Introduction 



In 1674 appeared an edition of Herbert's Temple, with Walton's 

 Life prefixed, and in 1675 appeared the second collected edition of 

 the Lives, on which occasion Cotton addressed a long and affec- 

 tionate poem to Walton, which he had written apparently on 

 January 17, 1672-3.* 



In 1676 appeared the fifth and finally revised edition of The Corn- 

 pleat Angler, to which further reference will be made. 



In 1678 Walton published his Life of Robert Sanderson, Bishop of 

 Lincoln, being then in his eighty-fifth year, but as vigorous mentally 

 as ever. This Life is of particular interest for the personal glimpses 

 which it gives us of Walton, and his attitude to the movements of 

 his own day. I have already quoted the charming picture of Walton 

 and Sanderson meeting in Little Britain in " that dangerous year, 

 1655," but this charming valedictory reference to his own length of 

 years, as he finishes telling of Sanderson's dying, should not be 

 omitted : " Thus this pattern of meekness and primitive innocence 

 changed this for a better life. 'Tis now too late to wish that my life 

 may be like his ; for I am in the eighty-fifth year of my age ; but I 

 humbly beseech Almighty God that my death may ; and do as 

 earnestly beg of every reader to say Amen. * Blessed is the man in 

 whose spirit there is no guile.' Ps. xxxii. 2." 



Two or three quotations from The Life of Sanderson and other 

 Lives, illustrative of Walton's politics and religious opinions, will be 

 better placed in the Appendix. 



In 1680 was published a pamphlet entitled " Love and Truth : in 

 two modest and peacable Letters, concerning the distempers of the 

 Present Times : written from a quiet and conformable Citizen of 

 London to Two Busie and Factious Shopkeepers in Coventry." 

 These letters have been attributed to Walton (confidently by Zouch) 

 and there has been much controversy on the matter. Their style 

 certainly recalls Walton, and Sir Harris Nicolas hesitates to decide. 

 William Pickering, in an interesting MS. note to his copy now in 

 the British Museum, decides unhesitatingly against Walton's author- 

 ship, and the balance of opinion seems to be that way. Space 



* See Appendix. 

 Ivi 



