Ixxviii LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1670, 



age shall (as this does) admire the learning and dear reason which that 

 excellent casuist Dr Sanderson (the late Bishop of Lincoln) hath demonstrated 

 in his sermons and other writings ; who, if they love virtue, would not 

 rejoice to know that this good man was as remarkable for the meekness 

 and innocence of his life, as for his great and useful learning ; and indeed 

 as remarkable for his fortitude, in his long and patient suffering (under 

 them that then called themselves the godly party) for that doctrine, which 

 he had preached and printed, in the happy days of the nation's and the 

 Church's peace ? And who would not be content to have the like account 

 of Dr Field, that great schoolman, and others of noted 'learning ? And 

 though I cannot hope, that my example or reason can persuade to this 

 undertaking, yet I please myself, that I shall conclude my preface, with 

 wishing that it were so." 



Dr Woodford also wrote complimentary verses to Walton upon 

 his Life of Hooker, which are dated on the loth of March 1670, 

 and were intended for the collected edition of the " Lives," 

 published in that year. A line in those verses, renders it likely 

 that Walton wrote the Life of Hooker, and possibly also that of 

 Herbert, in Bishop Morley's house at Chelsea. After four verses 

 in praise of Hooker, the following "Ritornata," in allusion to Wal- 

 ton, occurs : 



" To Chelsea, song; there, tell thy patron's* friend 

 The Church is Hooker's debtor : Hooker his : 

 And strange 'twould be, if he should glory miss, 

 For whom two such most powerfully contend. 



Bid him cheer up, the day's his own ; 



And he shall never die, 



Who, after seventy's past and gone, 



Can all th' assaults of age defy ; 

 Is master still of so much youthful heat, 

 A child so perfect and so sprightly to beget." 



Soon after the publication of that volume, Walton presented a 

 copy of it to Walter Lord Aston, which is preserved in the library 

 at Tixall ; and the following inscriptions prove that he was highly 

 esteemed by that nobleman. Walton wrote on the first leaf, 



" For my Lord Aston, 



" Iz. WA." 



Beneath which his lordship added, 



" Izake Walton gift to me, June y e 14, 1670, w ch I most thankfully for 

 his memmory off mee acknowledge a greate kindnesse. 



" WALTER ASTON." 5 



On the ist of July 1670, Walton presented a petition, in 

 which he is described as " Isaac Walton, gentleman," to the 



* [VARIATION.] Master's, ed. 1675. 



5 Tixall Letters, or the Correspondence of the Aston Family. i2mo. London, 1815, 

 vol. ii. p. 122. 



