i6o THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



total blank. For purposes of convenience we may be 

 allowed to divide his long life into four periods — his 

 early life up to the time of his residence in London ; 

 the business period of twenty years, during which he 

 lived in Fleet Street, at the corner of Chancery Lane ; 

 the period of his second marriage, marked by the pub- 

 lication of The Covipleat Angler ; and the period of 

 his old age, from the death of his second wife in 1662, 

 when Walton was seventy, to his own death twenty 

 years later. We may briefly glance, by way of leading 

 up to the special purpose of this paper, at these succes- 

 sive periods of his life. 



He was born at Stafford on August 9, 1593, and 

 baptized in St. Mary's Church on the 21st of the 

 following month, when he received the name of 

 " Izaak," perhaps, as Dean Stanley suggested, after 

 the learned Isaac Casaubon, who appears to have been 

 a friend of the family. Of his childhood and youth 

 nothing whatever is known. In 161 3, when he was 

 twenty years of age, there appeared a poem, " The 

 Love of Amos and Laura," which is dedicated by the 

 writer, " To my approved and much respected friend, 

 Iz. Wa.," which seems to indicate that his mind was 

 already drawn towards literature. From 1624 to 1644 

 he resided in Fleet Street, where he appears to have 

 carried on business as a "sempster" or linen-draper. 

 Here he became intimate with Dr. Donne, who was 

 rector of the parish and who introduced Walton to 

 many distinguished men. His twenty years' residence 

 at St. Dunstan's was marked by many a sorrow, 

 including the death of his first wife, who was a 

 descendant of Archbishop Cranmer's, of both his 

 children, and of his intimate friends Wotton and 

 Donne. To this period belongs the publication of his 



