IZAAK WALTON AT DROXFORD 167 



in his will, to whom Walton bequeaths a ring, with 

 the motto "A friend's farewell. I. W., obiit," we 

 also find the name of lt Mr. John Darbyshire." The 

 identity, therefore, of this individual, for whom Walton 

 evidently had a great regard, becomes a question of 

 distinct interest as throwing light on the friendships 

 of his last years. The feeling, therefore, of satisfac- 

 tion which the writer experienced when he discovered 

 that " Mr. John Darbyshire " was Dr. Hawkins's 

 curate at Droxford will easily be imagined. He was 

 evidently a person of some position, for though at 

 Droxford he was only curate, yet after the manner 

 of the age he held preferment elsewhere. From a 

 mural tablet in the north chapel of the church, to 

 the memory of his first wife, who died the year 

 before his aged friend, we learn that " Mr. John 

 Darbyshire was Rector of Portland and Curate of 

 Droxford." At Droxford, as seems to be clear from 

 the registers, he resided, and the chief events in his 

 family history were connected with the place. Walton, 

 we may be sure, regularly attended his ministrations 

 in the parish church, and took a deep interest in his 

 personal affairs, which had been darkened, as the 

 burial register reveals, by much sorrow. It must 

 therefore have been with feelings of pleasure that, a 

 few weeks before his death, the aged fisherman heard 

 of his friend's second marriage in Droxford church 

 to " Mrs. Frances Uvedale," youngest daughter of 

 Sir Richard Uvedale, Kt., whose family, from the 

 time of William of Wykeham, had exercised a wide 

 influence in the Meon Valley. 



Among the other friends mentioned in his will to 

 whom Walton leaves a ring as "a friend's farewell" 

 will also be noticed the name of " Mr. Francis Morley." 



