IZAAK WALTON AT DROXFORD 169 



of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. The exact date of this 

 latter marriage the writer has been unable to discover; 

 but inasmuch as Charles Morley died in 1697 at the 

 age of forty-five, and Magdalene in 1737 at the age 

 of eighty-two — they are both buried in Droxford 

 church — they would have been respectively thirty-one 

 and twenty-eight at the time of Walton's death. It 

 is not, therefore, unreasonable to suppose that they 

 were married before that event took place ; and if 

 so, it is permissible to believe that the family sun- 

 dial was erected in the lifetime, perhaps at the 

 instigation, of the old fisherman. 



The old rectory is still standing, although somewhat 

 enlarged since the days of Izaak Walton. Part of it, 

 however, remains in exactly the same condition as in 

 the closing years of the seventeenth century. The 

 floors are still boarded with wide planks of oak, and 

 the leaden lattice casements remain. One or two rooms 

 facing south, for the old man was nearing ninety and 

 doubtless felt the cold mists arising from the river, may 

 not unnaturally be associated with our friend. On the 

 walls would hang one or two " prints and pictures," 

 which recalled happy memories of bygone days. There 

 he would keep his books, at any rate some of his 

 favourites, such as Dr. Donne s Sermons, or The 

 Returning Backslider, by Dr. Sibbs (now in the 

 Cathedral Library at Salisbury), or the works of 

 " holy Mr. Herbert " or of Dr. Sanderson. A copy 

 of The Compleat Angler, doubtless of the first 

 edition, was, we may be sure, upon the shelves, and 

 a collected edition of The Lives. Perhaps in a 

 corner of the room stood his fishing-rod and tackle, 

 for though age prevented him from visiting his friend 

 Cotton in Dovedale, yet in fine weather he would stroll 



