CHAP. v. ] THE FOURTH DA*. 1 1 1 



Or a laverock build her nest : 



Here, give my weary spirits rest, 



And raise my lovv-pitch'd thoughts above 



Earth, or what poor mortals love : 



Thus, free from lawsuits and the noise 



Of princes' courts, I would rejoice : 

 Or, with my Bryan,* and a book, 

 Loiter long days near Shawford -brook ;f 

 There sit by him, and eat my meat, 

 There see the sun both rise and set : 

 There bid good-morning to next day ; 

 There meditate my time away, 



And Angle on ; and beg to have 



A quiet passage to a welcome grave. 



When I had ended this composure, I left this place, and saw a 

 brother of the angle sit under that honeysuckle hedge, one that 

 will prove worth your acquaintance. I sat down by him, and 

 presently we met with an accidental piece of merriment, which I 

 will relate to you, for it rains still. 8 



VARIATION. 



8 And now let me tell you, my honest scholar, what an accidental piece of merriment 

 chanced last summer; as I and a brother of the angle, which will prove worth your 

 acquaintance, sat under this honeysuckle hedge. zd edit. 



of Walton's time, whose portrait is yet to be seen in the Music School at Oxford : and is 

 printed with the notes, in a collection entitled Select musical Ayres and Dialogues, 

 folio, 1653. It was also set by Sig. Alfonso Ferabosco, and published in a collection of 

 his airs, in folio, 1609. 



This song appears to have been a great favourite for some years after the Restoration, 

 and very popular while ballad-music remained in fashion. That accurate observer, 

 JPepys, tells us in his Diary, Feb. 12, 1666-7 [ v l- >' P- M]> that " he [T. Killigrew] hath 

 ever endeavoured in the late King's time and in this to introduce good musique, 

 but he never could do it, there never having been any musique here better than ballads." 

 Adding "' Hermit poore ' and * Chiuy Chase' was all the musique we had." The three 

 first words of it were become a phrase. The Hon. Roger North, in his Life of the Lord- 

 keeper Gnildford, page 212, 410 edit., speaking of Sir Job Charleton, then chief-justice 

 of Chester, says, he wanted to speak with the King ; and went to Whitehall, where, 

 returning from his walk in St James's Park, he must pass ; and there he sat him down, 

 " like hermit poor." Among the poems of Phineas Fletcher, hereafter mentioned, is a 

 metaphrase of the xliind Psalm ; which, it is said, may be sung to the tune of "Like 

 Hermit Poor" There is also an allusion to this song in Hudibras, Part I. canto ii. 

 "iae 1169. 



" That done, they ope the trap-door gate, 

 And let Crowdero down thereat ; 

 Crowdero making doleful face, 

 ' Like tiermit poor in pensive place.'" 



It was also printed in the Academy of Compliments, 1650. In the Tixall poetry, 

 1813, edited by Mr Clifford, from a manuscript collection nearly contemporary with 

 Walton, it forms, by an arbitrary disposition of the words, a little irregular ode, entitled 

 Despair. Eu. H. 



* It has been conjectured that this is the name of his favourite dog. H. 



t Shawford-brook is the name of that part of the river Sow that runs through the land 

 which Walton bequeathed to the corporation of Stafford to find coals for the poor : the 

 right of fishery attaches to the little estate. Shawford, or Shallow-ford, is a liberty in 

 the parish of St Mary Stafford, though five miles distant from the town. The messuage 

 there described in Walton's will is now divided into two tenements. It is a poor cottage, 

 thatched, and old. Shawford-brook winds beautifully through a narrow vale, and 

 Walton's commendation. E. 



