IZAAK WALTON 



(1593—1683) 



CHAPTER I 



A SHORT MEMOIR OF IZAAK WALTON 



" "We seldom find 

 The man of business with the artist join'd." 



Curiosities of Literature. 



IzAAK Walton was born on the 9th of August 

 1593, in the parish of St Mary, in the town of 

 Stafford. Research as to his parentage has 

 proved unsatisfactory, and nothing certain is 

 known on the subject beyond that his father's 

 name was Jervis Walton. The late Mr Thomas 

 Westwood, who died in 1888, and was a great 

 authority on Walton, wrote in 1873 (see Notes and 

 Queries, 4th S. XI. p. 41) : "It may be we shall 

 never know which is the roof that sheltered 

 Walton's youthful head in Stafford, even if such 

 relic be still in existence." It has been conjectured 

 by Dean Stanley {Memorials of Westminster Ahbey) 

 that he was named Izaak after the learned Isaac 

 Casaubon, who was a friend of Walton's father, 



