THE LIFE OF MR. ISAAC WALTON.

I

PRESENT not to the reader the history of a wise statesman, an adventurous foldier, or a profound philofopher. Yet I truft, that he will experience no fmall degree of fatisfaction from contemplating the virtues of a private citizen; who, though he arrogates not to himself the splendour of high descent, or the pride of fuperfluous wealth, deferves our approbation and regard. Ifaac, or as he ufually wrote his name, Izaac Walton, adorned with a guileless fimplicity of manners, claims from every good man the tribute of applaufe. It was his ambition (and furely a more honourable ambition cannot be excited in the human breast) to commend to the reverence of posterity the merits of those excellent perfons, whose comprehenfive learning and exalted piety will ever endear them to our memories.

The important end of historical knowledge is a prudent application of it to ourselves, with a view to regulate and amend our own conduct. As the examples of men strictly and faithfully discharging their profeffional duties muft obviously tend to invigorate our efforts to excel in moral worth, the virtuous characters, which are so happily delineated in the following pages, cannot fail, if considered with serious attention, of producing the most beneficial and lafting impreffions on the mind.

The Life of the Author of this biographical collection was little diverfified with events. He was born of a refpectable family, on the ninth day of August, 1593, 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 Proteftant religion, as profeffed in the Church

* " September 1593. Baptiz. fuit Ifaac filius Jervis Walton, XX? die menfis et anni prae dict."-(Register of St. Mary's, in the town of Stafford.)

of England. She was the daughter of Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury, fifter to Mr. George Cranmer the pupil and friend of Mr. Richard Hooker, and niece to that firft and brightest ornament of the Reformation, Dr. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. No veftiges of the place or manner of his education have been discovered: Nor have we any authentic information concerning his firft engagements in a mercantile life. It has indeed been fuggefted, 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 fhops, which were erected in the upper buildings of his celebrated Burfe". However this may be, he foon improved his fortune by his honefty, his frugality, and his diligence. His occupation, according to the tradition ftill preserved in his family, was that of a wholesale linen-draper, or Hamburgh merchant.

The writers of "The Life of Milton" have, with the moft fcrupulous attention, regularly marked out the different houses fucceffively inhabited by the poet," as if it was an injury to neglect any place, that he honoured by his prefence." The various parts of London, in which Ifaac Walton refided, have been recorded with the fame precision. It is fufficient to intimate, that he was for fome years an inhabitant of St. Dunstan's in the West. With Dr. John Donne, then vicar of that parish, of whofe fermons he was a conftant hearer, he contracted a friendship, which remained uninterrupted to their feparation by death. This his parishioner attended him in his last fickness, and was prefent at the time that he configned his fermons and numerous papers to the care of Dr. Henry King, who was promoted to the See of Chichester in 1641.

He married Anne, the daughter of Thomas Ken, Efq. of Furnival's Inn; a gentleman, whofe family, of an ancient extraction, was united by alliance with feveral noble houfes, and had poffeffed a very plentiful fortune for many generations, having been known by the name of the Kens of Ken

Place,

"Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton," p. xiii.-The economy obferved in the conAtruction of the fhops over the Burfe fcarce allowed him to have elbow-room. They were but feven feet and a half long, and five wide. (See Ward's Life of Sir Thomas Gresham, p. 12.)

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According to Anthony Wood, he followed the trade of a fempfter. (Ath. Ox. Vol. I. Pol. 305. See alfo Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton, p. xiii. xv.)

Place, in Somersetshire. She was the fifter of Thomas Ken, afterward the deprived Bishop of Bath and Wells. If there be a name to which I have been accustomed from my earlieft youth to look up with reverential awe, it is that of this amiable prelate. The primitive innocence of his life, the fuavity of his difpofition, his taste for poetry and mufic, 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 Proteftant Divines-Thefe endearing qualities enfure to him our esteem and affection. But what principally commands our veneration is that invincible inflexibility of temper, which rendered him fuperior to every fecular confideration. When from a ftrict adherence to the dictates of confcience he found himself reduced to a private station, he dignified that station by the magnanimity of his demeanour, by a humble and ferene patience, by an ardent, but unaffected piety.

In 1643, Mr. Walton, having declined business, retired to a small eftate in Staffordshire, not far from the town of Stafford. His loyalty made him obnoxious to the ruling powers; and we are affured by himself, that he was a fufferer during the time of the civil wars". In 1643 the Covenanters came back into England, marching with the Covenant gloriously upon their pikes and in their hats, with this motto, "FOR THE CROWN AND COVENANT OF BOTH KINGDOMS." "This," he adds, "I faw, and fuffered by it. But when I look back upon the ruine of families, the bloodshed, the decay of common honefty, and how the former piety and plain-dealing of this now finful nation is turned into cruelty and cunning, when I confider this, I praise God, that he prevented me from being of that party, which helped to bring in this Covenant, and thofe fad confufions that have followed it." He perfevered in the most inviolable attachment to the royal caufe. In many of his writings he pathetically laments the afflictions of his fovereign, and the wretched condition of his beloved country involved in all the miferies of inteftine diffentions. The incident of his being inftrumental in preferving the leffer George, which belonged

B 2

to

"See "Walton's Life of Dr. Sanderfon," p. 441.

to Charles II. is related in " Afhmole's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter."

We may now apply to him what has been faid of Mr. Cowley; "fome few friends, a book, a cheerful heart, and innocent confcience were his companions." In this scene of rural privacy he was not unfrequently indulged with the company of learned and good men. Here, as in a safe and peaceful afylum, they met with the most cordial and grateful reception. And we are informed by the Oxford Antiquary, that, whenever he went from home, he reforted principally to the houses of the eminent clergymen of the Church of England, of whom he was much beloved. To a man defirous of dilating his intellectual improvements, no conversation could be more agreeable, than that of those divines, who were known to have distinguished him with their perfonal regard.

The Roman Poet, of whom it has been remarked that he made the happieft union of the courtier and the fcholar, was of plebeian origin. Yet fuch was the attraction of his manners and deportment, that he claffed among his friends the first and most illuftrious of his contemporaries, Plotius and Varus, Pollio and Fufcus, the Vifci and the Meffalæ. Nor was Ifaac Walton less fortunate in his focial connexions. The times in which he lived were times of gloomy fufpicion, of danger and diftrefs, when a fevere fcrutiny into the public and private behaviour of men established a rigid discrimination of character. He must therefore be allowed to have poffeffed a peculiar excellency of difpofition, who conciliated to himself an habitual intimacy with Ufher the Apoftolical Primate of Ireland, with Archbishop Sheldon, with Morton, Bishop of Durham, Pearson of Chester, and Sanderson of Lincoln, with the ever-memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton, and the judicious Mr. Chillingworth; in short, with those who were

moft

The account is also prefevcd, by tradition, in the family. "Col. Blague remained at Mr. Barlow's houfe at Blore-Pipe, in Staffordshire, where, with Mr. Barlow's privity and advice, he hid his Majefty's George under a heap of duft and chips, whence it was conveyed through the trufty hands of Mr. Robert Milward of Stafford, to Mr. Ifaac Walton, who conveyed it to London, to Col. Blague, then in the Tower; whence escaping not long after, he carried it with him beyond feas, and reftored it to his Majefty's own hands." (Plot's Hift. of Staffordshire, Ch. VIII. Sect. 77. See also Afbmole's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter, p. 228.)

moft celebrated for their piety and learning. Nor could he be deficient in urbanity of manners or elegance of tafte, who was the companion of Sir Henry Wotton, the most accomplished gentleman of his age'. The fingular circumfpection which he observed in the choice of his acquaintance, has not escaped the notice of Mr. Cotton. My Father Walton," fays he, "will be seen twice in no man's company he does not like; and likes none but fuch as he believes to be very honeft men; which is one of the best arguments, or at least of the best teftimonies I have, that I either am, or that he thinks me one of those, seeing I have not yet found him weary of me"."

f "My next and laft example fhall be that undervaluer of money, the late Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, a man with whom I have often fifhed and conversed; a man, whom foreign employments in the service of this nation, and whofe experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be efteemed one of the delights of mankind."(Complete Angler, P. I. Ch. I.)

In Sir Henry Wotton's verfes, written by him as he fate fishing on the bank of a river, he probably alludes to Walton himself, who often accompanied him in his innocent amusement:

"There flood my friend, with patient skill,

"Attending of his trembling quill."

That this amiable and excellent perfon fet a high value on the converfation of his humble friend appears from the following letter:

"MY WORTHY FRIEND,

"Since I laft faw you, I have been confined to my chamber by a quotidian feaver, 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 furcrew of thofe fplenetick vapours, that "are called Hypocondriacal; of which moft fay the cure is good company, and I defire no "better physician than yourfelf. I have in one of thofe fits endeavoured to make it more "eafie by composing a short hymn; and since I have apparelled my best thoughts fo lightly as "in verfe, I hope I fhall be pardoned a fecond vanity, if I communicated it with fuch a friend. "as yourself; to whom I wish a cheerful fpirit, and a thankful heart to value it, as one of "the greatest bleffings of our good God; in whose dear love I leave you, remaining "Your poor friend to serve you,

"H. WOTTON.”

(Reliquia Wottoniana, p. 361. 4th edit.See the Hymn mentioned in this Letter, in Walton's Life of Dr. Donne, p. 187.) Complete Angler, P. II. Ch. I.