24 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



Sir Henry Wotton in his old age built himself 

 a fishing-house near Eton. Walton styles him 

 •' that under- valuer of money," and narrates that 

 he was "a frequent practiser of the art of 

 angling." Wotton is supposed to allude to Walton 

 in the line : — 



" There stood my friend," 



in his verses entitled — 



"On the bank as I sate a-fishing." 



Reliquiae. Wottonianre. 



The friendship between Walton and Wotton is 

 remarked upon by Edward Jesse, in Favourite 

 Haunts and Rural Studies (J. Murray, 1847), 

 thus : — 



' ' Odd enough we should think it now-a-days, to 

 see a provost of Eton, a dignitary of the Church 

 and a linendraper in the same punt, bobbing for 

 eels or hooking gudgeons ! " 



We must suppose Walton now and again 

 visited Stafford for fishing purposes, and when he 

 tells us he used to 



" Loiter long days near Shawford Brook," 



we are to infer that it is the water of that name 

 about five miles from Stafford that is meant, and 

 not the Shawford Brook near Winchester, although 

 he appears to have fished in Hampshire. This 

 latter brook is dear to anglers of this generation as 

 a trout stream. 



