THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 5 



in two vols. 8vo. in the year 1830. The author, 

 speaking somewhat disparagingly of Mr. Hawkins's 

 work, says that he has been obliged " to spread 

 his canvass rather wide." So wide indeed has he 

 spread it that these volumes may be regarded in 

 some sense as a rather one-sided history of the 

 period through which Ken lived, with a biography 

 of Ken intermittently thrown in. 



Since the publication of Mr. Bowles's work in 

 1830 there have been published Anderdon's " Life " 

 by a Layman, two vols., Dean Plumptre's " Life " 

 in two vols., and others. There is also a long and 

 interesting account in the " Dictionary of National 

 Biography," which also furnishes a very perfect list 

 of all the known authorities having reference to the 

 life and work of Ken. It seems pretty clear, how- 

 ever, that Mr. Hawkins's work supplied most of the 

 facts on which every subsequent biographer has had 

 to rely. 



It is mainly from the great mass and variety of 

 material in Mr. Bowles's two volumes that I have 

 endeavoured to dig out a few at least of the most 

 interesting features of Ken's life. I was first 

 attracted to this work in the hope that it would 

 throw some new light on the life of Izaak Walton. 

 In that I have been slightly disappointed. The 



