160 THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 



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 Prebend 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 building of which the good bishop was 

 engaged, was not finished at the time of 

 Walton's death. But what was his connec- 

 tion with Droxford ? To discover this con- 

 nection at once became the object of the 

 writer when he was appointed Rector of Drox- 

 ford two years ago. From the ordinary sources 

 of information he could learn nothing. The 

 biographers of Izaak Walton, so far as he is 

 aware, pass over this mention of Droxford in 

 almost total silence. Even Mr. Stapleton 

 Martin makes no reference to it. The word 

 ' Droxford ' does not so much as occur in his 

 index. Sir Harris Nicolas does indeed sug- 

 gest that perhaps Walton had a house or 

 apartments in the village, which from the 

 passage already quoted in the will is abund- 

 antly evident. Mr. Dewar, in his Winchester 

 edition of ' The Compleat Angler,' is the first 

 to hint at the true solution, although he 

 admits that he had ' not succeeded in rinding 

 out anything about Walton at Droxford.' 

 He states, however, that Dr. Hawkins, besides 

 being Prebendary of Winchester, was also 

 Rector of Droxford. Repeated searches in 

 the episcopal register, alike at Winchester and 

 at the Record Office, produced no evidence 

 that William Hawkins was ever Rector of 



