xx LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1626, 



written various miscellaneous pieces, besides the works which bear 

 his name. 



Sir John Hawkins states, on the authority of a deed in his 

 possession, that in 1624 "Walton dwelt on the .north side of 

 Fleet Street, in a house two doors west of the end of Chancery 

 Lane, and abutting on a messuage known by the sign of the 

 Harrow, and that his house was then in the joint occupation of 

 himself and a hosier called John Mason." 8 Before that time the 

 celebrated Dr Donne became vicar of St Dunstan in the West ; 

 and an intimacy arose between Walton, who was then one of his 

 parishioners, and himself, which ended only with Donne's life. 

 The veneration which Walton entertained for his learned friend 

 is exhibited in the memoir which he prefixed to the publication of 

 his sermons, as well as in the elegy which he wrote upon his 

 decease. 



It was probably through Dr Donne that Walton became 

 acquainted with Sir Henry Wotton, Dr Henry King, son of the 

 Bishop of London, John Hales of Eton, and some other eminent 

 persons, particularly divines. He was also slightly known to Ben 

 Jonson ; 9 he speaks of Drayton, on one occasion, as his " honest 

 old friend," and on another as his " old deceased friend ; " l and 

 he appears to have lived on terms of intimacy with many of the 

 most distinguished literary men of his age. 



Such part of his time as was not occupied by his business, 

 seems, therefore, to have been passed in the society of men whose 

 acquaintance is sufficient proof of the esteem in which his talents 

 were held ; whilst the friendship of Donne, King, and Wotton, is 

 ample evidence of his moral worth. As some of the individuals 

 alluded to were fond of the amusement of angling, it is probable 

 that many of his leisure hours were passed with them in piscatory 

 excursions on the banks of the river Lea ; and his amiable and 

 placid temper, his agreeable conversation, and unaffected bene- 

 volence, inspired them with esteem and regard. 



After having been more than ten years in business, Walton thought 

 himself justified in incurring the expense and cares of married 

 life. His biographers have fallen into great mistakes respecting 

 his wives ; for, according to Sir John Hawkins and Dr Zouch, he 

 was only once married ; and the latter describes him to have de- 

 rived an hereditary attachment to the Protestant religion, from his 



8 Sir John Hawkins's Life of Walton, edited by Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., and prefixed 

 to the edition of the Complete Angler published by Bagster in 1815. 

 Vide postea. l Vide pp. 124, 197, postea. 



