164 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



supposed, in the houses of various friends, but under 

 the loving care of his daughter and son-in-law, in 

 whose house at Winchester, as we have seen, he 

 eventually died. And this surmise, which is obviously 

 the natural one, is not without confirmation in other 

 directions. The passage in his will will be remem- 

 bered " I also give unto my daughter all my books 

 at Winchester and Droxford, and whatever in those 

 two places are or I can call mine. To my son 

 Isaak I give all my books at Farnham Castell, and 

 a deske of prints and pictures, also a cabinett near 

 my bed's head, in which are some little things that 

 he will value, though of no great worth." It is 

 evident from this passage that Izaak Walton in his 

 last years had some close connection, not only with 

 Farnham and Winchester, but also with Droxford, 

 a village in the Meon Valley some fourteen miles 

 from the Cathedral city. At Farnham, it is clear, 

 he still had his own chamber at the " Castell," where 

 he had written the Lives of Hooker and of Her- 

 bert, and where he was always sure of a warm 

 welcome from his old friend of forty years' standing. 

 At Winchester there was the Canon's house in the 

 venerable Close, near to the one occupied by Dr. Ken, 

 at that time a Prebendary of the cathedral, where he 

 lived peacefully with his daughter and Dr. Hawkins, 

 and not, as his biographers have imagined, with 

 Bishop Morley, for Wolvesey Palace, on the build- 

 ing of which the good bishop was engaged, was not 

 finished at the time of Walton's death. But what 

 was his connection with Droxford ? To discover 

 this connection at once became the object of the 

 writer when he was appointed Rector of Droxford 

 a few years ago. From the ordinary sources of in- 



