xxxvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1647, 



if not a sin, yet a shame, to be left behind with him only. Dr 

 Wall I knew, and will speak nothing of him, for he is dead." 4 



Walton does not mention the name of the member of the com- 

 mittee to whom he alludes, but the conjecture that it was Mr 

 Swinfen, who was one of his friends, has been confirmed by a 

 manuscript note in the copy of the Life of Bishop Sanderson 

 which he presented to that gentleman, where some one, and pro- 

 bably his granddaughter, has written, opposite to the preceding 

 paragraph, " my grandfather Swinfen." 5 



Two very interesting anecdotes of Charles the First, whom 

 Walton elsewhere calls " the knowing and conscientious King," 

 and " the martyr for the Church," occur in the Memoir of Sander- 

 son, who attended his Majesty in the Isle of Wight, and had 

 many private conferences with him on the affairs of the Church. 

 " Let me here," says Walton, " take occasion to tell the reader 

 this truth, very fit, but not commonly known ; that in one of these 

 conferences this conscientious King was told by a faithful and 

 private intelligencer, that * if he assented not to the parliament's 

 proposals, the treaty 'twixt him and them would break imme- 

 diately, and his life would then be in danger ; he was sure he 

 knew it.' To which his answer was, 1 1 have done what I can 

 to bring my conscience to a compliance with their proposals, and 

 cannot ; and I will not lose my conscience to save my life.' And 

 within a very short time after, he told Dr Sanderson and Dr 

 Morley, or one of them that then waited with him, that 'the 

 remembrance of two errors did much afHict him, which were, 

 his assent to the Earl of StrafTord's death, and the abolishing of 

 Episcopacy in Scotland ; and that if God ever restored him to be 

 in peaceable possession of his crown, he would demonstrate his 

 repentance by a public confession and voluntary penance ( I think 

 barefoot) from the Tower of London or Whitehall to St Paul's 

 Church, and desire the people to intercede with God for his 

 pardon.' I am sure one of them, that told it me, lives still, and 

 will witness it. And," he adds, " it ought also to be observed 

 that Dr Sanderson's Lectures de Juramento ' were so approved 

 and valued by the King, that in this time of his imprisonment 

 and solitude he translated them into exact English, desiring Dr 

 Juxon (then Bishop of London), Dr Hammond, and Sir Thomas 



4 Walton's Lives, ed. Zouch, II. 221, 222. 



5 This copy of the " Life of Sanderson" was formerly in the possession of Mr Picker- 

 ing, the publisher of the first edition of this work. The note was probably written by- 

 Mrs Jervis, the only child of John Swinfen, Esq., and granddaughter of the Mr Swinfen 

 mentioned in the text. Mrs Jervis was the grandmother of the late Earl of St Vincent. 



