

IZAAK WALTON AT DROXFORD 



THE interest in Izaak Walton continues among cul- 

 tured people ; indeed, of late years it seems to have 

 increased rather than diminished. Books dealing with 

 his life are still published, and new editions of The 

 Compleat Angler are issued from the Press. Among 

 other evidences that " meek Walton's heavenly 

 memory" is still cherished may be mentioned the 

 proposal to fill with stained glass the window in 

 Prior Silkstede's chapel above his grave in Win- 

 chester Cathedral. Recently, too, a volume entitled 

 Izaak Walton and his Friends has been published, in 

 which the writer, Mr. Stapleton Martin, endeavours to 

 bring out the spiritual side of Walton's character. 



And this interest in "the best of fishermen and 

 men " is not to be wondered at. In days of hurry and 

 excitement, when " the world is too much with us," it 

 is refreshing to turn to the pages of The Compleat 

 Angler, which breathes in every line the spirit of 

 contentment and peace. It is not that the book is of 

 any special value as a treatise on fishing or natural 

 history, for it is full of the quaintest and most anti- 

 quated conceits ; rather it is the repose and tranquillity 

 displayed throughout it that renders the little volume 

 of such enduring value to so many readers. " Among 

 all your readings," wrote Charles Lamb to Coleridge, 

 "did you ever light upon Walton s Compleat Angler ? 



