50 Ifcings of tbe 1Rob t IRtfle, ant) (Bun 



been so obedient to your desires as to endure all the 

 praises you have ventured to fix upon me in it. And 

 when I have thanked you for them, as the effects of 

 an undissembled love, then let me tell you, Sir, that I 

 will readily endeavour to live up to the character you 

 have given of me, if there were no other reason, yet for 

 this alone, that you, that love me so well, and always 

 think what you speak, may not, for my sake, suffer by 

 a mistake in your judgment. 



And, Sir, I have ventured to fill a part of your 

 margin, by way of paraphrase, for the reader's clearer 

 understanding the situation both of your fishing house 

 and the pleasantness of that you dwell in. And I have 

 ventured also to give him a ' Copy of Verses ' that you 

 were pleased to send me,^now some years past, in which 

 he may see a good picture of both : and so much of 

 your own mind too, as will make any reader, that is 

 blessed with a generous soul, to love you the better. I 

 confess that for doing this you may think me too bold : 

 if you do, I will say so, too : and so far commute my 

 offence, that though I be more than a hundred miles 

 from you and in the eighty-third year of my age, yet I 

 will forget both, and next month begin a pilgrimage to 

 beg your pardon : for I would die in your favour and 

 till then will live, 



Sir, your most affectionate Father and friend, 



IZAAK WALTON. 

 LONDON, 

 April 29, 1676." 



Whether the venerable angler ever paid that promised 

 visit is uncertain. But that he had been previously an 



