THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 17 



which the facsimile was made for Mr. Bowles, 

 nearly eighty years ago. As a curiosity, as well 

 as coincidence, I give a copy of the letter at 

 foot.i 



(This letter and the tracing are still in my 

 possession. — E.M.) 



^ " Lake House, near Amesbury, November 27, 1829. 



" My dear Sir, 



" In the last week I spent some days with our friend 

 Mr. Bowles at Bremhill. He requested me to call on 

 the Rev. Dr. Hawes of Salisbury, and to take off on 

 tracing paper the Epitaph by Isaac Walton ^ on his 

 wife, the sister of Bishop Ken. This I have done to the 

 best of my power, and you will receive it enclosed. 

 Mr. B. desired me to copy it with all its interlineations 

 and corrections — in fact, to make a facsimile of the 

 whole, to transmit it to you, and to say that he 

 would wish you to have it engraved, and in his 

 * Life of Bp. Ken,' placed opposite to the portrait of 

 Walton. 



" From the great peculiarity of the handwriting, I 

 feel convinced the public will never make it out without 

 the assistance of a full and fair copy, which I therefore 

 give you as beneath. You had better consult Mr. B. as 

 to what he would have done on the subject. . . . The 

 Epitaph is the autograph of I.W., and written in 

 his Prayer-Book. The writing is in some places 

 nearly indistinct. I know not what the engraver 



2 I have given the spelling of Izaak, or Isaac, or Izaac, 

 as I find it in the text. 



