IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 117 



writing of Walton, from which I infer that its 

 advertisement may have been written by Walton 

 and the work probably seen through the Press and 

 the copy given by Walton to Archbishop Sancroft, 

 but I do not believe that the two letters were 

 written by Walton {see his Life by Nicolas, p. 101). 

 Although Dr Zouch has confidently asserted that 

 they are his by him. — W. P."^ 



It is unlikely that further light will be forth- 

 coming as to who the real author of this treatise 

 was ; I will, however, remark that Walton was 

 no resident " citizen " of London in 1680.^ To judge 

 from internal evidence only it would seem highly 

 probable it was written by Walton, as so many 

 of his words and phrases occur in it, and the 

 style, sentiment and argumentation are similar, 

 as even a cursory perusal of it will show, Lowell 

 writes: "The evidence internal and external that 

 he was the author seems to me conclusive." No 

 help towards solving the difficulty is afforded by 

 the writer of Walton's life in the Dictionary of 

 National Biography, the treatise not being even 

 mentioned or referred to ! My difficulty is, that 

 if Walton wrote the work I think he would only 

 have been too glad to tell the world he did so, 

 for the reasons given in Chapter IV., but Dr 



1 This manuscript note was most courteously copied out and sent 

 to me by the British Museum authorities. 



* And he was not so in 1668 or 1679, the years iu which the 

 letters were respectively written. 



