xcvi LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON'. [ r 68o, 



" For Mrs WALLOP, I think I did some years past, send you a booke 

 of Angling : This is printed since, and I think better ; and, because 

 nothing that I can pretend a tytell too, can be too good for you : pray 

 accept of this also, from me that am really, Madam, yo r most affectionate 

 friend ; and most humble servant, IZAAK WALTON. 



FARNHAM CASTELL, Decem r - 19- 1678." 



The lady for whom Walton thus expressed so much esteem, 

 and to whom he bequeathed a ring, was Dorothy, the youngest 

 daughter and one of the co-heirs of John Bluet, of Holcomb Regis, 

 in Devonshire, Esq., and widow of Henry Wallop, of Farley, in 

 Hampshire, Esq., whose grandson, John Wallop, was created Vis- 

 count Lymington and Earl of Portsmouth. She died on the 1st 

 of December 1702, aged seventy-two; and in the monumental 

 inscription to her memory it is said that, " To both which ancient 

 families, by her extraordinary prudence, moderation, piety, and 

 other eminent graces, she added great lustre," and " having had a 

 considerable share in those troubles and difficulties which attend 

 humanity, after a life of the wisest conduct with relation both to 

 temporal and spiritual matters, died as much like a Christian as 

 she lived ; and into the hands of her God, to whom 'she had long 

 paid a constant devotion, she meekly resigned her pious humble 

 soul." 3 



It has been already observed that two letters on political affairs, 

 the one written in 1678, and the other in 1679, have been 

 attributed to Walton. But as the fact of their having been written 

 by him is not fully established, it is desirable to examine the ques- 

 tion with some attention. 



In January 1668 a plan was proposed by Sir Orlando 

 Bridgeman, then Lord Keeper, for the compression of the more 

 moderate of the Dissenters from the Church, and allowing certain 

 indulgences to such as could not be brought within the compre- 

 hension. A bill for that purpose was prepared by Sir Matthew 

 Hale, but on being brought into the House of Commons, it 

 resolved not to adopt any measure of that description. The 

 rejection of the bill gave great offence to the Nonconformists ; 

 and Walton is said to have been the author of a letter dated on 

 the 1 8th of February in that year, which, with another on the same 

 subject written in September 1679, were printed in 1680 under 

 the title of " Love and Truth, in two modest and peaceable letters 

 concerning the distempers of the present times, written from a 

 quiet and comfortable citizen of London to two busy and factious 



8 Collins's Peerage, ed. 1779, vol. v. p. 194. 



