Izaak Walton 



social position ; so that in respect to his 

 parentage, at all events, Izaak Walton may 

 be held to have been fortunate. " Not a 

 vestige of the place or manner of his edu- 

 cation has been discovered." Walton sen- 

 ior died when Izaak was but two years 

 old. From his mother Walton probably 

 inherited his strong attachment to the 

 Church of England and his Royalist predi- 

 lections ; and it is only gallant to suppose 

 that he derived from her also that gen- 

 tleness and nobility of disposition which, 

 as his writings abundantly testify, formed 

 so pronounced a trait in his character. 

 To his father he may have been indebted 

 for the foundation of that physical strength 

 and endurance by which his life was pro- 

 longed to its ninetieth year. Walton's 

 own temperate living, and his long-con- 

 tinued open-air habits, no doubt helped 

 very materially to his attaining such an old 

 age. But what he owed to his parents 

 for his moral and physical endowments he 

 has himself acknowledged, though perhaps 

 indirectly, in more than one reference 

 in his works. 



Whatever the unrecorded story of Wal- 

 ton's boyhood and youth (imagination 

 might freely and delightedly fill in the 

 details !), it is quite certain that he was in 



267 



