xii INTRODUCTION. 



youthful effusions it had been lax. Yet he did not therefore 

 banish poetry from his sympathies ; he turned his gift into a 

 purer channel, and listened to the meditative muse. This 

 was he who, after many scruples and delays, was finally 

 ordained priest, and became, in 1623, the Vicar of St. 

 Dunstan's in the West, who, having written verses of a sys- 

 tematic and insistent dissoluteness, was in later life filled 

 with so strong a desire for the saving of souls that he wished 

 he might either die in his pulpit or take his death in the 

 discharge of his duty. It is not difficult to understand how 

 such a one would be attracted by such another as Izaak 

 Walton, and how Walton, admiring the experience of one 

 who, after being educated at both universities, had been 

 engaged in the business of the State, and had travelled in 

 foreign lands and acquired their tongues, would have no less 

 regard for the mature character, the culture and learning of 

 Dr. Donne. 



Walton's intimacy with Donne made him acquainted 

 also with Donne's friends, and among them Sir Henry 

 Wotton. He too, after studying at Oxford, had lived in 

 France, Italy, and Germany, and had been employed as an 

 ambassador by James the First. Later in life, when nearly 

 threescore years of age, he had become Provost of Eton 

 College, " a dignity well suited to a mind like his, that had 

 withdrawn itself from the world for the purpose of religious 

 contemplation." Hejwas. a connoisseur in painting, sculp- 

 t-ure, and architecture, and is described as the most perfect 

 gentleman of Jhis tune : to the variety of his accomplishments 

 the art of angling was not awanting, and here at least 

 Walton was in touch with him. 



It was after the publication of The Compleat Angler that 

 Charles Cotton became the friend of Walton, that is, after 

 1653, and in this instance, also, we must look upon com- 



