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 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ISAAC WALTON; 
 
 INCLUDING NOTICES 
 
 OF 
 
 HIS CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 BY THOMAS ZOUCH, D.D. F.L.S. 
 
 PREBENDARY OF DURHAM. 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 SEPTIMUS PROWETT, STRAND. 
 
 MDCCCXMll.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE recent republication of the Complete Angler, 
 by ISAAC WALTON and CHARLES COTTON, with the 
 singular omission of any biographical detail relating 
 to the authors, suggested the printing of Dr. 
 .Zoucn's Life of Walton, in a size suitable to ac- 
 company Mr. Major's edition, adding such illus- 
 trations as were not to be found among the em- 
 bellishments blended throughout his publication. 
 The portraits of Walton aud Cotton, engraved by 
 Mr. Mitan, are very dissimilar to the original 
 pictures ; and many of the tail-pieces tend but 
 little to illustrate the pages of the most pleasing 
 ' pastoral historic' ever written. 
 
 In the present edition of the Life of our old 
 piscatory friend, by Dr. ZOUCH, considerable cor- 
 rections have been added by way of notes, the 
 result of more recent inquiries, and an attempt to 
 narrate all that is known respecting ' honest old 
 Isaac Walton.' 
 
 The portraits attached to this work are en- 
 graved on steel plates, from drawings after the 
 original pictures j and the autographs, from au- 
 thentic specimens in the possession of the writer. 
 The/ac-siwu/e of the title of the first edition, in 
 1653, has also been added, as the copy given by 
 Mr. Major will be found incorrect.
 
 11 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The deposit of Walton's remains, with the marble 
 slab which marks the spot,, in Prior Silksteed's 
 Chapel, within the Cathedral at Winchester, have 
 not hitherto been engraved ; and the monuments of 
 his second wife, his son-in-law William Hawkins, 
 and his wife Anne, the daughter of Isaac Walton, 
 are additional memento mori of the last of his 
 family. 
 
 Madeley Manor, the residence of John Offley,Esq. 
 to whom the Complete Angler was dedicated, has 
 been etched from a reduced drawing of the large 
 folding plate in Plot's History of Staffordshire;. 
 
 Beresford Hall, the residence of Charles Cotton, 
 and the occasional rendezvous of Walton and his 
 son, is engraved from a painting by Mr. Stanfield, 
 after an original drawing taken on the spot, by 
 the late Mr. W. Alexander. 
 
 The Fishing Scenes are more peculiarly illus- 
 trative of the several chapters throughout Walton's 
 work. The residence of Walton, in Fleet-street, 
 from an original drawing by Nash ; the enchanting 
 view of St. Alban's Abbey, from a picture by 
 Nasmyth, the SCOT ^h Claude ; and the Fishing 
 House, on the banks of the Dove, from a painting 
 by Mr. Wilson ifter an original drawing by the 
 late Mr. Alexander will, it is trusted, afford con- 
 siderable interest to the lovers of graphic il- 
 lustration. 
 
 T. (T.
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 ISAAC WALTON, 
 
 SAAC, or, as he used to write 
 it, IZAAK WALTOX, was 
 born of a respectable fa- 
 mily, on the ninth day of 
 August, 1593, 1 in the parish 
 of St. Mary's, in the town 
 of Stafford. Of his father, 
 no particular tradition is 
 extant. From his mother, he derived an hereditary 
 attachment to the Protestant religion, as professed 
 in the Church of England. She was the daughter 
 
 1 The dale of Walton's birth rests on the authority of 
 Anthony a Wood, in his Athenae Oxon., who possibly ob- 
 tained it, in a direct manner, from Walton. The parish 
 register of St. Mary's, Stafford, records his baptism in the fol- 
 lowing words: "1593. Septemb. Baptiz. fuit Isaac filius 
 Jervis Walton, 21o. die mensis et anni praedict." Of the
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, 
 sister to George Cranmer, the pupil and friend 
 of Richard Hooker, and niece to that first and 
 brightest ornament of the Reformation, Dr. Thomas 
 Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. No vestiges 
 of the place or manner of his education have been 
 discovered ; nor have we any authentic information 
 concerning his first engagements in a mercantile 
 life. It has indeed been suggested, that he was 
 one of those industrious young men, whom the 
 munificence of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder 
 of the Royal Exchange, had placed in the shops 
 which were erected in the upper building of his ce- 
 lebrated Burse. 2 However this may be, he soon 
 improved his fortune by his honesty, his frugality, 
 
 elder Walton, it is true, that ' no particular tradition is extant,' 
 beyond the presumption that he was in easy circumstances : 
 a reference, however, to the same register, informs us that he 
 died in February, 1596, when his son Isaac was little more 
 than two years old. ED. 
 
 2 Sir John Hawkins, in his Life of Walton, prefixed to the 
 Complete Angler, 1760, Svo., positively asserts, that "his 
 first settlement in London, as a shop-keeper, was in the Royal 
 Burse, in Cornhill, built by Sir Thomas Greshani, and finished 
 in 1567 ;" and that he continued there " till some time before 
 the year 1624." Sir John, and Dr. Zouch, however, seem 
 equally to have forgotten that Sir Thomas Gresham died in 
 1579, fourteen years before Walton was born: and though 
 much has been said of " the economy observed in the con. 
 struction of the shops over the Burse, which scarce allowed him
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 3 
 
 and his diligence. His occupation, according to 
 the tradition still preserved in his family, was that 
 of a wholesale linen-draper, or Hamburgh mer- 
 chant. 3 
 
 elbow-room, being but seven feet and a half long, and five 
 feet wide," there does not appear to be any conclusive evi- 
 dence that he ever did occupy a shop at the Exchange. ED. 
 3 Tradition, at best a dubious authority, has not even hinted 
 at the period when YVallon might be supposed to have first 
 settled in London. A deed, bearing date 1624, formerly in 
 the possession of Sir John Hawkins, but no longer extant 
 (being destroyed by fire, with Sir John's library and residence, 
 in Queen Square, Westminster, in 1770), stated him to be then 
 following the trade of a linen-draper, in a house which, it 
 further appeared in that deed, was jointly occupied by him 
 and John Mason, hosier; " whence," observes Sir John, " we 
 may conclude, that half a shop was sufficient for the business 
 of Walton." It is no improbable conjecture, that this was 
 Walton's first outset in life, as there is evidence to prove 
 his marriage in or about 1024, when, possibly, unwilling 
 to incur the expense attendant on keeping the whole house, 
 it was equally proportioned between Mason and himself. 
 The deed expressly describes Walton's residence to have 
 been " on the north side of Fleet-street, in a house two 
 doors west of the end of Chancery-lane, and abutting on a mes. 
 suage known by the sign of the Harrow." The curiously deco- 
 rated house at the west corner of Chancery-lane, said to have 
 been the oldest building in Fleet-street, being erected in the 
 reign of King Edward VI. for an elegant mansion, at a time 
 when there were no shops in that part of the city, was long 
 distinguished by the sign of the Harrow. Queen Elizabeth,
 
 4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Walton was, for some years, an inhabitant of 
 St. Dunstan's, Fleet-street ; and with Dr. John 
 Donne, then Vicar of that parish (of whose sermons 
 he was a constant hearer), he contracted a friend- 
 ship, which remained uninterrupted to the period 
 of their separation by death. He attended him in 
 his last sickness, and was present at the time that 
 he consigned his sermons and numerous papers to 
 the care of Dr. Henry King, who was promoted to 
 the see of Chichester in 1641. 
 
 He married Anne, 4 the daughter of Thomas Ken, 
 Esq., ofFurnival's Inn a gentleman, whose fa- 
 
 on a visit to Sir Thomas Gresham, 23d of Jan. 1570, was 
 complimented by the descent of several cherubs from the top 
 of this house, who, from thence, by a contrivance of the students 
 in the Temple, flew down, and presented her majesty with 
 a crown of laurels and gold, together with some verses the 
 fourth cherub delivered the following : 
 
 " Virtue shall witness of her w : orthyness, 
 And Fame shall registrate her princelie deeds. 
 The world shall still praie for her happiness ; 
 From whom our peace and quietude proceeds." 
 
 Report says " the Queen's Highness was much pleased there- 
 with." This house was pulled down, to widen the entrance 
 into Chancery-lane, in May 1799. The scite of Walton's 
 residence must, therefore, have been where Thomas's Mil- 
 linery Warehouse now stands. ED. 
 
 4 Walton's first marriage seems to have escaped his bio- 
 graphers. Neither Sir John Hawkins, nor Dr. Zouch, appear 
 to have examined the parish register of St. Duustan, Fleet-
 
 FL3ET SlTUEIT.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 5 
 
 mily, of an ancient extraction, was united by 
 alliance with several noble houses, and had pos- 
 sessed a very plentiful fortune for many genera- 
 street; or they would otherwise have found that bishop Ken's 
 sister was Walton's second wife ; and that he bad at least two 
 children by his first, who died in infancy. 
 " 1632. Oct. 12, Henry, sonne of Isaak Walton, was bap- 
 tized." 
 
 Oct. 17, Henry, sonne of Isaak Walton, was buried 
 out of Chancery-lane." 
 ' 1633-4. March 21, Henry, sonne of Isaac Walton, was 
 
 baptized out of Fleet-street." 
 " 1634, Dec. 4, Henry, sonne of Isaac Walton, was buried.'' 
 
 These extracts serve to shew, that previous to 1632, 
 Walton had moved into Chancery-lane, and was in the fol- 
 lowing year removed into Fleet-street. 
 
 Dr. Zouch's assertion, that Walton's mother " was the 
 daughter of Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, 
 sister to George Cranmer, the papil and friend of Richard 
 Hooker; and niece to that first and brightest ornament of the 
 Reformation, Dr. Thomas Cramner, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, '' is unquestionably false. In the ' Introduction' to 
 his Life of Richard Hooker, 1665, 12mo., be says, "About 
 forty years past (for I am now in the seventieth of my age) 
 I began a happy affinity with William Cranmer (now with 
 God), grand nephew unto the great Archbishop of that name ; 
 a family of noted prudence and resolution. With him and 
 two of his sisters I had an entire and free friendship." Wal- 
 ton's 'Address to the Reader,' is dated 1664; and the erro- 
 neous notion of his relationship in blood being here confuted, 
 in his own words, places \\isjirst marriage sometime about the
 
 6 THE LIFE OF 
 
 tions, having been known by the name of the 
 Kens, of Ken-Place, in Somersetshire. She was 
 the sister of Thomas Ken, afterwards the deprived 
 Bishop of Bath and Wells. If there be a name 
 to which I have been accustomed from my earliest 
 youth to look up with reverential awe, it is that 
 of this amiable prelate. The primitive innocence 
 of his life, the suavity of his disposition, his taste 
 for poetry and music, his acquirements as a polite 
 scholar, his eloquence in the pulpit (for he was 
 pronounced by James II. to be the first preacher 
 among the Protestant Divines) : these endearing 
 qualities ensure to him our esteem and affection. 
 But what principally commands our veneration, 
 is that invincible inflexibility of temper, which 
 rendered him superior to every secular considera- 
 tion. When, from a strict adherence to the dic- 
 tates of conscience, he found himself reduced to 
 a private station, he dignified that station by the 
 magnanimity of his demeanour, by a humble and 
 serene patience, by an ardent, but unaffected piety. 
 
 year 1624. This connexion was obligingly pointed out to the 
 writer by the Rev. Dr. Barrett; and it seems conclusive, that 
 his first wife was grand niece to Archbishop Cranmer, and that 
 his affinity to ' that first and brightest ornament of the 
 Reformation,' though equally creditable to Walton, was 
 only by marriage with his first wife, of whom there is no 
 further memorial extant, than that obtained from the parish 
 register of St. Dunstan's, Fleet-street. " 1640. Aug. 25, 
 Rachell, wife of Izaack Walton, buried." ED.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 7 
 
 In 1643, Walton, having declined business, 
 retired to a small estate 5 in Staffordshire, not far 
 from the town of Stafford. His loyalty made him 
 obnoxious to the ruling powers ; and we are as- 
 sured by himself, that he was a sufferer during 
 the time of the civil wars. In this year, the Scotch 
 Covenanters came back into England, at the in- 
 vitation of the Presbyterian party of that nation ; 
 marching with the Covenant, gloriously upon their 
 pikes, and in their hats, with this motto, ' For 
 the Crown and Covenant of both Kingdoms.' 
 " This," says Walton, in his Life of Bishop San- 
 derson, " I saw, and suffered by it; but when 
 I look back upon the ruine of families, the blood- 
 shed, the decay of common honesty, and how 
 the former piety and plain dealing of this now 
 sinful nation is turned into cruelty and cunning : 
 
 5 This estate consisted of a farm and land, at Shalford, near 
 Stafford, of about the yearly value of twenty pounds, which, 
 by his will, he bequeathed to his son and his heirs for ever, 
 upon condition that, if his said son should not marry before he 
 should be of the age of forty-one, or, being married, should 
 die before the said age, and leave no son that should live to 
 the age of twenty- one, then the same should go to the corpo- 
 ration of Stafford, for certain charitable purposes. Having 
 attained that age without being married, he sent to the Mayor 
 of Stafford, acquainting him that the estate was improved to 
 almost double its former value, and that the corporation would 
 become entitled thereto, upon his decease, which happened 29th 
 December, 1719. Eu.
 
 8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 when I consider this, I praise God, that he pre- 
 vented me from being of that party which helped 
 to bring in this Covenant, and those sad confu- 
 sions that have followed it." He persevered in 
 the most inviolable attachment to the royal cause, 
 and in many of his writings pathetically laments 
 the afflictions of his Sovereign, and the wretched 
 condition of his beloved country, involved in all 
 the miseries of intestine dissention. The incident 
 of his being instrumental in preserving the lesser 
 George, which belonged to Charles II., is related by 
 Ashmole, in his History of the Order of the Garter. 6 
 We may now apply to him what has been said 
 of Cowley : " Some few friends, a book, a cheerful 
 heart, and innocent conscience, were his com- 
 panions." In this scene of rural privacy, he was 
 not unfrequently indulged with the company of 
 learned and good men ; and here, as in a safe and 
 peaceful asylum, they met with the most cordial 
 and grateful reception. Wood informs us, that, 
 
 6 The account is also preserved, by tradition, in the family. 
 " Col. Blague remained at Mr. Barlow's house at Blore-Pipe, 
 in Staffordshire, where, with Mr. Barlow's privity and advice, 
 he hid his Majesty's George under a heap of dust and chips, 
 whence it was conveyed through the trur.ty hands of Mr. Ro- 
 bert Milward, of Stafford, to Mr. Isaac Walton, who conveyed 
 it to London, to Col. Blague, then in the Tower ; whence 
 escaping, not long after, he carried it with him beyond seas, 
 and restored it to his Majesty's own hands." Plot's Natural 
 History of Staffordshire, edit. 1686, fol., p. 311.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 9 
 
 whenever he went from home, he resorted prin- 
 cipally to the houses of the eminent clergymen of 
 the Church of England, by whom he was much 
 beloved. To a man desirous of dilating his in- 
 tellectual improvements, no conversation could be 
 more agreeable than that of those Divines, who 
 were known to have distinguished him with their 
 personal regard. 
 
 The Roman Poet, of whom it has been remarked, 
 that he made the happiest union of the courtier 
 and the scholar, was of plebeian origin. Yet such 
 was the attraction of his manners and deportment, 
 that he classed among his friends the first and most 
 illustrious of his contemporaries, Plotius and Varus, 
 Pollio and Fuscus, the Visci and the Messalae. 
 Nor was Isaac Walton less fortunate in his social 
 connexions. The times in which he lived were 
 those of gloomy suspicion, of danger and distress, 
 when a severe scrutiny into the public and private 
 behaviour of men established a rigid discrimination 
 of character. He must, therefore, be allowed to 
 have possessed a peculiar excellency of disposi- 
 tion, who concilitated to himself an habitual in- 
 timacy with Usher, the Apostolical Primate of 
 Ireland, with Archbishop Sheldon, with Morton, 
 bishop of Durham, Pearson, bishop of Chester, 
 and Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, with the ever- 
 memorable John Hales, of Eton, and the judicious 
 Chillingworth ; in short, with those who were 
 most celebrated for their piety and learning. Nor
 
 1O THE LIFE OF 
 
 could he be deficient in urbanity of manners, or 
 elegance of taste, who was the companion of Sir 
 Henry Wotton, the most accomplished gentleman 
 of his age. 7 The singular circumspection which 
 
 7 This is deducible from his own words: " My next and 
 last example shall be that under-valuer of money, the late 
 Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, a man with whom 
 I have often fished and conversed ; a man, whom foreign em- 
 ployments in the service of this nation, and whose experience, 
 learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be 
 esteemed one of the delights of mankind." Complete Angler, 
 edit. 1653. 
 
 In Sir Henry Wotton's verses, written by him as he sate 
 fishing on the bank of a river, he probably alludes to Walton ; 
 " There stood my friend, with patient skill, 
 " Attending of his trembling quill." 
 
 Reliquite W ottoniancc , 1651, p. 524. 
 
 That this amiable and excellent person set a high value on 
 the conversation of his humble friend, appears from the fol- 
 lowing letter; 
 
 " My worthy Friend, 
 
 " Since I last saw you, I have been confined to my chamber 
 by a quotidian fever, I thank God of more contumacy than 
 malignity. It had once left me, as I thought, but it was only 
 to fetch more company, returning with a surcrew of those sple- 
 netic vapours, that are called hypochondriacal, of which most 
 say the cure is good company, and I desire no better physician 
 than yourself. I have in one of those fits endeavoured to 
 make it more easie by composing a short hymn; and since I 
 have apparelled my best thoughts so lightly as in verse, I hope 
 I shall be pardoned a second vanity, if I communicate it
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 11 
 
 he observed in the choice of his acquaintance has 
 not escaped the notice of Cotton. " My Father 
 Walton," says he, " 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 one of the best 
 testimonies I have, that I either am, or that he 
 thinks me one of those, seeing 1 have not yet found 
 him weary of me. f " 
 
 Before his retirement into the country, he pub- 
 lished the Life of Dr. Donne. It was originally 
 appended to " Eighty Sermons, preached by that 
 learned and reverend Divine, John Donne, late 
 Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, Lon- 
 don," printed in 1640, in folio. He had been 
 solicited by Sir Henry Wotton, to supply him 
 with materials for writing that life, but Sir Henry 
 dying in 1639, before he had made any progress 
 in the work, Walton engaged in it. This, his first 
 essay in biography, was by more accurate revisals 
 
 with such a friend as yourself; to whom I wish a cheerful 
 spirit, and a thankful heart, to value it, as one of the greatest 
 blessings of our good God ; in whose dear love I leave you, 
 remaining 
 
 " Your poor friend to serve you, 
 
 H. WOTTON." 
 
 Reliquice WottonianeE, 1651, p. 513-15, where the hymn 
 mentioned in this letter is also subjoined. 
 
 8 Complete Angler, edit. 1676, part ii. p. 7.
 
 12 THE LIFE OF 
 
 corrected, and considerably enlarged in subsequent 
 editions. Donne has been principally commended 
 as a poet Walton, who, as it has been already 
 remarked, was a constant hearer of his sermons, 
 makes him known to us as a preacher, eloquent, 
 animated, and affecting. His poems, like the sky 
 bespangled with small stars, are occasionally in- 
 terspersed with the ornaments of fine imagery; 
 but they must, however, be pronounced generally 
 devoid of harmony of numbers, or beauty of versi- 
 fication. Involved in the language of metaphysical 
 obscurity, 9 they cannot be read but with disgust : 
 
 9 Whatever praise may be due to the poems of Dr. Donne, 
 they are certainly deficient in the beauties of versification. To 
 remedy this defect, his Satires have been translated into 
 English verse by Pope, and his Latin epigrams by Dr. Jasper 
 Mayne, who published them under the title of A Sheaf of 
 Miscellany Epigrams, in 1652. Hume has observed, that in 
 Donne's satires, and indeed in all his poetical compositions, 
 there appear some flashes of wit and ingenuity, but that these 
 are totally suffocated and buried by the harshest and most un- 
 couth expression which is any where to be met with. Ben 
 Jonson, however, in an epigram to him, calls him, " the de- 
 light of Phoebus and each Muse." Dr. Joseph Warton has 
 some interesting remarks on Donne's poetry, in his Essay on 
 the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. ii. p. 353. His imi- 
 tation of Kit Marlow's inimitable pastoral ballad Ijas nothing 
 of that elegance of simplicity which characterizes the original, 
 glowing with poetical beauties. Donne, as Dr. Zouch ob- 
 serves, may be entitled to be ranked in the first class of meta-
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 13 
 
 fraught as they are with false thoughts, affected 
 phrases, and unnatural conceits. 1 His sermons, 
 though not without that pedantry which debases 
 the writings of almost all the divines of those 
 times, are often written with energy, elegance, 
 and copiousness of style. Yet it must be con- 
 fessed, that all the wit and eloquence of the author 
 have been unable to secure them from neglect. 
 
 physical poets ; but this can be no enviable situation, when 
 Dr. Johnson's opinion of their merit is consulted. " We can 
 have," he remarks, in his Life ofCoicley, " little inducement 
 to peruse the works of men, who, instead of writing poetry, 
 wrote only verse, who cannot be said to have imitated any 
 thing, as they neither copied nature from life, neither painted 
 the forms of matter, nor represented the operations of in- 
 tellect. Deficient in the sublime and pathetic, they abounded 
 in hyperbole, and in unnatural thoughts, in violent fictions 
 and foolish conceits, and in expressions either grossly absurd, 
 or indelicate and disgusting." 
 
 1 Pope has classed the English Poets by their school. 
 First, School of Provence. Second, School of Chaucer. 
 Third, School of Petrarch. Fourth, School of Dante. Fifth, 
 School of Spenser. Sixth, School of Donne. In the latter 
 School he has very injudiciously placed Michael Drayton, 
 who wrote before Donne, and not in the least in his manner. 
 " Dr. Donne's (poetical) writings are like a voluntary or 
 prelude, in which a man is not tied to any particular design 
 of air, but may change his key or mood at pleasure ; so his 
 compositions seem to have been written without any particular 
 scope." Butler's Remains, 1759, vol. ii. p. 498.
 
 14 THE LIFE OF 
 
 A singular instance of filial gratitude and affec- 
 tion occurs in the following letter, from John 
 Donne, junior, to Walton, thanking him for 
 writing his father, the Dean's Life. 
 
 "Sin, 
 
 I send this book rather to witness my debt, 
 than to make any payment. For it would be in- 
 civil in me to offer any satisfaction for that all my 
 father's friends, and indeed all good men, are so 
 equally engaged. Courtesies that are done to the 
 dead being examples of so much piety, that they 
 cannot have their reward in this life, because last- 
 ing as long, and still (by awaking the like charity 
 in others) propagating the debt, they must ex- 
 pect a retribution from him, who gave the first 
 inclination. 
 
 2. And by this circle, Sir, I have set you in 
 my place, and instead of making you a payment, 
 I have made you a debtor ; but 'tis to Almighty 
 God, to whom you will be so willingly com- 
 mitted, that I may safely take leave to write 
 myself, 
 
 Your thankful servant, 
 
 JO. DONNE." 
 
 From my house in Covent-garden, 
 24th June, 1640." 
 
 It is difficult to discover what correspondence 
 subsisted between our biographer and the writer
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 15 
 
 of this letter, who, having been admitted Doctor 
 of Laws in the University of Padua, was incor- 
 porated in that degree at Oxford in 1638. In the 
 Will of Dr. John Donne, junior, printed in 1662, 
 he bequeathed all his father's writings, Avith his 
 c Common Place-Book,' to Isaac Walton, for the 
 use of his son, if he should be brought up a 
 scholar. That he was a clergyman, and had some 
 preferment in the diocese of Peterborough, we 
 learn, from a letter written to him, by Dr. John 
 Towers, bishop of Peterborough ; wherein his 
 Lordship thanks him for the first volume of his 
 father's sermons, 2 telling him that his parishioners 
 may pardon his silence to them for a while, since 
 by it he hath preached to them and to their chil- 
 dren's children, and to all our English parishes, 
 for ever. Anthony Wood, although he describes 
 him as a man of sense and parts, is unfavourable 
 to his memory. He represents him as no better 
 than " an atheistical buffoon, a banterer, and a 
 person of over-free thoughts, yet valued by 
 Charles II.," and with a sarcasm not unusual to 
 him, he informs his reader, that Dr. Walter Pope, 
 ' leads an epicurean and heathenish life, much like 
 to that of Dr. Donne, the son.' Bishop Kennet, 
 in his Register, p. 318, calling him, by mistake, 
 Dr. John Downe, names him as the editor of 
 
 - Already noticed as being printed in folio, in 1640. The 
 second volume was printed in 1 049. ED.
 
 16 THE LIFE OF 
 
 " A Collection of Letters made by Sir Toby 
 Matthews, Knight, with a character of the most 
 excellent Lady, Lucy Countess of Carlisle, by the 
 same author ; to which are added, several letters 
 of his own to several persons of honour, who were 
 contemporary with him," printed in 1660, in 8vo. 
 Dr. Donne neither consulted the reputation of his 
 father, nor the public good, when he caused the 
 Biathanatos to be printed. If he was determined, 
 at all events, to disregard the injunctions of pa- 
 rental authority, would it not have been more 
 expedient to have committed the manuscript to the 
 flames, rather than to have encountered the hazard 
 of diffusing certain novel opinions, from which no 
 good consequences could possibly arise ? For though 
 those effects did not actually follow, which are 
 mentioned by an industrious foreign writer, who 
 tells us that on the first publication of this work, 
 many persons laid violent hands on themselves ; 
 yet the most remote probability of danger ac- 
 cruing from it should have induced him entirely 
 to have suppressed it. 3 But to return from this 
 digression 
 
 3 Hearne, in his MS. Co//., says, " One Joseph Kannell, 
 of Lincoln College, has writ a short discourse against self- 
 murther, in opposition to Dr. Donne. He made some appli- 
 cation a little while since to get it printed, but could not pre- 
 vail with any one to undertake it, being a book for which 
 there is no manner of occasion. I am informed he is quite oft'
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 1? 
 
 Walton's narrative of the vision in the Life of Dr. 
 Donne, has subjected him to some severe animad- 
 versions. Let it, however, be remembered, that he 
 probably related the particulars with cautious and 
 discreet fidelity, as they were really represented to 
 him. The account is not inserted in the earlier 
 editions, hence, we may presume that the strictest 
 and most severe inquiry was made before their 
 introduction. Plutarch is not esteemed a credu- 
 lous writer : yet he has given a full and circum- 
 stantial history of the appearances that presented 
 themselves to Dion and to Brutus ; and in modern 
 times, Dr. Doddridge, a most sedulous examiner 
 of facts, and of all men the least liable to credulity 
 and weakness of understanding, published a re- 
 lation of an extraordinary vision. Let it also be 
 remarked that, according to the opinion of a me- 
 dical writer of great eminence, a discriminating 
 symptom of human insanity, is " rising up in the 
 mid of images not distinguishable by the patient 
 from impressions upon the senses" to a momen- 
 tary delusion, originating from some bodily dis- 
 order, we may safely attribute the visions or false 
 perceptions, of which many authentic descriptions 
 
 publishing it, being laughed at by some in the college, 
 who entitle the book Dr. Donne undone.'" Kannell died 
 in 1710. 
 
 Dr. John Donne, junior, died in 1682, and was buried 
 in the church-yard of St. Paul's, Co vent- garden. ED. 
 r>
 
 18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 have been transmitted to us j and we may easily 
 suppose that Dr. Donne, separated from his beloved 
 wife and family, whom he had left in a very dis- 
 tressful situation, must have suffered the most 
 poignant anxiety of mind, and of course, much 
 indisposition of body. 
 
 When the first years of man have been devoted 
 to ' the diligence of trade, and noiseful gain,' we 
 have no reason to hope that his mind will be re- 
 plenished by study, or enriched with literature. 
 In the lucrative, as well as in the political life, men 
 are tempted to assume some of those habits or 
 dispositions, which are not entirely consistent with 
 the principles of justice or honour ; and an eager- 
 ness to amass wealth, not seldom extinguishes 
 every other affection. But it was not thus with 
 Isaac Walton. Firm and uncorrupted in his in- 
 tegrity, he no sooner bade farewell to his com- 
 mercial concerns, than he gave the most convincing 
 proofs of his attention to the most laudable pur- 
 suits. He had already written the life of one 
 friend, and he now undertook to exhibit a testi- 
 mony of respect to the memory of another. In 
 1651, he edited " Reliquiae Wottonianae, or a Col- 
 lection of Lives, Letters, Poems, with Characters 
 of sundry Personages, and other incomparable 
 Pieces of Language and Art, by the curious Pencil 
 of the ever-memorable Sir Henry Wotton, Knt., 
 late Provost of Eton College." Lady Mary
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 19 
 
 Wotton, relict of the last Lord Wotton, and her 
 three noble daughters, to whom Walton dedicated 
 this Collection, communicated to him many ori- 
 ginal letters, written by their illustrious relation 4 , 
 of whom, after the dedication, follows the Life. 
 In the succeeding editions, the volume is inscribed 
 to the Right Honourable Philip, Earl of Chester- 
 
 4 Sir Richard Baker, a contemporary writer, has thus de- 
 lineated the characters of Dr. Donne and Sir Henry Wotton ; 
 " To speak it in a word, the Trojan horse was not fuller of 
 heroic Grecians, than King James's reign was full of men 
 excellent in all kinds of learning. And here I desire the 
 reader's leave to remember two of my own old acquaintance : 
 the one was Mr. John Donne, who, leaving Oxford, lived at 
 the Inns of Court, not dissolute, but very neat ; a great visitor 
 of ladies, a great writer of conceited verses, until such time as 
 King James, taking notice of the pregnancy of his wit, was a 
 means that he took him to the study of divinity, and thereupon 
 proceeding doctor, was made Dean of St. Paul's, and became 
 so rare a preacher, that he was not only commended, but even 
 admired by all that heard him. The other was Henry Wotton, 
 mine old acquaintance, also, as having been fellow pupils and 
 chamber-fellows in Oxford, divers years together. This 
 gentleman was employed by King James in embassage to 
 Venice ; and, indeed, the kingdom afforded not a fitter man 
 for matching the capaciousness of the Italian wits; a man of 
 so able dexterity with his pen, that he hath done himself much 
 wrong, and the kingdom more, in leaving no more of his 
 writings behind him." Chronicle of the Kings of England, 
 edit. 1733, folio, p. 4>3-4.
 
 C 20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 field, Lord Stanhope, of Shelford \ and great 
 nephew to Sir Henry Wotton. This nobleman, 
 accompanying his mother, the Lady Catharine 
 Stanhope, into Holland, where she attended 
 the Princess of Orange, daughter to Charles I., 
 had his education along with William, Prince of 
 Orange, afterwards advanced to the throne of 
 England, and became very serviceable in pro- 
 moting the Restoration of the Royal Family. He 
 loved the memory, and imitated the virtues of his 
 generous uncle. By a life of strict temperance he 
 attained to a great age, and died January 28, 1713. 
 It is proper to observe, that a later edition of the 
 Reliquiae Wottoniante, namely, that of 1685, in Svo., 
 is enriched with Sir Henry Wotton's Letters to 
 Lord Zouch, who was eminent among his con- 
 temporaries as an able statesman and an accom- 
 plished scholar. 
 
 The Church History of Great Britain, compiled 
 by Dr. Thomas Fuller, whose writings, though 
 far from being without blemish, are of inestimable 
 
 "" The mother of this Lord Chesterfield was Catharine, 
 the eldest daughter of Thomas Lord Wotton, and relict of 
 Henry Lord Stanhope, who died before his father, the Earl of 
 Chesterfield. She had been governess t Mary, Princess of 
 Orange ; and, after the restoration, was made Countess of 
 Chesterfield. 
 
 Walpole's " Anecdotes of Painting^" vol. ii. p; 1 13.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 21 
 
 value, was first published in 1655, in folio. A 
 conversation, seasoned with much pleasantness, 
 and innocent jocularity, is said to have passed 
 between the author and his ever cheerful 
 and friendly acquaintance, Isaac Walton, upon 
 the general character of this work. The latter 
 having paid him a visit, it was asked by Fuller, 
 who knew how intimate he was with several of 
 the bishops and ancient clergy, first, What he 
 thought of the History himself, and, then, what 
 reception it had met with among them. Walton 
 answered, that he thought " it should be accept- 
 able to all tempers ; because there were shades in 
 it for the warm, and sun-shine for those of a cold 
 constitution ; that with youthful readers the fa- 
 cetious 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 over-shadowed 
 throughout, that the parson is more seen than his 
 congregation, and this sometimes invisible to its 
 old acquaintance, who may wander in the search, 
 till they are lost in the labyrinth." " Oh ! " says 
 Fuller, the very Children of our Israel may find
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 their way out of this wilderness.*' " True," re- 
 turned Walton, " as indeed they have" here such 
 a Moses to conduct them 6 ." 
 
 In 1662, Anne, his wife, died, and was buried in 
 our Lady's Chapel, in the Cathedral of Worcester, 
 in Avhich, fixed in the north wall, is a sculptured 
 slab monument, of white marble, with the fol- 
 lowing inscription, written by her affectionate 
 husband. 
 
 EXTERRI8 
 
 D. 
 
 M. S. 
 
 HERE LYETH BURIED 
 
 so much as could dye of 
 
 ANNE, the Wife of 1ZAAK WALTON ; 
 who was a Woman of remarkable Prudence, 
 
 and of the Primitive Piety ; 
 
 her great, and general Knowledge 
 
 being adorned with such true Humility, 
 
 and blest with so much Christian Meekness, 
 
 as made her worthy of a more memorable Monument. 
 
 She dyed (alas, that she is dead !) 
 
 the 17th of April, 1662, Aged 52. 
 
 Study to be like her. 
 
 6 The relation of this witty confabulation, as the editors of 
 the Biographia Britannica are pleased to term it, was ob- 
 tained from a ' Collection of diverting Sayings, Stories, Cha- 
 racters, &c., in verse and prose, made about the year 1686, by 
 Charles Cotton, Esq., formerly, in manuscript, in the library 
 of the Earl of Halifax.' Colloquially amusing as it may seem
 
 , of ANNE ck. w 
 IZAAK WALTON 
 
 ^ t.yhtl',;/ /'.//. ,/. '"' . ^ , 
 
 rflRs -vvAL'.r i u STOITE 
 
 ,;',,, < //, Mwn :
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 23 
 
 His next work was the Life of Mr. Richard 
 Hooker 1 ," which first appeared in 1665. It was 
 composed at the earnest request of Dr. Sheldon, 
 then bishop of London ; and with the express 
 purpose of correcting some errors committed by 
 Dr. Gauden, from mere inadvertency and haste, 
 in his account of ( that immortal man/ as he has 
 been emphatically styled, ' who spoke no language 
 but that of truth dictated by conscience.' Gauden 
 seems to have been extremely deficient in his in- 
 formation, and, dying soon afterwards, had no 
 opportunity of revising and amending his very 
 imperfect and inaccurate memoir. This was fol- 
 lowed in 1670, by the Life of Mr. George Herbert, 
 usually called ' the Divine Herbert ; ' and in 1678, 
 he concluded his biographical labours with the 
 the Life of Dr. Robert Sanderson 8 . Previous to 
 
 to many, it is ' remarkable for nothing but its singularity, 
 which consists in the starting of a metaphor, and the hunting 
 it down.' 
 
 7 Sir John Hawkins inadvertently observes, that Hooker 
 was personally known to his biographer. It seems to have 
 escaped his recollection, that Hooker died in 1600, and 
 Walton, being born in 1593, was then only seven years of 
 age. ED. 
 
 8 Walton erroneously says, that Bishop Sanderson was 
 born at ' Rotherham, in the county of York. ' The parish 
 register of Sheffield records his baptism in the church of that 
 town, Sept. 20, 1587 ;' and in Hopkinson's MSS., under San- 
 derson, of Gilthwait, his birth is thus noticed " Robert,
 
 24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the publication of this last work, he received the 
 following interesting letter from Dr. Thomas Bar- 
 low, then bishop of Lincoln, who had been for 
 many years the intimate friend of Dr. Sanderson, 
 during his residence at Oxford, and after his re- 
 tirement into the country : 
 
 " MY WORTHY FRIEND MR. WALTOX, 
 
 " 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, late bishop of Lincoln ; because I 
 know your ability to know, and integrity to write 
 truth : and sure I am, that the life and actions of 
 that pious and learned prelate will afford you 
 matter enough for his commendation, and the 
 imitation of posterity. In order to the carrying 
 on your intended good work, you desire my as- 
 sistance, that I would communicate to you such 
 particular passages of his life, as were certainly 
 known to me. I confess I had the happiness to 
 be particularly known to him for about the space 
 of twenty years and, in Oxon, to enjoy his con- 
 versation, and his learned and pious instructions, 
 while he was Regius Professor of Divinity there. 
 Afterwards, when (in the time of our late unhappy- 
 second son of Robert Sanderson of Gilthwait, was born in 
 a house called the Lane-head-stone, near the Irish Cross, in 
 Sheffield, on the 19th, and baptized on the next day, of 
 September, 1587." ED.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 25 
 
 confusions) he left Oxon, and was retired into 
 the country ; I had the benefit of his letters, 
 wherein, with great candour and kindness, he 
 answered those doubts I proposed, and gave me 
 that satisfaction, which I neither had nor ex- 
 pected from some others of greater confidence, 
 but less judgment and humility. Having in a 
 letter named two or three books writ (ex professo} 
 against the being of any original sin ; and that 
 Adam, by his fall, transmitted some calamity only, 
 but no crime to his posterity ; the good old man 
 was exceedingly troubled, and bewailed the misery 
 of those licentious times, and seemed to wonder 
 (save that the times were such) that any should 
 write, or be permitted to publish any error so 
 contradictory to truth, and the doctrine of the 
 Church of England, established (as he truly said) 
 by clear evidence of Scripture, and the just and 
 supreme power of this nation, both sacred and 
 civil. I name not the books, nor their authors, 
 which are not unknown to learned men (and I 
 wish they had never been known), because both 
 the doctrine, and the unadvised abettors of it are, 
 and shall be, to me apocryphal. 9 
 
 " Another little story I must not pass in silence, 
 
 9 The writer principally alluded to in this part of the 
 letter, was the excellent Dr. Jeremy Taylor, appointed 
 Bishop of Down and Connor, in Ireland, in 1660, and of 
 Dromore, in 1661. 
 
 E
 
 26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 being an argument of Dr. Sanderson's piety, great 
 ability, and judgment, as a casuist. Discoursing 
 with an honourable person 1 (whose piety I value 
 more than his nobility and learning, though both 
 be great) about a case of conscience concerning 
 oaths and vows, their nature and obligation ; in 
 which, for some particular reasons, he then de- 
 sired more fully to be informed ; I commended to 
 him Dr. Sanderson's book ' De Juramento;' which, 
 having read, with great satisfaction, he asked 
 me, ' If I thought the Doctor could be induced 
 to write Cases of Conscience, if he might have an 
 honorary pension allowed him, to furnish him 
 with books for that purpose ? ' I told him, ' I be- 
 lieved he would :' and, in a letter to the Doctor, 
 told him what great satisfaction that honourable 
 person, and many more, had reaped by reading his 
 book ' De Juramento ;' and asked him, ' whether 
 he would be pleased, for the benefit of the Church, 
 to write some tract of Cases of Conscience ?' He 
 replied, ' That he was glad that any had received 
 any benefit by his books :' and added further, 
 ' That if any future tract of his could bring such 
 benefit to any, as we seemed to say his former 
 had done, he would willingly, though without 
 any pension, set about that work.' Having re- 
 ceived this answer, that honourable person, before- 
 
 1 The lion. Robert Boyle, whose life has been ably written 
 liv Dr. Thomas Birch, and printed in 1744, 8vo.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 27 
 
 mentioned, did, by my hands, return 50 to the 
 good Doctor, whose condition then (as most good 
 men's at that time were) was but low ; and he 
 presently revised, finished, and published that ex- 
 cellent book, 'De Consdentin :' A book little in bulk, 
 but not so, if we consider the benefit an intelligent 
 reader may receive by it. For there are so many 
 general propositions concerning conscience, the 
 nature and obligation of it explained, and proved 
 with such firm consequence and evidence of rea- 
 son, that he who reads, remembers, and can with 
 prudence pertinently apply them hie et nunc to 
 particular cases, may, by their light and help, 
 rationally resolve a thousand particular doubts and 
 scruples of conscience. Here you may see the 
 charity of that honourable person, in promoting, 
 and the piety and industry of the good Doctor, 
 in performing that excellent work. 
 
 " And here I shall add the. judgment of that 
 learned and pious prelate concerning a passage 
 very pertinent to our present purpose. When he 
 was in Oxon, and read his public lectures in the 
 schools as Regius Professor of Divinity, and by 
 the truth of his positions, and evidences of his 
 proofs, gave great content and satisfaction to all 
 his hearers, especially in his clear resolutions 
 of all difficult cases which occurred in the ex- 
 plication of the subject matter of his lectures ; a 
 person of quality (yet alive) privately asked him, 
 ' What course a young Divine should take in his
 
 28 THE LIFE OF 
 
 studies, to enable him to be a good casuist ?' His 
 answer was, ' That a convenient understanding of 
 the learned languages, at least, of Hebrew, Greek, 
 and Latin, and a sufficient knowledge of arts and 
 sciences pre-supposed : there were two things in 
 human literature, a comprehension of which would 
 be of very great use, to enable a man to be a 
 rational and able casuist, which otherwise was 
 very difficult, if not impossible : 1. A convenient 
 knowledge of moral philosophy j especially, that 
 part of it which treats of the nature of human 
 actions : to know, quid sit actus humanus (sponta- 
 neus, invitus, mixtus), unde habet bonitatem et mali- 
 tiam moralem ? an ex genare et objecto, vel ex cir- 
 cumstantiis ? How the variety of circumstances 
 varies the goodness or evil of human actions ? 
 How far knowledge and ignorance may aggravate 
 or excuse, increase or diminish the goodness or 
 evil of our actions ? For every case of conscience 
 being only this Is this action good or bad ? May I 
 do it, or may I not ? He who, in these, knows 
 not how and whence human actions become 
 morally good and evil, never can (in hypothesi) 
 rationally and certainly determine, whether this 
 or that particular action be so. 2. The second 
 thing which, he said, ' would be a great help 
 and advantage to a casuist, was a convenient 
 knowledge of the nature and obligation of laws 
 in general : to know what a law is ; what a natural 
 and positive law ; what's required to the lutio,
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 29 
 
 dispensatio derogatio, vel abrogatio legis ; what pro- 
 mulgation is antecedently required to the obligation 
 of any positive law ; what ignorance takes off the 
 obligation of a law, or does excuse, diminish, 
 or aggravate the transgression : for every case of 
 conscience being only this Is this lawful for me, 
 or is it not ? and the law the only rule and measure 
 by which I must judge of the lawfulness or un- 
 lawfulness of any action ; it evidently follows 
 that he, who, in these, knows not the nature and 
 obligation of laws, never can be a good casuist, 
 or rationally assure himself, or others, of the law- 
 fulness or unlawfulness of actions in particular.' 
 
 " This was the judgment and good counsel of 
 that learned and pious prelate : and having, by- 
 long experience, found the truth and benefit of it, 
 I conceive I could not, without ingratitude to 
 him, and want of charity to others, conceal it. 
 Pray pardon this rude, and, I fear, impertinent 
 scribble, which, if nothing else, may signify thus 
 much, that 1 am willing to obey your desires, and 
 am, indeed, 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " THOMAS LINCOLN." 
 
 London, May 10, 1678. 
 
 Among the literary characters of the sixteenth 
 century, none appears with more transcendent 
 lustre than that of Sir Henry Savile, a munificent 
 patron of merit, and a complete gentleman. He
 
 30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 seems to have traversed the whole range of sci- 
 ence, being equally celebrated for his knowledge 
 of ancient and modern learning. That the life of 
 this illustrious scholar, which would be a valuable 
 acquisition to the Republic of Letters, was ac- 
 tually compiled by Walton, we have every reason 
 to conclude. Dr. King, bishop of Chichester, in 
 his letter to him, dated Nov. 17, 1664, tells him, 
 that " he has done much for Sir Henry Savile, 
 the contemporary and friend of Mr. Richard 
 Hooker." It is seriously to be regretted, that 
 the most diligent inquiry after this work has 
 hitherto proved unsuccessful. 2 
 
 2 The following particulars, relative to Sir Henry Savile, 
 are collected from Aubrey's Lives of Mathematical Writers. 
 He was one of the most learned gentlemen of his time. Hobbes 
 informed Aubrey, that Sir Henry Savile was ambitious of 
 being thought as great a scholar as Joseph Scaliger. But if 
 in the attainments of classic literature he was inferior to Sca- 
 liger, in mathematical knowledge Dr. Wallis declared him to 
 be exceeded by none of his contemporaries. He was a very 
 handsome and beautiful man: no lady had a fairer com- 
 plexion. Queen Elizabeth, to whom he explained Greek 
 authors and politics, favoured him much. He was preferred 
 by her, to be Master of Eton College, of which he was so 
 severe a governor, that the scholars hated him for his austerity. 
 To men of wit he gave no encouragement. When a young 
 scholar was named to him as a good wit, he would reject him, 
 and choose the plodding student. John Earle, afterwards 
 Bishop of Sarum, being recommended to him, on that account, 
 was the only one of that character, to whom he extended his
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 31 
 
 Among those whom Sir Henry Savile honoured 
 with his friendship, was John Hales, of Eton. 
 Anthony Farringdon, an eminent preacher, and a 
 man of extensive learning and exemplary piety, 
 
 patronage. He treated the Fellows of Eton College with 
 asperity; and his influence with the Queen rendered all op- 
 position vain. When the celebrated Gunter came from Lon- 
 don to be appointed his Professor in Geometry, he brought 
 with him his sector and quadrant, with which he began to re- 
 solve triangles, and to perform several operations. This dis- 
 gusted the grave knight, who considered the operations as so 
 many tricks below the dignity of a mathematician, and he im- 
 mediately conferred the professorship on another candidate, 
 Briggs, from Cambridge. Aubrey learned from Dr. Wallis, 
 that Sir Henry Savile had sufficiently confuted Joseph Sca- 
 liger's tract, De Quadraturd Circ.uli, in his notes on the very 
 margin of the book : and that, sometimes, when Scaliger says 
 ' A B C D ex Constructione,' Sir Henry adds with his pen, 
 ' et deinonstratio vestra est asinus ex constructione.' 
 
 In his travels he had contracted a general acquaintance with 
 learned men abroad ; by which means he had access to several 
 Greek MSS. in their libraries, and thus obtained correct copies 
 by his amanuensis, who transcribed the Greek characters with 
 admirable skill. Fronto Ducaeus, a French Jesuit of Bour- 
 deaux, clandestinely engaged a person to supply him, every 
 week, with the sheets of Sir Henry Savile's Greek edition of 
 the Works of Chrysostom, printed at Eton, of which he com- 
 posed a Latin translation, and published them in Greek and 
 Latin; thus superseding the sale of the English impression. 
 Sir Henry Savile died Feb. 19, 1621, having been Provost of 
 Eton College twenty-five years.
 
 32 THE LIFE OP 
 
 had collected materials with a view to write the 
 life of this incomparable person. On his demise, 
 his papers were consigned to Walton's care by 
 William Fulman, of Corpus Christi College, Ox- 
 ford, who had proposed to finish the work, and 
 on that occasion had applied for the assistance of 
 our biographer. The result of this application is 
 not known. Fulman' s Collection of Manuscripts, 
 written with his own hand, was deposited in the 
 archives of the library of his College, and Wood 
 laments that he was refused access to them. 
 
 Angling had been long a favourite diversion in 
 England. Alexander Nowell, 3 Dean of St. Paul's, 
 was a lover of, and most experienced proficient 
 in this delightful art. It was his custom, besides 
 his fixed hours of private and public prayer, to 
 spend a tenth part of his time in this amusement, 
 and also to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, 
 and usually all his fish among the poor, saying, 
 that " charity gave life to religion." An elegant 
 Latin poem, 4 written by Dr. Simon Ford, was 
 
 3 The Life of this revered divine has been elegantly 
 written by Dean Churton, and printed at Oxford in 1809, in 
 Svo. The beautiful engravings with which it is embellished, 
 have rendered it a scarce book : the large paper copies are 
 excessively rare. 
 
 4 Entitled " Piscatio ; ad Gilb. Archiepisc. Cant." printed 
 in the Musee Jnglicana:, 1692, 8vo., vol. i., p. 129. It was 
 translated by Tipping Sylvester, M.A., and printed at Oxford,
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 33 
 
 inscribed to Archbishop Sheldon, who, in his 
 younger years, being fond of this diversion, is said to 
 have acquired a superior skill in taking the Umber 
 or Barbel, which, says Walton, is " a heavy and 
 dogged fish to be dealt withall." Dr. Donne is called 
 " a great practitioner, master, and patron of ang- 
 ling :" and we learn from good authority, that 
 Herbert loved angling ; " a circumstance that is 
 rather to be believed, because he had a spirit suit- 
 able to anglers, and to those primitive Christians 
 who are so much loved and commended." Let 
 not these remarks provoke the chastisement of 
 censure : let them not be condemned as nugatory 
 and insignificant. Amidst our disquietudes and 
 delusive cares amidst the painful anxiety, the dis- 
 gustful irksomeness, which are often the unwelcome 
 attendants on business and on study an harmless 
 gratification is not merely excusable, it is in some 
 degree necessary. 5 In the skilful management of 
 
 in 1733, in 8vo. Gervase Markham proceeds rather too far, 
 when he tells us, that an angler should be "a general scholar, 
 and seen in all the liberal sciences; a grammarian, a logician, 
 and a philosopher. ED. 
 
 5 The Experienced Angler, a little tract, written by Colonel 
 Robert Venables, is now before me. The perusal of it calls 
 to memory the days of youth, the guileless scenes of earlier life, 
 spent with innocent companions, in " delightful walks by 
 pleasant rivers, in sweet pastures, and among odoriferous 
 flowers." The concluding observation in this little book ap-
 
 34 THE LIFE OP 
 
 the angle, Isaac Walton is acknowledged to bear 
 away the prize from all his contemporaries. The 
 river which he seems principally to have fre- 
 quented, for the purpose of pursuing his inoffensive 
 amusement, was the Lea, which, rising above the 
 town of Ware in Hertfordshire, falls into the 
 Thames a little below Blackwall ; " unless," as 
 Sir John Hawkins conjectures, " we will suppose 
 that the vicinity of the New River to the place of 
 his habitation might sometimes tempt him out with 
 his friends, honest Nat and R. Roe, whose loss he 
 so pathetically mentions, to spend an afternoon 
 
 plies to all readers : " Make not a daily practice, which is 
 nothing else but a profession, of any recreation ; lest your im- 
 moderate love and delight therein bring a cross with it, and 
 blast all your content and pleasure in the same." I mention 
 this entertaining work, because Isaac Walton has prefixed to 
 it, not a preface, but an ' Epistle to the Author,' who was 
 personally unknown to him. Having accidentally seen the dis- 
 course in manuscript, he held himself obliged, in point of gra- 
 titude, for the great advantage he had received thereby, to 
 tender his particular acknowledgment. The testimony of 
 so expert an angler could not fail of recommending the 
 tract. ZOUCH. 
 
 The Experienced Angler was first printed in 1662, 12mo., 
 and now seldom occurs. Richard Marriott, who printed all 
 Walton's publications, printed this also ; and he annexed this 
 tract of Venables to those of Walton and Cotton, in 1676. 
 They are sometimes met with in one volume, with a separate 
 title, purporting them to constitute the Universal Angler. Ei>.

 
 ISAAC WALTON. 35 
 
 there." In his treatise of the Complete Angler, or 
 the Contemplative Man's Recreation, he has com- 
 prised the clearest and fullest instructions for the 
 attainment of a thorough proficiency in the art. 6 
 James Duport, the Greek Professor at Cambridge, 
 who was far from being a novice in the use of the 
 rod, 7 disdained not, on this occasion, to address 
 our author in a beautiful Latin Iambic Ode, of 
 which the following classic version 8 will not be 
 unacceptable to the reader. 
 
 Hail, Walton ! honoured friend of mine, 
 
 Hail ! mighty Master of the line ! 
 
 Whether down some valley's side 
 
 You walk to watch the smooth stream glide, 
 
 Or on the tiow'ry margin stand 
 
 To cheat the fish with cunning band ; 
 
 6 " And let no man imagine, that a work on such a subject 
 must necessarily be unentertaining, or trifling, or even unin- 
 structive; for the contrary will most evidently appear from a 
 perusal of this most excellent piece, which whether we con- 
 sider the elegant simplicity of the style, the ease and unaf- 
 fected humour of the dialogue, the lovely scenes which it de- 
 lineates, the enchanting pastoral poetry which it contains, or 
 the fine morality it so sweetly inculcates has hardly its fellow 
 in any of the modern languages." Sir John Hawkins's In* 
 troduction to the Complete Angler, 1760, 8ve. 
 
 7 He calls himself " Candidatum arundinis." 
 
 8 By the Rev. James Tate, M.A., late Fellow of Sidney 
 Sussex College, Cambridge, and now [1817] the very excel, 
 lent master of the Free Grammar School at Richmond, in York- 
 shire.
 
 THE LIFE OP 
 
 Or on the green bank, seated still, 
 With quick eye guard the dancing quill. 
 Thrice happy sage! who, distant far 
 From the wrangling forum's war, 
 From the city's bustling train, 
 From the busy hum of men, 
 Haunt some gentle stream, and ply 
 Your honest crafts, to lure the fry ; 
 And while the world around you set 
 The base decoy and treacherous net, 
 Man agaii.st man, th' insidious wile, 
 Or, the rich dotard to beguile, 
 Bait high with gifts the smiling hook 
 All gilt with flattery's sweetest look ; 
 Arm'd for the innocent deceit, 
 You love the scaly brood to cheat, 
 And tempt that water-wolf, the pike, 
 With rav'ning tooth his prey to strike, 
 Or in the minnow's living head, 
 Or in the writhed brandling red 
 Fix your well-charged hook, to gull 
 The greedy perch, bold biting fool ; 
 Or with the tender moss-worm tried 
 Win the nice trout's speckled pride, 
 Or on the carp, whose wary eye 
 Admits no vulgar tackle nigh, 
 Essay your art's supreme address, 
 And beat the fox in sheer finesse : 
 The tench, physician of the brook, 
 Owns the magic of your hook, 
 The little gudgeon's thoughtless haste 
 Yields a brief yet sweet repast ; 
 And the whisker'd barbel pays 
 His coarser bulk to swell your praise.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 
 
 Such the amusement of your hours, 
 While the season aids your powers ; 
 Nor shall my friend a single day 
 Ere pass without a line away. 
 Nor these alone your honours bound. 
 The tricks experience has found : 
 Sublimer theory lifts your name 
 Above the fisher's simple fame, 
 And in the practice you excel 
 Of what none else can teach as well, 
 Wielding at once with equal skill 
 The useful powers of either quill. 
 With all that winning grace of style, 
 What else were tedious, to beguile, 
 A second Oppian, you impart 
 The secrets of the angling art ; 
 Each fish's nature, and how best 
 To fit the bait to every taste, 
 Till in the scholar that you train, 
 The accomplish'd master lives again 
 And yet your pen aspires above 
 The maxims of the art you love ; 
 Though virtues, faintly taught by rule, 
 Are better learn'd in angli; g's school, 
 Where Temperance, that drinks the rill, 
 And Patience, sovereign over ill, 
 By many an active lesson bought, 
 Refine the soul, and steel the thought. 
 Far higher truths you love to start, 
 To train us to a nobler art, 
 And in the lives of good men give 
 That chiefest lesson, how to live;
 
 38 THE LIFE OP 
 
 While Hooker, philosophic sage, 
 Becomes the wonder of your page, 
 Or while we see combin'd in one 
 The Wit and the Divine in Donne ; 
 Or while the Poet and the Priest, 
 In Herbert's sainted form confest, 
 Unfold the temple's holy maze 
 That awes and yet invites our gaze; 
 Worthies these of pious name, 
 From your pourtraying pencil claim 
 A second life, and strike anew 
 With fond delight Che admiring view. 
 And thus at once the peopled brook 
 Submits its captives to your hook ; 
 And we, the wiser sons of men, 
 Yield to the magic of your pen, 
 While angling on some streamlet's brink, 
 The muse and you combine to think. 
 
 In this volume of the Complete Angler, which 
 will be always read with avidity, even by those who 
 entertain no strong relish for the art which it pro- 
 fesses to teach, we discover a copious vein of 
 innocent pleasantry and good humour. The scenes 
 descriptive of rural life are inimitably beautiful. 
 How artless and unadorned is the language ! The 
 dialogue is diversified with all the characteristic 
 beauties of colloquial composition ; and the songs 
 and little poems which are occasionally inserted, 
 will abundantly gratify the reader, who has a taste 
 for the charms of pastoral poesy. And, above all, 
 those lovely lessons of religious and moral instruc- 
 tion, which are so repeatedly inculcated through-
 
 Being a Difcourfe of 
 FISH and FISHING, 
 
 Ifotunwortliy the perufal 
 
 alfo wilgv with tbez. John 2-1 . <3 . 
 
 HARRIOT, in 
 S. <Z>uri/tans Churcli-Jard. Fleet ftreet. J6J35 .
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 39 
 
 out the whole work, will ever recommend this 
 exquisitely pleasing performance. 9 It was first 
 printed in 1653, with an appropriately decorated 
 title ; and the fish alluded to in the work were 
 engraved in the most beautiful manner, it is be- 
 lieved, on steel plates, by Lombart. The work 
 became so generally read as to pass through five 
 editions during the life of the author. The second 
 edition is dated in 1655, the third in 1661 'j and 
 
 9 I venture to quote the following beautiful passage : 
 " Content will never dwell but in a meek and quiet soul : 
 and this may appear, if we read and consider what our Sa- 
 viour says in St. Matthew's Gospel ; for there he says, ' Blessed 
 are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy : blessed be the 
 pure in heart, for they shall see God ; blessed be the poor in 
 spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God : and blessed be the 
 meek, for they shall possess the earth." Not that the meek 
 shall not also obtain mercy, and see God, and be comforted, 
 and at last come to the kingdom of heaven; but in the mean 
 time he, and he only possesses the earth as he goes towards 
 that kingdom of heaven, by being humble and cheerful, and 
 content with what his good God has allotted him. He has no 
 turbulent, repining, vexatious thoughts, that he deserves better; 
 nor is vexed when he sees others possessed of more honour, or 
 more riches than his wise God has allotted for his share : but 
 he possesses what he has with a meek and contented quietness, 
 such a quietness as makes his very dreams pleasing both to 
 God and himself. Complete Angler, 1676, 12mo. p. 265-6. 
 
 1 Some copies of this edition will be found dated 1664, but 
 the third edition was certainly printed in 1661. 'Eo.
 
 40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the fourth appeared in 1668, with many valuable 
 additions and improvements. The lovers of 
 angling, to whom this treatise is familiar, are 
 apprised that the art of fishing with the fly is not 
 discussed with sufficient accuracy ; the few di- 
 rections that are given, having been principally 
 communicated by Thomas Barker, who has written 
 a very entertaining tract on the subject 2 . To 
 
 ~ Walton knew but little of fly-fishing ; and, indeed, he is 
 so ingenuous as to confess, that the greater part of what he has 
 said on that subject was communicated to him by Barker, and 
 not the result of his own experience. " I will," says he, 
 " tell you freely, I find Mr. Thomas Barker, a gentleman that 
 has spent so much time and money in angling, deal so judi- 
 ciously in a little book of his on angling, and especially of 
 making and angling with a fly, for a trout, that I will give 
 you his very direction, without much variation, which shall 
 follow." Complete Angler, 1653, p. 108. The extreme 
 rarity of the littl" book alluded to by Walton, entitled, " The 
 Art of Angling; wherein are discovered many rare secrets 
 very necessary to be known by all that delight in that Re- 
 creation, both for catching the fish, and dressing thereof," 
 1651, I2m. induced a re-print of it, in 1820, which has 
 now become scarce. Walton, in the fifth edition, continues 
 te notice such directions as were given to him by " an in- 
 genious brother of the Angle, an honest man, and a most 
 excellent fly-fisher;" but in different words. "I shall give 
 some other directions for fly-fish, such as are given by Mr. 
 Thomas Barker, a gentleman that hath spent much time in 
 fishing, but I shall do it with a little variation." Edit. 1676. 
 p. 112. ED.

 
 ISAAC WALTON. 41 
 
 remedy this defect, and to give lessons how to 
 angle for a trout or grayling in a clear stream, a 
 fifth and much improved edition was published in 
 1676, with a second part by Charles Cotton, of 
 Beresford, in Staffordshire, Esq. 3 This gentleman, 
 
 3 Charles Cotton son of Charles Cotton, of Ovingden, in 
 Sussex, and Olive, his wife, daughter of Sir John Stanhope, 
 of Elvaston, in the county of Derby, by Olive, his first wife, 
 daughter and heir of Edward Beresford, of Beresford, in Staf- 
 fordshire (Mrs. Cotton was heir to her mother, and by her 
 the estate of Beresford came to Charles Cotton) was born the 
 2.3th day of April, 163, at Ovingden, where, having received 
 such rudiments of education as qualified him for the University, 
 he was sent to Cambridge, and had for his tutor Ralph Rawson, 
 who had been ejected from his fellowship of Bra/en-nose 
 College, Oxford, by the Parliament visitors in 1648. This 
 person he has gratefully celebrated in a translation of an ode 
 of Johannes Secundus. 
 
 His studies, while at the University, do not appear to have 
 been directed to any particular object: it is sufficient to 
 notice, that he there improved his knowledge of the Greek 
 and Roman Classics, and became highly skilled in the French 
 and Italian languages. 
 
 Oldys says, that in 1656, Cotton, being then in his twenty- 
 sixth year, and before any patrimony had descended to him, 
 or had any means of supporting a family, married a distant 
 relation Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, of 
 Owthorp, in the county of Nottingham, Knt. The difficulties 
 which might have arisen from this imprudence were averted by 
 the death of his father, in 1658; an event that put him in 
 possession of the family estate, which seems however to have 
 o
 
 42 THE LIFE OF 
 
 who is represented as the most laborious trout- 
 catcher, if not the most experienced angler for 
 
 been considerably encumbered. It, indeed, excites no 
 wonder that, struggling with law-suits and the growing diffi- 
 culties of a family, we find him turning author by pro- 
 fession, and acquiring considerable credit, more particularly 
 by his translations, though perhaps with but pitiable emolu- 
 ment. 
 
 Angling having long been Cotton's favourite recreation, we 
 cannot but suppose that the congenial attachment for the same 
 pursuit, so pre-eminently displayed by Walton, in his Com- 
 plete Angler, excited in the former a desire to become ac- 
 quainted with the author. Certain it is, that before 1616, 
 they were united by the closest ties of friendship, Walton, as 
 also his son, were frequent visitants to Cotton, at Beresford, 
 whose residence was singularly advantageous for the ripening 
 such friendship, being situated near the Dove, the finest trout 
 river in the kingdom; and Cotton, no less for their accom- 
 modation than his own, erected a fishing-house on its banks, 
 with a stone in the front thereof, containing a cypher, 
 which, incorporating the initials of their names, has blended 
 them in an indissoluble tie which is entitled to respect for 
 ever. 
 
 These circumstances, and the formal adoption by Walton, 
 of Cotton for his son, were probably the inducements with the 
 latter to the writing a second part of the Complete Angler, 
 and therein to explain more fully the art of angling either with 
 a NATURAL or an ARTIFICIAL FLY ; as also the various 
 methods of MAKING THE LATTER. The following letter more 
 immediately explains the author's intentions ; and its insertion 
 bere is perhaps the best voucher for their justness and pro- 
 priety :
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 43 
 
 trout and grayling that England ever had, to 
 testify his regard for Walton, had caused the 
 
 " To my most worthy Father and Friend, MR. TZAAK 
 
 WALTON, the Elder. 
 SIR, 
 
 " Being you were pleased, some years past, to grant me your 
 free leave to do what I have here attempted ; and observing 
 you never retract any promise, when made in favour even of 
 your meanest friends, I accordingly expect to see these fal- 
 lowing particular directions for the taking of a Trout, to 
 wait upon your better and more general rules for all sorts of 
 Angling; and, though mine be neither so perfect, so well 
 digested, nor indeed so handsomely couched, as they might 
 have been, in so long a time as since your leave was granted ; 
 yet 1 dare affirm them to be generally true: and they had 
 appeared too in something a neater dress, but that I was 
 surprised with the sudden news of a sudden new edition of 
 your CumpJefe Angl r r ; so that, having but a little more 
 than ten days' time to turn me in and rub up my me- 
 mory, for, in truth, I have not in all this long time, though 
 I have often thought on't, and almost as often resolved 
 to go presently about it, I was forced upon the instant 
 to scribble what I here present you: which I have also 
 endeavoured to accommodate to your own method. And, 
 if mine be clear enough for the honest brothers of the Angle 
 readily to understand, which is the only thing I aim at, then 
 I have my end, and shall need to make no further apology; 
 a writing of this kind not requiring, if I were master of any 
 such thing, any eloquence to set it off, or recommend it; 
 so that if you, in your better judgment, or kindness rather, 
 can allow it passable, for a thing of this nature, you will 
 then do me honour, if the Cypher, fixed and carved in the 
 front of my little fishing-bouse, may be here explained :
 
 44 THE LIFE OF 
 
 words PISCATORIBUS SACRUM, with a cypher under- 
 neath, comprehending the initial letters of both 
 
 and to permit me to attend you in public, who, in private, 
 have ever been, am, and ever resolve to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your most affectionate Son and Servant, 
 
 " CHARLES COTTON." 
 Beresford, 
 10th of March, 167-jj-." 
 
 Walton, with that urbanity and good-feeling so conspicuous 
 in him, on the finishing of his work sent him the following 
 reply : 
 
 " To my most honoured Friend, CHARLES COTTON, Esq. 
 " SIR, 
 
 " You now see I have returned you your very pleasant and 
 useful discourse of the Art of Flying-fishing, printed just 
 as it was sent me ; for I have been so obedient to your 
 desires, as to endure all the praises you have ventured to fix 
 upon me in it. And when I have thanked you for them, as 
 the effects of an undisseinbled love ; then let me tell you, 
 Sir, that I will really endeavour to live up to the character 
 you have given of me; if there were no other reason, yet, 
 for this alone, that you, that love me so well, and always 
 think what you speak, may not, for my sake, suffer by a 
 mistake in your judgment. 
 
 "And, Sir, I have ventured to fill a part of your margin, by 
 way of paraphrase, for the reader's clearer understanding 
 the situation, both of your Fishing-house, and the pleasant- 
 ness of that you dwell in. And I have ventured also to give 
 him a copy of verses that you were pleased to send me, now 
 some years past ; in which he may see a good picture of 
 both ; and so much of your own mind too, as will make any
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 45 
 
 their names, to be inscribed on the front of his 
 
 FISHING-HOUSE. 
 
 This little building was situated near the banks 
 
 reader, that is blest with a generous soul, to love you the 
 better. I confess, that fordoing this you may justly judge 
 me too bold ; if you do, I will say so too; and so far com- 
 mute for my offence, that, though I be more than a hundred 
 miles from you, and in the eighty-third year of my age, yet 
 I will forget both, and next month begin a pilgrimage to 
 beg your pardon; for I would die in your favour; and till 
 then will live, Sir, 
 
 " Your most affectionate Father and Friend, 
 
 " IZAAK. WALTON." 
 London, April 29th, 1676." 
 
 The second part of the Complete Angler, is, in appearance, 
 an IMITATION of the first. It is a course of dialogues be-
 
 46 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of the river Dove, which divides the two counties 
 of Stafford and Derby. Here Walton usually spent 
 
 tween the Author, who is shadowed under the name of 
 Piscator, and a traveller, the very person distinguished in 
 the first part, by the name of Venator, and whom Walton 
 had converted to an Angler; in which, besides the instructions 
 there given, and the beautiful scenery of a wild and romantic 
 country therein displayed, the warm heart, courtesy and hos- 
 pitality of a well-bred country gentleman, are represented 
 to an enviable advantage. 
 
 Cotton's continuation might fairly be thought to contain a 
 delineation of the author's character ; and dispose the reader 
 to think, that he was delighted with his situation, content 
 with his fortunes, and in short, one of the happiest of men> 
 but in his next work, entitled The Wonders of the Peak, 
 first published in 1681, he speaks wholly a different strain; 
 living in a country abounding in rocks, caverns, and sub- 
 terraneous passages, objects that, to some minds, afford more 
 delight than stately woods and fertile plains, rich enclosures, 
 and other the milder beauties of rural nature ; he seems 
 to have been actuated by nothing more than a sullen curiosity 
 to explore the secrets of that nether world, and surveying it 
 rather with wonder than philosophical delight, and to have 
 given way to his distaste, in a description of the dreary and 
 terrific scenes around and beneath him : so far was he from 
 thinking with the Psalmist, that his ' lot was fallen in a fair 
 ground,' or that he ' had a goodly heritage.' 
 
 In 1085, he published a translation of Montaigne's Essays, 
 in 3 vols. 8vo., which is still considered as one of the most 
 valuable works in the English language, and was the last 
 production of his pen. The precise time of the decease of his 
 first wife is not known ; but his second marriage with the
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 47 
 
 his vernal months, carrying with him the best and 
 choicest of all earthly blessings, a contemplative 
 mind, a cheerful disposition, an active and an 
 healthful body. So beauteous did the scenery of 
 this delightful spot appear to him, that, to use his 
 own words, ' ' the pleasantness of the river, moun- 
 tains, and meadows about it, cannot be described, 
 
 Countess- Dowager of Ardglass, who possessed a jointure of 
 fifteen hundred a year, and who survived him, might suggest 
 the hope, when his straitened circumstances are remembered, 
 that his sun set brighter than it rose, but this supposition 
 seems to be contradicted by a fact, disclosed by the act of ad- 
 ministration of his effects upon his decease, granted to Eliza- 
 beth Bludworth, his principal creditrix ; the honourable Mary 
 Countess-Dowager of Ardglass, his widow ; Beresford Cotton, 
 Esq. ; Olive Cotton, Catherine Cotton, Jane Cotton, and 
 Mary Cotton, his natural and lawful children, first renouncing." 
 
 The above act, bearing date the 12th of September, 1687, 
 fixes, perhaps within a few days, the time of his death, and 
 describes him as having lived in the parish of St. James, West- 
 minster, though no entry of his burial has been found in the 
 registers of that parish ; by it is further ascertained his issue, 
 which were all by his first wife. 
 
 Of the subsequent fortunes of his descendants, little with 
 any certainty is known. His son, Beresford Cotton, com- 
 manded a company in a regiment of foot, raised by the Earl 
 of Derby tor the service of King William ; and one of his 
 daughters became the wife of that eminent divine, Dr. George 
 Stanhope, dean of Canterbury, who from his name being the 
 same with that of Cotton's mother, is conjectured to have 
 been distantly allied to the family.
 
 48 THE LIFE OF 
 
 unless Sir Philip Sidney or Mr. Cotton's father 
 were again alive to do it." 
 
 In the latter years of the reign of Charles II. the 
 violence of faction burst forth with renovated fury. 
 The discontents of the Nonconformists were daily 
 increasing ; while Popery assumed fresh hopes of 
 re-establishing itself by fomenting and encouraging 
 the divisions that unhappily subsisted among Pro- 
 testants. A tract, entitled The Naked Truth, or the 
 True State of the Church, was published in 1675, in 
 4to., and attributed to Dr. Herbert Croft, bishop 
 of Hereford. Eager to accomplish an union of the 
 Dissenters with the Church of England, and to 
 include them within its pale, this prelate hesitated 
 not to suggest the expediency of proposing several 
 concessions to them, with respect to the rites and 
 ceremonies then in use, and even to comply with 
 their unreasonable demand of abolishing Episco- 
 pacy. It may be easily presumed that these pro- 
 posals met with no very favourable reception : 
 they were animadverted upon with much spirit 
 and ability, in various publications. 4 In the mean 
 time, animosities prevailed without any prospect 
 of their termination. From fanaticism on one 
 side, and from superstition on the other, real 
 
 4 Three celebrated tracts on this subject were published 
 anonymously. I. Animadversions on a Pamphlet, entitled 
 ' The Naked Truth.' 1676. 4to. This was written by Dr. 
 Francis Turner, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge ; 
 and afterwards successively bishop of Rochester and Ely.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 49 
 
 danger was apprehended. Those who exerted 
 themselves in maintaining the legal rights and 
 liberties of the established Church were deno- 
 minated ' Whigs.' Most of them were persons 
 eminent for their learning, and very cordially 
 attached to the established Constitution : others, 
 who opposed the Dissenters, and were thought 
 to be more in fear of a Republic than a Popish 
 successor, were distinguished by the name of 
 ' Tories.' At this critical period, Walton ex- 
 pressed his solicitude for the real welfare of his 
 country, not with a view to embarrass himself in 
 disputation for his nature was totally abhorrent 
 of controversy but to give an ingenuous and 
 undissembled account of his own faith and prac- 
 tice, as a true son of the Church of England. 
 His modesty precluded him from annexing his 
 name to the treatise, which he composed at this 
 time ; and which appeared first, in 168O, under 
 the title of " Love and Truth, 5 in two modest 
 
 Lex Talionis, or the slut/tor of ' The Naked Truth' stripped 
 naked. 1676. 4to. This was attributed to Philip Fell, one 
 of the Fellows of Eton College. A Modest Survey of the 
 most Considerable Things, in a Discourse lately published, 
 entitled 'Naked Truth.' In a Letter to a Friend. 1676. 4to. 
 Bishop Burnet owned himself to be the author of this last 
 tract. 
 
 5 Dr. Zouch ingeniously observes, that the author, in the 
 choice of the title affixed to his tract, might possibly allude to 
 Ephes. ch. iv. 15 " Speaking the Truth in Love." ED. 
 H
 
 50 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and peaceable Letters, concerning the Distempers 
 of the present Times ; written from a quiet and 
 conformable Citizen of London, to two busie and 
 factious Shopkeepers in Coventry. ' But let none 
 of you suffer as a busie-body in other men's 
 matters,' 6 1 Pet. iv. 15." The style, the senti- 
 ment, the argumentation, are such as might be 
 expected from a plain man, actuated only by an 
 honest zeal to promote the public peace. And if 
 we consider that it was written by him in the 
 eighty-seventh year of his age, a period of life 
 when the faculties of the mind are usually on 
 the decline, it will be scarce possible not to admire 
 the clearness of his judgment, and the unimpaired 
 vigour of his memory. The real purport of this 
 work, which is not altogether unapplicable to 
 more recent times, and which breathes the genuine 
 spirit of benevolence and candour, is happily ex- 
 pressed in the author's own words to the person 
 whom he addresses in the second letter. 
 
 " This I beseech you to consider' seriously : 
 And, good cousin, let me advise you to be one 
 of the thankful and quiet party ; for it will bring 
 peace at last. Let neither your discourse nor 
 
 6 This tract is assigned to Walton on the best authority, that 
 of Archbishop Bancroft, who, in a volume marked ' Miscel- 
 lanea, 14. 2. 34,' in the library of Emanuel College, in Cam- 
 bridge, has, with his own hand, marked its title thus; 
 ' Is. Walton's 2 letters cone- ye. Distemps of y\ Times, 1680.'
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 51 
 
 practice be to encourage or assist in making a 
 schism in that church, in which you were baptized 
 and adopted a Christian ; for you may continue 
 in it with safety to your soul ; you may in it 
 study sanctification, and practise it to what de- 
 gree God, by his grace, shall enable you. You 
 may fast as much as you will ; be as humble 
 as you will ; pray both publicly and privately 
 as much as you will ; visit and comfort as 
 many distressed and dejected families as you 
 will ; be as liberal and charitable to the poor as 
 you think fit and are able. These, and all other 
 of those undoubted Christian graces, that accom- 
 pany salvation, you may practise either publicly 
 or privately, as much and as often as you think 
 fit ; and yet keep in the communion of that 
 church, of which you were made a member by 
 your baptism. These graces you may practise, 
 and not be a busie-body in promoting schism and 
 faction ; as God knows your father's friends, Hugh 
 Peters and John Lilbourn did, to the mine of 
 themselves, and many of their disciples. Their 
 turbulent lives and uncomfortable deaths are not, 
 I hope, yet worn out of the memory of many. 
 He that compares them with the holy life and 
 happy death of Mr. George Herbert, as it is plainly, 
 and, I hope, truly writ by Mr. Isaac Walton, 
 may in it find a perfect pattern for an humble and 
 devout Christian to imitate : And he that considers 
 the restless lives and uncomfortable deaths of the 
 other two (who always lived like the salamander,
 
 52 THE LIFE OF 
 
 in the fire of contention), and considers the dis- 
 mal consequences of schism and sedition, will, 
 (if prejudice and a malicious zeal have not so 
 blinded him that he cannot see reason) be so 
 convinced, as to beg of God to give him a meek 
 and quiet spirit j and that he may, by his grace, 
 be prevented from being a busie-body, in what 
 concerns him not." An edition of Love and Truth 
 Avas published in 1795. 
 
 Such admonitions as these could only proceed 
 from a heart overflowing with goodness a heart, 
 as was said concerning that of Sir Henry Wotton, 
 " in which peace, patience, and calm content did 
 inhabit." 
 
 His intercourse with learned men, and the fre- 
 quent and familiar conversations which he held 
 with them, afforded him many opportunities of 
 obtaining several valuable anecdotes relative to 
 the history of his contemporaries. The following 
 literary curiosity is preserved in the Ashmolean 
 Museum, at Oxford : 
 
 " ffor y r ffriends q re this : 
 
 " I only knew Ben Jonson : but my Lord of 
 Winton knew him very well ; 7 and says, he was 
 in the 6, that is, the uppermost fforme in West- 
 minster scole, at which time his father dyed, and 
 
 7 Dr. Morley, bishop of Winchester, in the early part of 
 his life, was "one of Ben Jonson's sons," according to the 
 mode of adoption of the times. ED.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 53 
 
 his mother married a brickelayer, who made him 
 (much against his will) help him in his trade ; 
 but in a short time, his scole-maister, Mr. Camden, 
 got him a better imployment, which was to atend 
 or accompany a son of Sir Walter Rauley's, in his 
 travills. Within a short time after their return, 
 they parted (I think not in cole bloud) and with 
 a loue sutable to what they had in their travilles 
 (not to be commended). And then Ben began to 
 set up for himselfe in the trade by which he got 
 his subsistance and fame, of which I need not give 
 any account. He got in time to have lOOl. a 
 yeare from the king, also a pension from the cittie, 
 and the like from many of the nobilitie and some 
 of the gentry, w ch was well pay'd, for love or 
 fere of his railing in verse, or prose, or boeth. 
 My lord told me, he told him he was (in his long 
 retyrement and sickness, when he saw him, which 
 was often) much afflickted, that hee had profained 
 the scripture in his playes, and lamented it with 
 horror : yet that, at that time of his long retyre- 
 ment, his pension (so much as came in) was giuen 
 to a woman that gouern'd him (with whome he 
 liu'd and dyed near the Abie in Westminster) ; 
 and that nether he nor she tooke much care for 
 next weike : and wood be sure not to want wine : 
 of wch he usually tooke too much before he went 
 to bed, if not oftener and soner. My lord tells me, 
 he knowes not, but thinks he was born in West-
 
 54 THE LIFE OF 
 
 minster. The question may be put to Mr. Wood 
 very easily upon what grounds he is positive as to 
 his being born their ; he is a friendly man, and 
 will resolve it. So much for braue Ben. You 
 will not think the rest so tedyous as I doe this. 
 
 " ffor y 2 and 3 q u e of Mr. Hill, and Billingsley, 
 I do neither know nor can learn any tiling worth 
 teling you. 
 
 " for y two remaining q ue of Mr. Warner, 8 , and 
 Mr. Harriott this : 
 
 " Mr. Warner did long and constantly lodg nere 
 the water-stares, or market, in Woolstable. Wool- 
 stable is a place not far from Charing- Crosse, and 
 nerer to Northumberland-house. My lord of 
 Winchester tells me, he knew him, and that he 
 sayde he first found out the cerculation of the 
 blood, and discouered it to Dr. Haruie (who said 
 that 'twas he (himself) that found it) for which he 
 is so memorally famose. Warner had a pension 
 of 40Z. a yeare from that Earle of Northumber- 
 land that lay so long a prisoner in the Towre, 
 and som allowance from Sir Tho. Aylesbury, and 
 with whom he usually spent his sumer in Windsor 
 Park, and was welcom, for he was harmless and 
 
 8 Of this great mathematician, see Wood's Athtnce Oxon. 
 by Bliss, 1815, 4to. vol. ii. p. 301-2.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 55 
 
 quiet. His winter was spent at the Woolstable, 
 where he dyed in the time of the parlement of 
 1640, of which or whome, he was no louer. 
 
 " Mr. Herriott 9 , my lord tells me, he knew also : 
 That he was a more gentile man than Warner. 
 That he had 13,01. a yeare pension from the said 
 Earle (who was a louer of their studyes), and his 
 lodgings in Syon-house, where he thinks, or be- 
 lieves, he dyed. 
 
 " This is all I know or can learne for your 
 friend ; which I wish may be worth the time and 
 trouble of reading it. 
 
 I.W." 
 
 Nou r . 22, 80. 
 
 " I forgot to tell, that I heard the sermon 
 preacht for the Lady Danvers, and have it : but 
 thanke your ffriend '" 
 
 9 Of Thomas Hariot, or Harriott, see Wood's 
 Oxon. by Bliss, 1815, 4to. vol. ii. p. 303- The opinions which 
 have been entertained concerning the infidel principles of 
 Hariot, are sufficiently confuted by the inscription on his 
 monument, erected by his executors, Sir Thomas Aylesbury, 
 and Robert Sidney, Viscount Lisle, in which he is expressly 
 called, " Veritatis Indagator studiosissimus, Dei triniunius 
 Cultor piissimus. 
 
 1 Allusive to the sermon preached by Dr. Donne in the 
 parish chnrch of Chelsea, at the funeral of Lady Danvers, the 
 mother of Mr. George Herbert. See Walton's Life of Her- 
 bert, p. 31. Annexed to this extract, in Aubrey's MSS. in
 
 56 THE LIFE OF 
 
 A life of temperance, sobriety, and cheerfulness, 
 is seldom unrewarded with length of days, with 
 an healthful, honourable, and happy old age. Isaac 
 Walton retained to the last a constitution unbroken 
 by disease, with the full possession of his mental 
 powers. In a letter to Cotton, dated London, 
 April 29, 1676 he writes ; 'Though I be more 
 than a hundred miles from you, and in the eighty- 
 third year of my age ; yet I will forget both, and 
 next month begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon.' 
 He had written the Life of Sanderson, when he 
 was in his eighty-fifth year 5 and we find him 
 active with his pen, after this period, at a time 
 when ' silvered o'er with age,' he had a just claim 
 to a writ of ease On the ninetieth anniversary 
 of his birth-day, he declares himself in his will 
 to be of perfect memory ; and in 1683, the very 
 year in which he died, he prefixed a Preface to 
 a work edited by him : " Thealma and Clearchus, 
 a Pastoral History, in smooth and easy verse ; 
 written long since by John Chalkhill, 2 Esq. an 
 
 the Ashmolean Museum, are these words : " This account I 
 received from Mr. Isaac Walton (who wrote Dr. Donne's 
 Life, &c.) Decemh. 2, 1680, ho being then eighty-seven years 
 of age. This is his own hand-writing. J. A." 
 
 2 Chalkhill a name unappropriated, a verbal phantom, 
 a shadow of a shade. Walton, indeed, says ' he was in his 
 time a man generally known, and as well beloved a gentle- 
 man and a scholar;' but he neither tells us where he lived,
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 57 
 
 acquaintant and friend of Edmund Spenser. ' ' Flat- 
 man, who is known both as a poet and a painter, 
 
 nor when he died; he gives this " airy nothing" no "local 
 habitation." Had he been any other than a fictitious per- 
 sonage, Walton would not have dismissed him with so brief 
 a notice. From Flatman's verses, it might be inferred that 
 Walton had some inheritance in the fame of Thealma, If 
 allusive to his acknowledged commendatory preface to the 
 work, they are little better than absurd ; but if written in the 
 belief that Walton was the real but concealed author, if not 
 very apposite, (hey are at least intelligible that he was so : 
 and, indeed, the non-existence of the author of Thealma, dis- 
 tinct from Walton ; the mysterious silence of his editor, and 
 the modesty of his praise ; the exact similarity of their tastes, 
 feelings, and sentiments; their mutual extravagant passion 
 for angling, altogether in the absence of even a shadow of 
 proof to the contrary sufficiently demonstrate that Chalk- 
 hill is no olher than our old piscatory friend incognito. 
 
 The internal evidence in the poem itself is strongly corro- 
 borative of the opinion as to the unity of Chalkhill and 
 Walton. That simplicity and friendliness of manner which 
 characterized the latter, are everywhere perceptible in the 
 alleged production of the former. The pastoral taste, the 
 keen enjoyment of rural sights, and sounds, the tolerant piety 
 of the author of the Complete Angler, pervade equally 
 Thealma and Clearchus. It has no turbulent energy of 
 thought or action no strongly marked characters ; nor does 
 it display any particular insight into the darker passions of 
 the soul ; and that it is just such a poem as Walton might be 
 expected to write, we need only to refer to his Complete 
 Angler, a work instinct with the pure spirit of unconscious 
 poetry, and which ' scents all the year long of June, like a 
 I
 
 58 THE LIFE OF 
 
 hath in such true colours delineated the character 
 of his much-esteemed friend, that it would be 
 injurious not to transcribe the following lines : 
 
 " To my worthy friend Mr. Isaac Walton, on the 
 
 publication of this Poem. 
 Long had the bright Thealma lay obscure ; 
 Her beauteous charms, that might the world allure, 
 
 new made haycock ;' a work which has delighted thousands 
 who never handled a fishing-rod, imparting dignity and interest 
 to the minutest details of a pursuit singularly barren of ex- 
 citement, and clothing it with ' an ineffable charm which 
 cannot be effaced." 
 
 Identifying, therefore, this work as Walton's, it may be 
 observed that his good sense and natural taste preserved his 
 writings free from the trammels of the metaphysical school, 
 of which his admired friends, Donne and Herbert, were such 
 zealous disciples; and his spirit was too pure to imbibe a 
 taint of that grossness and depravity which, about that period, 
 infected the national literature. In this ' pastoral historic' 
 the genius of Walton never soars into the region of clouds and 
 storms, but broods over the quiet vale, and luxuriates in the 
 calm sun-shine: it triumphs in the display of meek and 
 widowed love j of grief, gentle and resigned not embittered 
 by remorse, or darkened by horror ; of the warm feelings of 
 noble and ingenuous youth, or the benevolent wisdom of vir- 
 tuous old age ; of images of domestic or rural felicity ; of 
 pastoral manners of more than Arcadian purity, and of scenery 
 of Sylvan but of unobtrusive beauty. If the current of his 
 poetry is not deep or majestic, it is always pure, and calm, 
 and sparkling. It does not rush along with the daring im-
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 59 
 
 Lay, like rough diamonds in the mine, unknown, 
 
 By all the sons of folly trampled on, 
 
 Till your kind hand unveil'd her lovely face, 
 
 And gave her vigour to exert her rays. 
 
 Happy old man! whose worth all mankind knows, 
 
 Except himself; who charitably shows, 
 
 The ready road to virtue and to praise, 
 
 The road to many long and happy days ; 
 
 The noble arts of generous piety, 
 
 And how to compass true felicity ; 
 
 Hence did he learn the art of living well ; 
 
 The bright Thealma was his oracle : 
 
 Inspir'd by her he knows no anxious cares, 
 
 Through near a century of pleasant years 
 
 Easy he lives, and cheerful shall he die ; 
 
 Well spoken of by late posterity, 
 
 As long as Spenser's noble flame shall burn, 
 
 And deep devotions throng about his urn ; 
 
 petuosity of a mountain torrent, chafing with opposing rocks, 
 or dashing from precipituous cliffs ; or, with collected strength, 
 bearing down its banks, and sweeping over the subdued plains 
 in terrific sublimity: it rather resembles the meandering stream 
 that glides with silvery brightness through sheltered vales and 
 sunny glades, winding and lingering amidst scenes of seques- 
 tered loveliness, or with gentle ripples expanding its placid 
 waters in dimpling beauty to the sun, embodying and reflect- 
 ing every evanescent hue of heaven, and bidding nature look 
 as fresh and fair as 
 
 " if the world and love were young, 
 
 And truth on every shepherd's tongue."
 
 60 THE LIFE OF 
 
 As long as Chalkhill's venerable name 
 
 With noble emulation shall inflame 
 
 Ages to come, and swell the rolls of fame. 
 
 Your memory shall for ever be secure, 
 
 And long beyond our short-liv'd praise endure; 
 
 As Phidias in Minerva's shield did live, 
 
 And shard that immortality he alone could give." 
 
 The classic reader, when he recollects the story 
 of Phidias, will easily acknowledge the propriety 
 of the encomium passed on Walton, who secured 
 immortal fame to himself, while he conferred it 
 upon others. That divine artist, having finished 
 his famous statue of Minerva, with the most con- 
 summate exquisiteness of skill, afterward impressed 
 his own image so deeply on her buckler, that it 
 could not be effaced without destroying the whole 
 work. 
 
 The beauties of Thealma and Clear chus and the 
 character of the author, are not unaptly described 
 in the editor's own language. He intimates in 
 the Preface, that " the reader will find what the 
 title declares, a Pastoral History, in smooth and 
 easy verse ; and will find in it many hopes and 
 fears finely painted and feelingly expressed. 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 re- 
 lieved by an unforeseen Providence, as may beget 
 in him wonder and amazement." He adds, that
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 61 
 
 " the reader will here also meet with passions 
 heightened by easy 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-natured reader) more sympathizing and 
 virtuous impressions than ten times so much 
 time spent in impertinent, critical, and needless 
 disputes about religion." Chalkhill died before he 
 had perfected even the fable of his poem ; and 
 Walton assures us ' was a man generally known 
 in his time, and as well beloved ; for he was 
 humble and obliging in his behaviour, a gentle- 
 man, a scholar, very innocent and prudent ; and 
 indeed his whole life was useful, quiet, and vir- 
 tuous. 3 ' So amiable were the manners, and so 
 truly excellent the character of all those, whom 
 Isaac Walton honoured with his regard. 
 
 3 The indefatigable Ritson has inserted Chalkhill's name in 
 the list of poets of the. sixteenth century, but with no further 
 authority than Walton's assertion in the pages of his Complete 
 Angler. (See Bibliographia Postica, 1802, 8vo. p. 155.) 
 Walton died in 1 683, the same year that Thealma and Clearchus 
 eras given to the public ; but it is more than probable that had 
 he lived a short while longer, the success of the work, and the 
 applauses of his friends might have induced him to lay aside 
 his disguise: another lasting sprig would then have been 
 added to the verdant wreath which already encircles his 
 venerable brow, and John Chalkhill might have been ex- 
 punged for ever from the list of English poets.
 
 62 THE LIFE OF 
 
 When Leoniceni, one of the most profound 
 scholars in Italy, in the fifteenth century, was 
 asked by what art he had, through a period of 
 ninety years, preserved a sound memory, perfect 
 senses, an upright body, and a vigorous health, 
 he answered, " by innocence, serenity of mind, 
 and temperance." Walton, having uniformly en- 
 joyed that happy tranquillity, which is the natural 
 concomitant of virtue, came to the grave in a full 
 age, " like as a shock of corn cometh in his 
 season." 
 
 <; So would I live, such gradual death to find, 
 Like timely fruit, not shaken by the wind, 
 But ripely dropping from the sapless bough ; 
 And dying, nothing to myself would owe. 
 Thus, daily changing, with a duller taste 
 Of less'ning joys, I by degrees would waste; 
 Still quitting ground by unperceiv'd decay, 
 And steal myself from life, and melt away." 
 
 DRYDEN. 
 
 He died during the time of the great frost, on 
 the 15th day of December, 1683, at Winchester, 
 in the Prebendal house of Dr. William Hawkins, 
 his son-in-law, whom he loved as his own son. 
 It was his express desire that his burial might be 
 near the place of his death, privately, and free 
 from any ostentation, or charge, and he was in- 
 terred in Prior Silksteed's chapel, within the 
 Cathedral. The annexed engraving points out the
 
 PRIOK SliKSTBKJJ'S
 
 64 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of the right reverend, learned, and pious Thomas 
 Ken, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells," 
 in 4 vols. 8vo. These works include only Bishop 
 Ken's poetical compositions, which do not merit 
 any great encomium, though they are written in a 
 strain of real piety and devotion. This William 
 Hawkins had a son and three daughters, the 
 eldest of whom, Mrs. Hawes, relict of the Rev. 
 Hawes, Rector of Bemerton, is the only sur- 
 viving person of that generation. 4 
 
 I have omitted to enumerate among the friends 
 of our biographer, Dr. George Morley, bishop 
 
 4 The following sepulchral inscriptions are in the Cathedral 
 Church of Winchester ; 
 
 H. S. E. 
 GULIELMUS HAWKINS 
 
 S. T. P. 
 
 HUJUS ECCLESI^E PREBENDARIUS, 
 
 QUI OBIIT JUL. 17. 
 
 ANNO DOMINI 1691. 
 
 jETATIS SU^E 58. 
 
 H. S. E. 
 
 ANNA ETIAM IZAAC WALTON FILIA 
 QVJE OBIIT SUPER-MEMORATI GULIELMI VIDUA 
 
 AUG. 18, 1715. 
 jETATIS SU,E 67.
 
 H S E 
 
 GUI.IELMUS HAWKINS 
 S T P 
 
 Hujus ECCIESLS: PRA.BENDARIU! 
 
 2ui OBIJT IUL 17 
 ANNO DOMINI 1691 
 
 ^E TAT IS Stl-ffi 55 
 
 H S E 
 
 Auc: 13 A.D:I7I5 
 
 JS.TATIS SlJft 67. 
 
 M&tO'Vfsl'' 7107*1- a-'iSa
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 65 
 
 of Winchester, 6 and Dr. Seth Ward, bishop of 
 Salisbury 6 . To be esteemed, and to be caressed 
 by men of such comprehensive learning and ex- 
 
 5 Edward Powell, in some commendatory verses prefixed 
 to the Complete Angler, has commemorated the friendship 
 which subsisted between bishop Morley and Walton : 
 
 " He that conversed with angels such as were 
 Oldstcorth and Featly, each a shining star 
 Shewing the way to Bethlehem ; each a saint, 
 Compar'd to whom our zealots do but paint: 
 He that our pious and learn'd Morley knew, 
 And from him suck'd wit and devotion too." 
 A distinguished trait in the character of this prelate, who 
 was first known to the world as the friend of Lord Falkland, 
 and to whom Waller owns himself indebted for his taste of the 
 ancient classics, may be discovered from the following : 
 ' Being consulted by the Mayor of a country Corporation, 
 what method he should take effectually to root out the fanatics 
 in the year of his mayoralty the bishop, now growing old, 
 first preached friendliness to him, by ordering him a glass of 
 Canary, as oft as he started the question in company ; and 
 next admonished him, when alone, to let those people live 
 quietly, in many of whom, he was satisfied, there was the true 
 fear of God, and who were not likely to be gained by rigour 
 and severity.' Rennet's Register, p. SI 6. 
 
 6 After the Restoration, many Divines, who had been edu- 
 cated among the Puritans, and had gone into the notions and 
 scheme of Presbytery, upon mature thoughts, judged it lawful, 
 and even eligible to conform for the honour and interest of 
 the Christian religion, and for the peace and happiness of this 
 church and nation. Among these was Dr. Seth Ward, cele- 
 
 K
 
 66 THE LIFE OF 
 
 traordinary abilities, is honourable indeed. They 
 were his choicest and most confidential compa- 
 nions, and after the Restoration, he and his 
 daughter had apartments constantly reserved for 
 them in the houses of these two Prelates. Here 
 he spent his time in that mutual reciprocation of 
 benevolent offices which constitutes the blessed- 
 ness of virtuous friendship. He experienced many 
 marks of favour from the bishop of Winchester, 
 of whose kindness to him he has signified his 
 remembrance in the ring bequeathed at his death, 
 with this expressive motto ' A MITE FOR A MILLION.' 
 It was doubtless through his recommendation, 
 that Ken obtained the patronage of bishop Morley ; 
 who, having appointed him his chaplain, pre- 
 
 brated for his mathematical studies, who, having been ap- 
 pointed President of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1659, was 
 ejected in 1660; but in the same year, was admitted Pre- 
 centor of Exeter, succeeded as Dean in 1661, and Bishop in 
 1662. He was translated to the see of Salisbury in 1667, and. 
 upon his death, in 1688, Dr., afler wards Bishop Burnet, who 
 has given a character of him in his Uistory of his oicn Times, 
 was inducted in his stead. A few years before his death, he 
 suffered a fatal decay, not only in his body, but in his intel- 
 lectual faculties. For, to the mortification of all human 
 sufficiency and wisdom, this great master of reason so entirely 
 lost the use of his understanding, as to become an object of 
 compassion, and uneasiness to himself, and a burden to his 
 friends and attendants. See Dr. Walter Pope's Life of Kef ft 
 Ward, bishop of Salisbury. 1697, Svo. p. 183.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 67 
 
 sented him to the rectory of Woodhay, in Hamp- 
 shire 5 and then preferred him to the dignity of 
 a Prebendary in the Cathedral Church of Winton. 
 The son of so excellent a father had no cause 
 to complain that his merit was unnoticed, or un- 
 rewarded. Isaac Walton, junior, was educated at 
 Christ Church, in Oxford. Whilst he was bachelor 
 of Arts, he attended his uncle, Mr. Ken, 7 in 1674, 
 to Rome, where he was present at the jubilee 
 appointed by Pope Clement X. in 1675. On this 
 occasion Ken was wont to say, that " he had 
 great reason to give God thanks for his travels ; 
 since, if it were possible, he returned rather more 
 confirmed of the purity of the Protestant re- 
 ligion than he was before." During his residence 
 in Italy, that country, which is justly called the 
 great School of Music and Painting, the rich 
 Repository of the noblest productions of Statuary 
 and Architecture, both ancient and modern, young 
 Walton indulged and improved his taste for the 
 fine arts. 8 On his return to England, he retired 
 to the University of Oxford, to prosecute his 
 studies. Having afterward accepted an invitation 
 from bishop Ward, to become his domestic chap- 
 
 7 Ken was not admitted to the degree of D.D. till 1679. 
 
 8 ' VIATOR. But what have we got here ? A rock 
 springing up in the middle of the river. This is one of the 
 oddest sights that ever I saw. 
 
 " Pise. -Why, Sir, from that pike that you see standing
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 lain,, he was preferred to the rectory of Polshot, 
 near Devizes, in Wiltshire, and elected a Canon 
 of Salisbury. He afforded much assistance to 
 Dr. John Walker, when engaged in his History 
 of the Sufferings of the Clergy ; communicating to 
 him a variety of materials for that excellent work. 
 He possessed all the amiable qualities that adorned 
 the character of his father, a calm philanthropy, 
 a genuine piety, an unaffected humility. It was at 
 the house of his nephew, that Dr. Ken was upon 
 a visit when a stack of chimnies fell into his bed- 
 chamber, Nov. 27, 1703, without doing him any 
 harm ; whilst Dr.Kidder, his immediate successor 
 in the See of Bath and Wells, was unfortunately 
 killed with his Lady by a similar accident, during 
 the same storm, in his palace at Wells. Walton, 
 junior, died in 1716, and his remains lie interred 
 at the feet of his friend and patron, bishop Ward, 
 
 up there distant from the rock, this is called Pike Pool ; and 
 young Mr. Isaac Walton was so pleased with it, as to draw it 
 in landscape, in black and white, in a black book I have at 
 home, as he has done several prospects of my house also, 
 which I keep for a memorial of his favour, and will show you 
 when we come up to dinner. 
 
 " VIAT. Has young Mr. Isaac Walton been here too? 
 
 " Pise. Yes marry has he, Sir, and that again, and again 
 too ; and in France since, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I 
 can't tell where; but I intend to ask him a great many hard 
 questions, so soon as I can see him, which will be, God 
 willing, next month.'' Complete Angler, 1676. p. 50.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 69 
 
 in the Cathedral of Salisbury, in which, on a plain 
 flat stone is this inscription : 
 
 H. S. E. 
 
 ISAACUS WALTON, HUJUS F.CCLESI/E 
 
 CANONICUS RESIDKXTIARIUS, 
 
 PIETATIS NON FUC \T,E, 
 
 DOCTRINE SAN^E, 
 MUNIFlCENTIjE, BENKVOLENTI./E 
 
 EXEMPLAR DKSIDERANDUM. 
 PASTORIS BONI ET FIDF.LIS FUNCTUS OFFICIO 
 
 PER ANNOS 
 
 38 IX PAROCHIA I)F, POLSHOT WILTS. 
 
 ORFIT VICESIMO NONO DECEMBRIS, 
 
 ANNO DOMINI 1716. 
 
 .ffiTATIS 69. 
 
 It would be highly improper to ascribe to the 
 elder Walton that extent of knowledge which 
 characterizes the scholar : yet those who are con- 
 versant in his writings, will probably entertain no 
 doubt of his acquaintance with books. 1 ' His fre- 
 
 9 Walton, in his Complete dngler, frequently cites authors 
 that have written only in Latin, as Gesner, Aldrovandus, Ron- 
 deletius, and others. The voluminous History of Animals, 
 composed by Gesner, was translated into l-.nglish hy the Rev. 
 Edward Topsel, and published in 1658, in folio. As it con- 
 tained numberless particulars, extracted from the works of 
 various writers, concerning frogs, serpents, and caterpillars, it 
 furnished our author with much intelligence. Pliny's Natural 
 History was translated by Dr. Philemon Holland. Therr
 
 7O THE LIFE OF 
 
 quent references to ancient and modern history, 
 his seasonable applications of several passages in 
 the most approved writers, his allusions to various 
 branches of general science, these and other cir- 
 cumstances concur in confirming the assertion, 
 that though he did not partake of the benefits of 
 early erudition, yet in maturer age, he enlarged 
 his intellectual acquisitions, so as to render them 
 fully proportionate to his opportunities and 
 abilities. The fruits of his truly commendable 
 industry he has generously consecrated to pos- 
 terity, and though deprived of the advantage 
 of a learned education, he hath with great 
 fidelity preserved the memory of those, who 
 were " by their knowledge of learning meet for 
 the people, wise and eloquent in their instructions, 
 honoured in their generations, and the glory 
 of their times 5" each of whom, in his edify- 
 ing pages, " being dead, yet speaketh." He 
 may be literally said " to have laboured not for 
 himself only, but for all those that seek wisdom." 
 How interesting and affecting are many of his 
 narratives and descriptions ! The vision of ghastly 
 
 were also versions of the tract of Janus Dubravius de Piscinis 
 et Piscium Naturd, and of Licbault's Maison Rustique, so 
 often referred to by him in the course of his work. In the 
 Life of Bishop Sanderson, Walton has quoted Thucydides ; 
 but it must be remembered, that Hobbes printed his translation 
 of that writer's History oft/if. Grecian War, in 1628, in folio.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 71 
 
 horror that presented itself to Dr. Donne, at the 
 time of his short residence in Paris the pleasant 
 messages which Sir Henry Wotton, and the good- 
 natured priest, exchanged with each other in a 
 church at Rome, during the time of vespers 
 the domestic incidents which excited the tender 
 commisseration of Edwin Sandys and George 
 Cranmer, while they visited their venerable tutor 
 at his country parsonage of Drayton Beauchamp 
 the affectionate and patient condescension of " the 
 divine George Herbert," compassionating the dis- 
 tresses of the poor woman of Bemerton the 
 interview of Dr. Sanderson and Walton, acciden- 
 dentally meeting each other in the streets of Lon- 
 don these and numberless other similar passages 
 will always be read with reiterated pleasure. 
 
 We shall indeed be disappointed, if we expect 
 to find in Walton's biographical labours, the bril- 
 liancy of wit, the elaborate correctness of style, 
 or the ascititious graces and ornaments of fine 
 composition. But that pleasing simplicity of sen- 
 timent, that plain and unaffected language, and, 
 I may add, that natural eloquence 1 , which per- 
 
 1 This quality is, I trust, not improperly applied to Wal- 
 ton's writings. " True eloquence," says Milton, '* I find to 
 be none but the serious and hearty love of truth: and that, 
 whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to 
 know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the 
 knowledge of them into others ; when such a man would
 
 72 THE LIFE OF 
 
 vades the whole, richly compensates the want of 
 elegance, and rhetorical embellishment-. Truth 
 is never displayed to us in more grateful colours 
 than when she appears, not in a garish attire, but 
 in her own native garb, without artifice, without 
 pomp. In that garb Isaac Walton has arrayed 
 her. Deeply impressed with the excellence of 
 those exemplary characters which he endeavours 
 to portray, he speaks no other language than that 
 of the heart, and thus imparts to the reader his 
 own undisguised sentiments, so friendly to piety 
 and virtue. Assuredly, no pleasure can be placed 
 in' competition with that which results from the 
 view of men sedulously adjusting their actions 
 with integrity and honour. To accompany them, 
 as it were, along the path of life, to join in their 
 conversation, to observe their demeanour in vari- 
 ous situations, to contemplate their acts of charity 
 
 speak, his words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip 
 about him at command, and in well-ordered files, as he would 
 wish, fall aptly into their own places." 
 
 2 I indulge myself in quoting only one passage. Having 
 described the poignancy of Dr. Donne's grief on the death of 
 his wife, the author pathetically concludes. " Thus he began 
 the day, and ended the night; ended the restless night, and 
 began the weary day in lamentations." The repetition is 
 exquisitely beautiful. It reminds me of Orpheus lamenting 
 over Eurydice, in Virgil's Georgics : 
 
 ' Te veniente Die, te decedente canebat.' 
 
 Zol'CH.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 73 
 
 and beneficence, to attend them into their closets, 
 to behold their ardour of piety and devotion ; in 
 short, to establish, as it were, a friendship and 
 familiarity with them: this, doubtless, must be 
 pronounced an happy anticipation of that holy 
 intercourse, which will, I trust, subsist between 
 beatified spirits in another and a better state. 
 
 Those parts of his Lives are more peculiarly 
 adapted to afford satisfaction, improvement, and 
 consolation, in which is related the behaviour of 
 these good men at the hour of death. Here we 
 find ourselves personally and intimately interested. 
 " A battle or a triumph," says Addison, " are 
 conjunctures, in which not one man in a million 
 is likely to be engaged ; but when we see a person 
 at the point of death, we cannot forbear being 
 attentive to every thing he says or does ) because 
 we are sure, that some time or other, we shall 
 ourselves be in the same melancholy circum- 
 stances. The general, the statesman, or the phi- 
 losopher, are perhaps characters which we may 
 never act in ; but the dying man is one whom, 
 sooner or later, we shall certainly resemble." 
 Thus while these instructive pages teach us how 
 to live, they impart a lesson equally useful and 
 momentous how to die 3 . When I contrast the 
 
 3 Dr Thomas Townson, the late archdeacon of Richmond, 
 read Walton's Lives during his last illne?s, with a view, no 
 doubt, to trim his lamp, and prepare for his Lord, by com- 
 
 li
 
 74 THE LIFE OF 
 
 death-bed scenes, which our author has described, 
 with that which is exhibited to us in the last 
 illness of a modern philosopher 4 who at that 
 awful period had no source of consolation but 
 what he derived from reading Lucian and other 
 books of amusement, discoursing chiefly with his 
 friends on the trifling topics of common conver- 
 sation, playing at his favourite game of whist, 
 and indulging his pleasantry on the fabulous his- 
 tory of Charon and his boat without one single 
 act of devotion, without any expression of peni- 
 tential sorrow, of hope or of confidence in the 
 goodness of God, or in the merits of a Redeemer ; 
 when this contrast, I say, is presented to my view, 
 it is impossible not to adopt the language of the 
 prophet, " Let me die the death of the righteous, 
 and let my last end be like his." 
 
 It is said of Socrates, that all who knew him, 
 loved him : And that if any did not love him, it 
 was because they did not know him. May we 
 not also affirm the same of that worthy person, 
 who is the subject of this memoir? Such was 
 
 paring his conduct with the examples of those meek and 
 holy men, described by the pleasing and faithful biographer. 
 He also read, and, assuredly, with similar intentions, Her- 
 bert's Country Parson. Of this pious and learned man, 
 the ornament of the eighteenth century, see Cburton's Me- 
 moirs of Dr. Totcnson. 1810, 8vo. 2 vols. 
 
 4 Life of David Hume, Esq., p. 13, 46.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 75 
 
 the urbanity of his temper, and so affectionate 
 was the regard which his friends professed for 
 him, that, in their epistolary correspondence, 
 though they were far superior to him in rank and 
 condition of life, they usually addressed him in 
 the language of tenderness and soothing endear- 
 ment, styling him, ' Good Mr. Walton' ' Honest 
 Isaac' " Worthy Friend Dear Brother Most 
 Ingenious Friend." No one better deserved these 
 kind appellations, and be it always recorded to 
 his honour, that he ' never retracted any promise, 
 when made in favour even of his meanest friend.' 
 Neal, in his History of the Puritans, introduces an 
 erroneous quotation from Walton's Life of Hooker, 
 and Bishop Warburton, in his notes on that history 5 
 commenting upon his quotation, speaks of " the 
 quaint trash of a fantastical life-writer." Is it 
 possible to suppose that an epithet, more adapted 
 to the asperity of fastidious censure, than to the 
 cool and deliberate judgment of candid and equi- 
 table criticism, should be justly applied to a man 
 of real merit, who strenuously exerted himself in 
 promoting the cause of religion, as well by his 
 writings as by his exemplary conduct ? 
 
 The corporation of Stafford have publicly pro- 
 nounced him their worthy and generous benefactor, 
 and of his singular munificence in his life time, 
 to the poor inhabitants of his native town, we find 
 
 s Works, vol. vii. p. 895.
 
 76 THE LIFE OF 
 
 several instances recorded 6 j and further, at his 
 death, he consigned some bequests of considerable 
 value to be appropriated to their use. 
 
 In an ancient inscription yet extant, it is said 
 of a Roman Citizen, that he knew not how to 
 speak injuriously Nescivit Maledicere. We may 
 observe of Isaac Walton, that he was ignorant 
 how to write of any man with acrimony and 
 
 fi It appears from a table fixed in the church of St. Mary's, 
 in the borough of Stafford, that Walton gave, in his life- 
 time, a garden of eight shillings a year, to buy coals for the 
 poor yearly about Christmas ; and that he also gave twenty- 
 two pounds, to build a stone-wall around St. Chad's church- 
 yard in the said borough; and did also set forth nine boys 
 apprentices, bestowing five pounds on each. 
 
 By his will, he bequeathed one messuage or tenement, at 
 Shalford )n the county of Stafford, with all tlie land thrreto 
 belonging, of the clear yearly value of twenty pounds ten 
 shillings and sixpence; of which, ten pound i are appropri- 
 ated every year, to the putting out two boys, sons of honest 
 and poor parents, to be apprentices to tradesmen, or handi- 
 craftsmen ; and five pounds to some maid-servant, that hath 
 attained the age of twenty-one years (not less), and dwelt 
 long in one service ; or to some honest poor man's daughter, 
 that hatli attained to that age, to be paid her at, or on the 
 day of her marriage. What money or rent shall remain un- 
 disposed of, he directs to be employed in the purchase of 
 coals, for some people, that shall need them : the said coals 
 to be distributed in the last week of January, or every first 
 week in February; because he considered that time to be the 
 hardest, and most pinching time.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 77 
 
 harshness. This liberality of disposition will ever 
 recommend him to his readers. Whatever are 
 the religious sentiments of the persons whom he 
 introduces to our notice, how widely soever they 
 differ from his own ; we discover not, in his re- 
 marks, the petulance of indiscriminate reproach, 
 or the malignancy of rude invective, but the mild 
 spirit of moderation breathing in almost every 
 page. I can only lament one instance of severity, 
 for which, however, several pleas of extenuation 
 might readily be admitted. 
 
 He is known to have acquired a fondness for 
 the fine arts. Of paintings and prints he had 
 formed a small, but valuable collection 7 ; and we 
 presume, that he had an attachment to, and a 
 knowledge of, music. His affection for sacred 
 music may be inferred from that animated, I had 
 almost said, that enraptured language which he 
 adopts, whenever the subject occurs to him 8 , and 
 
 7 In his last will, he leaves to his son '' all his books, not 
 yet given, at Farnhain Castell, and a dcske of prints and 
 pictures; also a cabinet, in which are some little thiugs> 
 that he will value, though of no great worth." 
 
 8 '< He that at midnight, uhen the very labourer sleeps se- 
 curely, should hear, as I have often done, the sweet descants, 
 the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling 
 of the nightingale's voice, might well be lifted above earth, 
 and say, Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints 
 in heaven, when (hou altbrdest bad men such music upon 
 earth ?" Complete Angler. 1676, Part 1. p, II.
 
 78 THE LIFE OF 
 
 it should be recollected, that Ken, his brother- 
 in-law, whose morning, evening, and midnight 
 hymns, endear his memory to the devout Chris- 
 tian, began the duties of each day with sacred 
 melody ; and that between men perfectly congenial 
 in their sentiments and habits of virtue, a simi- 
 larity of disposition in this instance should pre- 
 vail, is far from being an unreasonable suggestion. 
 That he had an inclination to poetry, we may con - 
 elude from his early intimacy with Michael Drayton, 
 " the golden-mouthed poet ;" a man of an amiable 
 disposition, of mild and modest manners, whose 
 poems are much less read than they deserve to be. 
 On the first publication of a work previous to the 
 last century, it was usual for the friends of the 
 author to prefix to it recommendatory verses. 
 Walton, whose circle of friends was very exten- 
 sive indeed, often contributed his share of enco- 
 mium on these occasions. 9 To his productions of 
 
 !l Prefixed to Alexander Drome's Songs and other Poems, 
 1661, 8vo., are some complimentary verses, inscribed by 
 Walton to his ' Ingenious Friend, 0:1 his various and excellent 
 Poems; an humble Eclogue.' The announcement informs 
 us they were 'written the 29tli of May, 16(50,' and his at- 
 tachment and loyalty to his Sovereign are here eminently 
 conspicuous : 
 
 Daman. 
 
 H.iil, happy day ! Doius sit down : 
 Now let no sigh, nor let a frown, 
 Lodgo near thy heart, or on thy brow.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 79 
 
 this kind no ether commendations can be allowed, 
 than that they were sincere memorials of his 
 grateful and tender regard. It must, however, 
 be added, that he never debased his talents by 
 oft'ering the incense of adulation, at the shrine of 
 infamy and guilt, and the persons, whom he fa- 
 voured with these marks of his attention, we are 
 assured were not undeserving of praise. Such, for 
 
 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. 
 
 Dor us. 
 
 Tis true, aud I would sing ; but oh ! 
 These wars have shrunk my heart so low, 
 'Twill not be rais'd. 
 
 Daman. 
 
 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 ruin 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. 
 
 After commendiBg the productions of his friend, he con. 
 
 eludes 
 
 We'll dance, shake hands, and sing, 
 
 We have our lawes, 
 
 God bless the King. 
 
 17. WALTON.
 
 SO THE LIFE OF 
 
 instance, was William Cartwright, who, though 
 he died in the thirtieth year of his age, was the 
 boast and the ornament of the University of Oxford, 
 as a divine, a philosopher, and a poet'. Dr. Fell, 
 Bishop of Oxford, declared him to be, " the ut- 
 most man can come to j"and Ben Jonson was wont 
 to say of him, " My son Cartwright writes all like 
 a man." Here an opportunity presents itself of an 
 attempt to ascertain the author of The Synagogue, 
 or the Shadow of the Temple, a collection of sacred 
 poems usually annexed to Herbert's Temple. Walton 
 has addressed some encomiastic lines to him, as 
 his friend ; and in the Complete Angler, having 
 inserted from that collection, a little poem, on 
 the book of Common Prayer, he expressly as- 
 signs it, and of course the whole work, to 
 ' Ch. Harvie 2 ' a reverend and learned divine that 
 
 1 See " Comedies, Tragi-comedies, with other Poems, by 
 William Cartwright, late Student of Christ Church in Oxford, 
 and Proctor of the University, 1651." 8vo. 
 
 2 Sir John Hawkins conjectures this Christopher Harvey 
 to be the same Christopher Harvey described by Wood, as 
 " a minister's son, of Cheshire, being born in that county in 
 or about 1597; became batler of Brazen-nose College, in 
 1613 ; took the degrees in arts, that of Master being completed 
 in 1620; holy orders, and at length was Vicar of Clifton, in 
 Warwickshire. The lines cited by Walton are certainly drawn 
 from the Synagogue. That a Christopher Harvie was the 
 author of this poem, there can be no doubt, particularly as 
 Walton contributed some commendatory verses to it, which
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 81 
 
 professes to imitate Mr. George Herbert, and has 
 indeed done so most excellently ; and of whom he 
 continues most pleasantly to add ' you will like 
 him the better because he is a friend of mine, and 
 I am sure no enemy to angling.' Faithfully at- 
 tached to the Church of England, he entertained 
 the highest veneration for her discipline and doc- 
 trines. He had not been an inattentive spectator 
 of the rapid progress of the sectaries, hastening 
 from one degree of injustice to another, until an 
 universal anarchy consummated the ruin of our 
 ecclesiastical constitution. In his last Will he has 
 announced an ingenuous and decided avowal of 
 his religious principles, with a design, as it has 
 been conjectured, to prevent any suspicions that 
 might arise of his inclination to Popery, from his 
 very long and very true friendship with some of 
 the Roman Communion. 3 But a full and explicit 
 
 were repaid by some others, prefixed to the Complete Angler, 
 subscribed ' Chr. Harvie ;' but whether this was Christopher 
 Harvey, the vicar of Clifton, or some other, remains to be 
 decided. If it was, it is at least singular that Wood, who 
 was so inquisitive in those matters, should have been ignorant 
 of the circumstance, considering the continued correspondence 
 which subsisted between him and Walton. F,i>. 
 
 3 A steady friendship subsisted between Walton and James 
 
 Shirley, the dramatist, who, having been ordained a Clergyman 
 
 of the established Church, renounced his religion for that of 
 
 the Church of Rome. He is described 1 by 1'dward Philips, 
 
 M
 
 82 THE LIFE OF 
 
 declaration of his Christian faith, and the motives 
 which enforced his serious and regular attendance 
 upon the service of that Church in which he was 
 educated, are delivered, with great propriety and 
 good sense, in his own words. For thus he writes 
 in a letter to one of his friends. " I go so con- 
 stantly to the Church service to adore and worship 
 my God, who hath made me of nothing, and 
 preserved me from being worse than nothing. 
 And this worship and adoration I do pay him in- 
 wardly in my soul, and testifie it outwardly by 
 my behaviour ; as namely, by my adoration, in 
 my forbearing to cover my head in that place dedi- 
 cated to God, and only to his service ; and also, 
 by standing up at profession of the Creed, which 
 contains the several articles that I and all true 
 Christians profess and believe ; and also by stand- 
 ing up at giving glory to the Father, to the Son, 
 and to the Holy Ghost, and confessing them to be 
 three persons, and but one God. 
 
 And, secondly, I go to Church to praise my 
 God for my creation and redemption : and for his 
 many deliverances of me from the many dangers 
 
 in his Thcatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum, printed in 1675, as 
 " a just pretender to more than the meanest place among the 
 English poets, but most especially for dramatic poesy; in 
 which he hath written both very much, and for the most part 
 with that felicity, that by some he is accounted little inferior 
 to Fletcher himself." See also the Life of Herbert, p. 125.
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 83 
 
 of my body, and more especially of my soul, in 
 sending me redemption by the death of his Son, 
 my Saviour ; and for the constant assistance of 
 his holy spirit : a part of which praise I perform 
 frequently in the Psalms, which are daily read in 
 the public congregation. 
 
 " And, thirdly, I go to Church publicly to con- 
 fess and bewail my sins, and to beg pardon for 
 them, for his merits who died to reconcile me 
 and all mankind unto God, who is both his and 
 my Father; and, as for the words in which I 
 beg this mercy, they be the Litany and Collects 
 of the Church, composed by those learned and 
 devout men, whom you and I have trusted to tell 
 us which is and which is not the written word of 
 God ; and trusted also to translate those Scriptures 
 in English. And, in these collects, you may note, 
 that I pray absolutely for pardon of sin, and for 
 grace to believe and serve God: but I pray for 
 health, and peace, and plenty, conditionally ; even 
 so far as may tend to his glory, and the good of 
 my soul, and not further. And this confessing 
 my sins, and begging mercy and pardon for them, 
 I do in my adoring my God, and by the humble 
 posture of kneeling on my knees before him : 
 and, in this manner, and by reverend sitting to 
 hear some chosen parts of God's word read in the 
 public assembly, I spend one hour of the Lord's 
 day every forenoon, and half so much time every
 
 84 THE LIFE OF 
 
 evening. And since this uniform and devout 
 custom of joining together in public confession, 
 and praise, and adoration of God, and in one 
 manner, hath been neglected, the power of Chris- 
 tianity and humble piety is so much decayed, that 
 it ought not to be thought on but with sorrow and 
 lamentation ; and I think, especially by the Non- 
 conformists." 
 
 The reasons which he has assigned for his un- 
 interrupted attention to the discharge of another 
 duty will afford satisfaction to every candid reader. 
 " Now for preaching, I praise God, I understand 
 my duty both to him and my neighbour the better, 
 by hearing of sermons. And though I be de- 
 fective in the performance of both (for which I 
 beseech Almighty God to pardon me), ye.t 1 had 
 been a much worse Christian, if I had not fre- 
 quented the blessed ordinance of preaching ; which 
 has convinced me of my many sins past, and 
 begot such terrors of conscience, -as have begot 
 in me holy resolutions. This benefit, and many 
 other like benefits, I and other Christians have 
 had by preaching : and God forbid that we should 
 ever use it so, or so provoke him by our other sins 
 as to withdraw this blessed ordinance from us, or 
 turn it into a curse, by preaching heresie and 
 schism; which too many have done in the late 
 time of rebellion, and indeed now do in many 
 conventicles ; and their auditors think such preach-
 
 ISAAC WALTON. 85 
 
 ing is serving God, when God knows it is con- 
 trary." Such were the rational grounds, on which 
 he founded his faith and practice. 
 
 No excuse is pleaded for again noticing the 
 opportunities of improvement which he expe- 
 rienced from his appropriated intimacy with the 
 most eminent Divines of the Church of England. 
 Genuine friendship exists but among the virtuous : 
 a friend is emphatically styled ' the medicine of 
 life' the sovereign remedy that softens the pangs 
 of sorrow, and alleviates the anguish of the heart. 
 We cannot therefore sufficiently felicitate the con- 
 dition of Isaac Walton, who imbibed the very 
 spirit of friendship, and that with men renowned 
 for their wisdom and learning ; for the sanctity 
 of their manners, and the unsullied purity of their 
 lives. " If," to use the words of one of his bio- 
 graphers, " we can entertain a doubt that Walton 
 was one of the happiest of men, we shew ourselves 
 ignorant of the nature of that felicity, to which 
 it is possible, even in this life, for virtuous and 
 good men, with the blessing'of God, to arrive." 
 
 The features of the countenance often enable us 
 to form a judgment, not very fallible, of the dis- 
 position of the mind. In few portraits can this 
 discovery be more successfully pursued than in 
 that of Isaac Walton. Lavater, the acute master 
 of physiognomy, would, I think, instantly ac- 
 knowledge in it the decisive traits of the original : 
 mild complacency, forbearance, mature con-
 
 86 THE LIFE, &C. 
 
 sideration, calm activity, peace, sound under- 
 standing, power of thought, discerning attention, 
 and secretly active friendship. Happy in his un- 
 blemished integrity, happy in the approbation and 
 esteem of others, he inwraps himself in his own 
 virtue. The exultation of a good conscience emi- 
 nently shines forth in the looks of this venerable 
 person. 
 
 " Candida semper 
 
 Gaudia, et in vultu Curarum ignara volnpta." 
 
 Hacket, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, used 
 this motto, ' SERVE GOD, AND BE CHEERFUL.' 
 Our biographer seems to have adhered to this 
 golden maxim, during the whole tenor of his life. 
 His innocence, and the inoffensive plainness of 
 his manners, his love of truth, his piety, and the 
 unbiassed rectitude of his conduct, diffused over 
 his mind a serenity and complacency, which never 
 forsook him. Let no one, however elevated in 
 rank or station, however accomplished with learn- 
 ing, or exalted in genius, esteem himself under- 
 valued, when it shall be pronounced concerning 
 him, that his religious and moral qualities are 
 placed in the balance, or compared with those of 
 
 ISAAC WALTON.
 
 WALTON'S WILL. 
 
 Walton's WILL, which is here subjoined as 
 affording equally an illustration of his own be- 
 nevolent character, and the peculiar nature of his 
 connections ; was proved by his executors at Lon- 
 don, February 4th, 1683-4, before Sir Thomas 
 Exton and Sir Leolin Jenkins, Knt., and is re- 
 corded in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, in 
 the volume, marked 1 HARE 375, Art. 24.' 
 
 August the ninth, one thousand six hundred eighty-three. 
 
 Jhi the name of ofc, 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 con- 
 sidering how suddainly I may be deprived of both, 
 do therefore make this my last Will and Testa- 
 ment 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 Roman church. And 
 for my worldly Estate (which I have neither got
 
 88 WALTON S WILL. 
 
 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 
 farm or land near to Stafford, which I bought of 
 Mr. Walter Noel ; 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 the 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, for 
 the good and benefit of some of the said towne, 
 as I shall direct, and as followeth : (but first note,
 
 \MALTON'S WILL. 89 
 
 that it is at this present time rented for twenty- 
 one pounds 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 pounds 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 pounds 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 Maior 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 take that time 
 to be the hardest and most pinching times with 
 poor people ; and God reward those that shall c!o 
 this without partialitie, and with honesty, and a
 
 90 WALTON'S WILL. 
 
 good conscience. And if the said Maior and others 
 of the said towne of Stafford, shall prove so neg- 
 ligent, 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 Eccleshall, 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 
 Eccleshall. And I give to my son-in-law, Doctor 
 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. obiit. " to the 
 
 Lord Bishop of Winton a ring, with this motto, 
 ' A mite for a million, I. W. obiit. 
 and to the friends hereafter named, I give to each 
 of them a ring with this motto, ' A friend's 
 farewell, I. W. obiit.' and 
 
 my will is, the said rings be delivered within 
 forty days after my death : and that the price 
 or value of all the said rings shall be thirteen 
 shillings and fourpence a piece. I give to Doctor 
 Hawkins, Doctor Donne's Sermons, which I have 
 heard preached, and read with much content. To 
 my son Izaak, I give Doctor Sibbs, his Soul's Con- 
 flict ; and to my daughter his Bruised Reed, de- 
 siring them so as to be well aquainted with them. 
 And I also give unto her all my books at Win-
 
 WALTON S WILL. 91 
 
 chester 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, Ann Hawkins ; 
 and I give my daughter, Doctor Hall's Works, 
 which be now at Farnham. To my son Izaak, 
 1 give all my books, not yet given, at Farnham 
 Castell, and a deske of prints and pictures ; also 
 a cabinet 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 Darbyshire the Sermons of Mr. Anthony Far- 
 ringdon, or of Dr. Sanderson, which my executor 
 thinks fit. To my servant, Thomas Edgill, I give 
 five pounds in money, and all my clothes, linen and 
 woollen, except one suit of clothes ; which I give 
 to Mr. Holinshed, and forty shillings, if the said 
 Thomas be my servant at my death ; if not, my 
 clothes only. And I give my old friend, Mr.
 
 92 WALTON S WILL. 
 
 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 exe- 
 cutor of this my last will and testament, and Dr. 
 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. Fran- 
 cis 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. Thos. Garrard, to the Lord Bishop of Sarum, 
 to Mr. Rede his servant, to rny cozen Dorothy 
 Kenrick, to my cousin Lewin, to Mr. Walter Higgs, 
 to Mr. Charles Cotton, to Mr. Richard Marryot : 
 2*2, 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 Wallop, to Mr. 
 Will. Milward, of Christ Church, Oxford, to Mr.
 
 WALTON'S WILL. 93 
 
 John Darbyshire, to Mr. Undevill, to Mrs. Rock, 
 to Mr. Peter White, to Mr. John Lloyde, to my 
 cousin Creinsell's 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 5 , 
 Jos. Taylor, Thomas Crawley. 
 
 9 Abraham Markland, a scholar of St. John's College, Ox- 
 ford, anno 1 562, took the degree of M.A, in 1669, at which time 
 he was senior of the great act celebrated on the 12th of July, 
 in that year. At length, entering into holy orders, he was in- 
 stalled prebendary of Winchester, the 4th of July, 1679, was 
 afterwards beneficed near that place, and on the 5th of July, 
 1692, was admitted D.D. and in August, 1694, became 
 Master of the Hospital of H. Cross, near Winchester, on the 
 death of Dr. William Harrison. Wood's Athenee Oxon. by 
 Bliss, 1815, 4to. vol. iv. p. 710.
 
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