1 64 THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 



could find, at any rate, no name on the 

 Ordnance maps of Hampshire more similar 

 to Norington than this Northington." 



But by some fortunate inspiration Mr. Dewar 

 discovered "that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners 

 had at their offices in Whitehall Place three leases 

 dated 1683, 1687, and 1691, * being renewals of a 

 lease for twenty-one years, granted in 1679 by the 

 Bishop of Winchester .to Izaak Walton in respect 

 of a certain Northington Farm in the Parish of 

 Overton." 



Then it dawned upon Mr. Dewar that he was 

 about to "discover a new haunt of Walton's in 

 Hampshire, a haunt overlooked by a hundred 

 editors of the ' Angler,' and in one of the choicest 

 spots in the whole vale of the Test." 



***** 



Although these leases have been open to the 

 inspection of that mysterious body known as the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners for over two centuries, 

 not one of them appears to have immortalised 

 himself by proving Walton's connection with the 

 charming, troutful Test; but perhaps it was as 



1 Seeing that Walton died in 1683, these renewals could 

 not have been granted to him, though possibly to his son. 



