x The Complete Angler 



Donne and Izaak, loved a ghost story, and had 

 several in his family. Drayton, the river-poet, 

 author of the Polyolbion^ is also spoken of by 

 Walton as " my old deceased friend ". 



On Dec. 27, 1626, Walton married, at Canter- 

 bury, Rachel Floud, a niece, on the maternal side, 

 by several descents, of Cranmer, the famous Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury. The Cranmers were inti- 

 mate with the family of the judicious Hooker, and 

 Walton was again connected with kinsfolk of that 

 celebrated divine. Donne died in 1631, leaving to 

 Walton, and to other friends, a bloodstone engraved 

 with Christ crucified on an anchor : tne seal is im- 

 pressed on Walton's will. When Donne's poems 

 were published in 1633, Walton added commend- 

 atory verses : 



" As all lament 

 (Or should) this general cause of discontent ". 



The parenthetic " or should " is much in Walton's 

 manner. " Witness my mild pen, not used to up- 

 braid the world," is also a pleasant and accurate 

 piece of self-criticism. " I am his convert/' Walton 

 exclaims. In a citation from a manuscript which 

 cannot be found, and perhaps never existed, Walton 

 is spoken of as " a very sweet poet in his youth, 

 and more than all in matters of love ". * Donne had 

 been in the same case : he, or Time, may have con- 

 verted Walton from amorous ditties. Walton, in 

 an edition of Donne's poems of 1635, writes of 



11 This book (dry emblem) which begins 

 With love ; but ends with tears and sighs for sins ". 



The preacher and his convert had probably a 

 similar history of the heart : as we shall sec, Walton, 



1 The MS. was noticed in The Freebooter^ Oct. 18, 1823, but 

 Sir Harris Nicolas could not find it, where it was said to be, 

 among the Lansdowne MSS. 



