lo IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



committed his watch to the custody of the Lord 

 Wilmot, and his George to Colonel Blague, and 

 distributed the gold he had in his pocket among 

 his servants, etc., did advertise the company to 

 make haste away." And, quaintly adds the 

 writer: "Thus David and his men departed out 

 of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go " 

 (1 Sam. xxiii. 13). 



"Colonel Blague remaining at Mr Barlow's 

 house at Bloorpipe, about eight miles from 

 Stafford, his first action was, with Mrs Barlow's 

 privity and advice, to hide his Majesty's George 

 under a heap of chips and dust ; yet the Colonel 

 could not conceal himself so well, but that he was 

 here, soon after, taken and carried prisoner to 

 Stafford, and from thence conveyed to the Tower 

 of London. Meantime the George was trans- 

 mitted to Mr Robert Milward, of Stafford, for 

 better security, who afterwards faithfully 

 conveyed it to Colonel Blague in the Tower 

 by the trusty hands of Mr Isaac Walton." 

 Most biographers of Walton give an account 

 of the George incident with the reference 

 to Ashmole's History of the Order of the 

 Garter. 



Charles II., after an exile of twelve years, 

 landed in England on the 25th May 1660, and five 

 days later Walton wrote a joyous eclogue to Mr 

 Alexander Brome (one of Ben Jonson's sons) on 



