iii a very interesting nature, as it is intimately connected with those literary pursuits, to which he is indebted for the regard of posterity. In 1619 a small poem was published, entitled "The Love of Amos and Laura, written by S. P." which was dedicated to Walton in the following verses: "TO MY APPROVED AND MUCH RESPECTED FRIEND, IZ. WA, To thee, thou more then thrice beloved friend, I too unworthy of so great a bliss ; These harsh-tun'd lines I here to thee commend, For hadst thou held thy tongue, by silence might If they were pleasing, I would call them thine, S. P."7 notice of Walton forms a very small part." speaks of Walton as a very sweet poet in his youth, and more than all "The author of the MS. in matters of love." In consequence of this statement considerable trouble has been taken to discover the MS. alluded to; but no trace of it can be found in the British Museum; and it is presumed that the article is a mere fiction. No reference is given to the volume in which it is said to occur; and if such an interesting account of Walton really existed in a collection so well known and so fully catalogued as the Lansdowne MSS., it is impossible to suppose that it would not long since have been brought to light; or that it would have escaped the particular search which has been recently made for it. Be this however as it may, little reliance could be placed on the article, even if it were genuine, because one of the few facts stated in it can be disproved, as it is said that Walton married before he was twenty-four years of age, whereas his marriage took place in December, 1626, when he was about thirty-three; and there is not the slightest cause to suppose that he had a former wife. But the article in question is not the only doubtful statement which has been published respecting Walton: his residence in the Royal Exchange; his retirement in 1643 to a cottage in Staffordshire, where Dr. Morley is said to have found an asylum; and his having written the epitaph of an old servant called "David Hookham!" (a name very appropriately chosen for the purpose), who died in 1647, ætat. 63, (vide Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. C. part II. p. 296), are equally apocryphal. ↑ Attention was first drawn to this poem by J. Payne Collier, esq. in the Poetical Decameron, vol. ii. p. 111. A copy of "The Love of Amos and Laura," 18mo. ed. 1619, will be found in the British Museum. It was again printed in 4to. in 1628. See Note 8. It is evident that Walton either suggested various improvements in, or had written part of the poem, whilst two of the lines prove that it was printed at his recommendation. The poem was first published in 1613, six years before, together with three others; but in the only known copy of that edition, which is unfortunately imperfect, the verses to Walton do not occur; and it is doubtful whether they were omitted, or have been abstracted from that particular copy. As there is no variation (excepting of a single word) between the two editions, the alterations, which the Author so gratefully acknowledges, must have been made in the original manuscript; and as Walton was only twenty years of age in 1613, the love of literature, which never deserted him, must have commenced at a very early period of his life. Much light would perhaps be thrown upon this part of Walton's career, if "his more than thrice beloved friend," S. P. could be identified; but the attempt to discover him has not been successful, though some circumstances render it likely that the initials were those of Samuel Purchas, the author of "The Pilgrimage," who is known to have written various miscellaneous pieces, besides the works which bear his name. Sir John Hawkins states, on the authority of a deed in his possession, that in 1624 "Walton dwelt on the north side of Fleet Street, in a house two doors west of the end of Chancery Lane, and abutting on a messuage known by the sign of the Harrow, and that his house was then in the joint occupation of himself and a hosier called John Mason." Before that time the celebrated Dr. Donne became vicar of St. Dunstans in the West; and an intimacy arose between Walton, who was then one of his parishioners, and himself, which ended only with 8 In the library of Benjamin Heywood Bright, Esq. The title is "Alcilia. Philoparthens louing folly. whereunto js added Pigmalions Image with the Loue of Amos and Lavra and also Epigrammes by Sir J. H. and others. never before imprinted. London for Richard Hawkins dwelling in Chancery Lane near Sarjeants Inn, 1613." 4to. At the end of Alcilia [edit. 1619.] are the initials, J. C. [John Chalkhill?] Pigmalion's Image is by John Marston, and the Epigrams by Sir John Harington. Amos and Laura in this copy is without the dedication, and is imperfect at the end. 9 Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton, edited by Sir Henry Ellis, K. H. and prefixed to the edition of the Complete Angler published by Bagster in 1815. Donne's life. The veneration which Walton entertained for his learned friend is exhibited in the memoir which he prefixed to the publication of his sermons, as well as in the elegy which he wrote upon his decease. It was probably through Dr. Donne that Walton became acquainted with Sir Henry Wotton, Dr. Henry King, son of the Bishop of London, John Hales of Eton, and some other eminent persons, particularly divines. He was also slightly known to Ben Jonson;10 he speaks of Drayton, on one occasion, as his "honest old friend," and on another as his "old deceased friend ;" and he appears to have lived on terms of intimacy with many of the most distinguished literary men of his age. Such part of his time as was not occupied by his business seems, therefore, to have been passed in the society of men whose acquaintance is sufficient proof of the esteem in which his talents were held; whilst the friendship of Donne, King, and Wotton, is ample evidence of his moral worth. As some of the individuals alluded to were fond of the amusement of Angling, it is probable that many of his leisure hours were passed with them in piscatory excursions on the banks of the river Lea; and his amiable and placid temper, his agreeable conversation, and unaffected benevolence, inspired them with esteem and regard. expense After having been more than ten years in business, Walton thought himself justified in incurring the and cares of married life. His biographers have fallen into great mistakes respecting his wives; for, according to Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Zouch, he was only once married; and the latter describes him to have derived an hereditary attachment to the Protestant religion, from his mother having been the daughter of Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and niece of Archbishop Cranmer. Subsequent writers have doubted the accuracy of these statements; and whilst they have indulged in various conjectures on the subject, without arriving at the fact, every edition of "The Complete Angler," except the first, has contained proof of the name of his wife.12 10 Vide postea. 11 Vide pp. 180, 294, postea. 12 This fact was first pointed out in the New Series of the Retrospective Review, vol. ii. p. 341, by the Author of this Memoir. It is not unlikely that Walton's acquaintance with Dr. King was the cause of his being introduced to the family of Floud of Canterbury, which was closely connected with that of Cranmer, whom King, many years afterwards, called his "old friends."13 Susannah, daughter of Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, (son of Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and grand-nephew of Archbishop Cranmer), was born in August, 1579, and married a gentleman of the name of Floud," who is presumed to have been Robert, the son of John Floud, fifth son of Sir Thomas Floud, of Milgate, in the parish of Bradsted, in Kent, and the descendant of a family of considerable antiquity in Shropshire. He died before his wife, leaving two sons, John and Robert Floud, and a daughter of the name of Rachel. 15 Of the sons very little is known. Robert, the eldest, was of John's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B. A. in 1627:16 he was executor to his mother in 1635; and wrote the commendatory verses to his "dear brotherin-law, Mr. Is. Walton, on his Complete Angler,"" which were prefixed to the second edition of that work, in 1655. John Floud, the second son, was under twenty-eight years of age at the death of his mother in 1635; and in 1655, at which time he was Master of Arts, he also addressed verses to his "dear brother-in-law, Mr. Iz. Walton, upon his Complete Angler." Their sister, Rachel Floud, who was probably born about the year 1605, was married to Izaak Walton, in the church of St. Mildred, at Canterbury, on the 27th of December, 1626.18 Soon after Walton's marriage, Mrs. Floud, his wife's mother, appears to have removed to London; and there is reason to believe that she resided with them until her decease. In the following passage 13 Vide postea. 14 Vide the accompanying pedigree of Cranmer, for which the Editor is indebted to George Frederic Beltz, Esq. Lancaster Herald. 15 Harleian MS. 1548, f. 69b, and Additional MS. 5507, in the British Museum. 16 Additional MS. 5885, fo. 93. 17 To his signature to these verses the letter "C," is added, the meaning of which has not been discovered. 18 Extract from the Register of "Maryagyes" in the parish of St. Mildred, Canterbury, for the year 1626. ISAACK WALTON and RACHIEL FLOUDD weare maryed the 27th day of December." in the life of Hooker, Walton thus speaks of his connection with the Cranmer family; 19 and the two sisters of William Cranmer, with whom he says he had a "happy cohabitation," were probably his mother-in-law Mrs. Floud, and the widow of Dr. Spencer. "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: one of them was the wife of Dr. Spencer, a bosom friend, and some time com-pupil with Mr. Hooker in Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and after president of the same. I name them here, for that I shall have occasion to mention them in this following discourse; as also their brother, of whose useful abilities my reader may have a more authentic testimony than my pen can purchase for him, by that of our learned Camden and others. This William Cranmer and his two forenamed sisters had some affinity and a most fami 19 The connections of the Cranmer family afford information about some of the persons to whom Walton became known, and elucidate many points in his history. George, the eldest son of Thomas Cranmer, and uncle of Mrs. Walton, was born in 1578; he was educated by Richard Hooker, the author of the Ecclesiastical Polity; became a scholar of Christ Church, Oxford; and afterwards entered the service of his relation, William Davison, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth. Upon the fall of that statesman, Cranmer became secretary to Sir Henry Killigrew in his embassy to France; and, after Killigrew's death, he accompanied Sir Edwyn Sandys in his travels into Germany and Italy, and was at Florence and Vienna about November, 1596. [See a letter from Francis Davison, the eldest son of the secretary, to his father, printed in the memoir prefixed to Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, ed. 1826, p. xxxii.] Soon after his return he accepted the appointment of secretary to Lord Mountjoy in Ireland, but was slain in an action with the Irish at Carlingford on the 13th of November, 1600, and died unmarried. [Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, I. 700.] Camden and Lloyd speak in strong terms of his abilities and learning, and he is often mentioned by Walton. The second son, Thomas Cranmer, was living in 1617. William Cranmer, the third son, who was a particular friend of Walton's, was a merchant in London, and left a son, Sir William Cranmer, who was governor of the Merchants Adventurers of England, and died unmarried in his sixty-seventh year, on the 21st of September, 1697. [Vide the inscription on the monument erected to his memory in the church of St. Mildred, Canterbury, by his nephew and executor, Mr. John Kenrick.] The daughters of Thomas Cranmer were Dorothy, born in 1575, married to an individual of the name of Field, (possibly |