LIFE 



IZAAK WALTON, 



THE excellent Lord Verulam has noted it as one of the 

 great deficiencies of biographical history, that it is, for the 

 most part, confined to the actions of kings, princes, and great 

 personages, who are necessarily few ; while the memory of less 

 conspicuous, though good men, has been no better preserved 

 than by vague reports and barren elogies. 



It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, if little care has been 

 taken to perpetuate the remembrance of the person who is the 

 subject of the present inquiry ; and, indeed, there are many 

 circumstances that seem to account for such an omission ; for 

 neither was he distinguished by his rank, or eminent for his 

 learning, or remarkable for the performance of any public 

 service ; but as he ever affected a retired life, so was he noted 

 only for an ingenious, humble, good man. 



However, to so eminent a degree did he possess the qualities 

 above ascribed to him, as to afford a very justifiable reason 

 for endeavouring to' impress upon the minds of mankind, by a 

 collection of many scattered passages concerning him, a due 

 sense of their value and importance! 



ISAAC, or, as he used to write it, IZAAK WALTON, was born 

 at Stafford, in the month of August, 1593. The Oxford 

 Antiquary, who has thus fixed the place and year of his nativity, 

 has left us no memorials of his family, nor even hinted where 

 or how he was educated ; but has only told us, that before 

 the year 1643, Walton was settled, and followed the trade of 

 a sempster, in London.* 



* Athen. Oxon. vol. i. C5. 

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