IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



A peaceful, honest, faithful life he led ; 



And blessed as he break his daily bread. 



Simple his manners, candid was his look, 



His mirror was the bright and purling brook; 



And life's clear waters as they passed on. 



Reminded him how soon he should be gone. 



At last his rod and angle he laid by. 



And humbly dyed. May all like David dye. 



And serve their Lord and Master faithfully. 



As David Hookham in this world served me. — " I. W. 



(6) SOME OF COTTON'S VERSES i 



Cotton's Verses to Walton 



(1672). 



To my old and most worthy Friend, Mr Izaak Walton, on 

 his Life of Dr Donne, Etc. 



When to a nation's loss, the virtuous die, 

 There's justly due, from every hand and eye, 

 That can or vrrite, or weep, an elegy. 



Which though it be the poorest, cheapest way, 

 The debt we owe, great merits to defray, 

 Yet it is almost all that most men pay. 



And these are monuments of so short date, 

 That, with their birth, they oft receive their fate ; 

 Dying with those whom they would celebrate. 



And though to verse great reverence is due, 

 Yet what most poets write, proves so untrue, 

 It renders truth in verse suspected too. 



1 Cotton^s Lyrical Poems have lately been edited and published by 

 J. E. Tutiu of Cottingham, near Hull. 



