Introduction 



Lane and Fleet Street a matter of familiar tradition. Sir John 

 Hawkins states that in 1624, "Walton dwelt on the north side of 

 Fleet Street in a house two doors west of the end of Chancery Lane, 

 and abutting on a messuage known by the sign of the Harrow, and 

 that this house was then in the joint occupation of himself and a 

 hosier called John Mason." " Half a shop was sufficient for the 

 business of Walton," comments one of his old editors. From 1628 

 to 1644 he seems to have lived in Chancery Lane itself, in " about 

 the seventh house on the left-hand side," but Sir Harris Nicolas 

 points out that in the parish-books of Saint Dunstan's his house is 

 not, like the others, described as a shop. From the same parish 

 records it has been unearthed that during the years from 1632 to 

 1640, Walton fulfilled the ordinary civic duties of a householder, 

 as scavenger, juryman, constable, grand juryman, overseer of the 

 poor, sidesman and vestryman facts of humble biographical 

 importance. 



But long before Walton filled any of these posts of public useful- 

 ness, his residence in the parish of St. Dunstan's had brought him 

 into acquaintance and life-long friendship with its famous vicar, Dr. 

 John Donne, a friendship of the first importance in Walton's life, 

 as to it he probably owed his introduction to that literary and 

 ecclesiastical society, in which, haberdasher or ironmonger as he 

 might be, he was so evidently 'persona grata. That this should be 

 so has not unnaturally been a matter of surprise to his editors, and 

 Dr. Johnson remarked that " it was wonderful that Walton, who 

 was in a very low station in life, should have been familiarly received 

 by so many great men, and that at a time when the ranks of society 

 were kept more separate than they are now." Johnson suggests as 

 explanation that he was no longer a tradesman but had become a 

 professional author, but actually his retirement from business did 

 not take place till 1643. After all, the circumstance need not have 

 so greatly surprised a man who similarly owed his position to his 

 own personality and talents. 



However it be, we find him, while still living in Fleet Street, on 

 terms of intimacy and affection with such men as Sir Henry Wotton, 

 Dr. Henry King (son of the Bishop of London), John Hales of Eton, 



xxxvi 



