THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 95 



There is nothing to contradict, and much to 

 support, the assumption that Walton must have 

 found his way to London not later than his sixteenth 

 year (1609), and that he was apprenticed to one 

 Thomas Grinsell ; but where Grinsell carried on 

 his business, or what that business really was, are 

 still matters not beyond the region of controversy. 

 There is quite satisfactory proof that on Novem- 

 ber 12, 161 8, when he was in his twenty-fifth year, 

 Walton was made a member of the Ironmongers' 

 Company. The entry is as follows — 



" 161 8, 1 2th November, Isaac Walton, late 

 apprentice to Thomas Grinsell, was now 

 admitted and sworne a free brother of this 

 Companie, and paid for his admittance xiij^^. 

 and for default of presentation xj-." 



Sir Harris Nicolas evidently was not aware of 

 this entry ; he says — 



" The first reference to Walton when a young 

 man is in the dedication of a short poem 

 entitled ' The Love of Amos and Laura,' by 

 S. P., published in 16 19, to which attention 

 was first drawn by J. Payne Collier, in the 

 * Poetical Decameron,' vol. ii. p. 1 1 1." 



