88 THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 



quarrels between Church and State and Noncon- 

 formity in those exciting times ; and having fired 

 off a fair amount of his own controversial steam, he 

 suddenly bethinks himself of his hero ; he then 

 harks back and sometimes repeats a good deal of 

 what he had already written. 



He professes himself a very warm admirer both 

 of Thomas Ken and of Izaak Walton throughout, 

 and I have given the substance of what he had 

 to say about Walton, which is not very much ; 

 whilst therefore availing myself of his help as 

 regards Bishop Ken, I have thought it desirable 

 to present a separate short sketch of Izaak Walton 

 from other sources. 



One remarkable trait in the character of Izaak 

 Walton was the entire absence of any desire on his 

 part for literary or posthumous fame. He had 

 never written much about himself or his family. 

 In his extreme modesty he could never have 

 dreamt that anything new about him and his 

 surroundings would be eagerly sought after ; or 

 that the one hundredth edition of his " Compleat 

 Angler" should have been written two hundred 

 years after his death by one of his most ardent 

 disciples and published within two hundred yards 

 of the very spot whence issued his own modest 



