LIFE OF WALTON. 51 



soon after the publication of my first edition of the Com* 

 plete Angler, containing the above facts ; to which the 

 Doctor added, that after the year 1719, Mr, Fulman's 

 papers came to the hands of Mr. Des Maizeaux, who 

 intended, in some way or other, to avail himself of them: 

 but he never published a second edition of his Life of 

 Hales ; nor, for aught that I can hear, have they ever 

 yet found their way into the world. 



In 1683, when he was ninety years old, Walton 

 published Thealma and Clearchus ; a pastoral history, 

 in smooth and easy verse, written long since by John 

 Chalkhill, Esq-; an acquaintance and friend of Ed- 

 mund Spenser : to this poem he wrote a preface, con- 

 taining a very amiable character of the author. 



He lived but a very little time after the publication 

 of this poem ; for, as Wood says, he ended his days 

 on the fifteenth day of December, 1683, in the great 

 frost, at Winchester, in the house of Dr. William 

 Hawkins, a prebendary of the church there, where he 

 lies buried*. 



In the cathedral of Winchester, vi%. in a chapel in 

 the south aile, called Prior Silksteed's chapel, on a 

 large black flat marble stone, is this inscription to his 

 memory; the poetry whereof has very little to recom- 

 mend it. 



Here resteth the body of 



Mr. ISAAC WALTON, 

 Who dyed the 1 5th of December, 

 1683. 



Alas ! he's gone before, 

 Gone to return no more. 

 Our panting breasts aspire 



After their aged sire ; 

 Whose well-spent life did last 

 Full ninety years and past. 



But now he hath begun 

 That, which will ne'er be done. 



Crown'd with eternal bliss, 



We wish our souls with his. 



VOTIS MODESTIS 8IC FLERUKT LIBKRI. 



* Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. col, 305. 

 D 2 



