VI SKETCH OF WALTON S LIFE. 



mitted the manuscript to Walton's perusal, who returned it with his ap- 

 probation, and a few marginal strictures : and in that year they came 

 abroad together. Mr. Cotton's book had the title of the "Complete 

 Angler. Part II. : being Instructions how to angle for Trout or Gray- 

 ling, in a clear Stream ;" and it has ever since been received as a Second 

 Part of Walton's book. In the title-page is a cipher composed of the 

 initial letters of both their names ; which cipher, Mr. Cotton tells us, he 

 had caused to be cut in stone, and set up over a fishing-house, that he 

 had erected near his dwelling, on the bank of the lovely river Dove, which 

 divides the counties of Stafford and Derby. 



Mr. Cotton's book is a judicious supplement to Walton's ; for it must 

 not be concealed, that Walton, though he was so expert a bottom-angler, 

 knew but little of fly-fishing ; and indeed he is so ingenuous as to confess, 

 that the greater part of what he said on that subject was communicated 

 to him by Mr. Thomas Barker,* and not the result of his own experience. 

 And of Cotton it must be said, that living in a country where fly-fishing 

 was, and is, almost the only practice, he had not only the means of ac- 

 quiring, but actually possessed more skill in the art, as also in the method 

 of making flies, than most men of his time. His book is, in fact, a con- 

 tinuation of Walton's, not only as it teaches at large that branch of the 

 art of angling which Walton had but slightly treated on, but as it takes 

 up Venator, Walton's piscatory disciple, just where his master had left 

 him ; and this connexion between the two parts will be clearly seen, when 

 it is remarked, that the traveller whom Cotton invites to his home and 

 so hospitably entertains, and also instructs in the art of fly-fishing we 

 say this traveller and, Venator, the pupil of Walton, come out to be one 

 and the same person. Not farther to anticipate what will be found in 

 the Second Part, it shall here suifice to say, that there is great spirit 

 in the dialogue ; and that the same conversible, communicative temper 

 appears in it, that so eminently distinguishes the piece it accompanies. 



In 1662, Walton lost his wife. She was buried in the cathedral church 

 of Worcester, and her monumental inscription tells, that she was * ' a 

 woman of remarkable prudence, and of primitive piety ; her great and 

 general knowledge, with such true humility, and blest with such Chris- 

 tian meekness, as made her worthy of a more memorable monument." 

 She left offspring, a son, called after his father, Izaak, a daughter, named 

 Anne, after herself. The son entered into holy orders, and became 

 chaplain to Dr. Seth Ward, bishop of Sarum, by whose favour he attained 

 to the dignity of a canon residentiary of that cathedral. He died at the 

 age of sixty-nine, much respected, for his good temper, discretion, can- 

 dour and sincerity, by all the clergy of the diocese. The daughter mar- 

 ried Dr. W. Hawkins, prebendary of Winchester. 



In 1683, when he was ninety years old, Walton published, " Thealmar 

 and Clearchus, a pastoral history, in smooth and easy verse, written long 

 since by John Chalkhill, Esq. ; an acquaintance and friend of Edmund 

 Spencer. " To this poem he wrote a preface, containing a very amiable 



* This gentleman published, in the year lG51,two years previously to the 

 appearence of Walton's work, a book entitled " The Art of Angling," dedicated 

 to Lord Montague. It was reprinted in 1653, and again in 1659, with the en- 

 larged title of " Barker's Delight, or the Art of Angling." Though an earlier 

 writer than Walton, the latter has been designated, "the common lather of all 

 anglers." 



