12 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



self sometimes like a fish out of water in company 

 with the high-born and cultured Cotton, and in 

 that of scholars and Church dignitaries. He had, 

 says Lowell, "a genius for friendships and an 

 amiability of nature ample for the comfortable 

 housing of many at a time ; he had even a special 

 genius for bishops, and seems to have known 

 nearly the whole episcopal bench of his day." 

 Lowell gives us his own explanation of what he 

 means by "genius." 



We may imagine that Walton was as good 

 a listener as he was a great converser and a 

 maker of good talk "across the walnuts and 

 the wine," never making harsh remarks ; a re- 

 peater of reminiscences, though no mere man of 

 anecdote, a man full of bonhomie. If these con- 

 jectures are right such a man would have been 

 a welcome guest anywhere, but especially among 

 the clergy. 



Dr Johnson said : "It was wonderful that 

 Walton, who was in a very low situation in life, 

 should have been familiarly received by so many 

 great men, and that at a time when the ranks of 

 society were kept more separate than they are 

 now." Yet Johnson might have wondered how it 

 was that he was similarly treated by his superiors. 

 It is never recorded that Walton was on terms of 

 intimacy with any of the leading nonconformists 

 of his day. He might have known John Milton, 



