XX LIFE OF WALTON. 



To pursue the subject of the Biographical Writings about two 

 years after the Restoration, Walton wrote the Life of Mr. Richard 

 Hooker, author of the Ecclesiastical Polity. He was enjoined to un- 

 dertake this work by his friend Doctor Gilbert Sheldon, ' afterwards 

 archbishop of Canterbury j who, by the way, "was an angler. Bishop 

 King, in a letter to the author,* says of this Life : " I have often seen 

 Mr. Hooker with my father, who was after bishop of London ; from 

 whom, and others at that time, I have heard most of the material 

 passages which you relate in the history of his lite." Sir William 

 Dugdale, speaking of the three posthumous books of the Ecclesiasti- 

 cal Polity, refers the reader" to that seasonable historical discourse, 

 lately compiled and published, with great judgment and integrity, by 

 that much deserving person, Mr. Isaac Walton." 3 In this Life we 

 are told, that Hooker, while he was at college, made a visit to the 

 famous Doctor Jewel, then bishop of Salisbury, his good friend and 

 patron : An account of the bishop's reception of him, and behaviour 

 at his departure as it contains a lively picture of his simplicity and 

 goodness, and of the plain manners of those times is given in the 

 note. * 



The Life of Mr. George Herbert, as it stands the fourth and last 

 in the volume wherein that and the three former are collected, seems 

 to have been written the next after Hooker's : it was first published 

 in duodecimo, 1670. Walton professes himself to have been a 

 stranger as to the person of Herbert;* and though he assures us his 



Mime time in the library of the Earl of Halifax. Vide Biographia Britan- 

 nira. SMI, note P. in margine. 



The editors of the above work have styled this colloquy a ivltty con* 

 fabulation, but it seems remarkable for nothing but its singularity, which 

 consists in the starting of a metaphor and hunting it down. 



(I) Walton's Epist. tothe reader of the Lives, in 8vo. 16TO. 



(1) Before the Lin a. 



(3) Short y leu- of the late Troubles in England, fol. 1601, p. 39. 



(4) " As soon as he was perfectly recovered from this sickness, he took 

 a journey from Oxford to Exeter, to satisfy and see his good mother ; 

 being accompanied with a countryman and companion of his own college, 

 and both on loot ; which was, then, either more in fashion or want of 

 money, or their humility made it so: but on foot they went, and took 

 Salisbury in their way, purposely to see the good bishop, who made Mr. 

 Hooker and his companion dine with him at his own table; which Mr. 

 Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude, when he saw his mother 

 and friends. And at the bishop's parting with him, the bishop gave him 

 good counsel, and his benediction, but forgot to give him money, which, 

 when the bishop had considered, he sent a servant in all haste to call 

 Richard back to* him : and at Richard's return, the bishop said to him : 

 Richard! I sent for you back to lend you a horse, which hath carried me 

 many a mile, and, I thank God, with much ease; and presently delivered 

 into his hands a walking staff*, with which he professed he had travelled 

 through many parts of Germany ; and he said. Richard? J do not give, but 

 tend you my horse ; be sure you In honest, and bring my horse back to me at 

 your return this tray to Oxford. And 1 do now give you ten groats to 

 bear your charges to Exeter ; and here is ten groats more, which I charge 

 you to deliver to your mother ; and tell her, I send her a bishop's benediction 

 nith it, and beg the continuance of her prayers for me. And if you. bring my 

 horse back to me, I will give you ten groats more to carry you on foot to the 

 college: and so God bless you, good Richardl ' + Life ot Hooker, in the Col- 

 lection of Lives, edit. 1070. 



(5) Introd. to Otrbtrt's Life. 



