coloured clothes, and, God knows, far from being costly. The place of our meeting was near to Little Britain, where he had been to buy a book, which he then had in his hand. We had no inclination to part presently, and therefore turned to stand in a corner under a penthouse, (for it began to rain); and immediately the wind rose, and the rain increased so much, that both became so inconvenient, as to force us into a cleanly house, where we had bread, cheese, ale, and a fire, for cur money. This rain and wind were so obliging to me, as to force our stay there, for at least an hour, to my great content and advantage; for in that time, he made to me many useful observations, with much clearness and conscientious freedom."* It was not till long after that period when the faculties of men begin to decline, that Walton undertook to write the Life of Sanderson: nevertheless, far from being deficient in any of those excellencies that distinguish the former Lives, this abounds with the evidences of a vigorous imagination, a sound judgment, and a memory unimpaired; and for the nervous sentiments and pious simplicity therein displayed, let the concluding paragraph thereof, pointed out to me by an eminent writer,† and here given, serve as a specimen. 66 Thus, this pattern of meekness and primitive innocence changed this for a better life: 'tis now too late to wish that mine may be like his, (for I am in the eighty-fifth year of my age, and God knows it hath not); but I most humbly beseech Almighty God that my death may: and I do as earnestly beg, that if any reader shall receive any satisfaction from this very plain, and as true relation, he will be so charitable as to say Amen." Such were the persons, whose virtues Walton was so laudably employed in celebrating; and surely he has done but justice in saying, that "These were honourable men in * Life of Sanderson. Dr. Samuel Johnson. their generations."-Ecclus. xliv. 7.* And yet so far was he from arrogating to himself any merit in this his labour, that, in the instance of Dr. Donne's Life, he compares himself to Pompey's bondman,-who being found on the sea-shore, gathering up the scattered fragments of an old broken boat, in order to burn the body of his dead master, was asked, "Who art thou that preparest the funerals of Pompey the Great?"-hoping, as he says, that if a like question should be put to him, it would be thought to have in it more of wonder than disdain. The above passage in Scripture, assumed by Walton as a motto to the collection of Lives, may, with equal propriety, be applied to most of his friends and intimates; who were men of such distinguished characters for learning and piety, and so many in number, † that it is matter of wonder by what means a man in his station could obtain admittance among so illustrious a society; unless we will suppose, as doubtless was the case, that his integrity and amiable disposition attracted the notice and conciliated the affections of all with whom he had any concern. It is observable, that not only these, but the rest of Walton's friends were eminent royalists; and that he himself was in great repute for his attachment to the royal cause, will appear by the following relation taken from Ashmole's History of the Order of the Garter, page 228; where the author, speaking of the ensigns of the order, says, "Nor will it be unfitly here remembered, by what good fortune the present sovereign's Lesser George, set with fair diamonds, was preserved, after the defeat given * Motto to the Collection of Lives. + In the number of his intimate friends, we find Archbishop Usher, Archbishop Sheldon, Bishop Morton, Bishop King, Bishop Barlow, Dr. Fuller, Dr. Price, Dr. Woodford, Dr. Featly, Dr. Holdsworth, Dr. Hammond, Sir Edward Sandys, Sir Edward Bysh, Mr. Cranmer, Mr. Chillingworth, Michael Drayton, and that celebrated scholar and critic Mr. John Hales, of Eton.Hawkins. In short, he was in habits of friendly intercourse with those who were most celebrated for their piety and learning. Nor 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.-Zouch. to the Scotch forces at Worcester, ann. 4 Car. II. Among the rest of his attendants then dispersed, Colonel Blague was one; who, taking shelter at Blore-pipe-house in Staffordshire, where one Mr. George Barlow then dwelt, delivered his wife this George, to secure. Within a week after Mr. Barlow himself carried it to Robert Milward, Esq., he being then a prisoner to the parliament, in the garrison of Stafford, and by his means was it happily preserved and restored; for, not long after, he delivered it to Mr. Isaac Walton, (a man well known, and as well beloved of all good men; and will be better known to posterity, by his ingenious pen, in the Lives of Dr. Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard Hooker, and Mr. George Herbert,) to be given to Colonel Blague, then a prisoner in the Tower; who, considering it had already past so many dangers, was persuaded it could yet secure one hazardous attempt of his own; and thereupon, leaving the Tower without leave-taking, hasted the presentation of it to the present sovereign's hand."* The religious opinions of good men are of little importance to others, any farther than they necessarily conduce to virtuous practice; since we see, that as well the different persuasions of Papist and Protestant, as the several no less differing parties into which the reformed religion is unhappily subdivided, have produced men equally remarkable for their endowments, sincere in their professions, and exemplary in their lives;t—but were it necessary, after what has been above remarked of him, to be particular on this head, with respect to our Author we should say, that he was a very dutiful son of the Church of England; nay further, that he was a friend to an hierarchy, or, as we should now call such a one, a high churchman; for which propensity of his, if it needs an apology, it may be said, That he had lived to see hypocrisy and fanaticism triumph * See also Dr. Plott's Staffordshire, 311. If the intelligent reader doubts the truth of this position, let him reflect on, and compare with each other, the characters of Hooker, Father Paul, and Mr. Richard Baxter. in the subversion of both our ecclesiastical and civil constitution, the important question of toleration had not been discussed, the extent of regal prerogative, and the bounds of civil and religious liberty, had never been ascertained, —and he, like many other good men, might look on the interests of the Church, and those of Religion, as inseparable. Besides the works of Walton above mentioned, there are extant, of his writing, Verses on the death of Dr. Donue, beginning, "Our Donne is dead;" Verses to his reverend friend the Author of the Synagogue, printed together with Herbert's Temple ;* Verses before Alexander Brome's Poems, octavo, 1646,—and before Shirley's Poems, octavo, 1646, and before Cartwright's Plays and Poems, octavo, 1651. He wrote also the following Lines under an engraving of Dr. Donne, before his Poems, published in 1635. This was for youth, strength, mirth, and wit—that time Thine was thy later years; so much refined From youth's dross, mirth and wit,-as thy pure mind Of thy Creator, in those last, best days. Witness this book, (thy emblem,) which begins Dr. Henry King, bishop of Chichester-in a Letter to Walton, dated in November, 1664, and in which is contained the judgment (hereinbefore inserted) of Hales of Eton, on the Life of Dr. Donne-says, that Walton had, in the Life of Hooker, given a more short and significant account of the character of his time, and also of Archbishop Whitgift, than he had received from any other pen,—and that he had also done much for Sir Henry Savile, his contemporary and familiar friend; which fact does very well connect with what the late Mr. Des Maizeaux some years * Vide, infra,, the signature to the second Copy of Commendatory Verses, and chap. v. note. † Alluding to his age, viz. eighteen, when the picture was painted from which the print was taken. since related to a gentleman now deceased,* from whom myself had it, viz. that there were then several Letters of Walton extant, in the Ashmolean Museum, relating to a Life of Sir Henry Savile, which Walton had entertained thoughts of writing. I also find that he undertook to collect materials for a Life of Hales it seems, that Mr. Anthony Farringdon, minister of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk-street, London, had begun to write the Life of this memorable person; but dying before he had completed it, his papers were sent to Walton, with a request from Mr. Fulman,† who had proposed to himself to continue and finish it, that Walton would furnish him with such information as was to his purpose: Mr. Fulman did not live to complete his design. But a Life of Mr. Hales, from other materials, was compiled by the late Mr. Des Maizeaux, and published by him in 1719, as a specimen of a new Biographical Dictionary. A Letter of Walton, to Marriot his bookseller, upon this occasion, was sent me by the late Rev. Dr. Birch, soon after the publication of my first edition of the Complete Angler, containing the above facts; to which the Doctor added, that after the year 1719, Mr. Fulman's papers came to the hands of Mr. Des Maizeaux, who intended, in some way or other, to avail himself of them : but he never published a second edition of his Life of Hales; nor, for aught that I can hear, have they ever yet found their way into the world. * William Oldys, Esq., Norroy king at arms, author of the Life of Mr. Cotton, prefixed to the second part, in the former edition of this work. † Mr. William Fulman, amanuensis to Dr. Henry Hammond. See him in Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. 823. Some specious arguments have been urged to prove that this person was the author of the Whole Duty of Man, and I once thought they had finally settled that long agitated question,-" To whom is the world obliged for that excellent work?" but I find a full and ample refutation of them, in a book entitled Memoirs of several Ladies of Great Britain, by George Ballard, 4to. 1752, p. 318, and that the weight of evidence is greatly in favour of a lady deservedly celebrated by him, viz. Dorothy, the wife of Sir John Packington, Bart., and daughter of Thomas Lord Coventry, lord keeper of the great seal, temp. Car. I. |