Shawford. 1 79 



These verses appeared first in the third 

 edition of the Angler, published in 1661. 

 It has generally been assumed, and I 

 have no doubt correctly so, that Shawford 

 is short for Shallowford, the village on the 

 Sow, near Stafford, where Walton owned a 

 house and land which he left to the poor 

 of Stafford. But we know that Walton 

 was acquainted with Hampshire. I have 

 just quoted a passage in which he tells us 

 he had witnessed trout-spearing there by 

 torchlight. This passage appears in the 

 first edition, published in 1653. Is it 

 not just possible that the Shawford re- 

 ferred to is the village of that name near 

 Twyford, on the Itchen, a little below 

 Winchester ? I confess the probability is 

 that Shallowford, near Stafford, is referred 

 to, as he bought the farm in 1654,* and 

 probably often visited it between that 

 date and the time he wrote the verses 

 referred to first published in 1661. How- 

 ever, I never pass Shawford, when fishing 

 in the Itchen, without thinking of Walton. 



Although he does not tell us so in so 

 many words, we may gather from the text 

 that the primrose bank on which the 

 verses were composed was neither at 

 Shawford nor Shallowford, but on the Lea 



* By an error I have this as 1656 in the "Lea 

 and Dove " edition of the Angler. R. B. M. 



