132 DOVE DALE REVISITED 



commute for my offence, that, though I be 

 more than a hundred Miles from you, and in 

 the eighty-third Year of my age, yet I will 

 forget both, and next Month begin a Pilgrimage 

 to beg your pardon, for, I would dye in your 

 favour : and till then will live, 

 "Sir, 



" Your most affectionate 



" Father and Friend, 



"IZAAK WALTON. 

 " LONDON, April 29^, 1676." 



There is no evidence in either volume to 

 show that Walton ever did perform this pilgrim- 

 age. 1 One of the marginal notes that Walton 

 mentions is about the Fishing House : " There 

 is under this Motto, the Cifer mentioned in 

 the Title-page, and some part of the Fishing 

 House has been described, but, the pleasant- 

 ness of the river, Mountains and Meadows 

 about it, cannot; unless Sir Philip Sidney, or 

 Mr. Cotton's father were again alive to do it." 



In that delightful book, "The River Dove," 2 

 published by William Pickering, 1847, the 



1 See page 66. 



2 "The River Dove, with some Quiet Thoughts on 

 the Happy Practice of Angling." The Note to the 

 Reader is signed J. L. A. These are the initials of 



