INTRODUCTION. vii 



A pleasant, hale old man, of a taking personality that won 

 him friends among the learned and cultured of his time, 

 of a kindly disposition that sought no quarrel with any, 

 careful, no doubt, in business, yet counting the business of 

 living of greater import than the acquiring of gold, he was 

 further possessed of the healthy vigour and manliness that 

 always belong to the true sportsman. He could, in addition, 

 appreciate qualities which are of more account on the high- 

 ways of life, qualities awanting in himself while conspicuous 

 in certain of his friends; and by a complemental disposition 

 of the guiding principles of friendship these men, seeking 

 distinction as authors, statesmen, or theologians, and even 

 the preferment that brings worldly gain, genial-hearted men 

 beneath their conventional formalities, were attracted by 

 the lovable qualities of the aforetime vendor of linens and 

 the all-time master of anglers. The pleasant urbanity of 

 mind and manner with which he had been gifted continued 

 to characterise him in spite of the experiences which must 

 have been gained in many years of troublous history and 

 vicissitude of things, and a like placidity of thought per- 

 vades all his writings, as if he had made a long journey 

 and finally come to a calm anchorage. The impression 

 that one always receives is that of a man well advanced in 

 years: such, indeed, was his condition when he commenced 

 author, and so he always appears in the portraits. 



Yet, doubtless, Izaak Walton was not yet arrived at his 

 teens when he learned the rudiments of the angler's art. 

 Among the streams about Stafford he would serve his angling 

 apprenticeship ; for it is to that town that the distinction of 

 his birth belongs. He was son to a certain Jervis Walton 

 who lived for less than three years after the birth of Izaak 

 (1593 is the date of this event), and by all accounts the 

 mother seems to have died still earlier. The status of 



