122 THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 



shall remaine of y" said farme or land shall be 

 disposed of as followeth. First I doe give 

 yeareley 20 shillings to bee by the Major of 

 Stafford and those that shall collect the said 

 rent and dispose of it as I have or shall here- 

 after direct. And that what money or rent 

 shall remain undisposed of shall be employed 

 to buy coles for some poore people that shall 

 most neede them in the said town ; the said 

 coales to bee delivered in the last week in 

 January or every first weeke in February. 

 / say then because I take that tynie to bee the 

 hardest and most pincheinge tyme with poore 

 peopled 



The words in italic are characteristic, as indeed 

 is the whole bequest of the good old man. The 

 reward to the maidservant who has " dwelt long in 

 one service" would seem to indicate that the great 

 " domestic question " was not unknown in Walton's 

 time. 



In 1808 the yearly rent of Walton's farm was 

 £'^0. In 1827 it appears to have been about the 

 same value. In the Chantry treasurer's account 

 for the Jialf-year ending 1858 this gift is only 

 i^32 iQj-. \d. (or probably for the whole year 



