WHERE IZAAK WALTON DIED 173 



completed in 1687, as the Wainscot Book shows, the 

 same date appearing on the fine leaden guttering of the 

 house. For twenty-four years Dr Nicholas enjoyed 

 the comfort of his residence, dying in 1711, when he was 

 buried ir the Cathedral, not far from the grave of Izaak 

 Walton. The house of Dr Nicholas, as the Wainscot 

 Book reveals, was afterwards occupied by several dis- 

 tinguished prebendaries. Another College warden, 

 Dr John Cobb, held it for a short time. He was 

 followed by Mr Anthony Alsop, a classical scholar of 

 high reputation at Oxford, who, when tutor of Christ 

 Church, had published a selection of ^Esop's fables in 

 Latin verse, which Wart on, in his Essay on Pope, 

 speaks of as "exquisitely written." Indeed we are 

 told that liis skill in Latin composition was such that 

 " he was not unjustly esteemed inferior only to his 

 master Horace." He was chaplain to Bishop Tre- 

 lawny, who appointed him to the rectory of Brightwell, 

 in Berkshire, and to his prebend at Winchester. His 

 career, however, had a tragical ending. We learn from 

 The Reading Post of 22nd June 1726 that 



" on the night of the loth of June, about u o'clock, 

 as Mr Alsop was walking beside a small brook in his 

 garden in the Close, the ground gave way under his 

 feet, which threw him into the brook, where he was 

 found dead the next morning." 



He was interred somewhere in the Cathedral, as the 

 Register shows, on i4th June, but as regards the actual 

 spot of his burial, " no man knoweth of his sepulchre 

 unto this day." 



Later on the residence was occupied by " a very 



