
 Walton gives an interesting account of how Donne 
 in his illness caused a figure to be drawn of the 
 body of Christ extended upon an anchor the 
 emblem of hope ; many of these figures thus drawn 
 he had engraved very small in heliotropium or 
 blood-stone, 2 and set in gold. He sent them to 
 several of his dearest friends to be used as seals 
 or rings, and kept as memorials of him. Walton 
 
 and they, with the addition of his sighs and tears, expressed in his 
 sermon, did so work upon the affections of his hearers, as melted and 
 moulded them into a companionable sadness." 
 
 1 " The greatest preacher of the seventeenth century ; the admired 
 of all hearers " (Coleridge). 
 
 2 " The helotropium is a very beautiful species of jasper, and has 
 been long known to the world as a gem. Its colour is a fine and 
 strong green, sometimes pure and simple, but more frequently with 
 an admixture of blue in it. It is moderately transparent in thin 
 pieces, and is always veined, clouded and spotted with a blood-red. 
 From this, its most obvious character, it has obtained among our 
 jewellers the name of the bloodstone " (Lewis's Materia Medico).
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FKIENDS 83 
 
 sealed his will with one of these seals. The reader 
 who would pursue the history of these seals must 
 consult The Perverse Widow ; or, Memorials of 
 the Boevey Family (Longmans & Co., 1898), where 
 all the learning on the subject of these seals 
 will be found. His illness left Donne but as much 
 flesh as did " only cover his bones," but he would 
 preach, and he amazed the beholders when he 
 appeared in the pulpit to preach what turned out 
 to be his last sermon. Many that then saw his 
 tears, and heard his faint and hollow voice, pro- 
 fessed they thought that Dr Donne had preached 
 his own funeral sermon : 
 
 "When pale looks and faint accents of thy breath, 
 Presented so to life that piece of death, 
 That it was feared and prophesied by all 
 Thou thither cam'st to preach thy funeral." x 
 
 Donne was easily persuaded to have a monu- 
 ment erected to his memory. A "choice painter" 
 was taken into his study, and Donne draped him- 
 self in his shroud and closed his eyes, and, " with 
 so much of the sheet turned aside as might show 
 his lean, pale, and death-like face, which was pur- 
 posely turned towards the East, 2 from whence he 
 expected the second coming of his and of our 
 Saviour Jesus," his portrait was taken. When the 
 portrait was fully finished, he caused it to be set 
 by his bedside, where it continued his hourly 
 
 1 Bishop King's " Elegy " on Donne. 
 
 2 The statue as now placed in St Paul's does not look eastward.
 
 84 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 object till his death, after which it was reproduced 
 in stone by Nicholas Stone, the famous sculptor. 
 During his last illness Donne for several days lay 
 waiting for the appointed hour of his death, then 
 closing his own eyes and disposing his hands and 
 body into such a posture as required not the least 
 alteration by those that came to shroud him, 1 
 " The world's beloved Donne," " Our Donne," 
 falling on sleep, bade farewell to the world. His 
 last words were, " Thy kingdom come, Thy will be 
 done." "Death had set the seal of immortality 
 upon him, and the beautiful had become eternal." 
 
 Donne was buried in St Paul's Cathedral ; 
 many noted persons attended the funeral. His 
 grave was strewed with choice flowers. 
 
 The next day. writes Walton, after his burial, 
 some unknown friend, some one of the many lovers 
 and admirers of his virtue and learning, writ this 
 epitaph with a coal on the wall over his grave : 
 
 " Reader, I am to let thee know, 
 Donne's body only lies below ; 
 For could the grave his soul comprise 
 Earth would be richer than the skies." 
 
 In Notes and Queries I have raised the question 
 
 lu lf I must die I'll snatch at everything 
 That may but mind me of my latest breath ; 
 Death's heads, graves, knells, blacks, tombs, all these shall bring, 
 Into my soul such useful thoughts of death 
 That this noble king of fears 
 Shall not catch me unawares." 
 
 QUARLE'S Midnight Meditations.
 
 To face pa^e 84. 
 
 DONNE'S STATUE IN ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 85 
 
 whether anyone has ever surmised who the un- 
 known friend was ? It seems very likely it might 
 have been Walton himself, 1 because we have seen, 
 in Chapter IV., how fond Walton was of scribbling 
 on stones and the like, and we have certainly a 
 right to presume he was present at the funeral 
 himself, and in London the next day. We know 
 he was at Donne's deathbed shortly before he 
 died. The incident was not narrated by Walton 
 until over thirty years after the death of Donne, 
 and it is most improbable, if not impossible, that 
 the Cathedral authorities would have allowed a 
 writing in coal to have remained unobliterated ; 
 and who except the author would have been likely 
 to remember the lines after that lapse of time ? 2 
 
 Walton never mentions Donne as being an 
 angler. The author of The Angler's Sure Guide, 
 published in 1706, ascribed a book called The 
 Secrets of Angling, by J. D., " to that great Prac- 
 titioner, Master, and Patron of Angling, Dr 
 Donne." The real author was, however, in 1811, 
 clearly shown to have been John Dennys. 3 
 
 1 1 see Mr Gosse, in his Life and Letters of Donne, suggests this : but 
 he gives no reasons. 
 
 2 Walton published his Life of Donne in 1640, but the epitaph in- 
 cident is not narrated in it. It is one of the many additions he made 
 after the first collected edition of the Lives published in 1670, for it 
 appears for the first time in the first collected edition of the Lives re- 
 published in 1675. There is an epitaph on Dr Donne's death worth 
 reading, to be found in Sir John Mennis's Musarum Delicice, Vol. II., 
 commencing, " He that would write an epitaph for me." 
 
 3 The Secrets of Angling was first printed in 1613.
 
 86 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Donne is said to have been very beautiful, 
 and to have become so after his golden age, i.e., 
 eighteen : 
 
 " Thine was thy later years, so much refined 
 From youth's dross mirth and wit." 
 
 His company was " one of the delights of man- 
 kind, and his fancy was inimitably high, equalled 
 only by his great wit, and his melting eye showed 
 he had a soft heart." 
 
 Walton ends his Life of Donne thus : "He was 
 earnest and unwearied in the search of knowledge, 
 with which his vigorous soul is now satisfied, and 
 employed in a continual praise of that God that 
 first breathed it into his active body ; that body 
 which once was a temple of the Holy Ghost, 
 and is now become a small quantity of Christian 
 dust : 
 
 " ' But I shall see it re-animated.' " 
 
 Donne's white marble effigy escaped damage in 
 the great fire of London l : 
 
 "In Paul's I look, 
 And see his statue in a sheet of stone." 
 
 His epitaph in St Paul's Cathedral is in 
 
 1 Hare, in his London, says : " Out of some remains saved from the 
 fire only one statue has been given a place in the Cathedral, that of 
 Donne."
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 87 
 
 Latin, and the following is a translation made by 
 Archdeacon Francis Wrangham : 
 
 "JOHN DONNE, DOCTOR OF DIVINITY, 
 
 after various studies pursued by him from his earliest years with 
 assiduity and not without success, entered into Holy Orders 
 under the influence and impulse of the Divine Spirit and by 
 the advice and exhortation of King James, in the year of his 
 Saviour 1614, and of his own age forty-two; having been 
 invested with the Deanery of the Church, Nov. 27, 1621, he 
 was stripped of it by death on the last day of March 1631, 
 and here though set in dust, he beholdeth Him whose name is 
 the Rising." 
 
 Donne wrote and published a great many 
 books, sermons and poetry. His Pseudo-Martyr 
 was written in answer to Bellarmine's justification 
 of Popish recusants. His secular poems are sup- 
 posed to have been published before he was 
 twenty-five at the latest, and he is always in- 
 cluded amongst the metaphysical poets of his 
 period. 
 
 In 1651 Donne's son published a book his 
 father had in 1607 written entitled /Statfavaros, 
 "A Declaration of that Paradoxe, or Thesis, that 
 Selfe-homicide is not so naturally sinne, that it 
 may never be otherwise. Wherein the Nature and 
 the extent of all those Laws which seeme to be 
 violated by this Act, are diligently surveyed." He 
 says : "It was written long since by my Father, 
 and by him forbid both the Press and the Fire,
 
 88 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 neither had I subjected it now to public view, but 
 that I could find no certain way to defend it from 
 the one, but by committing it to the other." In the 
 preface Donne says because he thought, as in the 
 Pool of Bethsaida, 1 there was no health till the 
 water was troubled, so the best way to find the 
 truth in this matter was to debate and vex it, he 
 abstained not for fear of misinterpretation from 
 this undertaking. He states that Self-homicide 
 is no more against the law of nature than any 
 other sin, and that that cannot be against the law 
 of nature which men (and he cites many by name), 
 have affected. Hallam says : " No one would be 
 induced to kill himself by reading such a book, 
 unless he were threatened with another volume " 
 (Literary History, Vol. II., note on p. 457). 
 
 Under the euphonical name of " Euthanasia " 
 the subject was discussed in the Fortnightly Review 
 for February 1873, in the Spectator for the 15th 
 of February 1874, and quite recently in the 
 Spectator in February 1902. 
 
 Anyone interested in Donne should read his 
 Life and Letters, by Mr Gosse, the article on him 
 
 1 Bethesda is generally given as the word in St John's Gospel 
 v. 2 ; the Revised Version, however, has the note : " Some 
 ancient authorities read Bethsaida, others, Bethzatha." Bethesda 
 means the house of mercy, Bethsaida means the house of fishing. 
 
 2 " Euthanasia ! Euthanasia ! an easy death ! was the exclamation 
 of Augustus ; it was what Antoninus Pius enjoyed " (see Curiosities 
 of Literature, Vol. III., p 228. Cf. Notes and Queries, 4th S. XI., p. 
 276).
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 89 
 
 by Sir Leslie Stephen in the December number 
 of the National Review of 1899, and Canon 
 Beeching's study of Walton in his Religio 
 Laid (1902), and Dr Jessopp's Life of Donne. 
 
 I do not think it has been made out that 
 Donne was in any way a humbug, as some will 
 have it. I only here refer to two points these 
 recent critics touch on, viz., his so-called "con- 
 version " and his sincerity in preaching. It really 
 seems most amusing for pure literary men to be 
 troubling as to the exact date of Donne's real 
 " conversion " even in their attempt to prove 
 Walton inaccurate. 
 
 It may be that Donne was transformed " at a 
 bound into a saint," but it is more likely that, as a 
 literary man and one religiously brought up, the 
 change came about through the effect his wife's 
 death had upon him. We know that extreme 
 melancholy marked him for her own after it, yet, 
 as Canon Beeching points out, it is possible that 
 her influence in life, and not his grief at her death, 
 was the cause of his conversion : 
 
 " Here the admiring her my mind did whet 
 To seek Thee, God ; so streams do show their head ; 
 But tho' I have Thee, and Thou my thirst hast fed, 
 A holy dropsy melts me yet." 
 
 Walton writes : " Dr Donne would often in his 
 private discourses, and often publicly in his sermons, 
 mention the many changes both of his body and
 
 go IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 mind, especially of his mind from vertiginous 
 giddiness ; and would as often say ' his great and 
 most blessed change was from a temporal to a 
 spiritual employment,' in which he was so happy 
 that he accounted the former part of his life to be 
 lost ; and the beginning of it to be from his first 
 entering into Sacred Orders, and serving his most 
 merciful God at His altar." 
 
 Again, as to Walton's account of Donne's 
 preaching being so unreal, no case is made out. 
 Has no preacher wept over his own composition 
 before or since Donne ? 1 
 
 Dr Gary, Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, 
 and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in 1614, as Vice- 
 Chancellor preached a funeral sermon for Prince 
 Henry, son of King James L, who died young in 
 1612, "when weeping himself, he made all the 
 people weep again and again " (College Histories : 
 Christ's College, Cambridge). 
 
 Canon Beeching observes : " A preacher with a 
 faith in God that is hardly removed from sight 
 cannot fail of conveying his belief to his audience ; 
 even though the matter in hand be dry and 
 metaphysical, an emphasis, a parenthesis, which in 
 print attract no attention, may in speaking have 
 had the effects of a revelation ; for a fire that is 
 always smouldering will sooner or later break out. 
 
 1 I have been told, by one who said he had seen it, of a manuscript 
 sermon in which the words " Here weep " were written in the margin.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 91 
 
 This seems to be the secret of the ' tears ' and 
 * raptures ' that were at the command of the 
 crabbed Donne, and were not at the command 
 of the rich eloquence and graceful fancy of Jeremy 
 Taylor." 1 
 
 I am not going into the question whether 
 Walton may not have brought too much sentiment 
 into his Life of Donne, and certainly I admit that 
 he is very often very inaccurate and too trusting. 
 Walton anticipates the criticism bestowed upon 
 him. He writes : " There may be some that may 
 incline to think my friend hath transported me to 
 an immoderate commendation of his preaching." 
 
 (b) HENRY WOTTON 
 
 (1568-1639) 
 
 " We shall not look upon his like again." 
 " Companion of the Saints ! " 
 
 Sir Henry Wotton was the youngest son of 
 Thomas Wotton, of Bocton or Boughton, Mal- 
 herbe, in Kent, where he was born. He refers 
 to his father as, "my father, the best of 
 men." After receiving his education at Win- 
 chester and at New College and Queen's Col- 
 
 1 In the Life of Herbert, by Walton, he states that in July 1627 he 
 "saw and heard" Donne "weep, and preach" a funeral sermon on 
 Lady Danvers, in the Parish Church of Chelsea.
 
 92 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 leges, Oxford, he was admitted to the Middle 
 Temple in 1595. He became Ambassador at The 
 Hague, and was three times appointed Ambassador 
 at Venice, viz., in 1604, 1615 and 1621. Going 
 from Rome he went to Florence, where a romantic 
 incident befell him. The Grand Duke of Florence 
 had heard of a plot against the life of James, then 
 King of Scotland, and he took Wotton into his 
 confidence in the matter ; Wotton disguised him- 
 self as an Italian, and under the name of Baldi 
 delivered his message, letting no one but James 
 himself know that he was an Englishman, and 
 after three months departed as true an Italian 
 as he came thither. 1 
 
 Wotton's house in Venice seems to have been 
 the resort of very learned men. "Here was 
 seen the purity of the Protestant faith in its own 
 primitive lustre and native loveliness, recommended 
 by its most powerful of all motives, a practice 
 in its professors perfectly consonant with the 
 rules of the Evangelical code." Wotton was never 
 ashamed to confess Christ before men ; he 
 attracted and did not repulse, although he had 
 services and sermons in his house after the 
 Protestant "use." The effect exercised by his 
 personality upon all who met him must have 
 been indeed magnetic. Father Paul (Peter Paul 
 
 1 English Public Schools : Winchester, Arthur F. Leach (Duck- 
 worth & Co., 1899).
 
 HENRY worrox 
 
 To face page 92.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 93 
 
 Sarpi), although he never formally left the Romish 
 Church, is supposed to have been convinced of 
 the errors of Popery when Wotton was main- 
 taining the rights of Venice against the civil 
 authority of the Pope. 
 
 The liberal-minded Father Fulgentio, who had 
 been a pupil of Father Paul, was enlightened by 
 Wotton on the subject of Popery. " I know," he 
 said to another friend, " this Church of England, as 
 I know it by your Liturgy, articles and canons, I 
 know not your practice, to be the most apostolical 
 Church in the whole world, and the Church of 
 Rome to be at this time the most impure." He 
 would not forsake his Church. "A man," he 
 said, "may live in an infected city and not have 
 the plague." Again, " Live in it and die in it 
 I must, though it be the impurest of Christian 
 Churches." 
 
 Without doubt Wotton was the most accom- 
 plished man of the age, " a man whose experience, 
 learning, wit, and cheerfulness made his company 
 to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind." 
 
 " He did the utmost bounds of knowledge find." 
 
 He had "an innate pleasure of angling," and 
 was, says Walton, "an excellent angler." He 
 intended to write a discourse on angling, but 
 never did so. His saying is well known that "An 
 Ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad
 
 94 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 for the good of his country ! " Wotton was 
 generally impecunious. In a letter he wrote to 
 his very worthie friend Nicholas Pey at Court, 
 dated in March 1615, he says : "The substanciall 
 pointe is to have money, for without that bladder 
 we cannot swymme." In a letter written from 
 Venice to Sir Walter Aston, who was Ambassador 
 at Madrid, dated in February 1621, he says : " The 
 common man heere knowes no other rules of a 
 good Prince but bigg loaves." 1 
 
 Ill health was often Wotton's lot, and he 
 suffered great pain. He writes that he in- 
 tended to visit "an excellent physician inhabitant 
 in St Edmund's Burie, whom I brought myself 
 from Venice, where (as eather I suppose or 
 surmise) I first contracted my infirmities of the 
 splene." 
 
 Shortly before his death he wrote in Latin A 
 Panegyrick to King Charles; "being Observations 
 upon the Inclination, Life and Government of our 
 late Sovereign." 
 
 He wrote many books on all sorts of subjects ; 
 his treatise on the Elements of Architecture being 
 one of his best. It was published in 1624 and has 
 been translated into Latin. Some of his beautiful 
 verses are set out at the end of this volume. 
 When asked by a priest of the Church of Rome, 
 "Where was your religion to be found before 
 
 1 See the Archceologia, Vol. XL.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 95 
 
 Luther?" l he replied, "My religion was to be 
 found then where yours is not to be found now, 
 in the written Word of God." He asked the same 
 priest, "Do you believe all those many thousands 
 of poor Christians were damned, that were ex- 
 communicated because the Pope and the Duke of 
 Venice could not agree about their temporal 
 power? even those poor Christians that knew 
 not why they quarrelled." To which the priest 
 replied in French, "Monsieur, excusez-moi." To 
 one that asked him "whether a Papist may be 
 saved," he replied: "You may be saved without 
 knowing that. Look to yourself." But to another 
 he gave this advice : "Take heed of thinking, the 
 farther you go from the Church of Rome, the 
 nearer you are to God." 
 
 He took Deacon's orders late in life, and 
 became Provost of Eton in 1624. Near the end 
 of his life he said to a friend, the learned John 
 Hales, Fellow of Eton College : "I now see that 
 I draw near my harbour of death ; that harbour 
 that will secure me from all the future storms 
 and waves of this restless world ; and I praise 
 God I am willing to leave it, and expect a better ; 
 
 1 " They may ask us, where was your religion before Luther ? and 
 our reply is, In the Word of the living God, in the creeds of Apostles 
 and apostolical men, and in the practice of those witnesses who in 
 every age refused to participate in the abominations of Rome " 
 (Sermons by Henry Melvill, Canon of St PauPs Cathedral, Vol. II., p. 
 100 : Rivingtons, 1872).
 
 96 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 that world wherein dwelleth righteousness ; and 
 I long for it." 
 
 He was taken very ill, and in the beginning 
 of December 1639, "his better part, that part of 
 Sir Henry Wotton which could not die, put off 
 mortality with as much content and cheerfulness 
 as human frailty is capable of, being then in great 
 tranquillity of mind, and in perfect peace with 
 God and man." He died at Eton, and was buried 
 in the College Chapel in accordance with the 
 directions contained in his will in that behalf 
 should he end his " transitory days at or near " Eton. 
 
 By his will he bequeathed to the Library of 
 Eton College all his manuscripts not before dis- 
 posed of, and to each of the Fellows a plain ring 
 of gold, enamelled black, all save the verge, with 
 this motto within, "Amor unit omnia." 
 
 Amongst some of the books given or be- 
 queathed to Eton College by Wotton are a 
 Xenophon, an Ovid, known as the Codex Lango- 
 bardicus, a fifteenth-century Dante, and a 
 fourteenth-century Life of St Francis, by 
 Bartholomew of Pisa.
 
 To face page 96. 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 97 
 
 (c) GEORGE HERBERT 
 
 (1593-1632) 
 "The man I held as half-divine." 
 
 In Memoriam. 
 
 " Friend of my friend ! I love thee, though unknown, 
 And boldly call thee, being his, my own." 
 
 W. COWPER. 
 
 " Content dwells not at Court." 
 
 Thealma and Clearchus. 
 
 George Herbert was born in 1593, near the 
 town of Montgomery. He was the fifth son of 
 Richard Herbert, a descendant of the famous 
 William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who lived 
 in the reign of Edward IV. He was educated 
 at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow. He 
 was B.A. in 1612, M.A. 1616. In October 1619 
 he became Public Orator. In 1615, while at 
 Cambridge, in a letter to his mother, he remarked, 
 that so many poems were written and consecrated 
 to Venus that, for his own part, he had determined 
 that his "poor abilities in poetry should be all and 
 ever consecrated to God's glory." His mother was 
 one of the most talented women of the day, and 
 Donne wrote in her praise. Over her children 
 she had great influence. Walton tells us he never 
 knew Herbert, "I have only seen him." He says 
 
 he "had heard he loved angling." Herbert 
 
 G
 
 98 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 was ordained in 1626. He was a friend of 
 Bacon. His poems were published under the 
 title of The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private 
 Ejaculations." The book was issued to the 
 public in 1633, and read by King Charles I. 
 when in prison. Walton, in his Life of Herbert, 
 says his verses were thought so worthy to be 
 preserved, "that Dr Duport, the learned Dean of 
 Peterborough, had collected and caused many of 
 them to be printed, as an honourable memorial 
 of his friend Mr George Herbert, and the cause 
 he undertook." Richard Baxter loved Herbert's 
 poetry. A writer in the Times newspaper of the 
 1st of August 1902 makes the following excellent 
 remarks upon the poems : 
 
 "Widely as Herbert is read for the sake of 
 his piety, we doubt whether he is reckoned at his 
 full value. The temptation is to stop short at 
 his conceits ; to take them for all he has to offer, 
 and to smile or close the book according to the 
 reader's taste and knowledge. These conceits are 
 not of the essence ; they are the accidents of the 
 age, and in particular, perhaps, of the influence 
 of his mother's friend, Donne. Beneath them lies 
 subtle and piercing thought, masterly insight into 
 the spiritual nature, rare tenderness, a delight in 
 things of beauty that his asceticism cannot conceal, 
 and technical attainments of the highest order." 
 Herbert wrote a prose sequel to The Temple as
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 99 
 
 a guide to country parsons, which Hallam calls 
 a pleasing little book ; but the precepts are some- 
 times so overstrained, according to our notions, 
 as to give an air of affectation (Literary History, 
 Vol. II., Part III., Chapter II.) The first edition 
 of Herbert's Outlandish Proverbs, dc., appeared 
 in 1640. 
 
 When Archbishop Benson was an under- 
 graduate at Cambridge he won a prize for an 
 English declamation on Herbert. It ended thus : 
 
 " The man himself has been far more to 
 Englishmen, to scholars and to priests, than his 
 work has been, far more deserving too of admira- 
 tion and imitation than many weaklings whom 
 late years have seen held up to us for examples. 
 For he was not the mere muser or devout 
 sentimentalist, but a most active and prosperous 
 clergyman." 
 
 This was delivered in the Hall of Trinity 
 College on Commemoration Day, 1851. (See 
 Benson's Life, by his son, Vol. I., p. 102). The 
 footnote runs thus : "24 Jan. 1852. At the 
 suggestion of the Master ... a window to com- 
 memorate George Herbert, notice of whom had 
 lately been brought before the College by Mr E. W. 
 Benson's English Speech on Commemoration Day." 
 There are two windows in Trinity in which George 
 Herbert is represented. In the one in the ante- 
 chapel he appears standing behind our Lord in an
 
 ioo 1ZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 attitude of reverence. He is represented also in a 
 window in the chapel itself which was put up 
 about 1870. It is this former window which was 
 put up on account of the suggestion before 
 mentioned. 
 
 Herbert protested, says Walton, against 
 ministers that "huddle up the Church prayers, 
 without a visible reverence and affection ; namely, 
 such as seemed to say the Lord's Prayer, or a 
 Collect, in a breath. But for himself, his custom 
 was to stop betwixt every Collect, and give the 
 people time to consider what they had prayed, 
 and to force their desires affectionately to God, 
 before he engaged them into new petitions." He 
 was a good musician. Cathedral music greatly 
 affected him "it elevated his soul and was with 
 prayer his Heaven upon earth." He wrote : 
 "Resort to sermons, but to prayers most." 
 Walton, however, narrates that by his order the 
 reading pew and pulpit were, in a church he 
 served, a little distant from each other, and both 
 of an equal height ; for he would often say : " They 
 should neither have a precedency or priority of the 
 other; but that prayer and preaching, being 
 equally useful, might agree like brethren, and 
 have an equal honour and estimation." Herbert 
 dedicated himself afresh to a life for God on 
 taking the preferment, of Bemerton Church, near 
 Salisbury. Cowper's words apply to his case :
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FXIENDS 101 
 
 " I thirst, but not as once I did, 
 
 The vain delights of earth to share ; 
 Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid 
 
 That I should seek my pleasures there." 
 
 He said on the night of his induction : " I now 
 look back upon my aspiring thoughts, and think 
 myself more happy than if I had attained what 
 then I so ambitiously thirsted for. 1 And I can 
 now behold the Court with an impartial eye, and 
 see plainly that it is made up of fraud and titles^ 
 and flattery, and many other such empty, imaginary 
 painted pleasures ; pleasures that are so empty, as 
 not to satisfy when they are enjoyed. But in God 
 and His services, is a fulness of all joy and 
 pleasure, and no satiety. And I will now use all 
 my endeavours to bring my relations and de- 
 pendents to a love and reliance on Him, who 
 never fails those that trust Hun. But above all, I 
 will be sure to live well, because the virtuous life 
 of a clergyman is the most powerful eloquence to 
 persuade all that see it to reverence and love, and 
 at least to desire to live like Him. And this I 
 will do, because I know we live in an age 
 that hath more need of good examples than 
 precepts." 
 
 1 " Not always turned 
 
 His soul to Heaven ; the splendours of the Court 
 Dazzled his youth, and the fair boundless dreams 
 Of youthful hope." 
 
 A Vision of Saints, by Sir LEWIS MORRIS.
 
 102 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 He thought much as to the clergy living well ; 
 he said it would be a cure for the wickedness and 
 growing atheism of the age if they themselves 
 would be sure to live unblamably, and if "the 
 dignified clergy especially which preach temper- 
 ance, would avoid surfeiting and take all occasions 
 to express a visible humility and charity in their 
 lives." We read that the Sunday before his death 
 he rose up and called for one of his instruments, 
 and, having tuned it, played and sang his beautiful 
 hymn beginning : 
 
 "The Sundays of Man's life." 
 
 "When the end was near he fell into a sudden 
 agony." His wife asked him how he felt, and he 
 replied " that he had passed a conflict with his last 
 enemy, and had overcome him by the merits of his 
 Master Jesus." Having given certain directions 
 as to his will, he said : "I am now ready to 
 die," and " Lord, forsake me not now my strength 
 faileth me : but grant me mercy for the merits 
 of my Jesus. And now Lord Lord, now re- 
 ceive my soul." And with those words he 
 calmly passed away. He was very happily 
 married to a daughter of Charles Danvers, of 
 Baynton, Wiltshire, a near relation of the Earl 
 of Danby, but had no issue. 
 
 Herbert is buried in Bemerton Church. On 
 his death the following verses were found wrapped
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 103 
 
 up with a seal which was given to him by 
 Donne : 
 
 " When my dear friend could write no more, 
 He gave this seal and so gave o'er." 
 
 " When winds and waves rise highest, I am sure, 
 This anchor keeps my faith, that me secure." 
 
 The parish register of Bemerton states that " Mr 
 George Herbert, Esq., Parson of Inggleston and 
 Bemerton, was buried the 3rd day of March 
 1632." 
 
 His widow married Sir Kobert Cook, of 
 Highnam, Gloucestershire. She died and was 
 buried there in 1656. 
 
 (d) RICHARD HOOKER 
 (1553-1600) 
 
 " Thy gentleness hath made me great." 
 
 (2 SAMUEL xxii. 36). 
 
 " Give me the lowest place." 
 
 C. G. ROSSETTI. 
 
 " Not being less but more than all 
 The gentleness he seemed to be." 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 Hooker was born about 1553 near Exeter. 
 Of his parentage little is known. His mother was 
 a most excellent woman, and Hooker often affec- 
 tionately refers to her. He was educated at the
 
 104 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 grammar school there. He proceeded to Corpus 
 Christ! College, Oxford. It is not within the plan 
 of this book to say much about him. He was no 
 angler so far as we know. His marriage was un- 
 fortunate, and his wife appears to have been a foe 
 to his life, and a "clownish silly woman." Her 
 maiden name was Churchman. Hooker was 
 Master of the Temple from 1581 to 1591. The 
 reader or lecturer there was one Walter Travers, 
 a man of Ultra-Calvinistic and Presbyterian views, 
 but "a man of learning and good manners," and 
 the controversy between them on theology became 
 very acute. Fuller says : " The pulpit spake pure 
 Canterbury in the morning and Geneva in the 
 afternoon." In their disputations Travers seems 
 from all accounts to have come off more than 
 conqueror. In 1595 Hooker became Rector of 
 Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury. He was a most 
 exemplary parish priest, and noted for his great 
 humility. His fame of course rests on his 
 'Ecclesiastical Polity. Mr Bayne, the latest writer 
 on Hooker, insists that Hooker wrote under the 
 influence of Calvin, and that Calvin, the leading 
 theologian of the Sacramentarians, did not hold 
 what are called "low" what Hooker calls 
 "cold" views of the Lord's Supper (see The 
 Pilot, January 3, 1903). 
 
 The reader is referred to Hallam's Constitutional 
 History and to his Literary History for informa-
 
 To face page 104. 
 
 RICHARD HOOKER
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 105 
 
 tion shortly given as to the contents of this great 
 work. Pope Clement VIII. said of it : "There are 
 in it such seeds of eternity as will continue till the 
 last fire shall devour all learning." Hallam re- 
 marks that Hooker never entirely emancipated 
 himself from the trammels of prejudice on the 
 subject of religious toleration. We should remem- 
 ber, however, that very few men of the period had 
 done so, and that even Baxter pronounced uni- 
 versal toleration to be " soul murder," though he 
 was, on the whole, somewhat more liberal than his 
 co-religionists on the subject (Lecky's Rationalism 
 in Europe, Vol. II., Chap. IV, Part II.). 
 
 Dr Arnold (see his Life, by Stanley, Vol. II.) 
 wrote : " I long to see something which should solve 
 what is to me the great problem of Hooker's 
 mind. He is the only man that I know, who, 
 holding with his whole mind and soul the idea of 
 the eternal distinction between moral and positive 
 laws, holds with it the love for priestly and cere- 
 monial religion, such as appears in the fifth book." 
 In Landor's imaginary conversations between Lord 
 Bacon and Hooker, the former is made to say : 
 " Good master . . . you would define to a hair's 
 breadth, the qualities, states and dependencies of 
 Principalities, Dominations and Powers ; you would 
 be unerring about the Apostles and the Churches ; 
 and 'tis marvellous how you wander about a pot 
 herb," and Hooker's reply is: "Wisdom con-
 
 106 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 sisteth not in knowing many things, nor even in 
 knowing them thoroughly ; but in choosing and in 
 following what conduces the most certainly to our 
 lasting happiness and true glory. And this wisdom, 
 my Lord of Verulam, cometh from above." 
 
 On his death-bed Hooker said : "I have 
 lived to see this world is made up of perturba- 
 tions, and I have been long preparing to leave 
 it, and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of 
 making my account with God, which I now appre- 
 hend to be near : and though I have by His grace 
 loved Him in my youth, and feared Him in mine 
 age, and laboured to have a conscience void of 
 offence to Him and to all men ; yet if thou, O 
 Lord, be extreme to mark what I have done amiss, 
 who can abide it? and therefore when I have 
 failed, Lord, show mercy to me, for I plead not 
 my righteousness but the forgiveness of my un- 
 righteousness for His merits, who died to pur- 
 chase pardon for penitent sinners." 
 
 And now, says Walton, in exquisite language, 
 "Let me here draw his curtain, till with the most 
 glorious company of the Patriarchs and Apostles, 
 the most Noble army of Martyrs and Confessors, 
 this most learned, most humble holy man, shall 
 also awake to receive an eternal tranquillity, and 
 with it a greater degree of glory than common 
 Christians shall be made partakers of." 
 
 Hooker's papers and manuscripts were left, it 

 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FXIENDS 107 
 
 is narrated, in a state of great confusion at his 
 death, and some appear to have been purposely 
 burnt by, or at the least with the privity of, his 
 wife. Hooker's wife married again and died 
 suddenly within five months of his death. In 
 his will Hooker made Joane Hooker, my well- 
 beloved wife, sole executrix (he wrote executor), 
 of his will. Hallam thinks all the stories on this 
 subject given in the Life of Hooker by Walton 
 (who, he says, seems to have been a man always 
 too credulous of anecdote), are unsatisfactory to 
 anyone who exacts real truth (Literary History, 
 Vol. II., Part II., Chapter IV.). 
 
 Fuller states that Hooker's "voice was low, 
 stature little, and gesture none at all in the 
 pulpit." 
 
 Hooker died at Bishopsbourne in 1600, and 
 was buried there, where a monument was erected 
 to his memory in 1634. There is a bust of him by 
 the west wall of the south aisle of the Temple 
 Church in London. Hooker left four daughters, 
 two of whom married ; his family were left very 
 ill provided for. 
 
 In the first edition (1670) of Hookers Life, 
 by Walton, his portrait appears. In 1890 his 
 portrait, by a painter uncertain, was presented to 
 the National Portrait Gallery.
 
 io8 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 EPITAPH TO HOOKER 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR WILLIAM COOPER 
 
 Though nothing can be spoke worthy his fame 
 
 Or the remembrance of that precious name, 
 
 Judicious l Hooker : though this cost be spent 
 
 On him, that hath a lasting monument 
 
 In his own books ; yet ought we to express, 
 
 If not his worth yet our respectfulness. 
 
 Church ceremonies he maintained ; then why 
 
 Without all ceremony should he die ? 
 
 Was it because his life and death should be 
 
 Both equal patterns of humility ? 
 
 Or that perhaps this only glorious one 
 
 Was above all, to ask, why had he none ? 
 
 Yet he that lay so long obscurely low, 
 
 Doth now preferred to greater honours go. 
 
 Ambitious men, learn hence to be more wise, 
 
 Humility is the true way to rise : 
 
 And God in me this lesson did inspire, 
 
 To bid this humble man, Friend, sit up higher. 
 
 (e) ROBERT SANDERSON 
 (1587-1663) 
 
 "The Lord will beautify the meek with salvation." 
 
 PSALM cxlix. 4. 
 
 Sanderson was the youngest son of Eobert 
 Sanderson, of Gilthwaite Hall, Yorkshire. The 
 place of his birth is uncertain. Walton says he 
 was born at Kotherham, in the county of York, 
 
 1 The word "judicious," invariably applied to Hooker, was taken 
 from this epitaph.
 
 ROBERT SANDERSON 
 
 To face page 108
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 109 
 
 but this is admitted to be wrong. In 1606 we 
 find him a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and 
 in 1611 he was ordained by Dr King, Bishop of 
 London. We never read that he was an angler. 
 He was given the living of Boothby Pagnell in 
 Lincolnshire, and became Chaplain to King 
 Charles I. He married Anne, daughter of the 
 Kev. Henry Nelson, Rector of Hangham, Lincoln- 
 shire. The Parliamentarians compelled him to 
 alter the form of the prayers read in his church. 
 As he refused to take the Solemn League and 
 Covenant his living was sequestered. Some say 
 he wrote (but this is rather doubtful) the prayer in 
 the Book of Common Prayer for all sorts and con- 
 ditions of men and also the General Thanksgiving. 
 Walton says that the three offices added at the 
 Savoy Conference to the Book of Common Prayer, 
 viz. : A Form of Humiliation for the Murder of 
 King Charles the Martyr, A Thanksgiving for the 
 Restoration of his Son our King, and for the 
 Baptising of Persons of Riper Age, were formed or 
 worded more by Sanderson than any single man 
 of the Convocation. It is agreed by all writers 
 that he composed the preface to the Book of 
 Common Prayer (on the subject see Proctor, 
 Whately, and Barry on the Book of Common 
 Prayer). Sanderson left the following direction : 
 " I do absolutely renounce and disown whatsoever 
 shall be published after my decease in my name."
 
 no IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 After his death his Nine Cases of Conscience 
 Occasionally Determined were published with 
 other of his writings. Few now read the writings 
 of this very learned prelate and great casuist. 
 Walton dedicated his Life of Sanderson to George 
 Morley when he was Bishop of Winchester, and 
 states that his own friendship with Sanderson 
 began ' ' forty years past when I was as far from a 
 thought as a desire to outlive him ; and farther 
 from an intention to write his life," and he 
 expressed his thanks to the Bishop for having 
 introduced him to Sanderson, Chillingworth and 
 Hammond. At the Restoration Sanderson was 
 made Bishop of Lincoln. 
 
 Sanderson in his will, after commending his 
 soul into the hands of Almighty God, professed 
 that as he lived so he desired to die, in the 
 Communion of the Church of England. He 
 mentions the danger the Church was in from 
 the great increase of "Popery." By his will 
 he directed: "As to my corruptible body, I 
 bequeath it to the earth whence it was taken, 
 to be decently buried in the Parish Church of 
 Buckden, towards the upper end of the Chancel, 
 upon the second, or on the furthest the 
 third day after my decease ; and that with as 
 little noise, pomp, and charge as may be." And 
 he gave further instructions for carrying out his 
 funeral in a simple style which would have vastly
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 1 1 1 
 
 pleased Charles Dickens. He states his utter 
 dislike of the flatteries commonly used in funeral 
 sermons, and of the vast expenses otherwise laid 
 out in funeral solemnities and entertainments 
 with very little benefit to any ; which if bestowed 
 in pious and charitable works " might redound 
 to the public or private benefit of many 
 persons." 
 
 He lay ill for some three weeks before he died, 
 longing to quit this world. It was not his desire, 
 he said, to lead a useless life, and by filling up a 
 place keep another out of it that might do God 
 and His Church service. He mentioned that till 
 he was threescore years of age he had never 
 spent five shillings in law, nor upon himself so 
 much in wine; and he hoped he should die 
 without an enemy. " And now," says Walton, " his 
 thoughts seemed to be wholly of death, for which 
 he was so prepared, that the King of Terrors 
 could not surprise him as a thief in the night; 
 for he had often said he was prepared and longed 
 for it. And as this desire seemed to come from 
 Heaven, so it left him not till his soul ascended 
 to that region of blessed spirits, whose employ- 
 ments are to join in concert with his, and sing 
 praise and glory to that God, who hath brought 
 him and them to that place, into which sin and 
 sorrow cannot enter. Thus this pattern of meek- 
 ness and primitive innocence changed this for a
 
 ii2 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 better life. Tis now too late to wish that mine 
 may be like his ; for I am in the eighty-fifth year 
 of my age, and God knows it hath not : but I 
 most humbly beseech Almighty God, that my 
 death may : and I do as earnestly beg, that if 
 any reader shall receive any satisfaction from 
 this very plain, and as true relation, he will be so 
 charitable as to say, Amen." He was very happily 
 married to a wife that made his life happy "by 
 being always content when he was cheerful ; that 
 was always cheerful when he was content ; that 
 divided her joys with him, and abated of his 
 sorrow, by bearing a part of that burden, a wife 
 that demonstrated her affection by a cheerful 
 obedience to all his desires, during the whole 
 course of his life." 
 
 Sanderson died in January 1663, leaving his 
 wife and a family insufficiently provided for. 
 
 His portrait is at Lincoln Palace. The curious 
 may care to be referred to a book entitled A 
 Dialogue between Isaac Walton and ffomologistes, 
 in which the character of Bishop Sanderson is 
 defended against the Author of the Confessional. 

 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 "LOVE AND TRUTH" "THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS" 
 
 " A little glooming light, much like a shade." 
 
 Fairy Queen, Bk. I., C. II., St. U. 
 
 THIS book does not pretend to give a list of all 
 Walton's various writings ; its chief object is, as 
 before stated, to enamour those who hitherto have 
 known but little of Walton, with his life -character 
 and writings ; and at the same time to give some 
 fresh information and ideas to those who already 
 know something about the subject. To the literary 
 Waltonian I hope this chapter may not prove 
 destitute of interest. 
 
 (a) AS TO THE TREATISE ENTITLED "LOVE AND 
 TRUTH " 
 
 In 1675 a pamphlet known by the name of 1 he 
 Naked Truth rose " like a comet " over the 
 theological world; its full title was "The Naked 
 Truth ; or, The True State of the Primitive Church, 
 by an Humble Moderator." "Although anonym- 
 ous, its manifest ability at once attracted notice, 
 
 H
 
 * 
 
 ii 4 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 while the comparative lull in this kind of litera- 
 ture, which had followed upon the Restoration, 
 may perhaps have contributed to the interest 
 which this tractate excited." 1 
 
 It is supposed to have been written by Herbert 
 Croft, Bishop of Hereford. The chief object of 
 the pamphlet was to suggest a scheme for includ- 
 ing the nonconformists within the Established 
 Church. 2 Dr Francis Turner, Master of St John's 
 College, Cambridge (who became successively 
 Bishop of Rochester and Ely, dying in 1700), wrote 
 in 1676 a reply entitled Animadversions on a 
 Pamphlet entitled The Naked Truth, adopting the 
 view that learning and culture were absolutely 
 essential for the clergy. Among other writers on 
 the subject were Bishop Burnet and Andrew 
 Marvell, the latter advising the bishops to correct 
 many abuses that had sprung up, and insisting that 
 a good life is a clergyman's " best syllogism and the 
 quaintest oratory." 
 
 "At this critical period," says Dr Zouch, 
 " Walton expressed his solicitude for the real 
 welfare of his country, not with a view to 
 embarrass himself in disputation for his nature 
 
 1 See College Histories : St John's, Cambridge. 
 
 2 Edward Stillingfleet (Bishop of Worcester) had in 1662 repub- 
 lished The Irenicum suggesting that the form of Church Government 
 was of little consequence ; Dr Croft must have read it, and also 
 probably Henry More's Mystery of Godliness published in 1660 and 
 republished in 1662. It deals with Church matters in these days 
 regarded as indifferent by many.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 115 
 
 was totally abhorrent of controversy but to give 
 an ingenuous and undissembled account of his own 
 faith and practice, as a true son of the Church of 
 England." According to his very confident opinion 
 Walton in 1680 published the treatise entitled 
 Love and Truth, the full title was "Love and 
 Truth in two Modest and Peaceable Letters, con- 
 cerning the Distempers of the Present Times, 
 written from a Quiet and Conformable Citizen of 
 London, to two Busie and Fractious Shopkeepers 
 in Coventry." The motto to it was, "But let none 
 of you suffer as a busie-body in other men's 
 matters" (1 Peter iv. 15). It is generally con- 
 sidered very doubtful who wrote it. 
 
 The authorship has been credited to Walton by 
 many, merely on account of Archbishop Bancroft 
 having in a volume called Miscellanea (Press-mark 
 now 32-2-34, but formerly 14-2-34), in the library 
 of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with his own 
 hand marked its title thus : " Is. Walton's 2 letters 
 cone, ye Distemps of ye Times 1680." The author, 
 whoever he was, tries to answer the arguments put 
 forth in the pamphlet The Naked Truth, and 
 specially deprecates schism and resistance to the 
 authority of the Bishops, as regards the Church 
 ceremonies enjoined by them. "Remember," the 
 writer says in his second letter, "you and I are 
 but citizens, and must take much that concerns 
 our religion and salvation upon trust." He refers
 
 n6 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 to the "Holy life and happy death of George 
 Herbert, as it is plainly and I hope truly writ 
 by Mr Isaac Walton." Of course this reference 
 may possibly have been made in order to deceive 
 the world as to Walton being the writer. 
 
 There are only two copies of Love and Truth in 
 the British Museum ; one is of the edition of 1680 
 (Press-mark c. 40. c. 16), and the other is of the 
 edition of 1795 (Press-mark 4105, bb.). The 
 former edition has a MS. note by William 
 Pickering in it, which runs thus : " The present 
 is the only copy I have met with after twenty 
 years' search, excepting the one in Emmanuel 
 College, Cambridge. W. PICKERING." A copy of 
 Love and Truth is in a volume of tracts, formerly 
 Archbishop Sancroft's, in Emanuel College, Cam- 
 bridge ; in the MS. contents at the beginning of 
 the volume is written, probably by Archbishop 
 Sancroft : " W T alton J. two letters on ye distempers 
 of ye times," which is Dr Zouch's authority for 
 attributing them to Walton. The copy described 
 above appears to be the same edition as the 
 present, but has the following variation, after the 
 title-page is printed : " The Author to the Stationer 
 Mr Brome, &c.," and ends with "your friend 
 without the N N which is found in this copy, but 
 what is more remarkable the printed word Author 
 is run through and corrected with a pen and over 
 it written Publisher, which is evidently in the hand-
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 117 
 
 writing of Walton, from which I infer that its 
 advertisement may have been written by Walton 
 and the work probably seen through the Press and 
 the copy given by Walton to Archbishop Bancroft, 
 but I do not believe that the two letters were 
 written by Walton (see his Life by Nicolas, p. 101). 
 Although Dr Zouch has confidently asserted that 
 they are his by him. W. P." 1 
 
 It is unlikely that further light will be forth- 
 coming as to who the real author of this treatise 
 was ; I will, however, remark that Walton was 
 no resident " citizen " of London in 1680. 2 To judge 
 from internal evidence only it would seem highly 
 probable it was written by Walton, as so many 
 of his words and phrases occur in it, and the 
 style, sentiment and argumentation are similar, 
 as even a cursory perusal of it will show. Lowell 
 writes: "The evidence internal and external that 
 he was the author seems to me conclusive." No 
 help towards solving the difficulty is afforded by 
 the writer of Walton's life in the Dictionary of 
 National Biography, the treatise not being even 
 mentioned or referred to ! My difficulty is, that 
 if Walton wrote the work I think he would only 
 have been too glad to tell the world he did so, 
 for the reasons given in Chapter IV., but Dr 
 
 1 This manuscript note was most courteously copied out and sent 
 to me by the British Museum authorities. 
 
 8 And he was not so in 1668 or 1679, the years in which the 
 letters were respectively written.
 
 u8 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Zouch thinks "his modesty precluded him from 
 annexing his name to the treatise ! " There are 
 parallel passages in the treatise and in other 
 writings admitted by all to have been written by 
 Walton set out in Shepherd's Waltoniana (1878), 
 which, as I have before said, give strong internal 
 evidence that Walton was the author of the two 
 letters. Zouch 's edition of the Lives was brought 
 out in 1796, and was re-issued in 1807 and (with 
 inclusion of Love and Truth), in 1817 ; his Life of 
 Walton was published in 1 823, and was re-issued 
 in 1825. 
 
 (6) AS TO "THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS" 
 
 In 1683 Thealma and Clearchus, a Pastoral 
 History, in Smooth and Easie Verse, was published 
 by Walton. If curiosity is aroused over Love and 
 Truth it is more so over this work. Who was John 
 Chalkhill, by whom it was said to have been written ? 
 He is said on the title-page to have been "an 
 acquaintance and friend of Edmund Spencer." But 
 Spenser died in 1599, when Walton was five years 
 old ! A mystery is here ; Jo. Chalkhill signed two 
 songs to be found in The Complete Angler. 
 Walton had connections of the name. A John 
 Chalkhill died at Winchester in 1679. This is all 
 too wonderful. We do not offer any suggestion as 
 to this literary mystery, but it seems rather hard
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 119 
 
 to believe that Walton, when nearly ninety years 
 of age, could be such a gay deceiver as some 
 would make him out to be, if he were really 
 the author himself of this work. The preface in 
 the book I here set out : 
 
 "The reader will find in this Book, what the 
 title declares, A Pastoral History, in smooth and 
 easie verse ; and will in it find many Hopes and 
 Fears finely painted, and feelingly express'd. And 
 he will find the first so often disappointed, when 
 fullest of desire and expectation ; and the latter, 
 so often, so strangely, and so unexpectedly reliev'd 
 by an unforeseen Providence, as may beget in him 
 wonder and amazement. And the Reader will 
 here also meet with Passions heightened by easie 
 and fit descriptions of Joy and Sorrow ; and find 
 also such various events and rewards of innocent 
 Truth and undissembled Honesty, as is like 
 to leave in him (if he be a good-natur'd 
 Reader) more sympathising and virtuous im- 
 pressions, than ten times so much time spent 
 in impertinent, critical, and needless Disputes 
 about Religion : and I heartily wish it may 
 do so. 
 
 "And, I have also this truth to say of the Author, 
 that he was in his time a man generally known, and 
 as well belov'd ; for he was humble, and obliging 
 in his behaviour, a Gentleman, a Scholar, very
 
 izo IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 innocent and prudent : and indeed his whole life 
 was useful, quiet, and virtuous. God send the 
 Story may meet with, or make all Readers like 
 him. I.W. 
 
 "Maylth, 1678." 
 
 This preface is followed by some verses ad- 
 dressed by Thomas Flatman, the poet, to Walton, 
 including the following lines : " Happy Old Man, 
 whose worth all mankind knows," and 
 
 "Hence did he know the Art of living well, 
 The bright Thealma was his Oracle : 
 Inspired by her, he knows no anxious cares, 
 Thro' near a Century of pleasant years : 
 Easie he lives, and cheerful shall he die. 
 Well spoken of by late Posterity." 
 
 The ending of Thealma and Clearchus is 
 thus : 
 
 "never fear it, 
 Thealma lives." 
 
 I cannot find that the phrases used in this poem 
 are similar to those Walton uses in his other 
 writings. I can see no internal evidence at 
 all that he was the author, such as there is in 
 the case of Love and Truth, to go towards 
 showing he wrote that work. Dr Zouch, however, 
 considers " the internal evidence in the poem itself 
 is strongly corroborative of the opinion as to the 
 unity of Chalkhill and Walton ! " It must follow, if
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 121 
 
 we think Walton was the author, that he also 
 wrote the beautiful poems in The Complete Angler 
 signed by the name of Jo. Chalkhill (see on the 
 subject of this book Notes and Queries, 4th S. 
 IV., p. 93, 5th S. III., p. 365, and 8th S. XII., pp. 
 441, 516).
 
 CHAPTEE X 
 WALTON'S DEATH 
 
 "ARCESSITUS AB ANGELIS" 
 " Last scene of all that ends this strange, eventful history." 
 
 " Wouldst see December smile ? 
 Wouldst see nests of new roses grow 
 In a bed of reverend snow ? " 
 
 RICHARD CRASHAW. 
 
 " In the midst of Death we are in Life" l 
 
 " He was a man among the few 
 
 Sincere on virtue's side ; 
 And all his strength from Scripture drew, 
 To hourly use applied. 
 
 His joys be mine each reader cries, 
 
 When my last hour arrives ; 
 They shall be yours, my verse replies, 
 
 Such only be your lives." 
 
 W. COOPER. 
 
 WE know no particulars about Walton's death : 
 we only know that he died on the 15th of 
 December 1683, at the time of the great frost 
 
 1 The Eagle Lectern in Lambeth Palace Chapel bears this motto 
 (see Archbishop Benson's Life, by his son, Vol. II., p. 394.) 
 
 122
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 123 
 
 in that year, at his son-in-law's house at 
 Winchester. 1 
 
 George Dawson said, " that for his own part he 
 would rather have written on his tomb, ' He was 
 a good fellow, bless him,' than, 'Of your charity 
 pray for the soul of George Dawson, deceased.' ' 
 We know not what Walton would have wished 
 written on his tombstone, but we may well think 
 that up to the last day of his life he possessed ' ' all 
 that should accompany old age, as honour, love, 
 obedience, troops of friends." At peace with God, at 
 peace with man, life's work well done, and happy in 
 that no shadow of doubt ever probably disturbed the 
 serenity of his faith, we may suppose his death was 
 
 " serene and bright 
 And calm as is a Lapland night." 
 
 We need not apply to his death-bed any such 
 phrase as "unique hopefulness," for most probably 
 he could have said with St Paul that he had " the 
 desire to depart and be with Christ." No mere 
 " minimum of salvation " could be his ! 
 
 We may suppose he could have said, as John 
 Wilson, " Christopher North," said of himself : 
 
 " It has pleased Heaven to crown my life with 
 
 1 The great frost began on the 15th of December, and lasted over 
 eight weeks, till the 4th of February. Cotton refers to the state of the 
 River Dove, and the fish in it thus : "And doubtless there was great 
 mortality of trout and grayling of great quality." He, however, never 
 mentions, as we might have expected he would, that Walton died 
 during the frost. As to a sermon preached on the subject of the frost 
 (London, 1684), see Notes and (Queries for August 1902.
 
 i2 4 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 such a load of happiness, that ofttimes my very 
 soul is faint with bearing up the blessed burden." 
 
 In fancy we can imagine Walton "babbling 
 of green fields " ; and thanking God for long 
 and happy days, for friends made and kept, for 
 learning won and knowledge gained ; but above 
 all for the redemption of the world by our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and for the hope of glory. 
 
 Walton was buried amidst some of the virtuous 
 and the greatly wise, and lies under a marble slab in 
 Prior Silkstead's Chapel in Winchester Cathedral: 
 
 " In the great minster transept, 
 
 Where lights like glories fall, 
 And the organ rings, and the sweet choir sings, 
 Along the emblazoned wall." 
 
 DR ALEXANDER. 

 
 '{ n>t3c&^.yc-<zr'C'X' *"&. paj 
 uC 72 on? he h<xth jb^gru.n 
 
 r 717/T70/7 7f7^ 7T C 7"^ ^5 e <=^On 
 
 rond j-o it ft Gtcrna.ll hhfc 
 7V7/7? our Souls rvith his 
 
 f>c flcrunf lib 
 
 WALTON'S TOMB IN WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL 
 
 To face page 124.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 "FARRAGO LIBELLI." Juv. 
 
 IN Warwick Castle may be seen Walton's marriage 
 chest. The inscription on it is : 
 
 " IZAAK WALTON. RACHEL FLOUD. 
 
 Joyned Together In ye Holie Bonde Of 
 Wedlocke on ye 27th Daie Of 
 Decembere. A. 1626. D. 
 
 We once were two, we two made one, 
 We no more two, through life Bee one." 
 
 A writer in Notes and Queries (6th S. XII., p. 
 326) states that at an auction sale of carved oak 
 furniture, which took place at Worcester on the 
 10th of October 1884, the auctioneers described 
 in their printed catalogue a Curious Dower 
 Coffer said to have come from the Cathedral 
 precincts, Worcester, on the centre panel of which 
 was inscribed: " Izaak Walton and Ann Ken 
 was joyned together in holie wedlocke on ye Eve 
 of Saint Gregory, ano. MDCXLVIL, dom." The 
 cabinet bequeathed by Walton was sold by public 
 auction in 1881. His name was found on it with 
 the date 1672. Full particulars as to the cabinet 
 
 125
 
 i 2 6 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 will be found in Mr Marston's Complete Angler, 
 referred to before. 
 
 In St Mary's Church, Stafford, may be seen 
 Walton's bust by Belt, which was erected by public 
 subscription in 1878. 
 
 In 1888, by the permission of Dean Kitchin, a 
 small statue of Walton was placed in the Great 
 Screen in Winchester Cathedral. It was the work 
 of Miss Mary Grant. 
 
 In St Dunstan's Church, London, a Walton 
 memorial window was put up in 1895. It was 
 designed by Messrs Percy Bacon and Brothers, 
 of Newman Street, Oxford Street. The central 
 figure on the window is a copy of the statue 
 of Walton in the Cathedral Screen at Win- 
 chester. On the right side are portraits of 
 Donne, Hooker and Sanderson, and on the left 
 side are portraits of Wotton, Ken and Herbert ; 
 and in the tracery are depicted angels holding 
 scrolls of the virtues and the arms of St Dunstan 
 and of the Ironmongers' Company. The centre 
 quatrefoil contains the intertwined monograms 
 of Walton and Cotton. The window cost 100. 
 Cotton is given no place in the window. No 
 one ever heard that Ken was an angler, and it 
 seems quite out of keeping with the memorial 
 to have included this great hymn-writer and 
 good man in the group to the exclusion of 
 Cotton.
 
 MEMORIAL WINDOW IX ST DUNSTAN ! S CHURCH, FLEET STREET, LONDON 
 To face page 126.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 127 
 
 In 1891 there was purchased in an old 
 curiosity shop near Westminster Abbey a fishing 
 creel bearing the initials I. W., with the date 1646 
 marked on the side. The purchaser submitted 
 it for examination to experts at the British 
 Museum, who pronounced the creel to be the 
 genuine work of Walton's period, but that the 
 initials had been more or less recently scratched 
 on it. 
 
 By the kind permission of the owner I have 
 been allowed to inspect the creel for myself. 
 Some Jew is supposed to have been guilty of the 
 fraud (see Notes and Queries, 9th S. VII., p. 
 410). Several previous attempts have been made 
 to deceive Waltonians as to Walton's possessions ; 
 as to a clock supposed to have been his, see Notes 
 and Queries, 7th S. II., p. 459, and 7th S. III., 
 p. 69. 
 
 I have handled Walton's Prayer-book, which is 
 to be seen in the British Museum. It contains 
 his studies for the epitaph of his second wife, 
 which is in Worcester Cathedral. The words 
 " Ex terris M. S. " do not appear and there are 
 various autobiographical notes. The article 
 "the" between "of" and "primitive piety" 
 is an interlineation and " Alas ! that she is 
 dead" was originally "Alas! Alas! that she 
 dyed." 
 
 Walton rang the changes over the spelling of
 
 i28 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 his name Izaak, he and others sometimes spelling it 
 with a "k"and sometimes with a "c." In the 
 Prayer-book his son the Canon spells it with a 
 "c." The Canon himself spelt his own name 
 with a "c." In his marriage licence in the 
 Canterbury Episcopal Register, dated the 27th 
 of December 1626, Walton signs his name with a 
 " c " ; but his will is signed with a "k." 
 
 In Macaulay's History of England, Vol. I., 
 Chapter III., there is a note on the paragraph as 
 to the scarcity of books in country houses in the 
 year 1685 which seems misleading. It is stated : 
 " Cotton seems, from his Angler, to have found 
 room for his whole library in his hall window ; 
 and Cotton was a man of letters." I fail to find 
 the authority for the statement. In Chapter 
 X. of Part II. of The Complete Angler, Piscator 
 says : " Walk but into the parlour, you will find 
 one book or other in the window to entertain 
 you the while " ; but surely this is a poor 
 authority to quote to show that Cotton had but 
 few books and that he kept all he possessed in 
 his hall window ! 
 
 With a curious desire to discover defects in 
 Walton's character I have made careful search. 
 The charge against him of cruelty as a fisherman 
 has been referred to in Chapter III. The charge 
 of his having been on one occasion "huffy, 
 brought against him by Franck, is almost too
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 129 
 
 childish to mention, since the occasion was 
 merely a discussion between them as to Gesner, 
 Dubravius and Aldrovandus being better 
 authorities as to " pickerel weed " than him- 
 self. 
 
 The fact is Franck was very dogmatic, and 
 probably Walton was piqued if not exasperated by 
 him. I give one instance of the former being 
 himself a formal opinionist. After giving certain 
 directions for the composition of a salmon fly he 
 said : " Should any man, under the pretence of an 
 artist, remain destitute of these printed qualifica- 
 tions, proclaim him a blockhead ; let him angle 
 for oisters." It is right to mention that Franck 
 was a skilful salmon angler. 
 
 Walton is often said to have made a mistake in 
 writing, as he did when near the end of his life, of 
 Ben Jonson, with reference to his infirmities ; but 
 considering his letter was written to his friend 
 John Aubrey, the antiquary, in reply to a re- 
 quest for information about Jonson, there was 
 no impropriety in Walton telling all he knew. 
 Subject as aforesaid, as lawyers write, and 
 if it be conceded that Walton was guilty of 
 several little literary deceptions, and frankly 
 allowing he was to some extent a plagiarist, and 
 " expanded unconsciously," I confess I cannot 
 find any flaw in his character. 
 
 I have never seen it observed what a pity it is
 
 1 3 o IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Cotton did not write a biography of Walton, which, 
 as he survived him four years, there was ample 
 time for him to do. Mr Le Gallienne in his edition 
 of The Complete Angler (1897) remarks that 
 Canon Isaak Walton, " in his long quiet life in 
 Salisbury Close, might surely have written some 
 notes of a father to whose biographical faculty, 
 and consequent acceptability with bishops, he owed 
 his canonry." 
 
 One of the last editions of The Complete 
 Angler I have seen is called the " Winchester 
 Edition," published in 1902, by Freemantle, 
 and edited by Mr George A. B. Dewar, who 
 has discovered the lease of "Norington farme " 
 which Walton in his will gave to his son 
 Isaak." 
 
 There is a great deal of learned and interesting 
 information as to Donne's seals in The Perverse 
 Widow; or, Memorials of the Boevey Family 
 before mentioned. I only remark here that 
 many gifts passed between Walton's friends 
 in the way of seals. Donne sent Herbert a 
 seal depicting Christ upon an anchor, which 
 Donne adopted in lieu of the crest of his 
 family, which was a sheaf of snakes : 
 
 " Adopted in God's family, and so 
 My old coat lost, into new Arms I go." 
 
 Walton sealed his will with one of these seals
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 131 
 
 of Donne's, and by his will bequeathed many rings, 
 some of which bear quaint mottoes. 
 
 There are in certain cities and towns in England 
 various clubs calling themselves after the names of 
 " Walton and Cotton." 
 
 I possess a very rare work, of which only 
 thirty-three copies were printed ; it is beautifully 
 printed and illustrated and was published in 
 London in 1840. It is headed Rules and Regula- 
 tions of the Walton and Cotton Club. Instituted 
 19th March 1817. Revised 8th April 1840. 
 "Dum capimus capimur." The frontispiece con- 
 tains a view of Cotton's fishing-house. The 
 contents are shown by the following extracts : 
 
 " At a meeting held at the Freemason's Tavern, 
 London, on Wednesday the 19th March 
 1817. 
 
 " PRESENT Charles Harvey, Esq.,M.P. ; Thomas 
 Butts Aveling, Esq. ; Michael Bland, Esq. ; John 
 Caley, Esq. ; Henry Ellis, Esq. ; Robert Gatty, 
 Esq. ; John Bland Hanbury, Esq. ; William Henry 
 Sharp, Esq. 
 
 " IT WAS RESOLVED That with sentiments of 
 veneration for the memory of honest Isaak Walton, 
 and of the high respect for that of the eminent 
 Fly-fisher, Charles Cotton, a Society be now in-
 
 132 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 stituted by the title of the Walton and Cotton 
 Club. 
 
 "That Charles Harvey, Esq., be the first and 
 modern President of the Club. 
 
 "That Michael Bland, Esq., be the first Vice- 
 President, Treasurer, and Secretary. 
 
 " That the above Gentlemen, together with the 
 Reverend Jeremiah Ives, of Norwich, be declared 
 the Founders of the said Club. 
 
 " At a meeting of the Walton and Cotton Club 
 held at the Freemason's Tavern, on the 26th 
 of March 1840, it was proposed and carried, that 
 a Committee consisting of the following Gentlemen 
 be appointed to revise the Rules and Regulations 
 of the Club :- 
 
 " Edward Jesse, Esq. ; William Dunn, Esq. ; 
 William R. Collett, Esq. ; A. Jenkins, Esq. ; 
 William Yarrell, Esq. ; R. G. Parnther ; William 
 Pickering, Esq. 
 
 " The Committee met on the 8th of April, and 
 the ensuing Rules and Regulations were submitted 
 to the General Meeting of the Club, and con- 
 firmed. ..." 
 
 Then, following the list of members, it is stated 
 that : 
 
 " The object of this Club being to promote and
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 133 
 
 improve the 'delightful Science of Angling/ it is 
 hoped that, following the example of those eminent 
 men, Walton and Cotton, every Member will study 
 to ensure the Harmony thereof, by a steady ad- 
 herence to Good - humour, Temperance, and 
 Sobriety ; gratefully sensible of the Blessings of 
 that Constitution of Government, which, while it 
 protects our Rights, permits us, with our Brethren, 
 ' quietly to go a- fishing ! ' ' 
 
 Then are set out ten ordinary club rules, the 
 seventh providing that any visitor introduced to 
 dinner was to be a gentleman attached to "the 
 Contemplative Man's Recreation." This club, so 
 far as I can discover, no longer exists (see Notes 
 and Queries, 9th S. XL, p. 7). 
 
 There appears to have been a Walton and 
 Cotton Club founded at Cambridge in 1825 ; but 
 my letter addressed there has been returned through 
 the Dead Letter Office. 
 
 Bethune, in his edition of The Complete Angler, 
 tells us about the formation of a club, called " The 
 Lake Piseco Trout Club," for anglers who fished 
 the waters in Hamilton county, in the northern 
 part of the State of New York, and that they had 
 erected a fishing-lodge and named it "Walton 
 Hall," in honour of their patron saint, "with 
 convenient rooms for each member of the 
 Club." 

 
 134 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 There is an amusing letter to Walton, written 
 by Mr Andrew Lang in his Letters to Dead Authors 
 (Longmans, 1896), which recognises Walton's 
 kindliness and acknowledges the stability of 
 his religion. 
 
 It has been much debated whether Walton 
 smoked. Some infer by a curious construction, 
 as it seems to me, of a sentence in TJie Com- 
 plete Angler that he did ; others again quote 
 the line in his elegy on Donne, "as poison'd 
 fumes do waste the braine," to show he did 
 not. The poet and the man are often very 
 different beings ! We know from his own 
 words that Cotton obtained his tobacco from 
 London, but he wrote a crushing satire against 
 its use. Walton tells us that Wotton had 
 taken tobacco "somewhat immoderately." He 
 and Isaac Barrow are both instances of men 
 who died "of the poisons that most sweetly 
 slay." l 
 
 I fear we must for ever guess in vain on how 
 many of the " prints and pickters " and " littell 
 things " specifically bequeathed to his son the 
 Canon, Walton had emblazoned his name or 
 initials. One likes to know that Virgil wore 
 patched shoes, that Horace had no gilt cornices 
 
 1 Barrow called tobacco his " -iraixpapfjuucov." He is supposed to 
 have learned the use of it where he found the opium which killed him 
 at last, in Turkey (see his Life by James Hamilton, 1639).
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 135 
 
 at the Sabine farm, that Samuel Johnson wore 
 snuff brown, that Voltaire had gay embroidered 
 bed-gowns, that Oliver Goldsmith was vain of a 
 cherry-coloured coat, and that Barry Cornwall had 
 a patent lamp and a flunky in green livery (see 
 Blackwood's Magazine, Vol. XII., p. 166), so every 
 scrap of information as to Walton is eagerly sought 
 for by his many devotees. 1 
 
 Walton was no teetotaler. We read of his 
 resorting to "an honest ale-house, where we may 
 have a good cup of good barley- wine." By this 
 wine was probably meant common beer. 2 
 
 He seems fond of the word " honest ale-house," 
 for he uses it more than once. Again we read : 
 " Come, hostess, dress it (a trout) presently, and 
 get us what other meat the house will afford, and 
 give us some of your best barley-wine and good 
 liquor that our honest forefathers did use to drink 
 of; the drink which preserved their health, and 
 made them live so long, and do so many good 
 deeds." When asked, " Will you drink a draught of 
 red cow's milk ? " 3 his answer was, " No, I thank 
 you." 
 
 1 One of Walton's watches, or what is believed to be such, is in the 
 possession of a sister of the Rev. A. S. Wyndham Merewether, of 
 North Bradley Vicarage, Trowbridge, Wilts. 
 
 2 Beer then (1685) was to the middle and lower classes not only all 
 that beer now is, but all that wine, tea and ardent spirits now are. 
 (Macaulay's History of England, Vol. I., Chap. III.). 
 
 3 This was supposed to be good for consumption .
 
 
 136 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Walton did not make his fishing " pay." " It is 
 a good beginning of your art," he writes, " to offer 
 your first-fruits to the poor, who will both thank 
 God and you for it." And again we read : " Having 
 caught more fish than will sup myself and my 
 friend, I will bestow this upon you and your 
 daughter, for I use to sell none." 1 
 
 Walton was very fond of backing his opinion ; 
 but it does not appear that money really passed. 
 Sometimes it is " twenty to one " if he had taken 
 up a certain rod ; then it is an " even lay " as to 
 which rod catches, and at another time it is 
 "twenty to one" on his catching the biggest of 
 some twenty chubs. 
 
 Mr F. C. Burnand has written a funny book 
 entitled The Incompleat Angler (Bradbury, Agnew 
 & Co.), consisting of amusing conversation between 
 Piscator, Venator and Auceps and others ; it is 
 well worth perusing. 
 
 The question has been raised by Mr Marston 
 whether Walton kept a horse. He observes 
 Walton could not go from London fishing " by 
 train or tram or 'bus, as the modern Londoner 
 does." Certainly Walton once refers to "my 
 horse " when referring to baits for bream. How- 
 ever, the question seems hardly worth pursuing, 
 
 1 Walton tells us that Dr Nowell (1507-1602), Dean of St Paul's 
 Cathedral, who was a great angler, " usually bestowed all his fish 
 amongst the poor."
 
 1ZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 137 
 
 but the following fancy conversation written by 
 W. S. Landor in his Imaginary Conversations, 
 Vol. IV., is interesting ; 
 
 " Walton. Hold my mare, son Cotton. I will 
 try whether my whip can reach the window, when 
 I have mounted the bank. 
 
 " Cotton. Curious ! the middle of a street to 
 be lower than the side by several feet. People 
 would not believe it in London or Hull." 1 Again 
 we read ; " I never could have believed, master 
 Izaak, that you would have trusted your tackle out 
 of your own hand" ; and Walton says : "Without 
 cogent reason, no indeed ; but let me whisper. 
 I told youngster it was because I carried a 
 hunting-whip, and could not hold that and rod 
 too." 
 
 The play-writer has not forgotten to make 
 Walton the subject for a drama. I possess a 
 booklet printed from the prompter's copy by 
 Charles Dance (Chapman & Hall). The dedica- 
 tion runs as follows : "To the President and 
 Members of The Walton & Cotton Club, the 
 following humble tribute to the memory of their 
 revered 'Father and Friend, honest Izaak Walton,' 
 is especially dedicated by their very obedient 
 Servant, Charles Dance." It is written from the 
 Garrick Club, and dated 1st July 1839. 
 
 Walton's portrait, formerly in the National 
 
 1 The scene is Ashbourne.
 
 138 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Gallery, was in July 1898 deposited in the 
 National Portrait Gallery. It was painted by Jacob 
 Huysman (1656-1696), a Dutch artist, who was 
 born at Antwerp, and settled in England. He 
 was the rival as a portrait painter of Sir Peter 
 Lely. One of the portraits among the " Windsor 
 Beauties," now at Hampton Court, was painted by 
 him, also an altar-piece in the King's Chapel, St 
 James's. He died in London. 
 
 The portrait has been thought to show " mild 
 complacency, forbearance, mature consideration, 
 calm activity, peace, sound understanding, power 
 of thought, discerning attention, and secretly 
 active friendship." 
 
 There are several portraits of Charles Cotton. 
 The portrait by Sir Peter Lely, now in the 
 possession of the writer, was formerly in the 
 possession of his great uncle, John Beresford, 
 of Ashbourne, and it is the one to be found 
 copied in Sir Harris Nicolas's, and Baxter's 
 edition of The Complete Angler. 
 
 Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) became intimate 
 with Charles II. and painted many beauties of his 
 Court. He was knighted in 1679. He died 
 suddenly, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, 
 where a monument was erected to his memory. 
 He married and had two children. 
 
 The real lover of Walton will enjoy the
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 139 
 
 following extract from Major : "I had long been 
 asking myself in the language of Abraham Cowley, 
 ' What shall I do to be for ever known ? ' and niy 
 good genius whispered, ' Give your days and 
 nights to emblazon the worth of Izaak Walton.' '
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SHORT SKETCHES OF SOME FAMOUS ECCLESIASTICS 
 
 WHO WERE WALTON'S FRIENDS 
 
 " Love and esteem are the first principles of friendship, 
 which always is imperfect where either of these two is 
 wanting." 20, 385, The Spectator. 
 
 "In companions 
 
 That do converse and waste the time together, 
 Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love, 
 There must be needs a like proportion 
 Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirits." 
 
 Merchant of Venice. 
 
 "Life is never finished in its purpose and idea; and its 
 work is at best but a fragment." JAMES MARTINEAU. 
 
 IN his youth and early manhood Walton appears to 
 have had the power to make "troops of friends," 
 and he possessed the still greater power of keep- 
 ing them. We have seen in a former chapter 
 he was very particular whom he would reckon 
 as his friends ; his will shows he had many who 
 survived him, though he outlived nearly all of 
 
 the most famous of them. 
 
 140
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 141 
 
 I now give concise biographical sketches of 
 some of them. 
 
 "And we may well wonder how many more sons of Memory 
 must he not have known or seen in all those years so populous 
 with men justly famous." 
 
 I have dived into a multitude of books to gain 
 
 o 
 
 my information, and I think that certain matters 
 not generally known will here be found narrated. 
 
 THOMAS BARLOW, BISHOP OF LINCOLN 
 (1607-1691). 
 
 " Fling away ambition." 
 
 He was born at Langhill, in the Parish of Orton, 
 in Westmoreland, and was a son of Richard 
 Barlow, descended from the ancient family of that 
 name, of Barlow Moore, in Lancashire. He was 
 educated at Queen's College, Oxford. He was 
 a strong Protestant and Calvinist, and became a 
 very ambitious man and a great time -server. In 
 1660 he wrote in favour of toleration. 1 Becoming 
 Provost of Queen's College, and a prebendary of 
 Worcester Cathedral, he was, in 1675, appointed 
 Bishop of Lincoln. It appears he changed his 
 views in 1684, for in a charge to his clergy he 
 called on them to enforce the laws against the 
 dissenters, " agreeably to the resolution of the 
 
 1 The title of the treatise being The Case of Toleration in Matters 
 of Religion ; it was addressed to Robert Boyle.
 
 1 42 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Bedfordshire Justices adopted at Ampthill." In 
 this charge he both justifies and enforces the 
 persecution of dissenters as necessary to " bring 
 them to a sense of their duty by the blessing 
 of God for that ' afflictio dat intellectum. ' ' 
 He died at Buckdon and was buried in the 
 chancel of the Parish Church there, near to the 
 body of Bishop Sanderson. By his will he be- 
 queathed some of his books to Queen's College 
 and some to the University of Oxford. His por- 
 trait "was bequeathed by Bishop Cartwright of 
 Chester, to be hung up and kept for ever in the 
 provost's lodgings." 
 
 WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH 
 
 (1602-1644). 
 " Thy commandment is exceeding broad." 
 
 He was the son of an Oxford mercer, and 
 was educated at the Grammar School in Oxford, 
 and became a Fellow of Trinity College in that 
 university in 1628, and was ordained in 1638. 
 His fame rests on his book The Religion of 
 Protestants, the full title being " The Eeligion of 
 Protestants, a Safe Way of Salvation, or an Answer 
 to a Book entitled ' Mercy and Truth ; or, Charity 
 Maintained by Catholiques.' ' The writer pleads for 
 the right of private judgment, and declares it is
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 143 
 
 impossible for any man to attain to more than 
 relative certainty on religious matters. " Chilling- 
 worth," says Sir James Stephen, " wants little but 
 a change in punctuation to be a writer of our own 
 day, and a writer as powerful, as expressive and as 
 idiomatic as any in the whole history of our 
 language." A writer in the Quarterly Review for 
 July 1902 asks if it can be said that there still 
 survives sufficient interest in the long argumenta- 
 tion between a Protestant and a Jesuit on the facts 
 of the case, as they appeared in the earliest part 
 of the seventeenth century, to make it worth 
 while to republish The Religion of Protestants. 
 
 Chillingworth has been styled " The Immortal." 
 He died on the 30th of January 1644, and was 
 buried in Chichester Cathedral. 1 
 
 JAMES DUPORT 
 
 (1606-1679). 
 " He was a scholar ; and a ripe and good one." 
 
 He was the son of John Duport, Master of 
 Jesus College, Cambridge, who assisted in the 
 translation of King James's Bible. 
 
 He was educated at Westminster and at 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a 
 
 1 His life was much harassed by Francis Cheynell, the Parlia- 
 mentary Chaplain, who threw the famous book into Chillingworth's 
 grave.
 
 144 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Fellow in 1627, and later on Vice-Master. He was 
 Greek professor at Cambridge, and was said " to 
 have been the main instrument by which literature 
 was upheld in this university during the civil 
 disturbances of the seventeenth century." Isaac 
 Barrow was his pupil, and when, in 1654, Duport 
 resigned the Greek professorship at Cambridge he 
 recommended him for the post. Barrow did not 
 then succeed in obtaining it, although he did so at 
 the Restoration. He complained, however, that no 
 one attended his lectures. " I sit like an Attic owl," 
 he says, " driven out from the society of all other 
 birds." In 1662 Duport published a collection of 
 Latin poems. In 1664 he was made Dean of 
 Peterborough, and in 1668 Master of Magdalene 
 College. He was not allowed to preach in St 
 Paul's Cathedral a second time, because of a 
 sermon he had preached there as to the way that 
 Cathedral was profaned. He said : " Church aisles 
 were exchanged into shops, and churchyards into 
 markets." l 
 
 Duport was buried in Peterborough Cathedral, 
 where there is a tablet erected to his memory. 
 He wrote verses in praise of Walton. They are 
 set out at the end of this book, and translated 
 
 J St Paul's Cathedral was turned into a market, and the aisles, the 
 communion table and the altar served for the foulest purposes. 
 Churchyards seem to have been in old times used as market-places. 
 An Act of Parliament provided that neither fairs nor markets be 
 kept in churchyards, for the honour of the Church.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 145 
 
 into English for the benefit of readers who may not 
 be competent to translate them. 
 
 BRIAN DUPPA, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER 
 (1588-1662). 
 
 " There has perhaps never passed a life of which a 
 judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful." 
 
 DR JOHNSON. 
 
 His father was by repute Vicar of Lewisham 
 in Kent, where he was born. He was educated 
 at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, be- 
 coming a Fellow of All Souls' in 1612, and Dean 
 of Christ Church in 1629, where during his reign 
 he made many changes in the interior of the 
 Cathedral. In 1626 he married, and later 
 on he became tutor to the Prince of 
 Wales, afterwards Charles II., who visited 
 Duppa when he was dying and knelt at his 
 bedside to receive his blessing. In 1638 he was 
 made Bishop of Chichester, and translated to 
 Salisbury in 1641. At the Restoration he was, 
 in 1660, made Bishop of Winchester. Some say 
 he assisted Charles I. in the composition of 
 Eikon Basilike, but he did not write much. 
 Duppa was a man of "exemplary piety, lively 
 conversation, and excess of good-nature." He 
 was noted for his charity. His last days were 
 spent in retirement at Richmond in Surrey,
 
 146 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 where he interested himself in the preservation 
 of the Episcopal succession during the Common- 
 wealth, even admitting men privately to holy 
 orders. He died at Richmond, Surrey, and was 
 buried on the north side of Edward the Con- 
 fessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey ; and King, 
 Bishop of Chichester, preached his funeral sermon. 
 His portrait is at Salisbury and at Christ Church, 
 and a bust of him is at All Souls' College. He 
 bequeathed legacies to his old school, to Christ 
 Church and All Souls, to his former sees, and 
 to various charities. 
 
 DANIEL FEATLEY 
 
 (1582-1645). 
 "The whirligig of time brings in his revenges." 
 
 He was born at Charlton-upon-Otmoor, in 
 Oxfordshire, and educated at Corpus Christi 
 College, Oxford. He became domestic chaplain 
 to Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was 
 presented to the living of Lambeth in Febru- 
 ary 1618, on resigning Northhill Rectory, in 
 Cornwall. He became a great controversialist 
 and was a Calvinist. His best known works 
 are, " The Dippers dipt : or, the Anabaptists duck'd 
 and plung'd over head and ears at a Disputa- 
 tion in South wark, &c.," and Clams Mystica.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 147 
 
 He died at Chelsea College, and was buried 
 in the chancel of Lambeth Parish Church. 1 It 
 is most curious to note that Featley, who was 
 so very bitter against the Baptists, should have 
 been buried in a church where a font-grave for 
 baptising adults by immersion has been dedicated 
 as a memorial to Archbishop Benson. It is de- 
 signed after the general plan of one in the ruined 
 Church of St Stephen, in the Campagna at Kome. 
 The inscription, in open copper work, is taken from 
 the font of St Sophia at Constantinople 
 
 NITON ANOMHMATA 
 MH MONAN OYIN, 
 
 which, being translated, means "Wash your 
 transgressions, not only your face." 2 The last 
 Kector, the Kev. J. Andrewes Eeeve, received 
 the approval of Archbishop Benson to the erection 
 of such font in his lifetime. There is no other 
 church belonging to the Establishment in London 
 in which baptism can be duly administered by 
 immersion. Featley spelt his name in four 
 different ways, viz., Fertlough, Fairclough, Fair- 
 clowe and Featley. 
 
 1 The History and Antiquities of Lambeth, by John Tanswell 
 (F. Pickton, 1858). 
 
 2 There is a silver dish used for rose-water, belonging to Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, on which these words appear in a little circle in 
 the centre of the dish. For various references to this inscription, see 
 Notes and Queries, 4th S. XT., etc., under Palindromes.
 
 i 4 8 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 JOHN FELL, BISHOP OF OXFORD 
 
 (1625-1686). 
 "Clad with zeal as a cloke." ISAIAH lix. 17. 
 
 He was the son of Dr Samuel Fell, who was 
 Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1638, by 
 Margaret, daughter of Thomas Wilde or Wyld, of 
 Worcester. When only eleven years old he was 
 sent to Christ Church, and took his degree in 
 1640. He was in arms for Charles I. within the 
 garrison of Oxford, and later on was ordained ; 
 after the Restoration he was made Prebendary of 
 Chichester, and Canon of Christ Church, and in 
 1660 he was made D.D. and Dean of Christ 
 Church. He restored the college by his own bene- 
 factions and with what he collected from others, 
 and built the tower over the chief gateway of the 
 college, to which he had transferred out of the 
 steeple in the Cathedral the bell known as 
 " Great Tom," which he had re-cast with addi- 
 tional metal. 1 
 
 Walton sent his son to Christ Church, most 
 probably to be under the eye of his friend. 
 
 Fell was a great Protestant. When Master of 
 
 1 " Hark ! the first and second bell 
 On ev'ry day, at four and ten, 
 Cries : come, come, come, come to prayers, 
 And the verger walks before the dean.' 
 
 DEAN ALDRICH.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 149 
 
 St Oswald Hospital, Worcester, 1 he rebuilt it in a 
 sumptuous manner, bestowing all the profits of his 
 income there in augmenting and recovering its 
 estates. In 1663 an Act of Parliament was 
 passed for " governing of the hospital of St Oswald 
 in the county of Worcester." 
 
 In 1666-1669 Fell was Vice-chancellor of the 
 university, during which time he successfully re- 
 stored discipline there and greatly raised the 
 reputation of the college. In 1675 he became 
 Bishop of Oxford. He rebuilt the Episcopal Palace 
 of Cuddesden. He was, says Wood, " The most 
 zealous man of his time for the Church of England; 
 a great encourager and promoter of learning in the 
 university, and of all public works belonging there- 
 unto ; of great resolution and exemplary charity ; 
 of strict integrity ; a learned divine, and excellently 
 skilled in the Latin and Greek languages." It is 
 now generally allowed that he was the subject of 
 the epigram, "I do not like you, Dr Fell," though 
 the origin of the epigram has been the subject of 
 much learned and interesting discussion. 2 Fell 
 wrote a life of Dr Henry Hammond. He died a 
 bachelor, and was buried in Christ Church 
 Cathedral. There is a picture in which he figures 
 
 1 This hospital was originally an infirmary, founded for leprous 
 monks of Worcester Priory. 
 
 2 So popular was Fell, says W. L. Bowles in his Life of Ken, that 
 a loyal Oxford apothecary left eight pounds a year for a prize com- 
 position at Christ Church, " In laudem Doctoris Fell."
 
 150 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 in the hall at Christ Church, and there is a statue 
 of him in the quadrangle at Christ Church, which, 
 since it is thereon recorded that he was born at 
 Longworth in Berkshire, should settle the doubts 
 that have been raised as to his birthplace, since 
 such evidence would, primd facie, be taken as con- 
 clusive in a Court of Judicature. 1 
 
 THOMAS FULLER 
 
 (1608-1661). 
 
 " In moderation placing all my glory, 
 The Tories caU me Whig, the Whigs a Tory." 
 
 " I cannot tell how the truth may be, 
 I say the tale as it was said to me." 
 
 He was born in Northampton and became " a 
 boy of pregnant wit," and was educated at Queen's 
 College, Cambridge, but being disappointed in not 
 obtaining a Fellowship there he migrated to Sidney 
 Sussex College, where he succeeded in becom- 
 ing a Fellow. He became a popular preacher, 
 and in 1631, was made a Prebendary of Salisbury 
 Cathedral. He was a rigid ascetic. He became 
 Lecturer at St Bride's, Fleet Street. The best 
 known of his works are his Church History of 
 Britain and Worthies of England, which was com- 
 
 1 Lysons states Fell was baptised on July 16, 1624.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 151 
 
 pleted in 1660, but not published until a year 
 after his death. After Walton had read The 
 Church History he asked Fuller for some informa- 
 tion as to Hooker, whose life he was preparing to 
 write. In return Fuller asked Walton's opinion 
 of the history and what his friends thought of it. 
 Walton answered, that "he thought it would be 
 very acceptable to all tempers, because there were 
 shades in it for the warm, and sunshine for those 
 of a cold constitution : that with youthful readers, 
 the facetious parts would be profitable to make 
 the serious more palatable, while some reverend 
 old readers might fancy themselves, in his History 
 of the Church, as in a flower garden, or one full of 
 evergreens." "And why not," said Fuller, " The 
 Church History so decked, as well as the Church 
 itself at a most holy season, or the Tabernacle of 
 old at the feast of boughs ? " " That was but for a 
 season," said Walton, "in your feast of boughs, 
 they may conceive, we are so overshadowed 
 throughout, that the parson is more seen than 
 his congregation and this sometimes, invisible to 
 its own acquaintance, who may wander in the 
 search till they are lost in the labyrinth." " Oh," 
 said Fuller, " the very children of our Israel may 
 find their way out of this wilderness." "True," 
 replied Walton, "as, indeed, they have here such 
 a Moses to conduct them." Fuller, who was a 
 Royalist, was, on the Restoration, created a D.D.
 
 1 52 1ZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 He was no strong partisan, however. He was 
 deemed by one party before whom he preached 
 "a hot Royalist," while for his discourses 
 before the King and Court at Oxford he 
 was blamed as being too lukewarm. He was 
 noted for having a wonderful memory. He died 
 in Covent Garden and was buried in the chancel 
 of Cranford Church in Middlesex, of which he 
 had been appointed Kector in 1658. His epi- 
 taph says that "while he was endeavouring to 
 give immortality to others he himself attained 
 it." His wife survived him over twenty-one 
 years and was buried in Cranford Church. 
 
 JOHN HALES 
 
 (1584-1656). 
 
 " Ever memorable." 
 
 He was the fourth son of John Hales of High- 
 church, near Bath, in Somersetshire, and was 
 educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, being 
 subsequently elected to a Fellowship at Merton in 
 1605. He was a great Greek scholar ; Wotton 
 dubbed him "Our Bibliotheca ambulans." He 
 was a friend of Chillingworth's. Laud made him 
 a Canon of Windsor in 1639. Dr King styled him 
 "the best critic of our time." His chief work was
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 153 
 
 a small book on Schism and Schismaticks. He died 
 and was buried at Eton. There is no known 
 portrait of him, but Sir Harris Nicolas says that 
 Walton's memoranda show that his portrait after 
 his death was painted by Anne, Lady Howe, sister 
 of Henry King, Bishop of Chichester. 
 
 JOSEPH HALL, BISHOP OF NORWICH 
 
 (1574-1656). 
 "Satire's my weapon." 
 
 He was the son of a keeper near Norwich, and 
 was born in Bristow Park, in the parish of Ashby- 
 de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, and was educated at 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and became a 
 Fellow there in 1595. He considered himself to be 
 the best English satirist, and wrote : 
 
 " I first adventure ; follow me who list, 
 And be the second English Satirist." 
 
 Hall has often been called " The Christian " ; 
 or, "Our English Seneca." Appointed Dean of 
 Worcester, and in 1627 promoted to be Bishop 
 of Exeter, he was transferred, in 1641, to Nor- 
 wich. He is said to have written his finest dis- 
 courses at Worcester. He was a Calvinist and a 
 decided Low Churchman. Among other works,
 
 154 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 he wrote one entitled No Peace with Rome. Lord 
 Clarendon refers to him as being a popular 
 prelate. He married, and several of his sons 
 obtained good positions as clergymen. Walton, by 
 his will, bequeathed to his daughter " Dr Hall's 
 works, which be now at Farnham." In 1643, upon 
 being turned out of his Norwich bishopric by the 
 Commissioners who were sent there on the passing 
 of the Act for Sequestration of the Property of 
 Malignants, in which he was named, Hall retired 
 to Heigham village, near to Norwich, where he 
 lived till his death. He was buried in the church- 
 yard there and not in the church, for he did not 
 hold " God's house a meet repository for the dead 
 bodies of the greatest saints." Affixed to some 
 of his books is a portrait of him. 
 
 HENRY HAMMOND 
 
 (1605-1660). 
 " Inter Silvas Academi quasrere Verum." 
 
 He was a son of Dr John Hammond, Physician 
 to Prince Henry, and was born at Chertsey in 
 Surrey, and educated at Eton and at Magdalene 
 College, Oxford. He became Canon of Christ 
 Church and Public Orator, and one of Charles the 
 First's chaplains. In 1630 he was Rector of 
 Penshurst, Kent, and in 1639 became D.D. He
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 155 
 
 became a great friend of Sir John Pakington, who 
 married Lady Dorothy Coventry, the fifth daughter 
 of Thomas Coventry, Lord Keeper of the Great 
 Seal, who was elevated to the peerage by the title of 
 Baron Coventry of Aylesborough, county Worcester, 
 in 1628. She was known by the name of "The 
 good Lady Pakington," and has been credited with 
 being the authoress of The Whole Duty of Man. 
 Although many others have had the work attributed 
 to them (in the Bodleian Catalogue, in Oxford, the 
 book is ascribed to Richard Allestree), it seems 
 quite likely that she may have been the real 
 authoress of the work, having the help of Bishop 
 Morley, Bishop Henchman, Dr Fell and Hammond 
 possibly as well, over it. Hammond gave Isaac 
 Barrow sufficient aid to enable him to study at Cam- 
 bridge and lived to see his bounty rewarded in the 
 early eminence of his protege; whilst Barrow lived 
 to testify his gratitude in a copious Latin epitaph. 
 During the Civil Wars, Hammond, with other learned 
 men, found Westwood, in Worcestershire, a refuge 
 place, where he wrote many of his books. Hallam, 
 in his Literary History, says : " The Paraphrase and 
 Annotations of Hammond on the New Testament 
 give a different colour to the Epistles of St Paul 
 from that which they display in the hands of Beza 
 and the other theologians of the sixteenth 
 century. And the name of Hammond stood so 
 high with the Anglican clergy, that he naturally
 
 156 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 turned the tide of interpretation his own way." 
 Hammond was Bishop- designate of Worcester, but 
 died before his consecration at Westwood. He 
 was buried at Hampton Lovett, Worcestershire, 
 where there is a marble monument erected to 
 his memory in the nave, with a long Latin 
 inscription. 
 
 His portrait, by an artist unknown, is in the 
 Hall of Magdalene College, Oxford. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER HARVEY 
 (1597-1663). 
 
 " The coin that is most current among mankind is flattery." 
 
 DEAN SWIFT. 
 
 He was a son of the Rev. Christopher Harvey, 
 or Harvie, of Bunbury, Cheshire, and was educated 
 at Brasenose College, Oxford. He married and 
 had issue. He was the author of The Synagogue 
 and other works. 1 To the second edition of 
 The, Complete Angler he prefixed commendatory 
 verses, and to one of the editions of The Synagogue 
 Walton contributed some like verses. The 
 beautiful poem on Common Prayer, written by 
 Harvey, is set out on page 14. Harvey was 
 buried at Clifton, in Warwickshire, of which place 
 he was vicar. 
 
 1 Schola Cordis is one : but it is sometimes ascribed to Quarles.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 157 
 
 HUMPHREY HENCHMAN, BISHOP OF LONDON 
 (1592-1675). 
 
 " They who have steeped their souls in prayer 
 Can every anguish calmly bear ; 
 They who have learnt to pray aright 
 From pain's dark well draw up delight." 
 
 HOUGHTON. 
 
 He was the son of a citizen of London, and 
 was born at Barton Seagrove, in Northampton- 
 shire ; he was educated at Christ's College, 
 Cambridge, and three years after taking his B.A. 
 degree became a Fellow on the " Freeman " Founda- 
 tion at Clare College, then Clare Hall. His grand- 
 mother was a near relation of the founder, one John 
 Freeman of Billing, in Northamptonshire. Hench- 
 man married a niece of John Davenant, Bishop of 
 Salisbury, and had issue. When Prebend of 
 Salisbury he arranged the escape of Charles II. 
 from England, after the battle of Worcester (1651). 
 Clarendon, in giving the account, spells his name 
 Hinchman, which is wrong. He suffered depriva- 
 tion during the rebellion. He was one of those 
 who attended at the Savoy Conference, and his 
 great learning was recognised by Baxter. In 1630 
 he married. It has been suggested that he was the 
 author of The Whole Duty of Man. Walton says 
 he was indebted to Henchman for some inform- 
 ation as to George Herbert. During the plague
 
 158 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Henchman remained bravely at his post. He 
 was noted for his hospitality. He wrote the 
 Epitaph to Henry Hammond, which is on his 
 monument in Hampton Lovett Church in Worcester- 
 shire. Becoming Bishop of Salisbury in 1660, he 
 succeeded Sheldon as Bishop of London in 1663, 
 which see he held until his death. He died at the 
 Episcopal Palace in Aldersgate Street, and was 
 buried in Fulham Church. Portraits of him are 
 at Fulham and the Charterhouse, and at Lord 
 Clarendon's place, Grove Park, in Herts. The last- 
 mentioned portrait is by Sir Peter Lely. 
 
 RICHARD HOLDSWORTH 
 (1590-1649). 
 
 "A brave man struggling in the storms of fate, and 
 greatly falling in a falling state." 
 
 "What if He hath decreed that I shall first 
 Be try'd in humble state and things adverse, 
 By tribulations, injuries, insults, 
 Contempts, and scorns, and snares and violence." 
 
 MILTON. 
 
 He was a son of the Vicar of Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne, and was born there. He was edu- 
 cated at St John's College, Cambridge. A great 
 dispute arose in the college whether he or a Dr 
 Lane should be the master, but neither was 
 elected. Holdsworth became Master of Emmanuel
 
 IZ.AAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 159 
 
 College in 1637, and Vice-Chancellor of the Univer- 
 sity in 1640. He did not write much. Though a 
 staunch Royalist, he was a very moderate Church- 
 man, and was appointed Dean of Worcester, but 
 was never installed. He was dispossessed of all 
 his preferments, imprisoned, and so harassed that 
 he died soon after the execution of the king in 1649, 
 being deeply affected thereby (see TJie Monastery 
 and Cathedral of Worcester, by John Noake, 1866). 
 He was buried in St Peter's Poor Church, Broad 
 Street, London, having remembered his College, St 
 John's, in his will by bequeathing some books to it. 
 There was a dispute, however, over the bulk of 
 his library between the University and Emmanuel 
 College. The former, by paying the College a sum 
 of money, acquired it. 
 
 THOMAS KEN 
 (1637-1711). 
 
 "I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and 
 will not be ashamed." 
 
 He was educated at Winchester and at New 
 College, Oxford. He was a son of Thomas Ken 
 by his second wife Martha, daughter of John 
 Chaulkhill, and was born at Berkhamstead, Herts, 
 in July 1637. It is thought likely that his home, 
 on his father's death, was at the house of Walton, 
 who married his half-sister Anne. In 1675 he 
 travelled abroad with Izaak Walton's son, who was
 
 160 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 then at Christ Church College, Oxford, and re- 
 turned more convinced than before of the errors 
 of the Romish Church. When at Winchester, 
 Morley made him his domestic chaplain, and later 
 on, that is, in January 1685, he became Bishop of 
 Bath and Wells, and attended Charles II. on his 
 deathbed. He opposed James II. in his en- 
 deavours to introduce Popery, and was one of the 
 seven bishops sent to the Tower. Though he was 
 a non-juror he refused, unlike Bancroft, to conse- 
 crate bishops in order to continue the Episcopal 
 succession among the non-jurors, who only died 
 out in 1805. Queen Anne granted him a pension 
 of 200 a year. Ken's Morning and Evening Hymns 
 are perhaps the most popular in our language. 
 Ken was attended in his last illness, which was 
 very painful, by his physician, Dr Merewether, 
 whose daughter married William Hawkins, grand- 
 son of Izaak Walton. 1 Ken died a bachelor in 
 1711, and was buried in the Parish Church of 
 Frome in Somersetshire. In his will he said : "I 
 die in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic faith, pro- 
 fessed by the whole Church before the division of 
 East and West; more particularly, I die in the 
 communion of the Church of England as it stands 
 
 1 Ken would not continue to take opium to relieve his sufferings, 
 and wrote : " Verse is the only laudanum for my pains." He died 
 with the words "Laus Deo" trembling on his lips. The Rev. A. S. 
 Wyndham Merewether (see p. 135) has Keu's watch, seal and Greek 
 Testament.
 
 WALTON'S STATUE IN WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL 
 
 To face page 161.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 161 
 
 distinguished from all papal and puritan innova- 
 tions, and as it adheres to the doctrines of the 
 cross." Ken's house at Winchester stood in the 
 garden of the present Deanery. " Tradition still 
 points to the spot in the garden at which Ken 
 made his famous stand against ' Poor Nelly,' and 
 won the respect of the monarch whose wishes he 
 did not fear to withstand " (Historic Towns : 
 Winchester. By G. W. Kit chin, Dean of Winchester, 
 Longmans, 1890). Ken's figure has been placed 
 near Walton's on the great screen of Winchester 
 Cathedral. 1 There are two portraits of him in New 
 College, Oxford, and one at Wells Palace and 
 Winchester College, and he is one in the group of 
 "The Seven Bishops" in the National Portrait 
 Gallery. In 1885, a window to Ken was set up in 
 Wells Cathedral, and as mentioned in a previous 
 chapter, he is given a place in the window erected 
 to Walton's memory in St Dunstan's Church. 
 
 HENRY KING, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER 
 (1592-1669). 
 
 " Linked sweetness long drawn out." GOLDSMITH. 
 
 He was educated at Westminster and at Christ 
 Church, Oxford, and was a son of John King, 
 
 1 Dr Plumptre, in his Life of Ken, claims for Walton a larger 
 share in the formation of Ken's character than the biographers before 
 him (Plumptre) have assigned to Walton. 
 
 L
 
 1 62 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FKIENDS 
 
 Bishop of London, who died in 1621, and was 
 a celebrated ^preacher in his day, being styled 
 by James I. " The King of Preachers," and is 
 buried in St Paul's Cathedral, with the one word 
 "Resurgam" on his gravestone. On his death a 
 report went about that he had died a Roman 
 Catholic. The son Henry King preached a 
 sermon at St Paul's Cross, 1 entitled "The 
 Scandalous Keport touching the supposed 
 Apostasie," exposing the falsity of the story. 
 King and Walton were both present with Donne 
 when the latter was dying. King wrote a letter 
 from Chichester, dated the 17th of November 
 1664, to Walton, commencing " Honest Isaac," 2 
 in which he stated that their friendship had 
 existed for more than forty years, and which, 
 after giving him certain information about 
 Hooker, ends thus: "One who heartily wishes 
 your happiness, and is unfeigned ly, Sir, your 
 ever faithful and Affectionate old Friend, Henry 
 Chichester." King wrote an elegy "Upon the 
 
 1 Stowe says that there was a pulpit cross of timber, mounted 
 upon steps of stone, and covered with lead, in which sermons were 
 preached by learned divines every Sunday in the forenoon, when the 
 Court and the Magistrates of the City, besides a vast concourse of 
 people, usually attended. 
 
 It was at St Paul's Cross that, in the beginning of the Eeformation, 
 the Hood of Grace, whose eyes and lips were moved with wires, was 
 exposed to the view of the people and destroyed by them. 
 
 2 In using the word " Honest" the writer possibly remembered the 
 force of the Latin word " honestus," and may have wished to imply 
 that Walton possessed a fine character as well as a magnetic one.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 163 
 
 death of my ever-desired friend Doctor Donne, 
 Dean of St Paul's." Like his father, King gained 
 great celebrity by his preaching. He was a Low 
 Churchman. He died at Chichester and was 
 buried there, where there is a monument to his 
 memory. There is a portrait of King at Christ 
 Church College, Oxford. 
 
 ABRAHAM MARKLAND 
 
 (1645-1728). 
 "We cannot all be Masters." SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 He was a son of Michael Markland, a druggist, 
 and was born in London. After being sent to 
 Merchant Taylors' School, he proceeded to St 
 John's College, Oxford, where he became a Fellow 
 in 1662, and was ordained, and successively held 
 various livings in Hampshire, becoming a prebend 
 of Winchester, and, in the year 1692, D.D. In 
 1694 he was appointed Master of St Cross 
 Hospital, Winchester, which post he held till 
 his death. He was married twice and had issue 
 one child by each wife. He published some poems 
 and sermons. He was one of the three witnesses 
 to the will of Walton. James Heywood Markland, 
 the learned antiquary, who died in 1864, was one 
 of his descendants, and published a Life of 
 Bishop Ken.
 
 1 64 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 GEORGE MORLEY, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER 
 (1597-1684). 
 
 " What I planned, I did ; what I desired to be, I was ; 
 what was in me I taught." 
 
 He was a son of Francis Morley, and was 
 born in Cheapside, London, and was educated 
 at Westminster School, and at Christ Church, 
 Oxford. In 1641 he was made a Canon of Christ 
 Church, the only appointment he said he ever 
 desired. He became one of Jonson's "sons." 
 Charles I. appointed him to be one of his 
 chaplains. In 1642 he preached one of his 
 sermons before the House of Commons, but he 
 was not ordered to print it according to the usual 
 custom. He was a Calvinist, and zealous against 
 Popery. Innocently asked " what the Armenians 
 held," he answered pleasantly, " that they held 
 all the best bishoprics and deaneries in England. " 
 He passed some years abroad. In 1660 he was 
 appointed Dean of Christ Church and Bishop 
 of Worcester, but after two years he was, on 
 Dr Duppa's death, translated to Winchester. In 
 1660 Morley preached the Coronation sermon 
 (from Proverbs xxviii. 2). "The sermon was 
 very long and was intended to show the evils of 
 a multitude of rulers, and especially of an un- 
 natural, unreasonable, insolent and tyrannical
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 165 
 
 democracy." 1 His generosity was so well known 
 that when the king gave him the Bishopric of 
 Winchester he said that " Morley would never 
 be the richer for it." " He restored Farnham Castle 
 at his own expense and built and endowed the 
 College of Matrons," says Dean Kitchin " a home 
 for the widows of the clergy of the diocese of 
 Winchester. This is among the proofs that after 
 the Restoration the position and needs of a 
 married clergy were much more distinctly re- 
 garded than they had been before that time " 
 (Historic Towns : Winchester). Morley was not 
 at all acceptable to Laud's party, as he was very 
 tolerant of, and charitable to, many of the Non- 
 conformists. It is supposed that Walton and his 
 second wife were on a visit to Morley at Worcester 
 when she died there. From a study of his life it 
 is difficult to see what he and Walton could have 
 had in common, although he writes he had had the 
 advantage of forty years' friendship with him. In 
 1683 Morley published a book in vindication of 
 himself from "divers false, scandalous and in- 
 jurious reflections" made upon him by Eichard 
 Baxter, who, according to his opinion, was the 
 most fluent and chief speaker at the Savoy 
 Conference. Walton tells us he was introduced 
 by Morley to Sanderson, Hammond and Chilling- 
 worth. He died at Farnham Castle on the 29th of 
 
 1 See Notes and Queries, 9th S. XI., p. 502.
 
 1 66 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 October 1684, and was buried in Winchester 
 Cathedral. There is a portrait of him there, and 
 there is a portrait of him also in the National 
 Portrait Gallery, drawn in coloured chalks on 
 grey paper by E. Lutterel, which was presented to 
 the Gallery in 1877. The Cathedral library at 
 Winchester owes its origin to a bequest made 
 in Morley's will. 
 
 THOMAS MORTON, BISHOP OF DURHAM 
 (1564-1659). 
 
 " All his prospects brightening to the last 
 His heaven commences ere the world be past." 
 
 GOLDSMITH. 
 
 He was one of the nineteen children of Eichard 
 Morton, an Alderman of York, and was born in 
 Berkshire and educated at St John's College, 
 Cambridge. In 1614 he erected Casaubon's tomb in 
 Westminster Abbey at his own expense. In 1602, 
 when the plague raged in York, Morton visited 
 many of the poor who had booths erected on a 
 moor near the city, and ministered to them and 
 helped to provide for their wants. He befriended 
 Donne, and once gave him a sum of money, saying : 
 "Take this, gold is restorative;" to which Donne 
 replied: "I doubt I shall never restore it back 
 again." Before becoming Bishop of Durham he 
 was successively Dean of Winchester, Peterborough
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 167 
 
 and York, and Bishop of Chester and Lichfield. 
 He was very generous and judicious in dispensing 
 his princely revenues as befitted the noble pur- 
 poses for which the See of Durham was founded 
 and endowed, was an active administrator, and 
 partly drew up King James's Declaration, 
 commonly called The Book of Sports. He was a 
 strong Broad Churchman and a great Protestant, 
 writing much against Popery. He died a bachelor 
 at Easton-Mauduit, near Northampton, and was 
 buried in the Yelverton Chapel of the Parish 
 Church, his funeral sermon being preached by 
 Dr John Barwick, afterwards Dean of St Paul's 
 Cathedral. His portrait is in the Hall of St 
 John's College, Cambridge, at Christ Church, 
 Oxford, and at the Castle at Bishop Auckland, 
 Durham. By his will he bequeathed his chalice 
 to All Saints' Church in York, and ten pounds to 
 the poor of the parish where he died. 
 
 JOHN PEARSON, BISHOP OF CHESTER 
 (1613-1686). 
 
 " Believing where we cannot prove." 
 
 TENNYSON'S In Memoriam. 
 
 " O mount a stalwart guard 
 Of answers, to oppose invading doubt, 
 All aids are needful, for the strife is hard." 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 He was the son of Robert Pearson, who was
 
 1 68 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 a Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, Arch- 
 deacon of Suffolk, and Rector of Great Snoring, 
 Norfolk, where he was born. He was educated at 
 Eton, and was admitted sizar on the 10th of June 
 1631, at Queen's College, but migrated the next year 
 as scholar to King's College, becoming a Fellow in 
 1634. In 1639 he was ordained, becoming, in 
 1640, Prebend of Salisbury and Eector of Thor- 
 ington, Suffolk. In 1654 he was lecturer at St 
 Clement's, Eastcheap, and it was there he began 
 a series of sermons, which were published in 1659, 
 as an exposition of the Creed. He dedicated 
 the book "To the Eight Worshipful and Well- 
 Beloved, The Parishioners of St Clement's, East- 
 cheap. Mercy unto you, and peace and love be 
 multiplied." A good query was given by him to 
 his own question, "whether Creeds are to be 
 extempore : Shall we stand up and begin with 
 ' I believe ' at a venture ? " He lives on this 
 standard book on the Creed, but he wrote 
 many other works. Bentley said the "very dust 
 of his writings was 'gold.'" 1 In 1660 we find 
 him made Master of Jesus College, and in 1661 
 he was prominent at the Savoy Conference. In 
 1661, too, he became Lady Margaret's Professor of 
 Divinity at Cambridge, and in April 1662 he was 
 
 1 Bishop Barry says he is especially a representative of a distinctly 
 Anglican Theology, at a time when, by necessity, the peculiarities of 
 the Anglican position had to be resolutely denned and maintained. 
 (Masters in English, Theology. J. Murray, 1877.)
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 169 
 
 elected Master of Trinity College. In 1673 he be- 
 came Bishop of Chester, where he died on the 16th 
 of July 1686, being buried in the Cathedral. No 
 monument was erected to his memory until 1860. 
 It is uncertain whether he ever married. There is 
 a portrait of him at Trinity College, Cambridge, but 
 there is no portrait of him at Jesus, and his only 
 monument there is the inscription which he caused 
 to be placed in the chapel on the grave of his old 
 friend Stephen Hall, the sturdy President in 1644 
 (College Histories : Jesus, Cambridge, p. 122). Arch- 
 deacon Churton, in 1844, edited most of his works. 
 
 THOMAS PIERCE 
 
 (1622-1691). 
 11 Beware of entrance to a quarrel." 
 
 Thomas Pierce, or Peirse, was a son of the 
 Mayor of Devizes in Wiltshire. He was educated 
 in Magdalene College, Oxford, and was elected a 
 Fellow in 1643. He became a popular preacher. 
 In 1661 he was elected President of his college, 
 but he was an Ishmael in it, and in about ten 
 years' time resigned the post. He seems to have 
 been a very quarrelsome man, " wanting in tact 
 and judgment at a time when the peculiar con- 
 dition of the college made these qualities absolutely 
 necessary." In 1675 he became Dean of Salisbury 
 and came into frequent collision with his Bishop, 
 Seth Ward ; he appears, however, to have been
 
 i7o IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 very friendly with Walton. This fact tends to 
 show how probable it was that the latter could 
 get on with men with whom others found it im- 
 possible to remain friends. The Dean died at 
 North Tidworth in Wiltshire, and was buried 
 there, as also was his wife, by whom he had issue 
 two sons. The following epitaph was composed 
 by him upon himself: 
 
 " Here lies all that was mortal, the outside, dust 
 and ashes of Thomas Pierce, D.D., once the 
 President of a College in Oxford, at first the 
 Rector of Brighton - cum - Membris, Canon of 
 Lincoln and at last Dean of Sarum; who fell 
 asleep in the Lord Jesus, but in hope of an awake 
 at the resurrection. He knew himself, and taught 
 others, that all the glorified saints in heaven cannot 
 amount to one Saviour, as all the stars in the 
 firmament cannot make up one sun. Therefore his 
 only hope and trust was in the Lord Jesus, who will 
 change, etc., Phil. iii. 21. 'Disce, viator, perinde 
 esse, seu fragile frangi, seu mortale mori.' ' 
 
 GILBERT SHELDON, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 
 
 (1598-1677). 
 " He served his generation." 
 
 He was born at Stanton, 1 a small village in the 
 Parish of Ellaston, two miles west of Mayfield in 
 
 1 In the Dictionary of National Biography it is stated he was born 
 at Ashbourae. My authority is The History and Topography of 
 Ashbourne (1839).
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 171 
 
 Derbyshire, on the 19th of July 1598. His father, 
 Roger Sheldon, was a menial servant to the Earl 
 of Shrewsbury. He was educated at Oxford, and 
 became a Fellow, and later on was elected Warden 
 of All Souls' College. Little mention of him is 
 made in any biography of Walton beyond the fact 
 that he was a friend of his. Yet it would seem 
 that Walton had more in common with him than 
 he had with many of his friends. 
 
 He was a skilful angler for barbel, a staunch 
 Royalist, and a hard worker as a politician as well 
 as a theologian. Lord Clarendon says he was very 
 early looked upon as equal to any preferment the 
 Church could yield. At the Restoration he was 
 made Bishop of London, and at the Savoy Con- 
 ference figured prominently. On the death of 
 Archbishop Juxon, in 1663, be became Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. He remained at his post of duty 
 at Lambeth during the raging of the plague, 
 relieving many afflicted persons, and he is said 
 to have placed his chief point in religion in the 
 practice of a good life rather than in multiplied 
 services and the mere acts of worship. He said, 
 "Let it be your principal care to be honest men, 
 and afterwards be as devout and religious as you 
 will. No piety will be of any advantage to your- 
 selves or anybody else unless you are honest and 
 moral men." He was noted for his amiable 
 temper and his great generosity. He urged
 
 172 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Walton to write Hooker's Life to correct the errors 
 of that by Bishop Gauden, which had come out 
 in 1662. Cotton dedicated his translation of 
 Gerard's History of the Life of the Duke of 
 Espernon to Sheldon. Sheldon founded the 
 theatre at Oxford, and was very active over the 
 rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral. His chief 
 defect would appear to have been his severity 
 against Dissenters. 
 
 He died a bachelor at Lambeth, and was buried 
 under a " stately monument " at Croydon. There 
 is a portrait of him at All Souls' College, Oxford, 
 by an artist unknown. 
 
 JAMES SHIRLEY 
 (1596-1666). 
 
 " Mark what ills the scholar's life assail ; 
 Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail." 
 
 " Shirley, the morning-child, the Muses bred, 
 And sent him born with bays upon his head." 
 
 He was born in London and educated at 
 Merchant Taylors' School, London, and took his 
 degree from St Catharine's College, then Hall, 
 Cambridge, having previously been at St John's 
 College, Oxford. He was ordained, but sub- 
 sequently became a Roman Catholic and a very
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 173 
 
 devoted one. He wrote many plays, some of 
 which were written in conjunction with his fellow- 
 dramatists, and published some poems. Hallam 
 says he had no originality, no force in conceiving 
 or delineating character, little of pathos, and less, 
 perhaps, of wit. This great authority admits his 
 mind " was poetical, his better characters, especially 
 females, express pure thoughts in pure language." 
 From time to time he appears to have been a school- 
 master. He married twice and had a family. 
 He was saved, it is said, from the workhouse by 
 the kindness of Thomas Stanley, the author of the 
 History of Philosophy, who survived him. On his 
 return from a lengthened stay in Ireland he resided 
 in Fleet Street, near to the Temple. Being driven 
 from there by the great fire, he and his wife found 
 an asylum in some lodgings in St Giles-in-the- 
 Fields. 
 
 The destruction of their home, however, com- 
 bined with the awful scene of which they had been 
 witnesses, seems to have been more than their 
 constitutions could endure. Shirley survived his 
 flight, some authorities inform us, scarcely twenty- 
 four hours, and the same day died his inconsolable 
 wife. Their remains were interred in the same 
 grave in St Giles's churchyard, 1 which contains 
 the bodies of various celebrities. There is a 
 portrait of Shirley in the Bodleian Library. 
 
 1 Wood's At hence Oxonienses. 

 
 i 7 4 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 RICHARD SIBBES 
 (1577-1635). 
 
 "They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as 
 the stars for ever and ever." 
 
 He appears to have been born in Suffolk, and 
 was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. 
 He was "converted" by the preaching of Paul 
 Bayne, a Puritan writer of note. He was made 
 preacher at Gray's Inn, and, in 1626, Master of 
 St Catharine's College, Cambridge (then Catharine 
 Hall), which greatly flourished under his rule. 
 His best known books are The Bruised Reed, 
 The Soul's Conflict, and The Returning Backslider. 
 The first book is said to have converted Richard 
 Baxter. When at Cambridge Sibbes preached 
 often at St Mary's Church and appears to have had 
 great influence in the pulpit, his hearers, it is said, 
 with probable truth, including Milton. Walton in 
 his will specifically bequeathed copies of the two 
 first-mentioned books, desiring the legatees to read 
 them so as to be well acquainted with them. In 
 Walton's copy of the last-mentioned book he wrote 
 
 his famous couplet : 
 
 A 
 
 " Of this blest man let this just praise be given, 
 Heaven was in him before he was in Heaven." 
 
 This book is, with two other books by Sibbes, in 
 the Cathedral Library at Salisbury. Sibbes died at 

 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 175 
 
 Gray's Inn in 1635, having, it is believed by some, 
 bequeathed to St John's College a large number 
 of volumes from his library, which, however, cannot 
 be ear-marked as his, if he really did make the 
 bequest. 
 
 JAMES USSHER, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH 
 (1581-1656). 
 
 " Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." 
 
 These words Ussher had engraved as his motto on the 
 Episcopal seals at Meath and at Armagh. 
 
 He was born in the Parish of St Nicholas, 
 Dublin. His uncle, Henry Ussher, Archbishop of 
 Armagh, sent him to Trinity College, Dublin, to be 
 educated. Dr Johnson refers to that "great 
 luminary of the Irish Church," and he has been 
 called " learned to a miracle." He carried on a 
 book-war with Milton, and became Bishop of 
 Meath, and later on Bishop of Carlisle, before 
 being appointed Archbishop of Armagh and 
 Primate of all Ireland. 1 He witnessed, from a 
 neighbouring housetop, the last moments of Charles 
 the First on the scaffold, from the effects of which he 
 never recovered. He died rather suddenly at 
 
 1 " His Augustinian theology commended him to the Puritans, his 
 veneration for antiquity to the High Churchmen." Ussher visited 
 England many times to live, as he termed it, "among the libraries," 
 "hiving wisdom with each studious year." His Protestantism was 
 " out and out."
 
 176 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FKIENDS 
 
 Reigate in Surrey ; his last words were : " Oh, Lord 
 forgive me, especially my sins of omission." A 
 public funeral was given, in Westminster Abbey, 
 to this great and learned man, Cromwell contribut- 
 ing 200 towards the expenses. The liturgical 
 service was heard there on that occasion for the 
 only time during the Commonwealth. He married 
 an heiress, and had issue one daughter. No 
 monument was ever erected to him in the Abbey. 
 There is a portrait of him in the National Portrait 
 Gallery by Sir Peter Lely, it having been trans- 
 ferred there in 1879 from the British Museum, and 
 there is also one at Trinity College, Dublin. His 
 portrait was ordered to be prefixed to his edition 
 of the Epistles of Ignatius by the University of 
 Oxford. (See, on the subject of his portraits, 
 Notes and Queries, 9th S. VII., p. 195.) Ussher's 
 library was bought by the State and placed, in 1661 , 
 in Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 SETH WARD, BISHOP OF SALISBURY 
 
 (1617-1689). 
 " An undevout astronomer is mad." YOUNG. 
 
 " Tis death to me to be at enmity, I hate it, and desire 
 all good men's love." Richard III. 
 
 He was born at Aspenden, or, some will have 
 it, at Buntingford, Herts, and educated at Sidney
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 177 
 
 Sussex College at Cambridge, proceeding B.A. in 
 1636, and M.A. in 1640. He became a Fellow, but 
 was, with four others, ejected in 1644. He refused 
 to subscribe to the Solemn League and Covenant. 
 Going to Oxford he became Savilian Professor of 
 Astronomy and President of Trinity College. 1 
 Later on he became Bishop of Exeter, and in 
 1667 was translated to Salisbury. Walton's son, 
 the Canon, at one time was chaplain to Ward. 
 Ward was one of the original members of the 
 Royal Society. He was active against Dis- 
 senters but kind to many of them individually. 
 He was much given to hospitality. His sermons 
 were "strong, methodical, and clear." Ward's 
 peace was much disturbed by the Dean, Dr Pierce, 
 who was a quarrelsome man. Ward died at 
 Knightsbridge, and was buried in Salisbury 
 Cathedral. There is a portrait of him in the 
 Town Hall of Salisbury, and in 1881 the Trustees of 
 the National Portrait Gallery purchased a portrait, 
 which is described in their catalogue as "drawn 
 and engraved from the life in 1678 by David 
 Laggan." In the Life of the Right Reverend Seth, 
 Lord Bishop of Salisbury, by Dr W. Hope, 1697, 
 the writer says : 
 
 " Tho' I am conscious that I have not enumerated 
 all his Benefactions yet will I conclude this 
 
 1 In 1657 he was elected principal of Jesus College, Oxford, but 
 was ejected by Cromwell. 
 
 M
 
 178 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 chapter with his Erecting of four Scholarships at 
 Christ's College in Cambridge, and endowing them 
 with ten pound per annum, which in that 
 University is a considerable allowance, the scholar- 
 ships there being generally inferior to those at 
 Oxford, as the Fellowships better. He had desired 
 to have placed this his Benefaction at Sidney 
 College, but upon some disgust altered his 
 intention, tho' it is not improbable but that that 
 College might refuse his proffer upon very good 
 reasons : For at Oxford no College will accept a 
 Benefaction which only increases the number of 
 Fellows, or Scholars, for thereby the Society is 
 rather injured, than profited, unless the Bene- 
 factor also builds Chambers for their reception, 
 for taking away so many Chambers, takes away 
 from the Fellows so many pupils, but on the 
 contrary, a Benefactor who will increase the 
 stipends of the members of the Society, will always 
 be very gratefully embraced." 
 
 SAMUEL WOODFORD 
 (1636-1700). 
 
 " On the choice of friends 
 Our good or evil name depends." GAY. 
 
 He was born in London, and educated at St 
 Paul's School, and at Wadham College, Oxford.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 179 
 
 He read for the Bar, but was in 1669 ordained by 
 Bishop Morley. In 1670 he wrote some compli- 
 mentary verses to Walton, addressed " To his very 
 worthy and much honoured friend Mr Isaak 
 Walton upon his excellent Life of Mr George 
 Herbert." When referring to the lives of Herbert 
 and Donne he wrote : 
 
 "Herbert and Donne again are join'd, 
 Now here below, as they're above." 
 
 In 1670 he wrote some verses upon Hooker's 
 Life by Walton, and he also wrote a sonnet to 
 Seth Ward. He composed a Paraphrase on the 
 Psalms and made many translations. In 1676 
 we find him Canon of Chichester. The next year 
 Archbishop Sancroft conferred upon him the 
 degree of D.D. by diploma. In 1680 he was ap- 
 pointed Canon of Winchester. He married and 
 had issue, his youngest son becoming a Fellow of 
 New College, Oxford, and Regius Professor of 
 Medicine in the University. The Canon died at 
 Winchester. 
 
 There were many more ecclesiastical friends 
 of Walton besides those already mentioned. 
 Among others may be named the Eev. 
 Thomas Weaver, the Rev. Edward Powel, the 
 Rev. Henry Bayley or Bagley, Dr Honiwood,
 
 i8o IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Dean of Lincoln, the Rev. Dr John Price and the 
 Rev. Joseph Pullen. 1 
 
 " Oh bring us back once more 
 The vanished days of yore, 
 When the world with Faith was filled ! 
 Bring back the fervid zeal, 
 The hearts of fire and steel, 
 The hands that believe and build." 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 1 I merely infer that Dr Honiwood and Joseph Pullen were friends 
 of Walton from the fact that Walton wrote their names in presenta- 
 tion copies of his books (see catalogue of the Ashburnham Library, 
 1898). 

 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 COPY OF WALTON'S WILL 
 
 August the ninth, one thousand six hundred eighty-three. 
 IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN, I, IZAAK WALTON, the 
 
 elder of Winchester, being this present day, in the 
 ninetyeth year of my age, and in perfect memory, 
 for which praised be God ; but considering how 
 suddainly I may be deprived of both, do therefore 
 make this my last Will and Testament as 
 followeth : And first, I do declare my belief to 
 be, that there is only one God, who hath made 
 the whole world, and me, and all mankind; to 
 whom I shall give an account of all my actions, 
 which are not to be justified, but I hope pardoned, 
 for the merits of my Saviour Jesus. And because 
 the profession of Christianity does, at this time, 
 seem to be subdivided into Papist and Protestante, 
 I take it, at least, to be convenient, to declare my 
 belief to be, in all points of faith, as the Church 
 of England now professeth : and this I do the 
 rather, because of a very long and very true 
 friendship with some of the Koman Church. And 
 
 for my worldly estate (which I have neither got 
 
 181
 
 i82 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 by falsehood or flattery, or the extreme cruelty 
 of the law of this nation), I do hereby give and 
 bequeath it as followeth : First, I give my son-in- 
 law, DOCTOR HAWKINS, and to HIS WIFE ; to them 
 I give all my title and right of or in a part of 
 a house and shop in Pater- noster row, in London, 
 which I hold by lease from the lord bishop of 
 London for about fifty years to come. And I 
 do also give to them all my right and title of 
 or to a house in Chancery-lane, London, wherein 
 Mrs Greinwood now dwelleth, in which is now 
 about sixteen years to come : I give these two 
 leases to them, they saving my executor from all 
 damage concerning the same. And I give to my 
 son IZAAK all my right and title to a lease of 
 Norington farme, which I hold from the lord 
 bishop of Winton : And I do also give him all 
 my right and title to a farme or land near to 
 Stafford, which I bought of Mr Walter Noell; 
 I say, I give it to him and his heirs for ever; 
 but upon the condition following, namely; if my 
 son shall not marry before he shall be of age of 
 forty and one years, or being married, shall dye 
 before the said age, and leave no son to inherit 
 the said farme or land, or if his son or sons 
 shall not live to attain the age of twenty and 
 one years to dispose otherways of it, then I 
 give the said farme or land to the towne or 
 corporation of STAFFORD in which I was borne,
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 183 
 
 for the good and benefit of some of the said 
 towne, as I shall direct, and as followeth : (but 
 first note, that it is at this present time rented 
 for twenty- one pound ten shillings a year, and 
 is like to hold the said rent, if care be taken 
 to keep the barn and housing in repair;) and 
 I would have, and do give ten pound of the said 
 rent, to bind out, yearly, two boys, the sons of 
 honest and poor parents, to be apprentices to 
 some tradesmen or handycraft-men, to the intent 
 the said boys may the better afterward get their 
 own living. And I do also give five pound yearly 
 out of the said rent, to be given to some maid- 
 servant, that hath attained the age of twenty and 
 one years, not less, and dwelt long in one service, 
 or to some honest poor man's daughter, that hath 
 attained to that age, to be paid her at or on the 
 day of her marriage ; and this being done, my will 
 is, that what rent shall remain of the said farme or 
 land, shall be disposed of as followeth : first I do 
 give twenty shillings yearly, to be spent by the 
 major of Stafford and those that shall collect the 
 said rent and dispose of it as I have and shall 
 hereafter direct; and that what money or rent 
 shall remain undisposed of, shall be imployed to 
 buy coals for some poor people, that shall most 
 need them, in the said towne ; the said coals to be 
 delivered the first weeke in January, or in every 
 first week in February ; I say then, because I
 
 1 84 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 take that time to be the hardest and most pinch- 
 ing times with poor people ; and God reward 
 those that shall do this without partiality, and 
 with honesty, and a good conscience. And if the 
 said major and others of the said towne of 
 STAFFORD shall prove so negligent, or dishonest, 
 as not to imploy the rent by me given as intended 
 and exprest in this my will, which God forbid, then 
 I give the said rents and profits of the said farme 
 or land to the towne, and chief magistrates or 
 governors, of ECLESHALL, to be disposed of by them 
 in such manner as I have ordered the disposal of 
 it by the towne of Stafford, the said farme or land 
 being near the towne of Ecleshall. And I give to 
 my son-in-law, Dr HAWKINS, whom I love as my 
 own son ; and to MY DAUGHTER, HIS WIFE ; and my 
 son IZAAK; to each of them a ring, with these 
 words or motto; "Love my memory, I. W., 
 obiet " ; l to the Lord Bishop of Winton, a ring with 
 this motto ; "A mite for a million, I. W., obiet" ; 
 and to the friends hereafter named, I give to each 
 of them a ring with this motto, " A friend's fare- 
 well, I. W., obiet." And my will is, the said rings 
 be delivered within forty days after my death ; and 
 that price of the value of all the said rings shall be 
 thirteen shillings and fourpence a piece. I give 
 to Dr HAWKINS Doctor Donne's Sermons, which 
 I have heard preacht,' and read with much con- 
 
 1 So spelt in the Will.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FJtIENDS 185 
 
 tent. To my son IZAAK, I give Doctor Sibbs His 
 Soul's Conflict ; and to MY DAUGHTER his Bruised 
 Reed, desiring them to read them so as to be well 
 acquainted with them. And I also give unto HER 
 all my books at Winchester and Droxford, and 
 whatever in those two places are, or I can call 
 mine, except a trunk of linen, which I give to my 
 son IZAAK : but if he do not live to marry, or make 
 use of it, then I give the same to my grand- 
 daughter, ANNE HAWKINS. And I give MY 
 DAUGHTER Doctor Hall's Works, which be now at 
 Farnham. To my son IZAAK I give all my books 
 not yet given, at Farnham Castell; and a deske 
 of prints and pictures ; also a cabinett near my 
 bed's head, in which are some little things that he 
 will value, though of no great worth. And my 
 will and desire is, that he will be kind to his aunt 
 BEACHAME, and his aunt ROSE KEN ; by allowing the 
 first about fifty shillings a year, in or for bacon 
 and cheese, not more, and paying four pounds a 
 year towards the boarding of her son's dyet to 
 Mr John Whitehead : for his aunt Ken, I desire 
 him to be kind to her according to her necessity 
 and his own abilitie ; and I commend one of her 
 children, to breed up as I have said I intend to do, 
 if he shall be able to do it, as I know he will ; for 
 they be good folke. I give to Mr JOHN DARBY- 
 SHIRE the Sermons of Mr Anthony Farringdon, or 
 of Dr Sanderson, which, my executor thinks fit.
 
 1 86 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 To my servant, Thomas Edgill, I give five pounds 
 in money, and all my cloths, linen and woolen, 
 except one suit of cloths, which I give to Mr 
 HOLINSHED, and forty shillings if the said Thomas 
 be my servant at my death ; if not, my cloths only. 
 And I give my old friend Mr RICHARD MARRIOT, 
 ten pounds in money, to be paid him within three 
 months after my death ; and I desire my son to 
 shew kindness to him if he shall neede, and my 
 son can spare it. And I do hereby will and 
 declare my son IZAAK to be my sole executor of 
 this my last will and testament; and Doctor 
 HAWKINS, to see that he performs it; which I 
 doubt not but he will. I desire my burial may 
 be near the place of my death, and free from any 
 ostentation or charge, but privately. This I make 
 to be my last will (to which I shall only add the 
 codicil for rings), this sixteenth day of August, one 
 thousand six hundred eighty-three, IZAAK WALTON. 
 Witness to this will. 
 
 The rings I give, are as on the other side. To 
 my brother John Ken ; to my Sister his wife ; 
 to my brother, Doctor Ken ; to my sister Pye ; 
 to Mr Francis Morley ; to Mr George Vernon ; to 
 his wife ; to his three daughters ; to Mistris 
 Nelson ; to Mr Richard Walton ; to Mr Palmer ; 
 to Mr Taylor; to Mr Thomas Garrard; to the 
 Lord Bishop of Sarum ; to Mr Rede, his servant ; 
 to my cousin Dorothy Kenrick ; to my cousin
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 187 
 
 Lewin ; to Mr Walter Higgs ; to Mr Charles 
 Cotton; to Mr Richard Marryot; 22. To my 
 brother Beacham ; to my sister his wife ; to the 
 lady Anne How ; to Mrs King ; Doctor Phillips 's 
 wife ; to Mr Valentine Harecourt ; to Mrs Eliza 
 Johnson ; to Mrs Mary Rogers ; to Mrs Eliza 
 Milward ; to Mrs Dorothy Wollop ; to Mr Will 
 Milward, of Christ-church, Oxford ; to Mr John 
 Darby shire ; to Mrs Undevill ; to Mrs Rock ; 
 to Mr Peter White ; to Mr John Lloyde ; to 
 my cousin GreinselTs Widow; Mrs Dalbin 
 must not be forgotten, 16. IZAAK WALTON, Note, 
 that several lines are blotted out of this will, for 
 they were twice repeated, and that this will is 
 now signed and sealed this twenty and fourth day 
 of October, one thousand six hundred eighty-three 
 in the presence of us : Witness ABRAHAM 
 MARKLAND, Jos. TAYLOR, THOMAS CRAWLEY.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 A SHORT NOTE ON WALTON'S FAMILY 
 
 IT has already been shown that all Walton's 
 children by his first marriage died in infancy. Of 
 the issue by his second marriage, the elder son 
 Isaak was born and baptised on the 10th of 
 February 1649, and died the following June. 
 
 The younger son Isaak was baptised on the 7th 
 of September 1651, and was educated at Christ 
 Church College, Oxford. He became B.A. in 1672 
 and M.A. in 1675, and travelled abroad with Ken. 
 He was Rector of Poulshot, Wilts, and Canon of 
 Salisbury. The Canon refers in his will to his 
 " many and grievous sins," and to his " unprofit- 
 able life." We know, however, that he is said to 
 have been "a very pious, sober, learned, inoffen- 
 sive, charitable, good man " (see Notes and Queries, 
 1st S. IX., p. 397). His estimate of his own char- 
 acter seems worthless. Sir Harris Nicolas thinks 
 that the allusion originated in extreme humility, 
 I think it arose from ill health. 
 
 The will states that the testator lived at 
 present, and intended through God's grace to 
 
 188
 
 M S 
 
 ' 'yetfi JMU yrcT, soe mucli ai Bfl 
 
 i 'dye, of ANNE tKe wipe of E L_ 
 '' IZAAK WAI TON M 1^ 
 
 ^^B!7 
 
 ^^ /\ uom.iii oJ i TIII.M kcahlc tirudcficr ^i^SSBL.' 
 /i '"'<' knowledge, being adorml 
 
 ! I fff \ ill 
 
 \\irh sncfi criii- // iiMii/ify, and hirst 
 
 '' ' ' ' i s < ) L DIUCJ (In ilium meekenc/se, as 
 Diade her wortny oJ ,i more 1 memorable 
 
 Monument 
 She dvcd (A\in ihnl ihe is dead) 
 
 ill'' 17 'of .\filtfl l( ( J A'J.'d ,2 
 
 1 
 
 ANNE WALTON'S TOMBSTONE IN WORCESTER CATHEDRAL 
 
 To face page 188.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 189 
 
 die in the communion of the Church of England 
 as it is at present by law established. Being 
 according to the best measure of his understand- 
 ing fully satisfied that she has reformed herself 
 with that sound judgment and godly sincerity as 
 to be the soundest and purest part of the Church 
 Catholic. 
 
 The Canon died a bachelor in London on the 29th 
 of December 1719, and thereupon Walton's male 
 issue became extinct. His will was proved on the 
 14th of November 1720, and is sealed with a seal 
 bearing Donne's characteristic device. He was 
 buried at Salisbury. 
 
 Anne, the daughter, married in 1676 Dr William 
 Hawkins, Prebendary of Winchester Cathedral, 
 who died on the 17th of July 1691, aged 58. 
 Anne Hawkins died on the 18th of August 1715, 
 leaving male issue, and was buried with her 
 husband in Winchester Cathedral.
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF WALTON, 
 COTTON, DONNE, HERBERT, WOTTON AND DUPORT 
 
 IN this chapter the reader will find selections from 
 the poetry of Walton, Cotton, Donne, Wotton and 
 Herbert, and the Latin verses by Duport, which 
 are to be found in many editions of The Complete 
 Angler. In supplementing these verses by a 
 translation into English, I have taken a course the 
 utility of which will, I hope, be accepted as 
 sufficient apology for its novelty. 
 
 (a) SOME OF WALTON'S VERSES, ETC. 
 AN ELEGIE UPON DR DONNE 
 
 (1633). 
 
 OUR Donne is dead ; England should mourne, may 
 
 say 
 
 We had a man where language chose to stay 
 And shew her gracefull power. I would not praise 
 That and his vast wit (which in these vaine dayes 
 Make many proud) but, as they serv'd to unlock 
 
 That Cabinet, his minde : where such a stock 
 
 190
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 191 
 
 Of knowledge was repos'd, as all lament 
 (Or should) this generall cause of discontent. 
 
 And I rejoyce I am not so severe, 
 But (as I write a line) to weep a teare 
 For his decease ; such sad extremities 
 May make such men as I write Elegies. 
 
 And wonder not ; for, when a generall losse 
 Falls on a nation, and they slight the crosse, 
 God hath rais'd Prophets to awaken them 
 From stupifaction ; witnesse my milde pen, 
 Not us'd to upbraid the world, though now it 
 
 must 
 Freely and boldly, for the cause is just. 
 
 Dull age, Oh I would spare thee, but th' art 
 
 worse, 
 
 Thou art not onely dull, but hast a curse 
 Of black ingratitude ; if not, could'st thou 
 Part with miraculous Donne, and make no vow 
 For thee, and thine, successively to pay 
 A sad remembrance to his dying day ? 
 
 Did his youth scatter Poetry, wherein 
 Was all Philosophy ? was every sinne, 
 Character'd in his Satyrs ? Made so foule 
 That some have fear'd their shapes, and kept their 
 
 soule 
 
 Safer by reading verse ? Did he give dayes 
 Past marble monuments, to those, whose praise 
 He would perpetuate ? Did he (I feare 
 The dull will doubt) : these at his twentieth year ?
 
 192 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 But, more matur'd ; did his full soule con- 
 ceive, 
 
 And in harmonious-holy-numbers weave 
 A Crown of sacred sonnets, fit to adorne 
 A dying Martyrs brow : or, to be worne 
 On that blest head of Mary Magdalen . 
 After she wip'd Christ's feet, but not till then ? 
 Did hee (fit for such penitents as shee 
 And he to use) leave us a Litany, 
 Which all devout men love, and sure, it shall, 
 As times grow better, grow more classicall ? 
 Did he write Hymnes, for piety, for wit, 
 Equall to those, great grave Prudentius writ ? 
 Spake he all Languages ? knew he all Lawes ? 
 The grounds and use of Physick ; but because 
 'Twas mercenary, waived it ? Went to see 
 That blessed place of Christ's nativity ? 
 Did he return and preach him ? preach him so 
 As since S. Paul none did, none could ? Those know, 
 (Such as were blest to heare him this is truth. 
 Did he confirm thy aged ? convert thy youth ? 
 Did he these wonders ? And is this deare losse 
 Mourn'd by so few ? (few for so great a crosse). 
 
 But sure the silent are ambitious all 
 To be Close Mourners at his Funerall ; 
 If not ; in common pity they forbear 
 By repetitions to renew our care ; 
 Or, knowing, griefe conceiv'd conceal'd, consumes 
 Man irreparably (as poison's fumes
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 193 
 
 Doe waste the braine) make silence a safe way. 
 To inlarge the Soule from these walls, mud and 
 
 clay, 
 
 (Materials of this body) to remaine 
 With Donne in heaven, where no promiscuous pain 
 Lessens the joy we have, for, with him, all 
 Are satisfy 'd with joyes essentiall. 
 
 Dwell on this joy my thoughts ; oh, doe not 
 
 call 
 
 Griefe back, by thinking of his Funerall ; 
 Forget hee lov'd mee ; waste not my sad yeares ; 
 (Which haste to Davids seventy), fill'd with feares 
 And sorrow for his death ; Forget his parts, 
 Which find a living grave in good men's hearts ; 
 And (for, my first is dayly payd for sinne) 
 Forget to pay my second sigh for him : 
 Forget his powerfull preaching ; and forget 
 I am his Convert. Oh my frailty ! let 
 My flesh be no more heard, it will obtrude 
 This lethargy : so should my gratitude, 
 My vows of gratitude should so be broke ; 
 Which can no more be, than Donnes vertues spoke 
 By any but himself; for which cause, I 
 Write no Encomium, but this Elegie, 
 Which, as a free-will-offring, I here give 
 Fame, and the world, and parting with it grieve 
 I want abilities, fit to set forth 
 A monument, great, as Donnes matchless worth. 
 
 Iz. WA. 
 
 N
 
 i 9 4 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 LINES ENGRAVED UNDER A PORTRAIT OF DONNE 
 TAKEN IN HIS EIGHTEENTH YEAR 
 
 THIS was for youth, Strength, Mirth and 
 
 Wit that Time 
 Most count their golden Age ; but 
 
 'Twas not thine. 
 
 Thine was thy later yeares, so much refind 
 From youths Drosse, Mirth and wit ; as thy pure 
 
 mind 
 
 Thought (like the Angels) nothing but the Praise 
 Of thy Creator, in those last, best Dayes. 
 Witness this Booke (thy Embleme) which begins 
 With Love, but endes, with Sighes, and Teares for 
 
 sinnes. Iz. WA. 
 
 IN PRAISE OF MY FRIEND THE AUTHOR, AND HIS 
 BOOKE 1 
 
 IF thou would'st be a Statesman, and survey 
 Kingdoms for information ; heres a way 
 Made plaine, and easie ; fitter far for thee 
 That great Ortelius his Geographic. 
 
 If thou would'st be a Gentleman, in more 
 Than title onely ; this Map yeelds thee store 
 
 1 Verses prefixed to The Merchant^ Map of Commerce, by Lewes 
 Roberts, merchant (1638).
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 195 
 
 Of Observations, fit for Ornament, 
 
 Or use, or to give curious eares content. 
 
 If thou would'st be a Merchant, buy this Booke : 
 For 'tis a prize worth gold ; and doe not looke 
 Daily for such disbursements ; no, 'tis rare, 
 And shall be cast up with thy richest ware. 
 
 Reader, if thou be any, or all three ; 
 (For these may meet and make a harmonie) 
 Then praise the Author for his usefull paines, 
 Whose aime is public good, not private gaines. 
 
 Iz. WA. 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF MY DEAR FRIEND, MR 
 WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT 
 
 (1651). 
 
 I CANNOT keep my purpose, but must give 
 Sorrow and Verse their way ; nor will I grieve 
 Longer in silence ; no, that poor, poor part 
 Of natures legacy, Verse void of Art, 
 And undissembled tears, Cartwright shall have 
 Fixt on his Hearse ; and wept into his grave. 
 
 Muses I need you not ; for, Grief and I 
 Can in your absence weave an elegy : 
 Which we will do ; and often inter- weave 
 Sad Looks, and Sighs ; the ground- work must 
 
 receive 
 
 Such Characters, or be adjudg'd unfit 
 For my Friend's shroud; others have shew'd theirWit,
 
 1 96 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FXIENDS 
 
 Learning, and Language fitly ; for these be 
 Debts due to his great Merits, but for me, 
 My aymes are like myself, humble and low 
 Too mean to speak his praise, too mean to show 
 The World what it hath lost in losing thee, 
 Whose Words and Deeds were perfect Harmony. 
 
 But now 'tis lost, lost in the silent grave 
 Lost to us mortals, lost, 'till we shall have 
 Admission to that Kingdom, where He sings 
 Harmonious Anthems to the King of Kings. 
 
 Sing on, blest Soul ! be as thou wast below, 
 A more than common instrument to show 
 Thy Makers praise ; sing on, whilst I lament 
 Thy loss, and court a holy discontent, 
 With such pure thoughts as thine to dwell with me, 
 Then I may hope to live, and dye like thee, 
 To live belov'd, dye mourn'd, thus in my grave, 
 Blessings that Kings have wish'd but cannot have. 
 
 Iz. WA. 
 
 To THE AUTHOR UPON THE SIGHT OF THE FIRST 
 SHEET OF HIS BOOK 
 
 (1652). 
 
 MY worthy friend, I am much pleas'd to know, 
 You have begun to pay the debt you owe 
 By promise, to so many pious friends, 
 In printing your choice Poems ; it commends
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 197 
 
 Both them, and you, that they have been desir'd 
 By persons of such Judgment ; and admir'd 
 They must be most, by those that best shall know 
 What praise to holy Poetry we owe. 
 
 So shall your Disquisitions too ; for, there 
 Choice learning, and blest piety, appear. 
 All usefull to poor Christians : where they may 
 Learne Primitive Devotion. Each Saint's day 
 Stands as a Land-mark in an erring age 
 To guide fraile mortals in their pilgrimage, 
 To the Coelestiall Can'an ; and each Fast, 
 Is both the soul's direction, and repast : 
 
 All so exprest, that I am glad to know 
 You have begun to pay the debt you owe. 1 
 
 Iz. WA. 
 
 To my ingenious friend, Mr Brome, on his various and 
 excellent Poems : 
 
 AN HUMBLE EGLOG 2 
 Written on the 29th of May, 1660. 
 
 DAMON AND DORUS 
 Damon. 
 
 HAIL happy day ! Dorus, sit down : 
 Now let no sigh, nor let a frown 
 
 1 These verses appeared in the first edition of Scintillula Altaris ; or 
 A Pious Reflection on Primitive Devotion : as to the Feasts and Fasts of 
 the Christian Church. Orthodoxally Revived. By Ed.ward Sparke, B.B., 
 London, 1652. 
 
 2 From Songs and Poems. By Alex. Brome, Gent, 1661.
 
 i 9 8 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Lodge near thy heart, or on thy brow. 
 The King ! the King's return'd ! and now 
 Let's banish all sad thoughts, and sing 
 We have our Laws, and have our King. 
 
 Dorus. 
 
 'Tis true, and I would sing, but oh ! 
 These wars have shrunk my heart so low, 
 
 'Twill not be rais'd. 
 
 i 
 
 Damon. 
 
 What, not this day ? 
 Why, 'tis the twenty-ninth of May : 
 Let Rebels' spirits sink : let those 
 That, like the Goths and Vandals, rose 
 To mine families, and bring 
 Contempt upon our Church, our King, 
 And all that's dear to us, be sad ; 
 But be not thou ; let us be glad. 
 And Dorus, to invite thee, look, 
 Here's a collection in this book 
 Of all those cheerful songs, that we 
 Have sung with mirth and merry-glee ; 
 As we have march'd to fight the cause 
 Of God's anointed, and our laws : 
 Such songs as make not the least odds 
 Betwixt us mortals and the Gods : 
 Such songs as Virgins need not fear 
 To sing, or a grave matron hear.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 199 
 
 Here's love drest neat, and chaste, and gay, 
 As gardens in the month of May ; 
 Here's harmony, and wit, and art, 
 To raise thy thoughts and cheer thy heart. 
 
 Dorus. 
 Written by whom ? 
 
 Damon. 
 
 A Friend of mine, 
 
 And one that's worthy to be thine : 
 
 A civil swain, that knows his times 
 
 For businesse, and that done, makes rhymes, 
 
 But not till then : my Friend's a man 
 
 Lov'd by the Muses ; dear to Pan ; 
 
 He blest him with a cheerful heart, 
 
 And they with this sharp wit and art, 
 
 Which he so tempers, as no swain 
 
 That's loyal, does or should complain. 
 
 Dorus. 
 I would fain see him. 
 
 Damon. 
 
 Go with me, 
 
 Dorus, to yonder broad beech-tree, 
 There we shall meet him and Phillis, 
 Perigot, and Amaryllis,
 
 200 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Tityrus, and his dear Chlora, 
 Tom and Will, and their Pastora : 
 There we'll dance, shake hands, and sing 
 We have our Laws, 
 
 God bless the King. 
 
 Iz. WALTON. 
 
 To MY REVEREND FRIEND THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 "THE SYNAGOGUE" 1 
 (1661). 
 
 SIR, 
 
 I lov'd you for your Synagogue, before 
 I knew your person ; but now love you more ; 
 
 Because I find 
 It is so true a picture of your mind ; 
 
 Which tunes your sacred lyre 
 
 To that eternal quire 
 
 Where holy Herbert sits 
 
 (0 shame to prophane wits) 
 And sings his and your Anthems, to the praise 
 Of Him that is the first and last of daies. 
 
 These holy Hymns had an Ethereal birth : 
 For they can raise sad souls above the earth, 
 And fix them there, 
 
 1 The Synagogue; or, the Shadow of the Temple. Sacred poems 
 and private ejaculations in imitation of Mr George Herbert. See 
 Notes and Queries, 8th S. VII., pp. 326 and 479.
 
 Free from the world's anxieties and fear. 
 
 Herbert and you have pow'r 
 
 To do this : ev'ry hour 
 
 I read you kills a sin, 
 
 Or lets a vertue in 
 
 To fight against it ; and the Holy Ghost 
 Supports my frailties, lest the day be lost. 
 
 This holy war, taught by your happy pen, 
 
 The Prince of Peace approves. When we poor men 
 
 Neglect our arms, 
 W are circumvested with a world of harms. 
 
 But I will watch and ward, 
 
 And stand upon my guard, 
 
 And still consult with you, 
 
 And Herbert, and renew 
 
 My vows, and say, Well fare his, and your heart, 
 The fountains of such sacred wit .and art. 
 
 Iz. WA. 
 
 The following epitaph is supposed to have 
 been written by Walton on a servant of his l : 
 
 Sacred to the Memory of DAVID HOOKHAM, 
 who died A.D. 1647, aged 63 years. 
 
 WITHIN this turfe, on which in life he trod, 
 Rests David Hookham, waiting for his God. 
 
 1 See Gentleman's Magazine for October 1830, Vol. C., Part II., 
 p. 296. The name Hookham is rather suggestive of fiction.
 
 202 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 A peaceful, honest, faithful life he led ; 
 
 And blessed as he break his daily bread. 
 
 Simple his manners, candid was his look, 
 
 His mirror was the bright and purling brook; 
 
 And life's clear waters as they passed on, 
 
 Reminded him how soon he should be gone. 
 
 At last his rod and angle he laid by, 
 
 And humbly dyed. May all like David dye, 
 
 And serve their Lord and Master faithfully, 
 
 As David Hookham in this world served me. " I. W." 
 
 (6) SOME OF COTTON'S VERSES l 
 COTTON'S VERSES TO WALTON 
 
 (1672). 
 
 To my old and most worthy Friend, Mr Izaak Walton, on 
 his Life of Dr Donne, Etc. 
 
 WHEN to a nation's loss, the virtuous die, 
 There's justly due, from every hand and eye, 
 That can or write, or weep, an elegy. 
 
 Which though it be the poorest, cheapest way, 
 The debt we owe, great merits to defray, 
 Yet it is almost all that most men pay. 
 
 And these are monuments of so short date, 
 That, with their birth, they oft receive their fate ; 
 Dying with those whom they would celebrate. 
 
 And though to verse great reverence is due, 
 Yet what most poets write, proves so untrue, 
 It renders truth in verse suspected too. 
 
 1 Cotton's Lyrical Poems have lately been edited and published by 
 J. B. Tutin of Cottingham, near Hull.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS : 
 
 Something more sacred then, or more entire, 
 
 The memories of virtuous men require, 
 
 Than what may with their funeral torch expire ; 
 
 This History can give ; to which alone 
 
 The privilege to mate oblivion 
 
 Is granted, when denied to brass and stone. 
 
 Wherein, my friend, you have a hand so sure, 
 Your truths so candid are, your style so pure, 
 That what you write may envy's search endure. 
 
 Your pen, disdaining to be brib'd or prest, 
 
 Flows without vanity or interest ; 
 
 A virtue with which few good pens are blest. 
 
 How happy was my father then, to see 
 Those men he lov'd, by him he lov'd to be 
 Rescued from frailties and mortality. 
 
 Wotton and Donne, to whom his soul was knit ; 
 Those twins of virtue, eloquence and wit, 
 He saw in fame's eternal annals writ ; 
 
 Where one has fortunately found a place, 
 More faithful to him than his marble was : 
 Which eating age, nor fire, shall e'er deface. 
 
 A monument, that, as it has, shall last, 
 And prove a monument to that defac'd ; 
 Itself, but with the world not to be raz'd.
 
 204 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 And even, in their flowery characters, 
 
 My father's grave, part of your friendship shares ; 
 
 For you have honour'd his in strewing theirs. 
 
 Thus, by an office, though particular, 
 Virtue's whole commonweal obliged are ; 
 For in a virtuous act all good men share. 
 
 And by this act the world is taught to know, 
 That the true friendship we to merit owe 
 Is not discharg'd by compliment and show. 
 
 But your's is friendship of so pure a kind, 
 For all mean ends and interest so refined, 
 It ought to be a pattern to mankind : 
 
 For whereas most men's friendships here beneath, 
 Do perish with their friend's expiring breath, 
 Yours proves a friendship living after death ; 
 
 By which the generous Wotton, reverend Donne, 
 Soft Herbert, and the Church's champion, 
 Hooker, are rescued from oblivion. 
 
 For though they each of them his time so spent, 
 
 As rais'd unto himself a monument, 
 
 With which ambition might rest well content ; 
 
 Yet their great works, though they can never die, 
 
 And are in truth superlatively high, 
 
 Are no just scale to take their virtues by ;
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 205 
 
 Because they show not how the Almighty's grace, 
 By various and more admirable ways, 
 Brought them to be the organs of his praise. 
 
 But what their humble modesty would hide, 
 And was by any other means denied, 
 Is by your love and diligence supplied. 
 
 Wotton a nobler soul was never bred ! 
 You, by your narrative's most even thread, 
 Through all his labyrinths of life have led ; 
 
 Through his degrees of honour, and of arts, 
 Brought him secure from envy's venom 'd darts, 
 Which are still levell'd at the greatest parts ; 
 
 Through all the employments of his wit and spirit, 
 Whose great effects these kingdoms, still inherit ; 
 The trials then, now trophies of his merit. 
 
 Nay, through disgrace, which oft the worthiest 
 
 have, 
 Through all state tempests, through each wind 
 
 and wave, 
 And laid him in an honourable grave. 
 
 And yours, and the whole world's beloved Donne, 
 When he a long and wild career had run 
 To the meridian of his glorious sun ;
 
 206 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 And being then an object of much ruth, 
 
 Led on by vanities, error and youth, 
 
 Was long ere he did find the way of truth ; 
 
 By the same clue, after his youthful swing, 
 To serve at his God's altar here you bring, 
 Where once a wanton muse doth anthems sing. 
 
 And though by God's most powerful grace alone 
 
 His heart was settled in religion : 
 
 Yet 'tis by you we know how it was done ; 
 
 And know, that having crucified vanities, 
 And fix'd his hope, he clos'd up his own eyes, 
 And then your friend a saint, and preacher, dies. 
 
 The meek and learned Hooker too, almost 
 In the Church's ruins overwhelmed and lost, 
 Is by your pen, recover'd from the dust. 
 
 And Herbert ; he whose education, 
 Manners, and parts, by high applauses blown, 
 Was deeply tainted by ambition ; 
 
 And fitted for a court, made that his aim ; 
 At last, without regard to birth or name, 
 For a poor country cure does all disclaim ; 
 
 Where, with a soul composed of harmonies, 
 Like a sweet swan, he warbles as he dies, 
 His Maker's praise, and his own obsequies.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 207 
 
 All this you tell us, with so good success, 
 
 That our oblig'd posterity shall profess 
 
 To have been your friend, was a great happiness. 
 
 And now, when many worthier would be proud 
 To appear before you, if they were allow'd, 
 I take up room enough to serve a crowd : 
 
 Where, to commend what you have choicely writ, 
 Both my poor testimony and my wit 
 Are equally invalid and unfit : 
 
 Yet this, and much more, is most justly due : 
 Where what I write as elegant as true, 
 To the best friend I now or ever knew. 
 
 But, my dear friend, 'tis so, that you and I, 
 By a condition of mortality, 
 
 With all this great, and more proud world, must 
 die : 
 
 In which estate, I ask no more of fame, 
 
 Nor other monument of honour claim, 
 
 Than that of your true friend to advance my name. 
 
 And if your many merits shall have bred 
 And abler pen, to write your life when dead ; 
 I think an honester can not be read. 
 
 CHARLES COTTON. 
 
 January llth, 1672.
 
 2o8 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 " CONTESTATION " 
 
 Directed to my dear Father and most worthy Friend, Mr 
 Isaac Walton. 
 
 HEAV'N, what an age is this ! what race 
 Of giants is sprung up, that dare 
 
 Thus fly in the Almighty's face, 
 
 And with his providence make war ! 
 
 I can go no where but I meet 
 
 With malecontents and mutineers ; 
 
 As if, in life, was nothing sweet, 
 
 And we must blessings reap in tears. 
 
 O senseless man ! that murmurs still 
 For happiness ; and does not know, 
 
 Even though he might enjoy his will, 
 What he would have to make him so. 
 
 Is it true happiness to be, 
 
 By undiscerning fortune, plac'd 
 
 In the most eminent degree, 
 
 Where few arrive, and none stand fast ? 
 
 Titles and wealth are fortune's toils, 
 
 Wherewith the vain themselves ensnare ; 
 
 The great are proud of borrow'd spoils, 
 The miser's plenty breeds his care,
 
 THE WALTON BUST IN ST MART'S CHURCH, STAFFORD 
 
 Tojace page 208.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 209 
 
 The one supinely yawns to rest, 
 
 Th' other eternally doth toil ; 
 Each of them equally a beast, 
 
 A pamper'd horse, or lab'ring moil. 
 
 The titulado's oft disgrac'd, 
 
 By public hate, or private frown ; 
 
 And he whose hand the creature rais'd, 
 Has yet a foot to kick him down. 
 
 The drudge who would all get, all save, 
 Like a brute beast both feeds and lies ; 
 
 Prone to the earth, he digs his grave, 
 And in the very labour dies. 
 
 Excess of ill-got, ill-kept pelf, 
 Does only death and danger breed ; 
 
 Whilst one rich worldling starves himself, 
 With what would thousand others feed : 
 
 By which we see that wealth and power, 
 Although they make men rich and great, 
 
 The sweets of life do often sour, 
 And gull ambition with a cheat. 
 
 Nor is he happier than these 
 Who, in a moderate estate, 
 Where he might safely live at ease, 
 
 Has lusts that are immoderate ; 
 o
 
 2io IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 For he, by those desires misled, 
 Quits his own vine's securing shade, 
 
 T expose his naked empty head 
 
 To all the storms man's peace invade. 
 
 Nor is he happy who is trim, 
 Trickt up in favours of the fair : 
 
 Mirrors which ev'ry breath may dim ; 
 Birds caught in ev'ry wanton snare. 
 
 Woman, man's greatest woe or bliss 
 Does ofter far than serve, enslave ; 
 
 And, with the magic of a kiss, 
 
 Destroys whom she was made to save. 
 
 Oh fruitful grief ! the world's disease ; 
 
 And vainer man to make it so, 
 Who gives his miseries increase 
 
 By cultivating his own woe. 
 
 There are no ills but what we make, 
 By giving shapes and names to things ; 
 
 Which is the dangerous mistake 
 That causes all our sufferings : 
 
 We call that sickness which is health ; 
 
 That persecution, which is grace ; 
 That poverty, which is true wealth ; 
 
 And that dishonour, which is praise.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Providence watches over all, 
 And that with an impartial eye ; 
 
 And if to misery we fall, 
 
 Tis through our own infirmity. 
 
 'Tis want of foresight makes the bold 
 Ambitious youth to danger climb ; 
 
 And want of virtue, when the old 
 At persecution do repine. 
 
 Alas ! our time is, here, so short, 
 That in what state soe'er 'tis spent, 
 
 Of joy, or woe, does not import, 
 Provided it be innocent : 
 
 But we may make it pleasant too, 
 If we will take our measures right ; 
 
 And not what Heav'n has done undo, 
 By an unruly appetite. 
 
 'Tis contentation that, alone, 
 Can make us happy here below ; 
 
 And, when this little life is gone, 
 Will lift us up to heav'n too. 
 
 A very little satisfies 
 
 An honest and a grateful heart ; 
 And who would more than will suffice, 
 
 Does covet more than is his part.
 
 2i2 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 That man is happy in his share, 
 Who is warm clad and cleanly fed ; 
 
 Whose necessaries bound his care, 
 And honest labour makes his bed : 
 
 Who, free from debt, and clear from crimes, 
 Honours those laws that others fear : 
 
 Who ill of princes, in worst times, 
 Will neither speak himself, nor hear : 
 
 Who from the busy world retires, 
 
 To be more useful to it still, 
 And to no greater good aspires, 
 
 But only the eschewing ill : 
 
 Who, with his angle and his books, 
 Can think the longest day well spent, 
 
 And praises God, when back he looks, 
 And finds that all was innocent. 
 
 This man is happier far than he 
 Whom public business oft betrays, 
 
 Through labyrinths of policy, 
 To crooked and forbidden ways : 
 
 The world is full of beaten roads, 
 
 But yet so slippery withal, 
 That where one walks secure, 'tis odds 
 
 A hundred and a hundred fall.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 213 
 
 Untrodden paths are then the best, 
 Where the frequented are unsure ; 
 
 And he comes soonest to his rest 
 
 Whose journey has been most secure. 
 
 It is content, alone, that makes 
 
 Our pilgrimage a pleasure here : 
 And who buys sorrow cheapest, takes 
 
 An ill commodity too dear. 
 
 But he has fortune's worst withstood, 
 
 And happiness can never miss ; 
 Can covet nought but where he stood ; 
 
 And thinks him happy where he is. 
 
 TO MY DEAR AND MOST WORTHY FRIEND, MR IZAAK 
 
 WALTON 
 
 WHILST in this cold and blustering Clime, 
 Where bleak winds howl and Tempests roar, 
 
 We pass away the roughest time 
 Has been of many years before ; 
 
 Whilst from the most tempestuous Nooks 
 The chillest Blasts our peace invade, 
 
 And by great Rains our smallest Brooks 
 Are almost navigable made ;
 
 2i 4 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Whilst all the ills are so improved, 
 Of this dead quarter of the year, 
 
 That even you, so much beloved, 
 
 We would not now wish with us here : 
 
 In this estate, I say, it is 
 
 Some comfort to us to suppose, 
 
 That, in a better Clime than this, 
 
 You, our dear friend, have more repose ; 
 
 And some delight to me the while, 
 Though nature now does weep in rain, 
 
 To think that I have seen her smile, 
 And haply may I do again. 
 
 If the all-ruling Power please 
 
 We live to see another May, 
 We'll recompense an Age of these 
 
 Foul days in one fine fishing day : 
 
 We then shall have a day or two, 
 Perhaps a week, wherein to try 
 
 What the best Master's hand can do 
 With the most deadly killing Fly : 
 
 A day with not too bright a beam, 
 A warm, but not a scorching sun, 
 
 A southern gale to curl the stream, 
 And (Master) half our work is done.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 215 
 
 There, whilst behind some bush we wait 
 
 The Scaly People to betray, 
 We'll prove it just, with treacherous bait 
 
 To make the preying Trout our prey ; 
 
 And think ourselves, in such an hour, 
 Happier than those, though not so high, 
 
 Who, like Leviathans, devour 
 Of meaner men the smaller Fry. 
 
 This (my best Friend) at my poor Home, 
 Shall be our Pastime and our Theme ; 
 
 But then should you not deign to come, 
 You make all this a flattering Dream. 1 
 
 THE RETIREMENT 
 
 STANZES IRREGULIERS 
 
 To Mr Isaak Walton. 
 
 FAREWELL thou busie World, and may 
 
 We never meet again : 
 Here I can eat, and sleep, and pray. 
 And do more good in one short day, 
 Than he who his whole Age out- wears 
 Upon thy most conspicuous Theatres, 
 Where nought but Vice and Vanity do reign. 
 Good God ! how sweet are all things here ! 
 How beautiful the Fields appear !
 
 2i6 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 How cleanly do we feed and lie ! 
 Lord ! what good hours do we keep ! 
 
 How quietly we sleep ! 
 What Peace ! what Unanimity ! 
 How innocent from the leud Fashion, 
 Is all our bus'ness, all our Conversation ! 
 
 Oh how happy here's our leisure ! 
 
 Oh how innocent our pleasure ! 
 
 Oh ye Vallies, Oh ye Mountains, 
 
 Oh ye Groves and Chrystall Fountains, 
 
 How I love at liberty, 
 
 By turn to come and visit ye ! 
 
 O Solitude, the Soul's best Friend, 
 
 That man acquainted with himself dost make, 
 
 And all his Maker's Wonders to intend ; 
 
 With thee I here converse at will, 
 
 And would be glad to do so still ; 
 
 For it is thou alone that keep'st the Soul awake. 
 
 How calm and quiet a delight 
 
 It is alone 
 
 To read, and meditate, and write, 
 By none offended, nor offending none ; 
 To walk, ride, sit, or sleep at one's own ease, 
 And pleasing a man's self, none other to displease ! 
 Oh my beloved Nymph ! fair Dove, 
 Princess of Rivers, how I love 
 Upon thy flow'ry Banks to lie,
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 217 
 
 And view thy Silver stream, 
 When gilded by a Summer's Beam, 
 And in it all thy wanton Fry 
 
 Playing at liberty, 
 And with my Angle upon them, 
 
 The All of Treachery 
 I ever learn'd to practise and to try ! 
 
 Such streams Rome's yellow Tiber cannot show, 
 
 Th' Iberian Tagus, nor Ligurian Po ; 
 
 The Meuse, the Danube, and the Rhine, 
 
 Are puddle-water all compar'd with thine ; 
 
 And Loire's pure streams yet too polluted are 
 
 With thine much purer to compare : 
 
 The rapid Garonne, and the winding Seine 
 
 Are both too mean, 
 
 Beloved Dove, with thee 
 
 To vie priority : 
 
 Nay, Tame and Isis, when conjoyn'd, submit, 
 And lay their Trophies at thy Silver Feet. 
 
 Oh my beloved Rocks ! that rise 
 
 To awe the Earth, and brave the Skies, 
 
 From some aspiring Mountain's crown 
 
 How dearly do I love, 
 Giddy with pleasure, to look down, 
 And from the Vales to view the noble heights above ! 
 Oh my beloved Caves ! from Dog-star heats 
 And hotter Persecution safe Retreats,
 
 218 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 What safety, privacy, what true delight 
 
 In the artificial Night 
 
 Your gloomy entrails make, 
 
 Have I taken, do I take ! 
 How oft, when grief has made me fly 
 To hide me from Society, 
 Even of my dearest Friends, have I 
 In your recesse's friendly shade 
 All my sorrows open laid, 
 And my most secret woes entrusted to your 
 
 privacy ! 
 
 Lord ! would men let me alone, 
 
 What an over-happy one 
 
 Should I think myself to be, 
 
 Might I in this desart place, 
 
 Which most men by their voice disgrace, 
 
 Live but undisturb'd and free ! 
 
 Here in this despis'd recess 
 
 Would I maugre Winter's cold, 
 
 And the Summer's worst excess, 
 Try to live out to sixty full years old, 
 
 And all the while 
 
 Without an envious eye 
 On any thriving under Fortune's smile, 
 Contented live, and then contented die.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 219 
 
 THE ANGLER'S BALLAD 
 
 A WAY to the Brook, 
 
 All your Tackle out look, 
 
 Here's a day that is worth a year's wishing ; 
 
 See that all things be right, 
 
 For 'tis a very spight 
 
 To want tools when a man goes fishing. 
 
 Your Rod with tops two, 
 
 For the same will not doe 
 
 If your manner of angling you vary ; 
 
 And full well you may think, 
 
 If you troll with a Pink, 
 
 One too weak will be apt to miscarry. 
 
 Then Basket, neat made 
 
 By a Master in's trade, 
 
 In a belt at your shoulders must dangle ; 
 
 For none e'er was so vain 
 
 To wear this to disdain, 
 
 Who a true Brother was of the Angle. 
 
 Next, Pouch must not fail, 
 
 Stuffd as full as a Mail, 
 
 With Wax, Crewels, Silks, Hair, Furs and Feathers, 
 
 To make several Flies 
 
 For the several Skies, 
 
 That shall kill in despight of all weathers.
 
 220 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 The Boxes and Books 
 
 For your Lines and your Hooks, 
 
 And, though not for strict need notwithstanding, 
 
 Your Scissors, and your Hone 
 
 To adjust your points on, 
 
 With a Net to be sure for your landing. 
 
 All these being on, 
 
 'Tis high time we were gone, 
 
 Down, and upward, that all may have pleasure ; 
 
 Till, here meeting at night, 
 
 We shall have the delight 
 
 To discourse of our Fortunes at leisure. 
 
 The day's not too bright, 
 
 And the wind hits us right, 
 
 And all Nature does seem to invite us ; 
 
 We have all things at will 
 
 For to second our skill, 
 
 As they all did conspire to delight us. 
 
 Or stream now, or still, 
 
 A large Panier will fill 
 
 Trout and Grailing to rise are so willing ; 
 
 I dare venture to say 
 
 'Twill be a bloudy day, 
 
 And we all shall be weary of killing. 
 
 Away then, away, 
 
 We loose sport by delay,
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FKIENDS 2 
 
 But first leave all our sorrows behind us ; 
 
 If misfortune doe come, 
 
 We are all gone from home, 
 
 And a fishing she never can find us. 
 
 The Angler is free 
 
 From the cares that degree 
 
 Finds it self with so often tormented ; 
 
 And although we should slay 
 
 Each a hundred to-day, 
 
 'Tis a slaughter needs ne'er be repented. 
 
 And though we display 
 
 All our Arts to betray 
 
 What were made for man's Pleasure and Diet ; 
 
 Yet both Princes and States 
 
 May, for all our quaint Bates, 
 
 Rule themselves and their people in quiet. 
 
 We scratch not our pates, 
 
 Nor repine at the Kates 
 
 Our Superiors impose on our living ; 
 
 But do frankly submit, 
 
 Knowing they have more wit 
 
 In demanding, than we have in giving. 
 
 Whilst quiet we sit 
 
 We conclude all things fit,
 
 222 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Acquiescing with hearty submission ; 
 For, though simple, we know 
 That soft murmurs will grow 
 At the last unto down-right Sedition. 
 
 We care not who says, 
 
 And intends it dispraise, 
 
 That an Angler t' a Fool is next neighbour ; 
 
 Let him prate, what care we, 
 
 We're as honest as he, 
 
 And so let him take that for his labour. 
 
 We covet no Wealth 
 
 But the Blessing of Health, 
 
 And that greater good Conscience within ; 
 
 Such Devotion we bring 
 
 To our God and our King, 
 
 That from either no offers can win. 
 
 Whilst we sit and fish 
 
 We do pray as we wish, 
 
 For long life to our King James the Second ; 
 
 Honest Anglers then may, 
 
 Or they've very foul play, 
 
 With the best of good Subjects be reckon'd.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 223 
 
 To POET E. W. 1 
 
 Occasioned for his writing a Panegyric on Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 FROM whence, vile Poet, did'st thou glean the Wit, 
 
 And Words for such a vitious Poem fit ? 
 
 Where could'st thou Paper find was not too white ; 
 
 Or Ink, that could be black enough to write ? 
 
 What servile Devil tempted thee to be 
 
 A flatterer of thine own Slavery ? 
 
 To kiss thy Bondage, and extol the deed, 
 
 At once that made thy Prince and Country bleed ? 
 
 I wonder much thy false Heart did not dread, 
 
 And shame to write, what all Men blush to read ; 
 
 Thus with a base ingratitude to rear 
 
 Trophies unto thy Master's Murtherer ? 
 
 Who call'd thee Coward ( ) much mistook 
 
 The characters of thy pedantick Look ; 
 Thou hast at once abus'd thy self, and us : 
 He's stout that dares flatter a Tyranne thus. 
 
 Put up thy Pen and Ink, muzzle thy Muse 
 Adulterate Hag fit for a common Stews, 
 No good Man's Library ; writ thou hast 
 Treason in Rhime has all thy Works defac't : 
 
 1 E. W. is Edmund Waller. "Such a series of verses," it is 
 said by Johnson, "had rarely appeared before in the English 
 language." After the Restoration Waller wrote in praise of Charles 
 
 n.
 
 224 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Such is thy fault, that when I think to find 
 A punishment of the severest kind, 
 For thy offence, my malice cannot name 
 A greater ; than, once to commit the same. 
 
 Where was thy reason then, when thou began 
 To write against the sense of God and Man ? 
 Within thy guilty breast Despair took place, 
 Thou would 'st despairing Die in spite of Grace. 
 At once th' art Judge, and Malefactor shown, 
 Each Sentence in thy Poem is thine own. 
 
 Then, what thou hast pronounc'd go execute, 
 Hang up thy self, and say, I bid thee do't ; 
 Fear not thy memory, that cannot dye, 
 This Panegyrick is thy Elegy, 
 Which shall be when ; or wheresoever read, 
 A living Poem to upbraid thee dead. 
 
 THE EIGHTH PSALM PARAPHRASED 
 
 O LORD, our Governour, whose potent sway 
 
 All Pow'rs in Heav'n and Earth obey, 
 
 Throughout the spacious Earth's extended frame 
 
 How great is thy adored Name ! 
 
 Thy Glories thou hast seated, Lord, on high, 
 
 Above the Empirean Sky. 
 
 Out of the mouths of Infants, newly come 
 
 From the dark Closet of the Womb, 
 
 Thou hast ordained pow'rfull Truth to rise, 
 
 To baffle all thine Enemies ;
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 225 
 
 That them the furious Rage might'st calm agen, 
 Of bloudy and revengefull men. 
 
 When on thy Glorious Heav'ns I reflect, 
 
 Thy work, almighty Architect, 
 
 The changing Moon and Stars that thou hast made 
 
 T' illuminate night's sable shade : 
 
 Oh ! what is man, think I, that Heaven's King 
 Should mind so poor a wretched thing ; 
 Or Man's frail Off-spring, that Almighty God 
 Should stoop to visit his abode ? 
 
 For thou createdst him but one degree 
 Below the Heav'nly Hierarchy 
 Of bless 'd and happy Angels, and didst crown 
 Frail Dust with Glory and Eenown. 
 
 Over the^ works of thy Almighty hand 
 Thou giv'st him absolute command, 
 And all the rest that thou hast made 
 Under his feet hast subject laid ; 
 
 All Sheep and Oxen, and the wilder breed 
 Of Beasts that on their Fellows feed ; 
 
 The Air's Inhabitants, and scaly brood, 
 That live and wanton in the Flood, 
 And whatsoe'er does either swim or creep 
 Through th' investigable Deep : 
 
 Throughout the spacious Earth's extended frame 
 How great is thy adored Name !
 
 226 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 (c) SOME OF DR DONNE'S VERSES 
 FEAR CAST OUT 
 
 WILT Thou forgive that sin, where I begun, 
 Which was my sin though it were done before ? 
 Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run 
 And do run still, though still I do deplore ? 
 When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, 
 For I have more. 
 
 Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won 
 Others to sin and made my sins their door ? 
 Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun 
 A year or two, but wallowed in a score ? 
 When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, 
 For I have more. 
 
 I have a sin of fear that, when I've spun 
 My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ; 
 But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son 
 Shall shine, as He shines now and heretofore : 
 And, having done that, Thou hast done : 
 I fear no more. 
 
 Note. This lovely hymn, Walton tells us, Donne caused to be 
 set to a most grave and solemn tune, and to be often sung to the 
 organ by the choristers of St Paul's Cathedral, in his own hearing.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 227 
 
 HYMN TO GOD, MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS 
 
 SINCE I am coming to that holy room, 
 Where with Thy choir of saints for evermore, 
 I shall be made Thy music ; as I come 
 I tune the instrument here at the door, 
 And what I must do then, think here before ; 
 
 Whilst my physicians by their love are grown 
 Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie 
 Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown 
 That this is my south-west discovery, 
 Per fretum febris, by these straits to die ; 
 
 I joy, that in these straits I see my West ; 
 For, though those currents yield return to none, 
 What shall my West hurt me ? As west and east 
 In all flat maps and I am one are one, 
 So death doth touch the Resurrection. 
 
 Is the Pacific Sea my home ? Or are 
 
 The eastern riches ? Is Jerusalem ? 
 
 An van, and Magellan, and Gibraltar 
 
 All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them 
 
 Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Ham, or Shem. 
 
 We think that Paradise and Calvary, 
 Christ's cross and Adam's tree, stood in one place ; 
 Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me ; 
 As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face, 
 May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace.
 
 228 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 So, in His purple wrapp'd, receive me, Lord ; 
 By these His thorns, give me His other crown ; 
 And as to others' souls I preach' d Thy Word, 
 Be this my text, my sermon to mine own : 
 " Therefore that He may raise, the Lord throws 
 down." 
 
 Note. This hymn was written on Donne's death-bed. 
 
 A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING 
 
 As virtuous men pass mildly away 
 
 And whisper to their souls to go, 
 
 Whilst some of their sad friends do say, 
 
 " Now his breath goes," and some say, " No." 
 
 So let us melt, and make no noise, 
 No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ; 
 'Twere profanation of our joys 
 To tell the laity our love. 
 
 Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ; 
 Men reckon what it did and meant ; 
 But trepidation of the spheres, 
 Though greater far, is innocent. 
 
 Dull sublunary lovers' love 
 Whose soul is sense cannot admit 
 Of absence, 'cause it doth remove 
 The thing which elemented it.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 229 
 
 But we by a love so far refined, 
 That ourselves know not what it is, 
 Inter-assured of the mind, 
 Care less eyes, lips and hands to miss. 
 
 Our two souls therefore, which are one, 
 Though I must go, endure not yet 
 A breach, but an expansion, 
 Like gold to airy thinness beat. 
 
 If they be two, they are two so, 
 As stiff twin compasses are two ; 
 Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show 
 To move, but doth, if th ! other do. 
 
 And though it in the centre sit, 
 Yet, when the other far doth roam, 
 It leans and hearkens after it, 
 And grows erect, as that comes home. 
 
 Such wilt thou be to me, who must, 
 Like th' other foot, obliquely run ; 
 Thy firmness makes my circle just, 
 And makes me end where I begun. 
 
 Note. These verses were given by Donne to his wife 
 when he went abroad in 1611. Walton says: " I beg leave to 
 tell, that I have heard some critics, learned both in languages 
 and poetry, say, that none of the Greek or Latin poets did ever 
 equal them."
 
 230 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 A SHEAF OF SNAKES USED HERETOFORE TO BE MY 
 SEAL, THE CREST OF OUR POOR FAMILY 
 
 ADOPTED in God's family and so 
 
 Our old coat lost, unto new arms I go. 
 
 The Cross my seal at baptism spread below 
 
 Does, by that form, into an Anchor grow. 
 
 Crosses grow Anchors ; bear, as thou shouldest do 
 
 Thy Cross, and that Cross grows an Anchor too. 
 
 But He that makes our Crosses Anchors thus, 
 
 Is Christ, who there is crucified for us. 
 
 Yet may I, with this, my first serpents hold ; 
 
 God gives new blessings, and yet leaves the old ; 
 
 The serpent may, as wise, my pattern be ; 
 
 My poison, as he feeds on dust, that's me. 
 
 And, as he rounds the earth to murder sure, 
 
 My death he is, but on the Cross, my cure. 
 
 Crucify nature then, and then implore 
 
 All grace from Him, crucified there before ; 
 
 Then all is Cross, and that Cross Anchor grown ; 
 
 This seal's a catechism, not a seal alone. 
 
 Under that little seal great gifts I send, 
 
 Works, and prayers, pawns, and fruits of a friend. 
 
 And may that saint which rides in our great seal, 
 
 To you who bear his name, great bounties deal !
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 THE BAIT 
 
 COME live with me, and be my love, 
 And we will some new pleasures prove 
 Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, 
 With silken lines and silver hooks. 
 
 There will the river whisp'ring run 
 Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun ; 
 And there th' enamour'd fish will stay, 
 Begging themselves they may betray. 
 
 When thou wilt swim in that live bath, 
 Each fish which every channel hath, 
 Will amorously to thee swim, 
 Gladder to catch thee, than thou him. 
 
 If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth, 
 By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both, 
 And if myself have leave to see, 
 I need not their light, having thee. 
 
 Let others freeze with angling reeds, 
 And cut their legs with shells and weeds, 
 Or treacherously poor fish beset, 
 With strangling snare, or windowy net. 
 
 Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest 
 The bedded fish in banks out-wrest ; 
 Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies, 
 Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.
 
 232 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 For thee, thou need'st no such deceit, 
 For thou thyself art thine own bait ; 
 That fish, that is not catch'd thereby, 
 Alas ! is wiser far than I. 
 
 (df) SOME OF HERBERT'S VERSES 
 THE ELIXIR 
 
 TEACH me, my God and King, 
 
 In all things Thee to see, 
 And what I do in any thing, 
 
 To do it as for Thee : 
 
 Not rudely, as a beast, 
 
 To run into an action ; 
 But still to make Thee prepossest, 
 
 And give it his perfection. 
 
 A man that looks on glass, 
 
 On it may stay his eye ; 
 Or if he pleaseth, through it pass, 
 
 And then the heaven espy. 
 
 All may of Thee partake : 
 
 Nothing can be so mean, 
 Which with this tincture " for Thy sake " 
 
 Will not grow bright and clean.
 
 1ZAAK WALTON AND HIS FXIENDS 
 
 A servant with this clause 
 
 Makes drudgery divine : 
 Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, 
 
 Makes that and the action fine. 
 
 This is the famous stone 
 
 That turneth all to gold : 
 For that which God doth touch and own 
 
 Cannot for less be told. 
 
 THE COLLAR 
 
 I STRUCK the board, and cried, no more ; 
 
 I will abroad. 
 
 What ? shall I ever sigh and pine ? 
 My lines and life are free ; free as the road, 
 Loose as the wind, as large as store. 
 
 Shall I be still in suit ? 
 Have I no harvest but a thorn 
 To let me blood, and not restore 
 What I have lost with cordial fruit ? 
 
 Sure there was wine, 
 
 Before my sighs did try it : there was corn, 
 Before my tears did drown it. 
 Is the year only lost to me ? 
 Have I no bays to crown it ? 
 No flowers, no garlands gay ? all blasted ? 
 
 All wasted ?
 
 234 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Not so, my heart : but there is fruit, 
 
 And thou hast hands. 
 Recover all thy sigh-blown age 
 On double pleasures : leave thy cold dispute 
 Of what i$Jit> and not: forsake thy cage, 
 
 Thy rope of sands, 
 Which petty thoughts have made, and made to 
 
 thee 
 Good cable, to enforce and draw, 
 
 And be thy law, 
 While thou didst wink and wouldst not see. 
 
 Away ; take heed : 
 
 I will abroad. 
 Call in thy death's-head there : tie up thy fears. 
 
 He that forbears 
 To suit and serve his need, 
 
 Deserves his load. 
 But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild 
 
 At every word, 
 Methought I heard one calling, " Child : " 
 
 And I replied, "My Lord!" 
 
 THE PULLEY 
 
 WHEN God at first made man, 
 Having a glass of blessing standing by ; 
 Let us (said He) pour on him all we can : 
 Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie, 
 Contract into a span.
 
 1ZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 235 
 
 So strength first made a way ; 
 Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure; 
 When almost all was out, God made a stay, 
 Perceiving that alone of all His treasure, 
 Rest in the bottom lay. 
 
 For if I should (said He) 
 Bestow this jewel also on My creature, 
 He would adore My gifts instead of Me, 
 And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature : 
 So both should losers be. 
 
 Yet let him keep the rest, 
 But keep them with repining restlessness : 
 Let him be rich and weary, that at least, 
 If goodness lead him not, yet weariness 
 May toss him to My breast. 
 
 DISCIPLINE 
 
 THROW away Thy rod, 
 Throw away Thy wrath 
 
 my God, 
 Take the gentle path. 
 
 For my heart's desire 
 Unto Thine is bent : 
 
 1 aspire 
 
 To a full consent.
 
 236 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Not a word or look 
 I affect to own, 
 
 But by book, 
 And Thy book alone. 
 
 Though I fail, I weep : 
 Though I halt in pace, 
 
 Yet I creep 
 To the throne of grace. 
 
 Then let wrath remove ; 
 Love will do the deed : 
 
 For with love 
 Stony hearts will bleed. 
 
 Love is swift of foot ; 
 Love's a man of war, 
 
 And can shoot, 
 And can hit from far. 
 
 Who can 'scape his bow ? 
 That which wrought on Thee, 
 
 Brought Thee low, 
 Needs must work on me. 
 
 Throw away Thy rod ; 
 Though man frailties hath, 
 
 Thou art God : 
 Throw away Thy wrath.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 237 
 
 SUNDAY 
 
 O DAY most calm, most bright, 
 The fruit of this, the next world's bud, 
 The indorsement of supreme delight, 
 Writ by a Friend, and with His blood ; 
 The couch of time ; care's balm and bay ; 
 The week were dark, but for thy light : 
 
 Thy torch doth show the way. 
 
 The other days and thou 
 Make up one man ; whose face thou art, 
 Knocking at heaven with thy brow ; 
 The working-days are the back-part ; 
 The burden of the week lies there, 
 Making the whole to stoop and bow, 
 
 Till thy release appear. 
 
 Man had straight forward gone 
 To endless death ; but thou dost pull 
 And turn us round to look on One, 
 Whom, if we were not very dull, 
 We could not choose but look on still ; 
 Since there is no place so alone 
 
 The which He doth not fill. 
 
 Sundays the pillars are, 
 On which heaven's palace arched lies : 
 The other days fill up the spare 
 And hollow room with vanities.
 
 238 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 They are the fruitful beds and borders 
 In God's rich garden : that is bare 
 
 Which parts their ranks and orders. 
 
 The Sundays of man's life, 
 Threaded together on time's string, 
 Make bracelets to adorn the wife 
 Of the eternal glorious King. 
 On Sunday heaven's gate stands ope ; 
 Blessings are plentiful and rife, 
 
 More plentiful than hope. 
 
 This day my Saviour rose, 
 And did enclose this light for His : 
 That, as each beast his manger knows, 
 Man might not of his fodder miss. 
 Christ hath took in this piece of ground, 
 And made a garden there for those 
 
 Who want herbs for their wound. 
 
 The Rest of our creation 
 Our great Redeemer did remove 
 With the same shake, which at His passion 
 Did th' earth and all things with it move. 
 As Samson bore the doors away, 
 Christ's hands, though nail'd, wrought our sal- 
 vation, 
 And did unhinge that day.
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND ffIS FRIENDS 239 
 
 The brightness of that day 
 We sullied by our foul offence : 
 Wherefore that robe we cast away, 
 Having a new at His expense, 
 Whose drops of blood paid the full price, 
 That was required to make us gay, 
 
 And fit for Paradise. 
 
 Thou art a day of mirth : 
 And where the week-days trail on ground, 
 Thy flight is higher, as thy birth : 
 O let me take thee at the bound, 
 Leaping with thee from seven to seven, 
 Till that we both, being toss'd from earth, 
 
 Fly hand in hand to heaven ! 
 
 (c) SOME OF SIR HENRY WOTTON'S VERSES 
 A HYMN TO MY GOD 
 
 OH Thou Great Power ! in whom I move, 
 For whom I live, to whom I die, 
 Behold me through Thy beams of love 
 Whilst on this couch of tears I lie ; 
 
 And cleanse my sordid soul within, 
 By Thy Christ's blood, the bath of sin ! 
 
 No hallowed oils, no grains I need, 
 No rags of saints, no purging fire ; 
 One rosy drop from David's seed, 
 Was worlds of seas to quench Thine ire.
 
 240 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Oh precious ransom ! which once paid 
 That consummatum est was said ; 
 
 And said by Him that said no more, 
 But sealed it with his sacred breath ; 
 Thou, then, that hast dispunged my score, 
 And dying wast the death of Death, 
 Be to me now, on Thee I call, 
 My life, my strength, my joy, my all ! 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE 
 
 How happy is he born and taught 
 That serveth not another's will ; 
 Whose armour is his honest thought 
 And simple truth his utmost skill ! 
 
 Whose passions not his masters are, 
 Whose soul is still prepared for death, 
 Untied unto the world by care 
 Of public fame, or private breath ; 
 
 Who envies none that chance doth raise, 
 Nor vice ; who never understood 
 How deepest wounds are given by praise ; 
 Nor rules of state, but rules of good : 
 
 Who hath his life from rumours freed, 
 Whose conscience is his strong retreat ; 
 Whose state can neither flatterers feed, 
 Nor ruin make oppressors great ;
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND fffS FRIENDS 241 
 
 Who God doth late and early pray 
 More of His grace than gifts to lend ; 
 And entertains the harmless day 
 With a religious book or friend ; 
 
 This man is freed from servile bands 
 Of hope to rise, or fear to fall ; 
 Lord of himself, though not of lands ; 
 And having nothing, yet hath all. 
 
 ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA l 
 
 You meaner beauties of the night, 
 
 That poorly satisfy our eyes 
 More by your number than your light, 
 
 You common people of the skies, 
 What are you, when the Sun 2 shall rise ? 
 
 You curious chanters of the wood 
 That warble forth dame Nature's lays, 
 
 Thinking your passions understood 
 
 By your weak accents ; what's your praise 
 
 When Philomel her voice doth raise ? 
 
 Ihf 
 You violets that first appear, 
 
 By your pure purple mantles known 
 Like the proud virgins of the year, 
 
 As if the spring were all your own, 
 What are you, when the Rose is blown ? 
 
 1 She was a daughter of James I., and married, in 1613, Frederick 
 Elector Palatine of Bavaria, afterwards King of Bohemia. 
 'Moon is sometimes given instead of Sun 
 
 Q
 
 242 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 So when my Mistress shall be seen 
 In form and beauty of her mind, 
 
 By virtue first, then choice, a Queen, 
 Tell me, if she were not. design'd 
 
 Th' eclipse and glory of her kind ? 
 
 (/) LAUDATORUM CARMINA 
 
 BY 
 
 DK JAMES DDPORT 
 
 Ad Virum Optimum et Piscatorem Peritissimum Isaacum 
 Waltonum. 
 
 MAGISTER artis docte piscatoriae, 
 Waltone, salve ! magne dux arundinis, 
 Seu tu reducta valle solus ambulas, 
 Praeterfluentes interim observans aquas, 
 Seu forte puri stans in amnis margine, 
 Sive in tenaci gramine et ripa sedens, 
 Fallis perita squameum pecus manu ; 
 O te beatum ! qui procul negotiis, 
 Forique et urbis pulvere et strepitu carens, 
 Extraque turbam, ad lene manantes aquas 
 Vagos honesta fraude pisces decipis. 
 Dum caetera ergo paene gens mortalium 
 Aut retia invicem sibi et technas struunt, 
 Donis, ut hamo, aut divites captant senes, 
 Gregi natantum tu interim nectis dolos. 
 Voracem inescas advenam hamo lucium, 
 Avidamvk percam parvulo alberno capis,
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 243 
 
 Aut verme ruffo, muscula aut truttam levi. 
 
 Cautumve cyprinum, et fere, indocilem capi 
 
 Calamoque linoque (ars at hunc superat tua), 
 
 Medicamve tincam, gobium aut esca trahis, 
 
 Gratum palato gobium, parvum licet. 
 
 Praedamve, non aeque salubrem barbulum, 
 
 Etsi ampliorem et mystace insignem gravi. 
 
 Hae sunt tibi artes, dum annus et tempus sinunt, 
 
 Et nulla transit absque linea dies. 
 
 Nee sola praxis, sed theoria et tibi 
 
 Nota artis hujus ; unde tu simul bonus 
 
 Piscator, idem et scriptor : et calami potens 
 
 Utriusque necdum et ictus, et tamen'sapis. 
 
 Ut hamiotam nempe tironem instruas ! 
 
 Stylo eleganti scribis en Halieutica 
 
 Oppianus alter, artis et methodum tuae, et 
 
 Praecepta promis rite piscatoria, 
 
 Varias et escas piscium, indolem et genus. 
 
 Nee tradere artem sat putas piscariam, 
 
 (Virtutis est haec et tamen quaedam schola 
 
 Patientiamque et temperantiam docet,) 
 
 Documenta quin majora das, et regulas 
 
 Sublimioris artis, et perennia 
 
 Monimenta morem, vitae et exempla optima, 
 
 Dum tu profundum scribis Hookerum ; et pium 
 
 Donnum ac disertum ; sanctum et Herbertum, 
 
 sacrum 
 
 Vatem ; hos videmus nam penicillo tuo 
 Graphice et perit, Isaace, depictos manu.
 
 244 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 Post fata factos hosce per te Virbios. 
 O quae voluptas est legere in scriptis tuis ! 
 Sic tu libris nos, lineis pisces capis, 
 Musisque litterisque dum incumbis, licet 
 Intentus hamo, interque piscandum studes. 
 
 A TRANSLATION 
 
 To the best of Men and the Most Skilled of Anglers, Izaac 
 Walton. 
 
 HAIL Walton, learned master of the art of 
 angling ! Great champion of the rod, happy art 
 thou whether alone thou dost pace a secluded 
 valley, or, standing on the margin of a clear stream 
 or sitting in the matted grass of the bank, thou 
 dost with skilled hand trick the scaley race ! 
 Happy art thou, who far from business cares, away 
 from the noise and dust of mart and town and 
 beyond reach of crowds, dost by the slowly flowing 
 waters cut off, by honest fraud, the wandering fish ! 
 Whilst then almost all the rest of the race of 
 mortals either in turns spread nets for themselves 
 and bait traps with gifts as with a hook, or lie in 
 wait for rich old men, thou dost weave plots for 
 the tribe of fishes, dost entice the greedy foreign 
 pike with the hook, dost catch the voracious perch 
 with blay, a trout with red worm, or smooth 
 mussel, or thy art overcomes even the cautious 
 carp that rod and line can scarce take ; or thou
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 245 
 
 dost with bait betray the healing tench or gudgeon, 
 palate pleasing gudgeon, it matters little what the 
 fish is ; or perhaps thy prey is the less wholesome 
 but larger mysteriously marked barbel. These are 
 thy pursuits when time and weather allow and 
 no day passes without a line. And not the 
 practice only but the theory of this art is known 
 to thee. Whence it comes that thou art at once 
 a good angler and a good writer : and thy mastery 
 of both rod and pen dost show thy good sense. 
 Be thou then indeed the instructor of the young 
 fisherman. In graceful style thou dost write a 
 second Oppian, of all things fishing, and dost duly 
 set forth the angler's precepts and his methods and 
 the various kinds of bait and the different kinds of 
 fish and their habits. Nor dost think it enough to 
 hand down the art of angling (though this indeed 
 form a sort of school and teaches patience and 
 soberness) but dost give greater proofs of loftier 
 art, the ever fresh examples of character and noble 
 patterns of life. Thou hast written of deep 
 Hooker and of learned and pious Donne, and of 
 Herbert, holy priest. We see these, Izaac, painted 
 in living colours by trained brush. By thee these 
 Heroes though dead live once more. O what 
 pleasure it is to read thy books ! Thus by thy 
 books thou dost catch us fish as with lines and 
 dost combine in wondrous wise fishing and the 
 pursuit of the muses.
 
 246 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 LAUDATORUM CARMINA 
 
 BY 
 
 Dr JAMES DUPOBT 
 Ad Isaacum Waltonum, Virum et Piscatorem Optimum. 
 
 ISAACE Macte hac arte piscatoria ; 
 Hac arte Petrus principi censum dedit ; 
 Hac arte princeps nee Petro multo prior, 
 Tranquillus ille, teste Tranquillo, pater 
 Patriae, solebat recreare se lubens 
 Augustus, hamo instructus ac arundine. 
 Tu nunc, amice, proximum clari es decus 
 Post Caesarem hami, gentis ac Halieuticae : 
 Euge O professor artis baud ingloriae, 
 Doctor cathedrae, perlegens piscariam ! 
 Nae tu magister, et ego discipulus tuus, 
 Nam candidatum et me ferunt arundinis, 
 Socium hac in arte nobilem nacti sumus. 
 Quid amplius, Waltone, nam dici potest ! 
 Ipse hamiota Dominus en orbis fuit ! 
 
 JACO. DUP., D.D. 
 
 A TRANSLATION. 
 
 To Isaac Walton, Best of Men and Anglers. 
 
 ISAAC, good luck to thee in the art of fishing! 
 By this art Peter gave tribute to Caesar. In this 
 art, not long before Peter, that great Tranquillus, 
 so Tranquillus (Suetonius) says Caesar Augustus 
 skilled in all knowledge of hook and line was
 
 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 247 
 
 wont to find recreation. Thou now, oh my friend, 
 art after Caesar the greatest glory of the hook 
 and fishing tribe. Well done ! professor of no 
 ignoble art, learned doctor deeply steeped in fish- 
 market-lore ! Verily thou master and I thy 
 disciple we two were born, for they say that I too 
 am a novice of the rod, comrades in this noble 
 art. What more, Walton, remains to be said? 
 Our Lord Himself was on earth a Fisher ! 
 
 JAMES DUPORT, D.D. 
 
 Note. In Notes and Qtieries, 1st S. VIII., p. 193, some 
 other lines to Walton, by Duport, are to be found. 
 
 (g) LAUDATORUM CARMINA 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY BAYLEY, ARTIUM MAGISTER 
 
 Clarissimo amicissimoque fratri, Domino Isaaco Walton, 
 artis piscatoricB peritissimo. 
 
 UNICUS est medicus reliquorum piscis, et istis, 
 
 Fas quibus est medicum tangere, certa salus 
 Hie typus est salvatoris mirandus Jesu, 
 
 Litera mysterium quaelibet hujus habet. 
 Hunc cupio, hunc cupias (bone frater arun- 
 dinis) /x#i/v : 
 
 Solveret hie pro me debita, teque Deo. 
 Piscis is est, et piscator, mihi credito, qualem 
 
 Vel piscatorem piscis amare velit.
 
 248 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 
 
 A TRANSLATION. 
 
 To my most distinguished friend and brother Master Izaac 
 Walton, past master in the art of angling. 
 
 ONE fish and one only is doctor of the rest, and 
 health is assured to those to whom it is given to 
 touch the doctor. Here is a wonderful image of 
 our Saviour Jesus, where every letter 1 holds His 
 secret. 
 
 This fish I desire, and mayest thou catch this 
 fish (good brother of the rod) : He would pay my 
 debts and thine to God. Fish is he and fisher, 
 believe me, a fish would wish to love such an one 
 though he were a fisher. 
 
 HENRY BAYLEY, M.A. 
 
 The reader may note that the fish was the usual emblem of 
 Christ, chosen because the Greek word forms the initials of His 
 name and titles, and also because Christians are born by baptism 
 in water. 2 The fish symbol is only found in the Latin Church. 
 
 1 Ix0<k> Piscis. 
 I 'I77<roiij, Jesus. 
 X X/3t(rr6s, Christus. 
 9 OeoC, Dei. 
 T 'Tt6j, Filius. 
 S SWT%>, Salvator. 
 2 Lecky's Rationalism, in Europe, Vol. I., p. 202.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Aldersey, Elizabeth, second wife of 
 
 Venables, 68 
 Aldersey, Samuel, 68 
 Alexander, W., see note, 69 
 Allestrie, Richard, The Whole Duty 
 
 of Man ascribed to, 155 
 All Souls, Duppa, Fellow of, 145; 
 
 Sheldon made Fellow of, 171 ; 
 
 Sheldon's portrait at, 172. 
 Androvanus, Walton uses, as an 
 
 authority in his Complete Angler, 
 
 29 
 Angler's Ballad, The, verses by 
 
 Cotton quoted, 219 
 Angler's Sure Guide, The, 85 
 Angler's Vade Mecum, The, by 
 
 Chetham, 31 
 Angling Literature in England, by 
 
 Osmund Lambert, 30 
 An Humble Eglog, verses by Walton 
 
 quoted, 197 
 
 Animadversions on a Pamphlet en- 
 titled The Naked Truth, by Dr 
 
 Francis Turner, 1 14 
 Anne, Queen, granted pension to 
 
 Bishop Ken, 160 
 
 Armagh, Ussher, Archbishop of, 175 
 Arnold, Dr, on Hooker, 105 
 Art of Angling, The, by Thomas 
 
 Barker, 30 
 Ashmole, his History of the Order of 
 
 the Garter, 10 
 As penden, birthplace of Seth Ward, 
 
 176 
 Aston, Sir Walter, quotation from 
 
 Wotton's letter to, 94 
 Aubrey, John, Walton's letter on 
 
 Ben Johnson to, 129 
 
 Bacon, George Herbert, friend of, 98 
 
 Bait, The, verses by Donne, 231 
 
 Bagster, S., his edition of The Com- 
 plete Angler, 51 
 
 Barham, Rev. R. H., 37 
 
 Barker, Thomas, Walton derived 
 much information on fishing from, 
 29 ; The Art of Angling by, 30 
 
 Barlow, Mr, Colonel Blague stayed 
 with, 10 
 
 Barlow, Richard, 141 
 
 Barlow, Thomas, Bishop of Lincoln, 
 his letter to Walton on his writing 
 The Life of Sanderson, 75 ; bio- 
 graphical sketch of, 141 
 
 Barnes or Berners, Dame Juliana, 
 supposed to have written the 
 Treatyse of Fysshynge, 29 
 
 Barrow, Isaac, his fondness for 
 tobacco, 134 and note ; pupil of 
 Duport's, 144 ; enabled by Ham- 
 mond to go to Cambridge, 155 
 
 Barry, on Book of Common Prayer, 
 109 
 
 Barton Seagrove, birthplace of 
 Henchman, 157 
 
 Barwick, Dr John, preached Morton's 
 funeral sermon, 167 
 
 Baxter, Richard, possibility of Wal- 
 ton knowing, 13; his manner of 
 writing, 77 ; his appreciation of 
 George Herbert's poems, 98, 105 ; 
 his attack on Morley, 165, 
 174 
 
 Bayley, Rev. Henry, friend of 
 Walton's, 180; Laudatorum Car- 
 mina, verses by, 247 
 
 Bayne, Mr, quoted on Hooker, 104 
 
 R 
 
 249
 
 250 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bayne, Paul, Sibbes converted by, 
 
 174 
 Beeching, Canon, quoted on "Walton's 
 
 education, 5, 20; his study of 
 
 Walton in his Religio Laid, 89, 
 
 90 
 Belt, his bust of Walton in St Mary's 
 
 Church, Stafford, 126 
 Bemerton, George Herbert as clergy- 
 man of, 100, 103 
 
 Benson, Archbishop, on Herbert, 99 
 Benson's Life, quotation from, 99 
 Beresford, an account of the family 
 
 of, 71, 72 
 Beresford Hall, described, 54, 55 ; 
 
 Cotton's fishing-house near, 69 ; 
 
 account of the Beresford family 
 
 and their estates, 71, 72 
 Bereeford, John, of Ashbourne, 138 
 Berkhampetead, birthplace of Thomas 
 
 Ken, 159 
 Bethune, Dr, quoted on Walton's 
 
 knowledge of Latin, 4 ; his edition 
 
 of The Complete Angler, 30, 51 ; 
 
 Angler's Club mentioned by, 133 
 Bowles, Rev. William Lisle, 38 ; his 
 
 estimate of The Complete Angler, 
 
 45, see note, 149 
 Boyle, Robert, see note, 141 
 Brasenose College, Harvey educated 
 
 at, 156 
 Bristow Park, Joseph Hall born at, 
 
 153 
 British Angler, The, by John 
 
 Williamson, 32 
 Brome, Alexander, Walton's eclogue 
 
 to, 10 
 Brown, Moses, his edition of The 
 
 Complete Angler, 51 ; see note, 56 
 Bruised Reed, The, by Richard 
 
 Sibbes, 174 
 Buckden, Sanderson desired to be 
 
 buried at, 110; Thomas Barlow 
 
 buried at, 141 
 Bunyan, John, his opinion of prayer, 
 
 13 
 Burlesque upon Burlesque; or, The 
 
 Scoffer Scoffed, by Cotton, 57 
 Burnand, F. C., his Incompleat 
 
 Angler, 136 
 Burnet, Bishop, on the controversy 
 
 on The Naked Truth, 114 
 Byron, Lord, his lines on Walton 
 
 quoted, 26 
 
 Bible, King James's translation of, 
 143 
 
 Bishopsbourne, Hooker, rector of, 
 104 ; Hooker's death, burial and 
 monument at, 107 
 
 Blackwood's Magazine, article on 
 Walton in, 46 
 
 Blague, Colonel, Charles II. com- 
 mitted his George to, 9 ; im- 
 prisoned in the Tower, 10 
 
 Blount, Sir Thomas, extracts from 
 his Boscobel, 9 
 
 Bocton or Boughton, in Kent, 91 
 
 Bodleian Library, portrait of Shirley 
 in, 173 
 
 Book of St Albans, The, issued in 
 four parts dealing with sport, 29 
 
 Boothby Pagnell, Sanderson pre- 
 sented to living of, 109 
 
 Boscobel ; or, The Compleat History of 
 His Sacred Majesties Most Mir- 
 aculous Preservation after the Battle 
 of Worcester, 3rd September 1651, 
 by Sir Thomas Blount, extracts 
 from, 9, 10 
 
 Boswell James, quotation from his 
 Life of Dr Johnson, 47 
 
 C 
 
 Canterbury, Marriage of Walton at, 
 2 ; Sheldon made Archbishop of, 
 171 
 
 Carlisle, Ussher made Bishop of, 
 175 
 
 Gary, Dr, his funeral sermon on 
 Prince Henry, 90 
 
 Casaubon, Isaac, Walton probably 
 named after, 1, and see note, 2; 
 monogram scratched by Walton 
 on tablet of, in Westminster Abbey, 
 49 ; his tomb erected by Morton, 
 166 
 
 Case of Toleration in Matters of Re- 
 ligion, The, by Thomas Barlow, 
 see note, 141 
 
 Chalkhill, John, author of Thealma 
 and Clearchus, discussion as to his 
 identity, 118-121 
 
 Chancery Lane, Walton in business 
 in, 5 
 
 Character of a Happy Life, The, by 
 Wotton, 240 
 
 Charles I., Sanderson, chaplain to, 
 109, 145 ; Hammond, chaplain to, 
 154 ; Morley, chaplain to, 164 
 
 Charles II., after the battle of
 
 INDEX 
 
 Worcester, 9 ; his restoration, 10 ; 
 visits Duppa on his deathbed, 
 145 ; helped by Henchman to 
 escape after the battle of Wor- 
 cester, 157 ; attended by Thomas 
 Ken on his deathbed, ICO 
 
 Charlton-upon-Otmoor, birthplace of 
 Featley, 146 
 
 Chertsey, birthplace of Hammond, 154 
 
 Chester, Morton made Bishop of, 
 167 ; Pearson made Bishop of, 169 
 
 Chevening, in Kent, 2 
 
 Cheynell, Francis, see note, 143 
 
 Chichester Cathedral, Chillingworth 
 bnried in, 143 ; Henry King buried 
 at, 163 ; Woodford, Canon of, 179 
 
 Chillingworth, William, biographical 
 sketch of, 142 
 
 Christ Church, Duppa, Dean of, 
 145; Fell made Dean of, and his 
 benefactions to, 148-150; Hammond 
 made Canon of, 154; Henry King 
 educated at, 162 ; portrait of King 
 at, 163; Morley, Canon of, 164; 
 Morton's portrait at, 167 ; Walton's 
 son, Isaak, educated at, 188 
 
 Christ's College, Cambridge, Hench- 
 man and Paley educated at, 37, 157 
 
 Church History of Britain, by Thomas 
 Fuller, Walton's remarks on, 150, 
 151 
 
 Churton, Archbishop, 169 
 
 Clare College, Henchman made 
 Fellow of, 157 
 
 Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, 
 68 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, in possession of a 
 portrait of Henchman, 158 
 
 Clanghton, Bishop, 38 
 
 Clavis Mystica, by Featley, 146 
 
 Clement VIII. , Pope, his opinion on 
 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, 105 
 
 Clifton, in Warwickshire, Harvey 
 buried at, 156 
 
 Clogher, Dean of, death of, 61 
 
 Cockayne, Sir Ashton, his estimate 
 of Cotton, 61 
 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, quoted, 
 8 ; on the preaching of Donne and 
 Taylor, see note, 18 ; Lamb's letter 
 about The Complete Angler to, 44 
 
 Collar, The, verses by Herbert, 233 
 
 Combe, William, his Dance of Death 
 quoted, see note, 6 
 
 Commendatory Verses, by Henry 
 Bayley, 248 
 
 Complete Angler, The, Walton quotes 
 verses by Christopher Ilarvie in, 
 13, 14; the authorities used by 
 Walton in, 29 ; caused many other 
 books to be written on angling, 
 30, 31 ; verses by J. Davors in, 
 34; its first publication. 40: its 
 various editions and additions, 41- 
 44 ; universal appreciation of, 44- 
 46 ; Franck's adverse criticism 
 of, 46, 47 ; list of editions since 
 Walton's death, 51, 52 ; price of 
 early editions of, 53 ; Cotton 
 wrote Part II. of, 58 ; unique copy 
 of, 72 ; two songs signed Jo. 
 Chalkhill in, 118, 121; "Win- 
 chester Edition " of, 130 ; Harvey's 
 verses in, 156 
 
 Complete Gamester, The, attributed 
 to Cotton, 58 
 
 Complete Trotter, The, 43 
 
 Contentation, verses by Cotton 
 quoted, 208 
 
 Cook, Sir Robert, of Highnam, 
 married the widow of George 
 Herbert, 103 
 
 Cooper, Sir William, his epitaph to 
 Hooker, 108 
 
 Corpus Christi College, Hooker 
 educated at, 104 ; Featley at, 146 : 
 John Hales educated at, 152 
 
 Cotton, Beresford, son of Charles 
 Cotton, 63 
 
 Cotton, Charles, 11 ; quoted on 
 Walton's knowledge of fishing, 
 25; his addition to The Complete 
 Angler, 41, 42; reference to, in 
 The Innocent Epicure, 44 ; parent- 
 age, birth and early history of, 
 
 54, 55 ; his friendship for Walton, 
 
 55, 56; his various publications, 
 56-58 ; character of, 58-61 ; death 
 of, 62; descendants of, 62, 63; 
 and account of the famous fishing- 
 house built by, 69-73 ; his portrait 
 by Lely, 138 ; dedicated his trans- 
 lation of Gerard's History to 
 Sheldon, 172 ; Walton bequeathes 
 a ring to, 187 ; his verses to 
 Walton quoted, 202-207 ; his Con- 
 tentation quoted, 208 ; verses to 
 Walton quoted, 213 ; The Retire- 
 ment quoted, 215 ; The Angler's 
 Ballad quoted, 219 ; To Poet E. 
 W. quoted. 223 ; The Eighth Psalm 
 Paraphrased, 224
 
 252 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Coventry, Thomas, afterwards Baron 
 Coventry of Aylesbury, 155 
 
 Cranmer, Archdeacon, Rachel Floud 
 descended from, 2 and note 
 
 Crawford Church, Fuller buried in, 
 152 
 
 Crawley, Thomas, witness to Walton's 
 will, 187 
 
 Creed, The, Bishop Pearson on, 168 
 
 Croft, Herbert, Bishop of Hereford, 
 supposed author of The Naked 
 Truth, 114 
 
 Crompton, Dr Henry, see note, 11 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, his commissions 
 to Penn and Venables, 64 ; and 
 subsequent displeasure at their 
 failure, 65, 66 
 
 Croydon, monument to Sheldon at, 
 172 
 
 Cuddesden, Episcopal Palace of, re- 
 built by Fell, 149 
 
 D 
 
 Dalbin, Mrs Walton bequeaths a 
 
 ring to, 187 
 
 Dance, Charles, his dedication, 137 
 Dance of Death, see note, 6 
 Danvers, Charles, daughter of, 
 
 married to Herbert, 102 
 Darbyshire, John, Walton's bequests 
 
 to, 185, 187 
 
 Davors, J., verses by, in The Com- 
 plete Angler, 34 
 Davy, Sir Humphrey, quotation from 
 
 his Salmonia, 39 
 Dawson, George, the prayers of, 15 ; 
 
 quotation from, 74 ; quoted, 123 
 Dennys, John, author of The Secrets 
 
 of Angling, 85 
 Dewar, George A. B., The Complete 
 
 Angler, edited by, 51, 130 
 Dialogue between Isaac Walton and 
 
 ffomologistes, 112 
 
 Dippers dipt, The, by Featley, 146 
 Discipline, verses by Herbert, 235 
 Dissolution of Dissent, The, by 
 
 Robert F. Horton, see note, 13 
 Donne, Dr John, his introductions to 
 
 Walton, 11 ; Walton's description 
 
 of the preaching of, 18, and note ; 
 
 Walton's elegy on, 19 ; Walton's 
 
 Life of, 76 ; parentage of, 78 ; 
 
 early career of, 79 ; ordination of, 
 
 80; his power of preaching, 80, 
 
 81; his funeral sermon on his 
 wife, 81 ; made Dean of St Paul's 
 and Vicar of St Dunstan's, 82 ; his 
 last illness and death, 82-84; 
 epitaph written over his grave the 
 next day, 84, 85 ; his personal 
 charms, 86 ; his epitaph in St 
 Paul's, 86 ; his writings, 87, 88 ; 
 his character, 89, 90 ; information 
 on seals of, 130 ; King's elegy on, 
 163 ; received help from Morton, 
 166 ; Fear Cast Out, verses by, 
 226 ; Hymn to God, my God, in my 
 Sickness, by, quoted, 227 ; A Vale- 
 diction forbidding Mourning, by, 
 quoted, 228 ; A Sheaf of Snakes 
 used heretofore to be my Seal, the 
 Crest of our poor Family, by, 230 ; 
 The Bait, by, 231 
 
 Dove, River, Cotton's famous fishing- 
 house, by the, 69, see note, 70 
 
 Dubravius, Walton uses, as an 
 authority in his Complete Angler, 
 29 
 
 Duport, John, Master of Jesus 
 College, Cambridge, 143 
 
 Duport, Dr James, his opinion of 
 George Herbert's poems, 98 ; 
 biographical sketch of, 143-145 ; 
 Laudatorutn Carolina, verses by, 
 242 and 246 ; and Translation of, 
 244 and 246 
 
 Duppa, Brian, biographical sketch 
 of, 145 
 
 Durham, Morton made Bishop of, 
 166 
 
 E 
 
 Easton-Mauduit, Morton died at, 
 
 167 
 
 Ecclesiastical Polity, by Hooker, 104. 
 Ecleshall, Walton's legacies to, 184. 
 Edgill, Thomas, Walton's legacy to, 
 
 186 
 Edwards, quotation from, on the 
 
 fishing-house, 69 
 Egerton, Sir Thomas, Donne 
 
 secretary to, 79 
 Eighth Psalm Paraphrased, The, 
 
 verses by Cotton, quoted, 224 
 Eikon BasUilce, 145 
 Elegie upon Dr Donne, Walton's, 
 
 quoted, 190 
 Elements of Architecture, bv Wotton, 
 
 94
 
 INDEX 
 
 Elixir ', The, verses by Herbert, 232. 
 
 Elizabeth of Bohemia, verses by 
 Wotton, 241 
 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 
 Hall, Fellow of, 153. Holdsworth 
 made Master of, 159. Holds- 
 worth's library acquired by, 159 
 
 English Public Schools, Winchester, 
 by Arthur F. Leach, see note, 93. 
 
 Epitaph, on David Hookham, by 
 Walton, quoted, 201 
 
 Essays of Montaigne, translated by 
 Cotton, 56, 58 
 
 Eton, Sir Henry Wotton's house at, 
 24. Wotton made Provost of, 95. 
 Wotton buried in College Chapel 
 at, 96. John Hales buried at, 153. 
 Hammond educated at, 154. 
 Pearson educated at, 168 
 
 "Euthanasia," discussion on, 88 and 
 note 
 
 Exeter, Richard Hooker educated at 
 grammar school of, 104. Seth 
 Ward, Bishop of, 177 
 
 Experienced Angler, The, by Colonel 
 Robert Venables, sometimes 
 printed as Part HI. of The Com- 
 plete Angler, 43, quotation from 
 prefatory address to, 66 ; reprint 
 of, 67 
 
 Farnham Castle, restored by Morley, 
 
 165 
 Farrington, Anthony, sermons of, 
 
 185 
 Favourite Haunts and Rural Studies, 
 
 by Edward Jesse, 24 
 Fear Cast Out, by Donne, 226 
 Featley, Daniel, biographical sketch 
 
 of, 146 
 Fell, John, biographical sketch of, 
 
 148-150 
 Fell, Dr Samuel, Dean of Christ 
 
 Church, Oxford, 148 
 Fenny Bentley, many monuments to 
 
 the Beresfords in the church of, 
 
 71 
 Fishing-house, Cotton's famous, an 
 
 account of, 69-73 
 Fishing-creel, supposed to have been 
 
 Walton's, 127 
 Fitz-Herbert, Sir Richard, 72 and 
 
 note 
 
 Fleet Prison, Donne committed to, 
 79 
 
 Floud, Rachel, see Rachel Walton. 
 
 Floud, Robert, quoted, 40 and note. 
 
 Floud, Susanna, mother uf Walton's 
 first wife, 2 
 
 Floud, William, father of Walton's 
 first wife, 2 
 
 Franck, Richard, his views on the 
 justification of sport, 26, 28 ; 
 Northern Memoirs by, 30, 31 ; 
 his criticism of The Complete 
 Angler, 46 ; his aspersion on 
 Walton, 128 
 
 Freeman, John, founder of the Free- 
 man Fellowships, 157 
 
 Frome, Ken buried in Parish Church 
 of, 160 
 
 Fulgentio, Father, his opinion of the 
 English Church, 93 
 
 Fulham Church, Henchman buried 
 in, 158 
 
 Fuller, Thomas, quoted on the con- 
 troversy between Hooker and 
 Travers, 104 ; biographical sketch 
 of, 150-152 
 
 G 
 
 Gardiner, G. S. R., quotation from 
 his History of the Commonwealth 
 and Protectorate, 66 
 
 Garrard, Thomas, Waltoa be- 
 queaths ring to, 186 
 
 Gauden, Bishop, 172 
 
 George, the order of the, Charles 
 II.'s, account of, after the Battle 
 of Worcester, 9, 10 
 
 Gesner, Walton uses, as an authority 
 in his Complete Angler, 29 
 
 Goodwin, Bishop Harvey, his opinion 
 of the Reformation, 17 
 
 Googe, author of fferesbachius' 
 Husbandry, 41 
 
 Gosden, T. , his reprint of The Ex- 
 perienced Angler, 67 
 
 Gosse, Edmund, quoted, 75 ; his 
 opinion of the epitaph incident on 
 Donne's grave, see note 85 ; his 
 Life and Letters of Donne, 88 
 
 Grant, Miss Mary, her statue of 
 Walton, 126 
 
 Great Snoring, birthplace of John 
 Pearson, 168 
 
 Green, Mr Frank, of Treasurer'e
 
 254 
 
 INDEX 
 
 House, York, his purchase of 
 Cotton's famous fishing-house, 72 
 Grove Park, Herts, the seat of Lord 
 Clarendon, 158 
 
 H 
 
 Hailes, Lord, 48 
 
 Hales, John, biographical sketch of, 
 152 
 
 Hallam, Henry, quoted on Protestant- 
 ism, 17, his opinion of The Complete 
 Angler, 44 ; quoted, 88 ; quoted on 
 Herbert's work, 99 ; quoted on 
 Hooker, 104, 107; quoted on 
 Hammond, 155; his opinion of 
 Shirley, 173 
 
 Hall, Joseph, biographical sketch of, 
 153 
 
 Hall, Stephen, 169 
 
 Hammond, Dr Henry, Fell's life of, 
 149 ; biographical sketch of, 154- 
 156 ; his epitaph written by 
 Henchman, 158 
 
 Hammond, Dr John, 154 
 
 Hampton Lovett, Hammond buried 
 at, 156 
 
 Hangham, 109 
 
 Hare, quotation from his London, 
 see note, 86 
 
 Harecourt, Valentine, Walton be- 
 queaths ring to, 187 
 
 Harleian Miscellany, 62 
 
 Hart Hall, Donne sent to, 79 and 
 note 
 
 Harvie, Christopher, 13, 14, 156 
 
 Hatch, E. , quotation from, 74 
 
 Hawkins, Anne, see Anne Walton 
 
 Hawkins, William, Dr., Prebendary 
 of Winchester Cathedral, 160; 
 Walton's legacies to, 182-186; 
 married Anne Walton, 189 ; buried 
 in Winchester Cathedral, 187, 
 189 
 
 Hawkins, Sir John, his edition of 
 The Complete Angler, 51, 52; 
 White's description of Cotton's 
 fishing-house written for, 70 
 
 Hazlitt, William, his estimate of 
 The Complete Angler, 44 ; quoted 
 46. 
 
 Heigham, Hall buried at, 154 
 
 Henchman, Humphrey, Bishop of 
 London, biographical sketch of, 
 157 
 
 Heresbachius' Husbandry, Walton in- 
 debted to for some of his ideas, 
 41 
 
 Herbert, Life of George, by Walton, 
 76 ; parentage and education of, 97 ; 
 his poems on the appreciation they 
 received, 98 ; windows to his 
 memory in Trinity College, 99 ; 
 his views on prayer, 100; his 
 resolutions on his induction to 
 Bemerton, 101 ; his illness and 
 death, 102 ; verses wrapt up 
 with a seal given him by Donne, 
 103, 131 ; The Elixir, verses by, 
 quoted 232 ; The Collar, by, 233 ; 
 The Pulley, 234; Discipline, by, 
 235 ; Sunday, by, 237 
 
 Herbert, Richard, father of George 
 Herbert, 97. 
 
 Heywood, John, 78 
 
 Higgs, Walter, Walton bequeaths a 
 ring to, 187 
 
 Histories and Antiquities of Lambeth, 
 see note, 147 
 
 History of the Commonwealth, and 
 Protectorate, by G. S. R. Gardiner, 
 quotation from, 66 
 
 History of Philosophy The, by Thomas 
 Stanley, 173 
 
 History of the Life of the Duke of 
 Espernon, translated by Cotton, 57. 
 
 Holdsworth, Richard, biographical 
 sketch of, 158 
 
 Holinshed, Thomas, Walton's legacy 
 to, 186 
 
 Honiwood, Dr, Dean of Lincoln, 
 -180 
 
 Hooker, Life of, by Walton, 21, 76 ; 
 parentage and education of, 103 ; 
 his unfortunate marriage, 104 ; 
 Master of the Temple and con- 
 troversy with Travers, 104 ; be- 
 came Rector of Bishopsbourne, 
 104; his Ecclesiastical Polity and 
 religious views, 104, 105 ; his 
 death, 106 ; memorials to, 107 ; 
 Cooper's epitaph to, 108, 172 
 
 Hooker, Joane, wife to Richard 
 Hooker, 104; her second marriage 
 and death, 107 
 
 Hope, Dr W., quotation from his 
 Life of Ward, 177 
 
 Home, Dr. , 48 
 
 Horton, Dr Robert, his opinion of the 
 Book of Common Prayer, 13 and 
 note
 
 INDEX 
 
 255 
 
 Howe, Anne, Lady, portrait of Hales 
 painted by, 153; Walton be- 
 queaths a ring to, 187 
 
 Hutchinson, Isabella, married to 
 Charles Cotton, 55 
 
 Hutchinson, Sir Thomas, of Ow- 
 thorpe, 55 
 
 Huysman, Jacob, Walton's portrait 
 painted by, 138 
 
 Hymn to God, my God, in my Sickness, 
 by Donne, 227 
 
 Hymn to my God, A, by Wotton, 239 
 
 Incomplcat Angler, The, by F. C. 
 
 Burnand, 136 
 Innocent Epicure, The; or, The Art of 
 
 Angling, 33 ; reference to Walton, 
 
 Cotton and Venables in, 44 
 In Praise of my Friend the Author, 
 
 and his Bootee, verses by Walton 
 
 quoted, 194 
 Irenieum, by Edward Stillingfleet, 
 
 see note, 114 
 Ironmongers' Company, Walton 
 
 admitted to, 5 
 Irving, Washington, his appreciation 
 
 of The Complete Angler, 44 
 
 Jesse, Edward, quoted on the friend- 
 ship between Wotton and Walton, 
 24 
 
 Jessopp, Dr, on Donne's funeral 
 sermon upon his wife, 81 
 
 Jesus College, Pearson Master of, 
 168 ; Pearson's portrait at, 169 ; 
 Seth Ward elected principal of, 
 177 
 
 Johnson,Mrs Eliza, Walton bequeaths 
 a ring to, 187 
 
 Johnson, Mrs Eliza, received auto- 
 graph copy of Walton's Lives from 
 the author, see note, 50 
 
 Johnson, Dr Samuel, quoted on 
 Walton's friendships, 11 ; quoted, 
 47,49 
 
 Journey to Beresford Hall, A , by W. 
 Alexander, see note, 69 
 
 Juxon, Archbishop, 171 
 
 Keeling, Judge, his caution to Bun- 
 
 yan, 13 
 
 Ken, Anne, see Anne Walton 
 Ken, John, Walton bequeaths a 
 
 ring to, 186 
 Ken, Thomas, father of Walton's 
 
 second wife, 2, 159 
 Ken, Dr Thomas, Bishop of Bath and 
 
 Wells, half-brother to Walton's 
 
 second wife, 2; biographical sketch 
 
 of, 159-161; Walton bequeaths a 
 
 ring to, 186 
 King, Dr John, Bishop of London, 
 
 Donne ordained by, 80 ; his elegy 
 
 on Donne, see note, 83 ; Sanderson 
 
 ordained by, 109 ; father to Henry 
 
 King, 161 
 King, Henry, Bishop of Chichester, 
 
 preached Duppa's funeral sermon, 
 
 146; quoted on John Hales, 152; 
 
 biographical sketch of, 161, 162 
 King, Mrs Walton bequeaths a ring 
 
 to, 187 
 King's College, Pearson Fellow of, 
 
 168 
 
 Kirby, Rev. William, 37 
 Kitchin, Dean, statue of Walton 
 
 placed in screen of Winchester 
 
 Cathedral by permission of, 126 ; 
 
 his book on Winchester, 161, 165 
 
 Laggan, David, his portrait of Ward, 
 
 177 
 
 Lamb, Charles, quoted on The Com- 
 plete Angler, 44 
 Lambert, Osmund, his Angling 
 
 Literature of England, 30 
 Lambeth Parish Church, Featley 
 
 buried in, 147 ; description of font 
 
 in, 147 
 Landor, Walter Savage, quoted, see 
 
 note, 34, 105; quotation from his 
 
 Conversations, 137 
 Lane, Dr, dispute about Mastership 
 
 of St John's College, 158 
 Lang, Andrew, his letter to Walton 
 
 in his Letters to Dead Authors, 134 
 Langhill, birthplace of Thomas 
 
 Barlow, 141 

 
 256 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Laudatorum Carmina, verses by 
 Duport, 242, 246 ; verses by Henry 
 Bayley, 247 
 
 Lea, River, Walton frequently fished 
 in, 23 
 
 Leaders of Religion, by Dr Jeesopp, 
 81 
 
 Lecky, W. E. H., his Rationalism 
 in Europe, 105, 248 
 
 Lee, Thomas, of Darn Hall, 68 
 
 Le Gallienne, Richard, his edition of 
 The Complete Angler, 51, 130 
 
 Lely, Sir Peter, his portrait of 
 Cotton, 138 ; an account of, 138 ; 
 his portrait of Henchman, 158; 
 his portrait of Ussher, 176 
 
 Letters to Dead Authors, Andrew 
 Lang's letter to Walton in his, 134 
 
 Lichfield, Morton made Bishop of, 
 167 
 
 Life of Bishop Ken, by James Hey- 
 wood Markland, 163 
 
 Life of Donne, see Donne 
 
 Life of George Herbert, see Herbert 
 
 Life of Richard Hooker, see Hooker 
 
 Life of Dr Johnson, by James Bos- 
 well, quotation from, 47 
 
 Life of the Right Reverend Seth, Lord 
 Bishop of Salisbury, quotation 
 from, 177 
 
 Life of Dr Sanderson, see Sanderson 
 
 Life of Wotton, see Wotton 
 
 Lincoln, Sanderson made Fellow 
 and afterwards Bishop of, 109, 110; 
 Thomas Barlow made Bishop of, 
 141 
 
 Lingard, see note, 65 
 
 Literary History, by Hallam, quota- 
 tion from, 88, 99; on Hooker, 104, 
 107 ; quotation from, on Hammond, 
 155 
 
 Lives, Walton's, their compilation 
 and editions, 74-78 ; life of Donne, 
 78, 91; life of Wotton, 91-96; life 
 of George Herbert, 97-103 ; life of 
 Hooker, 103-107; life of Sander- 
 son, 108-112 
 
 Lloyde, John, Walton bequeaths a 
 ring to, 187 
 
 Lombart, see note, 40 
 
 Longworth, Berkshire, birthplace of 
 John Fell, 150 
 
 Love and Truth, 21 ; a reply to The 
 Naked Truth, Walton its probable 
 author, controversy thereon, 114- 
 118 
 
 Love of Amos and Laura, The, dedi- 
 cated to Walton, 3 
 
 Lowell, quoted on Walton's ignorance 
 of Latin, 4 ; quoted on Walton's 
 friendships, 12 ; quoted, 22 
 
 Lutterel, E. , his portrait of George 
 Morley, 166 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay, quotation from his History 
 
 of England, 128 
 Magdalene College, Duport made 
 
 Master of, 144; Hammond 
 
 educated at, 154; Pierce, Fellow 
 
 and afterwards President of, 169 
 Magee, Archbishop, 37 
 Major, J., his edition of The Com- 
 plete Angler, 46, 51 ; quotation 
 
 from, 139 
 Malherbe, 91 
 Markland, Abraham, biographical 
 
 sketch of, 163 , witness to Walton s 
 
 will, 187 
 
 Markland, Michael, druggist, 163 
 Markland, James Heywood, 163 
 Marriot, Richard, Walton's legacy to, 
 
 186, 187 
 Marston, R. B., his Walton and the 
 
 Earlier Fishing Writers, 30 ; his 
 
 edition of The Complete Angler, 
 
 51 ; pedigree of the Cotton family 
 
 given by, 63; Walton's cabinet 
 
 described by, 126 
 Marvell, Andrew, on the controversy 
 
 on the pamphlet The Naked Truth, 
 
 114 
 
 Matthew, Rev. Theobald, 37 
 Maxwell, Sir H. , his Salmon and Sea 
 
 Trout, see note, 23 
 Meath, Ussher made Bishop of, 175 
 Memorial* of Westminster Abbey, by 
 
 Dean Stanley, 1 ; quotation from, 
 
 49 
 Memoirs oftheSieur dePontis, Cotton 
 
 engaged upon at the time of his 
 
 death, 63 
 Merchant Taylors' School, Markland 
 
 educated at, 163 ; Shirley educated 
 
 at, 172 
 Merewether, Dr, Ken attended by, 
 
 160 
 Morton College, Oxford, HalesFellow 
 
 of, 152 
 

 
 INDEX 
 
 257 
 
 Midnight Meditations, quotation 
 from, see note, 84 
 
 Milman, Dean, on Donne's preaching, 
 see note, 18 
 
 Milton, John, possibility of Walton 
 knowing, 12; Ussher's controversy 
 with, 175 
 
 Milward, Mrs Eliza, Walton be- 
 queaths ring to, 187 
 
 Milward, Robert, the George trans- 
 mitted to, 10 
 
 Milward, W. , Walton bequeaths a 
 ring to, 187 
 
 Mitford, Mary Russell, her apprecia- 
 tion of The Complete Angler, 45 ; 
 quoted on Walton's Lives, 75 
 
 Monastery and Cathedral of Worces- 
 ter, The, by John Noake, 159 
 
 Montaigne, his Essays translated by 
 Cotton, 56, 58 
 
 More, Henry, author of The Mystery 
 of Godliness, see note, 114 
 
 Morley, Francis, 164 ; Walton be- 
 queaths a ring to, 186 
 
 Morley, George, Bishop of Worcester, 
 afterwards Bishop of Winchester, 
 2 ; Walton wrote lives of Hooker 
 and Herbert while staying with, 
 77 ; Walton dedicated his Life of 
 Sanderson to, 110; Thomas Ken, 
 chaplain to, 160; biographical 
 sketch of, 164-166; Woodward 
 ordained by, 179 
 
 Morley, Henry, his introduction to 
 Walton's Lives, 20 
 
 Morton, Bishop, A Treatise on the 
 Nature of God attributed to, 41, 
 79 5 biographical sketch of, 166 
 
 Morton, Richard, Alderman of York, 
 166 
 
 Mystery of Godliness, The, by Henry 
 More, 114 
 
 N 
 
 Naked Truth, The, pamphlet sup- 
 posed to have been written by 
 Herbert Croft, 114 
 
 National Gallery, portrait of Hooker 
 presented to, 107 ; Walton's por- 
 trait in, 138 
 
 National Portrait Gallery, Morley's 
 portrait in, 166 ; Ussher's portrait 
 
 in, 176 ; Seth Ward's portrait in, 
 177 
 
 National Review, The, article on 
 Donne in, 89 
 
 Natural Theology, by Dr ^Yilliaru 
 Paley, 37 
 
 Nelson, Anne, see Anne Sanderson 
 
 Nelson, Rev. Henry, Rector of 
 Hangham, 109 
 
 New College, Oxford, Sir Henry 
 Wotton at, 91 ; Thomas Ken 
 educated at, 159 ; portraits of 
 Ken in, 161 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, quoted, 20 
 
 Nicolas, Sir Harris, referred to 3, 
 26, 40, 50, 63, 117, 138, 153. 188 
 
 Nine Cases of Conscience Occasionally 
 Determined, by Bishop Sanderson, 
 110 
 
 Nineteenth Century, The, quotation 
 from, 75 
 
 Noake, John, author of The Monastery 
 and Cathedral of Worcester, 159 
 
 No Peace with Home, by Joseph Hall, 
 154 
 
 Norington Farm left by Walton to 
 his son, 130 
 
 Northern Memoirs, by Richard 
 Franck, 30, 31 
 
 North Titworth, Pierce buried at, 
 170 
 
 Norwich, Joseph Hall, Bishop of, 
 153 
 
 Notes and Queries, 4th S. XL p. 41, 
 quoted from, 1 ; question of the 
 epitaph incident on Donne's grave, 
 84 ; on Jo. Chalkhill, 121 ; Nicolas, 
 Sir Harris, first biographer to 
 mention Walton's first marriage, 3 ; 
 quoted on The Complete Angler, 
 40 ; his edition of The Complete 
 Angler, 51 ; pedigree of the Cotton 
 family given by, 63; information 
 on Sanderson given in, 112, see 
 note, 123; on the Walton and 
 Cotton Club, 132 ; on Ussher's 
 portraits, 176, 188 
 
 
 
 Oldys, William, an account of, 52 
 On a Portrait of Donne taken in his 
 
 Eighteenth Year, verses by Walton 
 
 quoted, 194
 
 258 
 
 INDEX 
 
 On the Death of my dear Friend Mr 
 William Cartivright, quoted, 195 
 
 Pakington, Lady, probable authoress 
 
 of The Whole Duty of Man, 155 
 Pakington, Sir John Hammond, 
 
 great friend of, 155 
 Paley, Dr William, author of Natural 
 
 Theology, 37 
 Palmer, Mr Walton bequeaths ring 
 
 to, 186 
 Panegyrick to King Charles, A, by 
 
 Wotton, 94 
 Pearson, John, Bishop of Chester, 
 
 biographical sketch of, 167 
 Pearson, Robert, his preferments, 
 
 168 
 Penn, Admiral William, sent by 
 
 Cromwell against the Spanish fleet, 
 
 64; his failure and Cromwell's 
 
 displeasure with, 65, 66 
 Penshurst, Hammond, Rector of, 154 
 Perverse Widow; or, Memorials of 
 
 theBoevey Family, The, see note, 2, 
 
 86 ; information on Donne's seals 
 
 in, 130 
 Peterborough Cathedral, Dnport 
 
 made Dean of, 144 ; Duport buried 
 
 in, 144 
 Pey, Nicholas, Wotton's letter to, 
 
 94 
 Pickering, W., his note in copy of 
 
 Love and Truth, 116 
 Pierce, Thomas, biographical sketch 
 
 of, 169, 177 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress, The, 13 
 Planter's Manual, The, by Cotton, 
 
 57 
 Poems on Several Occasions, collected 
 
 poems of Cotton published after 
 
 his death, 62 
 Poet E. W., To, verses by Cotton, 
 
 quoted, 223 
 Poulshot, Walton's son Isaak Rector 
 
 of, 188 
 
 Prayer-book, Walton's, 127 
 Price, Dr John, friend of Walton's, 
 
 180 
 
 Pseudo-Martyr, by Donne, 87 
 Pullen, Rev. Joseph, friend of 
 
 Walton's, 180 
 Pulley, The, verses by Herbert, 234 
 
 Qnarles, quotation from his Midnight 
 Meditations, see note, 84 ; Schola 
 Cordis, sometimes ascribed to, see 
 note, 156 
 
 Quarterly Review, The, on Chilling- 
 worth's Religion of Protestants, 143 
 
 Queen's College, Sir Henry Wotton 
 at, 92 ; Thomas Barlow educated 
 at, and afterwards Provost of, 141 
 
 K 
 
 Rationalism in Europe, by W. E. H. 
 
 Lecky, 105 
 Recollections of a Literary Life, by 
 
 Mary Russell Mitford, 45 
 Reeve, Rev. J. Andrewes, Rector of 
 
 Lambeth, 147 
 Religio Laid, by Canon Beeching, 
 
 5,89 
 Religion of Protestants, The, by 
 
 William Chillingworth, 142 
 Reliquice Wottoniance, edited by 
 
 Walton, 76 
 Retirement, The, verses by Cotton, 
 
 quoted, 215 
 Returning Backslider, The, by Sibbes, 
 
 174 
 
 Richmond, death of Duppa at, 146 
 Robertson, Frederick, quoted, 49 
 Robinson's Discourse of the War in 
 
 Lancashire, containing best infor- 
 mation of life of Venables, 67 
 Rock, Mrs, Walton bequeaths a 
 
 ring to, 187 
 Rogers, Mrs Mary, Walton bequeaths 
 
 a ring to, 187 
 
 Rogers, Samuel, quoted, 23 
 Rudyard, Elizabeth, first wife of 
 
 Venables, 68 
 Rules and Regulations of the Walton 
 
 and Cotton Club, description of, 
 
 131, 132 
 Russell, Anne, wife to Henry King, 
 
 163 
 Russell, John, " The Sporting 
 
 Parson," 37 
 Russell, Mary, second wife of Charles 
 
 Cotton, 55 
 Russell, Sir William, of Strensham 
 
 Park, 55, 163
 
 INDEX 
 
 2 59 
 
 s 
 
 Salisbury, Fuller, Prebendary of, 
 150 ; Henchman, Bishop of, 158 ; 
 Pearson made Prebend of, 168 ; 
 Pierce made Dean of, 169 ; Seth 
 Ward Bishop of, 177; Walton's 
 son Isaak Canon of, 188 
 Salmon and Sea Trout, by Sir H. 
 
 Maxwell, see note, 23 
 Salmonia ; or, Days of Fly Fishing, 
 by Sir Humphrey Davy, quotation 
 from, 38 
 
 Bancroft, Archbishop, his Miscellanea 
 containing Love and Truth, 115, 
 116, 179 
 
 Sanderson, Anne, daughter of Rev. 
 Henry Nelson and wife of Robert 
 Sanderson, 108 
 Sanderson, Robert, of Gilthwaite 
 
 Hall, 108 
 
 Sanderson, Life of Bishop, Walton 
 quotes Thucydides in his, see note, 
 4 ; quotation from, 9 ; Thomas 
 Barlow's letter on, 75; parentage 
 of, 108 ; marriage and ordination, 
 109 ; his living sequestered, 109 ; 
 his share in the additions to the 
 Prayer Book on the Restoration, 
 109 ; his writings, 110 ; his will, 
 110; his death, 111, 112 
 Sarpi, Peter Paul (Father Paul), his 
 
 views on Popery, 93 
 Savoy Conference, George Morley a 
 chief speaker at, 165 ; Pearson 
 prominent in the, 168 ; Sheldon at 
 the, 171 
 
 Scarronides; or, The First Book of 
 Virgil Travestie, burlesque poem 
 by Cotton, 56 
 Schism and Schismaticks, by John 
 
 Hales, 152 
 
 Schola Cordis, see note, 156 
 Scott, Sir Walter, preface to Northern 
 Memoirs by, 31 ; quoted on 
 Franck's criticism of The Complete 
 Angler, 47 
 Secrets of Angling, The, question of 
 
 authorship of, 85 and note 
 Shawford Brook, Walton's fishing 
 
 in, 24 
 
 Sheaf of Snakes, etc. , by Donne, 230 
 
 Sheldon, Archbishop, Cotton's 
 
 dedication to, 57 ; Walton writes 
 
 Life of Herbert at request of, 
 
 76 ; biographical sketch of, 170- 
 172 
 
 Sheldonian, founded by Archbishop 
 Sheldon, 172 
 
 Shepherd's Waltoniana, 118 
 
 Shirley, James, biographical sketch 
 of, 172 
 
 Sibbes, Richard, biographical 
 sketch of, 174 
 
 Smith, Sydney, quoted, 20 
 
 Soul's Conflict, The, by Sibbes, 174 
 
 St Bride's, Fleet Street, Fuller 
 lecturer at, 150 
 
 St Catharine's College, Cambridge, 
 Shirley took his degree at, 172 ; 
 Sibbes at, 174 
 
 St Clement's Church, wife of Donne 
 buried in, 81 ; her funeral sermon, 
 82 ; Pearson lecturer at, 168 
 
 St Dunstan's in the West, Fleet 
 Street, London, Rachel Walton 
 buried at, 2 ; memorial window 
 to Walton at, 6 ; Dr Donne vicar 
 of, 11 ; an evening lecture at, 
 19 ; an account of, 82 ; descrip- 
 tion of window to Walton in, 126 
 
 St Giles, Shirley buried at, 173 
 
 St John's College, Cambridge, 
 Holdsworth educated at, and dis- 
 pute about Mastership of, 158 ; 
 dispute about Holdsworth library, 
 159 ; Morton educated at, 166 ; 
 Morton's portrait at, 169 ; Sibbes 
 educated at, 174 
 
 St John's College, Oxford, Markland 
 Fellow of, 163 
 
 St Mary, parish of, Stafford, 
 Walton born in, 1 ; Walton's bust 
 in, 126 
 
 St Mildred's Church, Canterbury, 
 Walton to Rachel Floud at, 2 
 
 St Nicholas Olave, London, John 
 Donne born in parish of, 78 
 
 St Paul's Cathedral, see note, 11 ; 
 Donne made Dean of, 82 ; Donne 
 buried in, 84 ; Donne's epitaph in, 
 87, 90 ; monument to Sir Peter 
 Lely in, 139 ; Duport forbidden 
 to preach in, 144 and note ; John 
 King buried in, 162 
 St Paul's Cross, see note, 162 
 
 St Paul's School, Woodward edu- 
 cated at, 178 
 St Peter's Poor Church, London, 
 
 Holdsworth buried in, 159 
 St Oswald Hospital, Worcester, 149
 
 260 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Stafford, birthplace of Walton, 1 ; 
 
 Walton's legacies to, 182-184 
 Stanhope, Sir John, of Elvaston, 
 
 Cotton's father-in-law, 54 
 Stanhope, Olivia or Olive, daughter 
 
 and heiress of Edward Beresford, 
 
 54 
 Stanley, Dean, on origin of Walton's 
 
 name of Izaak, 1 ; quotation from 
 
 his Memorials of Westminster 
 
 Abbey, 49 
 Stanley, Thomas, his kindness to 
 
 Shirley, 173 
 Stanton, birthplace of Sheldon, 170 
 
 and note 
 Stephen, Sir James, his opinion on 
 
 Chillingworth's writings, 143 
 Stephen, Sir Leslie, his description 
 
 of Walton's listening to Donne's 
 
 preaching, 20 ; his article on 
 
 Donne in the National Review, 
 
 89 
 Stillingfleet, Edward, Bishop of 
 
 Worcester, author of Irenicum, see 
 
 note, 114 
 Stock, Elliot, published an edition 
 
 of The Treatyse of Fysshynge, 
 
 29 
 Stone, Nicholas, his statue of Donne, 
 
 84 
 
 Sunday, verses by Herbert, 237 
 Synagogue, The, by Harvey, 156 
 
 Tanswell, John, see note 147 
 
 Tate, N.,his preface to The Innocent 
 
 Epicure, 33 
 Taylor, Dr Jeremy, the prayers of, 
 
 14, quotation from his Holy Dying, 
 
 see note, 19 
 Taylor, W. , Walton bequeaths a 
 
 ring to, 186 
 Temple, The; Sacred Poems and 
 
 Private Ejaculations, by George 
 
 Herbert, 98; prose sequel to, 
 
 98 
 Temple Church, controversy between 
 
 Hooker and Travers at, 104 ; bust 
 
 to Hooker in, 107 
 Tegg, his edition of The Complete 
 
 Angler, 52 
 Thcalma and Clearchus, discussion as 
 
 to its author, 118-121 
 Thoma, William John, 52 
 
 Thorington, Pearson Rector of, 
 
 168 
 Tilt, C., his edition of The Complete 
 
 Angler, 53 
 Tissington Hall, 72 
 To my Reverend Friend the Author 
 
 of "The Synagogue," verses by 
 
 Walton, quoted, 200 
 To the Author upon the Light oj 
 
 the First Sheet of his Book, verses 
 
 by Walton, quoted, 196. 
 Tower of London, Venables and 
 
 Penn committed to, 65 ; Bishop 
 
 Ken sent to, 160 
 Travers, Walter, his theological 
 
 controversy with Hooker, 104 
 Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, 
 
 The, supposed to have been written 
 
 by Dame Juliana Barnes or 
 
 Berners, 29 ; new edition of, 29 ; 
 
 extract from, 37 
 Treatise on the Nature of God, A, 
 
 Walton borrows from, in his 
 
 Complete Angler, 40 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, George 
 
 Herbert educated at, 97 ; two 
 
 windows to Herbert in, 99 ; 
 
 William Chillingworth Fellow of, 
 
 142 ; James Duport educated at, 
 
 143 ; Pearson Master of, 169. 
 Trinity College, Dublin, Ussher 
 
 educated at, 175; Ussher' s portrait 
 at, 176 
 
 Turner, Francis, his pamphlet hi 
 reply to The Naked Truth, 114 
 
 U 
 
 Undevil, Mrs, Walton bequeaths a 
 
 ring to, 187 
 Universal Angler, The, being The 
 
 Complete Angler and Parts II. and 
 
 in., 43 
 
 Ussher, Henry, Archbishop of 
 
 Armagh, 175 
 Ussher, James, Archbishop of 
 
 Armagh, biographical sketch of, 
 
 175 
 
 Valediction forbidding Mourning, by 
 
 Donne, 228 
 Vaughan, Dean, see note, 49
 
 INDEX 
 
 261 
 
 Venables, Colonel Robert, author of 
 The Experienced Angler; or, 
 Angling Improved, 43 ; reference 
 to, in The Innocent Epicure, 44 ; 
 an account of, 64 ; sent by Crom- 
 well at the head of the army 
 against the Spanish, 64 ; failure of 
 the expedition and displeasure of 
 Cromwell, 65, 66 ; made Governor 
 of Chester, 66 ; publication of his 
 Experienced Angler, 66, 67 ; his 
 marriage and close of life, 68 
 
 Venice, Wotton's manner of living 
 at, 92 
 
 Vernon, George, Walton bequeaths 
 ring to, 186 
 
 Verses to Walton, Cotton's, quoted, 
 202, 213 
 
 W 
 
 Wadham College, Oxford, Wood- 
 ward at, 179 
 
 Waller, Edmund, Cotton's verses to, 
 quoted, 223 
 
 "Walton and Cotton Clubs," 131- 
 134 
 
 Walton and the Earlier Pishing 
 Writers, by R. B. Marston, 30 
 
 Walton, Anne, second wife to Walton, 
 her parentage and death, 2 ; her 
 dower coffer, with inscription, 125 ; 
 Walton's epitaph on, 127 
 
 Walton, Anne, daughter of Isaak 
 Walton, her father's legacies to, 
 182-186 ; married William Haw- 
 kins, 189 ; buried in Winchester 
 Cathedral, 189 
 
 Walton, Jervis, father of Izaak 
 Walton, 1 
 
 Walton, Izaak, birth and parentage 
 of, 1 ; his two marriages, 2 ; his 
 early life, 3; his love of knowledge 
 and imperfect education, 4 ; con- 
 jectures as to his business employ- 
 ment, 5, 6 ; his attitude towards 
 the political events of the reign of 
 Charles I., 8 ; entrusted with the 
 deliverance of the George to 
 Colonel Blague, 10 ; his eclogue on 
 the Restoration, 10; his friendship 
 for Churchmen and Royalists, 11 ; 
 his views of the Prayer Book, 13 ; 
 quotes Christopher Hervie's verses 
 in The Complete Angler, 14 ; his 
 worldly prosperity and departure 
 
 from London, 15 ; his religious 
 character and love of literature, 
 16 ; influenced by Donne's preach- 
 ing, 18 ; his Elegy on Donne's 
 death, 19; his views of Noncon- 
 formity, 21 ; as an angler, 22-25 ; 
 his knowledge of fishing, 25 ; ho 
 insists that angling is an art, 28 ; 
 his various authorities on fishiug, 
 29 ; his Complete Angler caused 
 many other books to be written on 
 fishing, 30, 31 ; John Williamson's 
 appreciation of The Complete 
 Angler, 32 ; his godly life, 34 ; a 
 keen sportsman, 35 ; his dislike of 
 swearing, 37 ; his frequent use of 
 the word primitive, 37 ; publica- 
 tion of his Complete Angler, 40 ; 
 the sources from which he bor- 
 rowed, 40, 41 ; its various editions 
 and additions, 41-44 ; its universal 
 appreciation, 44-46 ; Franck's ad- 
 verse criticism of. 46, 47 ; his 
 pleasure in writing, 49 ; scratched 
 his monogram on Casaubon's tomb 
 in Westminster Abbey, 49 ; his 
 autographs, 50 ; an account of his 
 friend Cotton, 54-63 ; account of 
 his friend Venables, 64-68 ; an 
 account of Cotton's fishing-house 
 often visited by, 69-73 ; compila- 
 tion and various editions of his 
 Lives, 73-78 ; life of John Donne, 
 78-91 ; life of Wotton, 91-96 ; life 
 of George Herbert, 97-103 ; life of 
 Hooker, 103-107 ; life of Sander- 
 son, 108-112 ; probable author of 
 Love and Truth, controversy there- 
 on, 114-118 ; discussion on Thealma 
 and Clearchus, 118-121 ; death of, 
 at Winchester, 123 ; buried in Win- 
 chester Cathedral, 124 ; two 
 cabinets with dates of his mar- 
 riages inscribed, 125 ; memorials 
 to, 126 ; supposed fishing-creel, 
 clock and Prayer-book, 127 ; the 
 spelling of his name, 128 ; his 
 seals, 131 ; various clubs named 
 after, 131-134; his habits, etc., 
 134-136; his portrait, 138; his 
 opinion on Fuller's Church History, 
 151 ; his bequest of Dr Hall's 
 works to his daughter, 154 ; his 
 verses in The Synagogue, 156 ; Dr 
 Henchman gave information on 
 George Herbert to, 168 ; King's
 
 262 
 
 INDEX 
 
 
 letter to, 162 ; Sheldon great 
 friend of, 171 ; his bequest to 
 Sibbes, 174 ; Woodford's verses 
 to, 179 ; copy of his will, 181-187 ; 
 his Elegie upon Dr Donne quoted, 
 190 ; On a Portrait of Donne taken 
 in his Eighteenth Year, quoted, 
 194 ; In Praise of my Friend the 
 Author and his Book, quoted, 194 ; 
 On the Death of my dear Friend, 
 Mr William Carticright, 195 ; To 
 the Author upon the sight of the 
 First Sheet of his Book. 196 ; An 
 Humble Eglog, 197 ; To my 
 Reverend Friend the Author of "The 
 Synagogue" 200 ; Epitaph on David 
 Hookham, 201 
 
 Walton, Canon Isaak, 130; Norington 
 Farm left to, 130 ; his father's 
 legacies, 135 ; chaplain to Ward, 
 177 
 
 Walton, Rachel, first wife to Walton, 
 her parentage and death, 2 ; their 
 marriage chest, with inscription, 
 125 
 
 Walton, Richard, 186 
 
 Ward, Seth, Bishop of Salisbury, 
 biographical sketch of, 176-178 ; 
 Woodford's sonnet to, 179 
 
 Warwick Castle, Walton's marriage 
 chest in, 125 
 
 Watkins, Rev. Morgan George, 
 quotation from his preface to The 
 Treatyse of Fysshynge, 38 
 
 Weaver, Rev. Thomas, friend to 
 Walton, 179 
 
 Wells Cathedral, memorial window 
 to Ken in, 161 
 
 Westcott, Bishop, on vivisection, 
 27 
 
 Westminster Abbey, Duppa buried 
 in, 145 ; Casaubon's tomb in, 49, 
 166 ; Ussher buried in, 176 
 
 Westminster School, George Herbert 
 educated at, 97 ; James Duport 
 educated at, 143 ; Duppa educated 
 at, 145 ; Henry King educated 
 at, 161 ; George Morley educated 
 at, 164 
 
 Westwood, Thomas, quoted on 
 Walton's birthplace, 1 ; his esti- 
 mate of The Complete Angler, 45 ; 
 his sonnet on the fishing-house, 
 73 
 
 White, Mr, his description of Cotton's 
 fishing-house, 70 
 
 White, Peter, Walton bequeaths a 
 
 ring to, 187 
 
 Whole. Art of Fishing, The, 43 
 Whole Duty of Man, The, doubt as 
 
 to the author, 155, 157 
 Will, copy of Walton's, 181-187 
 Williamson, John, The British Angler, 
 
 by, 32 
 Wilmot,Lord. Charles II. committed 
 
 his watch to, 9 
 Wilson, John, " Christopher North," 
 
 quoted, 124 
 Wincham estate purchased by 
 
 Venables, 67 
 
 Winchester, Ken's house in, 161 
 Winchester Cathedral, Wotton 
 
 educated at, 91 ; George Morley 
 
 Bishop of, 110; Walton buried in 
 
 Prior Silkstead's Chapel in, 124 ; 
 
 statue of Walton placed in Great 
 
 Screen of, 126 ; statue of Ken 
 
 placed in Great Screen of, 161 ; 
 
 Markland made Prebend of, 163; 
 
 Morley buried in, 166 ; Morton 
 
 made Dean of, 167 ; Woodford 
 
 made Canon of, 179; William 
 
 and Anne Hawkins buried in, 
 
 189 
 Winchester College, Thomas Ken 
 
 educated at, 159 
 Winton, Bishop of, Walton's legacy 
 
 of a ring to, 184 
 
 Wollop, Mrs Dorothy, Walton be- 
 queaths a ring to, 187 
 Wonders of the Peak, The, by Cotton, 
 
 5-8 
 Woodford, Samuel, biographical 
 
 sketch of, 178 
 Worcester, Hall made Dean of, 
 
 153 
 Worcester Cathedral, Anne Walton 
 
 buried in, 2 
 Worde, Wynkyn de, The Book of St 
 
 Allans printed by, 29 
 Wordsworth, Christopher, Bishop 
 
 of Lincoln, quoted on prayers, 
 
 15 
 Works of Alexander Pope, with 
 
 Memoirs of His Life, by William 
 
 L. Bowles, 45 
 Worthies of England, by Thomas 
 
 Fuller, 150 
 Wotton, Sir Henry, extract from his 
 
 letter to Lord Zouch, see note, 2 ; 
 
 friend of Milton, 13 ; Walton 
 
 visits, at Eton, 24 ; his intention
 
 INDEX 
 
 263 
 
 of writing the life of Donne, 76 ; 
 parentage and education of, 91 ; 
 his appointments as ambassador, 
 92; his service to James, 92; his 
 godly life and influence, 92, 93 ; 
 his ill-health, 94 ; his writings, 
 94 ; made Provost of Eton, 95 ; 
 his death, burial and legacies, 96 ; 
 his fondness for tobacco, 134 ; A 
 Hymn to my God, by, quoted, 239 ; 
 The Character of a Happy Life, 
 by, 240; Elizabeth of Bohemia, 
 by, 241 
 
 Wotton, Thomas, of Bocton, father 
 to Sir Henry Wotton, 91 
 
 Wrangham, Francis, his transla- 
 tion of Donne's epitaph quoted, 
 87 
 
 Wren, Sir Christopher, Architect 
 
 of St Paul's Cathedral, see note 
 11 
 
 Yelverton Chapel, Morton buried in 
 
 the, 167 
 York, Morton made Dean of, 1G7 
 
 Zouch, Dr, see note, 2 ; his opinion 
 as to Walton being the author of 
 Love and Truth, 114-118; his as- 
 sertion on Thealma and Clearchus, 
 120 
 
 
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