^o IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



Walton and Cotton's names ; there fixed to prove 



A record of affection near their favourite Dove. 



Cheerful, sage, and mild, 



Walton's discourse was like the honey balm 



Distilled by flowers. Along these waters wild, 



Smit with the love of angling, he beguiled, 



With his adopted son, the hours away ; 



While Cotton owned the fondness of a cliild 



For him, in whose glad company to stay 



Had made the whole year pass like one sweet month of May."i 



The following description of the fishing-house 

 was written by a Mr White for Sir John Hawkins, 

 in 1784 :— 



"It is of stone, and the room inside a cube of 

 about fifteen feet ; it is also paved with black and 

 white marble. In the middle is a square black 

 marble table, supported by two stone feet. The 

 room is wainscotted with curious mouldings that 

 divide the panels up to the ceiling ; in the larger 

 panels are represented, in painting, some of the 

 most pleasant of the adjacent scenes, with persons 

 fishing ; and in the smaller, the various sorts of 

 tackle and implements used in angling. In the 

 further corner on the left is a fireplace, with a 

 chimney, and on the right a large heaufet with 

 folding doors, whereon are the portraits of Mr 

 Cotton, his boy-servant, and Walton in the dress 

 of the time. Underneath is a cupboard, on the 



^ The Dove, which has its source in the High Peak, a few miles 

 south of Buxton, is for many miles the boundary between Derbyshire 

 and StaflFordshire ; it falls into the Derwent near Newton-Solney. 



