20 LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. 



bondman, who being found on the sea-shore, gathering up the 

 scattered fragments of an old broken boat, in order to burn 

 the body of his dead master, was asked, " Who art thou that 

 preparest the funerals of Pompey the Great ? " hoping, as he 

 says, that if a like question should be put to him, it would be 

 thought to have in it more of wonder than disdain. 



The above passage in Scripture, assumed by Walton as a 

 motto to the Collection of Lives, may, with equal propriety, be 

 applied to most of his friends and intimates ; who were men 

 of such distinguished characters for learning and piety, and so 

 many in number,* that it is matter of wonder by what means 

 a man in his station could obtain admittance among so illus- 

 trious a society ; unless we will suppose, as doubtless was the 

 case, that his integrity and amiable disposition attracted the 

 notice, and conciliated the aiFections of all with whom he had 

 any concern. 



It is observable, that not only these, but the rest of Walton's 

 friends, were eminent royalists ; and that he himself was in 

 great repute for his attachment to the royal cause, will appear 

 by the relation taken from Ashmole's History of the Order of 

 the Garter^ p. 228 ; where the author, speaking of the ensigns 

 of the order, says, " Nor will it be unfitly here remembered, by 

 what good fortune the present sovereign's Lesser George, set 

 with fair diamonds, was preserved after the defeat given to the 

 Scotch forces at Worcester, ann. 4 Car. II. Among the rest 

 of his attendants then dispersed, Colonel Blague was one ; 

 who taking shelter at Blore-pipe-house in Staffordshire, where 

 one Mr George Barlow then dwelt, delivered his wife this 

 George to secure. Within a week after, Mr Barlow himself 

 carried it to Robert Milward, Esq. ; he being then a prisoner 

 to the Parliament, in the garrison of Stafford and by his means 

 was it happily preserved and restored ; for, not long after, he 

 delivered it to Mr Isaac Walton (a man well known, and as 

 well beloved of all good men ; and will be better known to 

 posterity, by his ingenious pen, in the Lives of Dr Donne, Sir 

 Henry Wotton, Mr Richard Hooker, and Mr George Herbert,} 

 to be given to Colonel Blague, then a prisoner in the Tower ; 

 who, considering it had already passed so many dangers, was 

 persuaded it could yet secure one hazardous ' attempt of his 



* In the number of his intimate friends, we find Archbishop Usher, 

 Archbishop Sheldon, Bishop Morton, Bishop King, Bishop Barlow, Dr 

 Fuller, Dr Price, Dr Woodford, Dr Featly, Dr Holdsworth, Dr Hammond, 

 Sir Edward Sandys, Sir Edward Bysh, Mr Cranmer, Mr Chillingworth, 

 Michael Drayton, and that celebrated scholar and critic, Mr John Hales 

 of Eton. 



