THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 27 



Christchurch by Parliamentary precept in March, 

 1648, being denounced by the visitors as malignant 

 and contumacious, and being at the same time 

 deprived of his living of Mildenhall, and in short 

 of everything but his conscience, had the world 

 before him, not knowing where to lay his head. 

 It is probable that he first made the acquaintance 

 of Izaak Walton in happier days when he associated 

 with Lord Falkland and Cotton, and when Izaak 

 Walton dwelt in Chancery Lane and was a hearer 

 of Dr. Donne at St. Dunstan's. 



Walton left London in 1643, when, as said Wood, 

 the Oxford antiquary, it was " found dangerous for 

 honest men to be there," and when the storm fell 

 on the communion to which he was so ardently 

 attached. 



It is probable that when Walton retired from 

 his shop in Chancery Lane, he had made sufficient 

 money to enable him to live comfortably. It is 

 somewhat doubtful where he lived for the next 

 few years, but it seems, as Mr. Bowles believed, 

 that he and his dear wife " Kenna " were residing 

 on their little property near Stafford in 1648, 

 his headquarters being in Clerkenwell. 



" Here," says Mr. Bowles, " after a placid 

 day spent on the margin of the solitary Trent 



