2 LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. 



From his own writings, then, it must be that the circum- 

 stances attending his life must, in a great measure, come ; and, 

 as occasions offer, a proper use will be made of them : never- 

 theless, a due regard will be paid to some traditional memoirs, 

 which (besides that they contain nothing improbable) the 

 authority of those to whom we stand indebted for them, will 

 not allow us to question^ 



His first settlement in London, as a shopkeeper, was in the 

 Royal Burse in Cornhill, built by Sir Thomas Gresham, and 

 finished in 1567.* In this situation he could scarcely be said 

 to have elbow-room ; for the shops over the Burse were but 

 seven feet and a half long, and five wide ;-f yet here did he 

 carry on his trade, till some time before the year 1624 ; when 

 " he dwelt on the north side of Fleet Street, in a house two 

 doors west of the end of Chancery Lane, and abutting on a 

 messuage known by the sign of the Harrow.":}: Now, the old 

 timber house at the south-west corner of Chancery Lane in 

 Fleet Street, till within these few years, was known by that 

 sign : it is therefore beyond doubt that Walton lived at the 

 very next door. And in this house he is, in the deed above 

 referred to, which bears date 1624, said to have followed the 

 trade of a linen-draper. It farther appears by that deed, 

 that the house was in the joint occupation of Isaac Walton, 

 and John Mason, hosier ; whence we may conclude, that half 

 a shop was sufficient for the business of Walton. 



A citizen of this age would almost as much disdain to admit 

 of a tenant for half his shop, as a knight would to ride double j 

 though the brethren of one of the most ancient orders in the 

 world were so little above this practice, that their common 

 seal was the device of two riding on one horse. A more 

 than gradual deviation from that parsimonious character, of 

 which this is a ludicrous instance, hastened the grandeur and 

 declension of that fraternity j and it is rather to be wished 

 than hoped, that the vast increase of trade of this country, 

 and an aversion from the frugal manners of our forefathers, 

 may not be productive of similar consequences to this nation 

 in general. 



I conjecture, that about 1632 he married; for in that year 

 I find him living in a house in Chancery Lane, a few doors 



* Ward's Life of Sir Thomas Gresham, p. 12. f Ibid. 



J Ex vet. charta pents me. 



The Knights Templars. Ashmole's Inst.ofthe Order of the Garter, 

 p. 55. See the seal at the end of Matt. Paris Hist, Anglicana, edit. 

 1640. 



