NEAR UDIMORE, RIVER ROTHEK 



CHAPTER XII 



Walton's literary work — Lives of great divines — List of 

 his works — " Thealma and Clearchus " — Walton's pre- 

 face — Walton's letter to Colonel Venables on the publi- 

 cation of his "Angling Improv'd." 



Walton's Lives of Great Divines 



PVERY author or editor of a "Life" of Walton 

 has given more or less a detailed account of 

 these works and the circumstances under which 

 they were written. It is not my intention to repeat 

 these oft-repeated tales ; nevertheless I should con- 

 sider my sketch very incomplete without a brief 

 mention not only of these lives, but of the other 

 writings of the good old author. 



The. first complete edition o^ four of the "Lives'' 

 was published in 1670, and is thus described by the 

 author — 



