230 Samuel Purchas and Walton. 



It is to Mr. J. Payne Collier we owe 

 the discovery of the first reference to 

 AValton. He pointed out, in his Poetical 

 Decameron, that a short poem, entitled 

 The Love of Amos and Laura, by S. P., 

 published in 1619, is dedicated thus : 



"TO MY APPROVED AND MUCH-RE- 

 SPECTED FRIEND, IZ. WA. 



" To thee, thou more than thrice-beloved friend, 



I, too unworthy of so great a bliss, 

 These harsh-tun'd lines I here to thee com- 

 mend, 



Thou being cause it is now as it is ; 

 For had'st thou held thy tongue, by silence 



might 

 These have been buried in oblivious night. 



" If they were pleasing I would call them thine, 



And disavow my title to the verse, 

 But being bad, I needs must call them mine, 



No ill thing can be clothed in thy verse. 

 Accept them then, and where I have offended, 

 Rase thou it out and let it be amended." 



The S. P. whose initials are attached 

 to this poem is supposed to have been 

 Samuel Purchas, author of The Pilgrimage, 

 and other poems. 



One of Walton's earliest friends in 

 London was the celebrated Dr. Donne. 

 He was his parishioner when Donne was 



sometime Provost of Eaton Colledge, published by 

 Richard Marriot in 1670. 



