LIFE OF WALTON. XXV 



transplanted to Cambridge; where he applied himself very assidu- 

 ously to the study of divinity. At seventeen he was admitted of Lin- 

 coln's-Ihn ; but not having determined what profession to follow, and 

 being besides not thoroughly settled in his notions of religion, he 

 made himself master of the Romish controversy, and became deeply 

 skilled in the civil and canon law. He was one of the many young 

 gentlemen that attended the Earl of Essex on the Cales expedition ; at 

 his return from which, he became secretary to the Lord-chancellor 

 Ellesmere. Being very young, he was betrayed into some irregula- 

 rities, the reflection on which gave him frequent uneasiness, during 

 the whole of his future life : but a violent passion which he enter- 

 tained for a beautiful young woman, a niece of Lady Ellesmere, cured 

 him of these, though it was for a time the ruin of his fortunes ; for he 

 privately married her, and by so imprudent a conduct brought od 

 himself and his wife the most pungent affliction that two young per- 

 sons could possibly experience; he being, upon the representation of 

 Sir George Moor, the lady's father, dismissed from his attendance on 

 the lord-chancellor, and in consequence thereof involved in extreme 

 distress and poverty;! in which he continued till about 1614, when 

 having been persuaded to enter into holy orders, he was chosen 

 preacher to the Honourable Society of Lmcoln's-Inn, and soon after 

 appointed a King's chaplain. His attachment to the above Society, 

 and his love of a town residence among his friends, were so strong, 

 that although, as Walton assures us, he had within the first year after 

 his ordination, offers of no fewer than fourteen country benefices, he 

 declined them all. In his station of chaplain he drew on him the eyes 

 of the king, who, with some peculiar marks of favour, preferred him 

 to the deanery of St. Paul's; and shortly after he was, on the presenta- 

 tion of his friend, the Earl of Dorset, inducted into the vicarage of 

 St. Punstan's in the west : but the misfortunes attending his marriage 

 had not only broken his spirit, but so impaired his constitution, that 

 he fell into a lingering consumption, of which he died in 1631. Bo- 

 sides a great number of Sermons, and a Discourse on Suicide > he 

 has left, of his writings, Letters to several persons of honour, in 

 quarto, 1651 ; and a volume of Poems first published, and as there 

 is reason to suppose, by Walton himself, in 16S5, but last, in 1719> 

 among which are six most spirited Satires, several whereof Mr. Pope 

 has modernized. Walton compares him to St. Austin, as having, 

 like him, been converted to a life of piety and holiness ; and adds, that 

 for the greatness of his natural endowments, he had been said to re- 

 semble Picus of Miranda la, of whom story says, that he was rather 

 born than made WISE by study. 



(1) In a letter of his to an intimate friend, is the following most affecting 

 passage : " There is not one person, but myself, well of my family : I have 

 already lost half a child ; and with that mischance of hers, my wife has 

 fallen into such a discomposure, as would afflict her too extremely, but 

 that the sickness of all her other children MU pities her ; of one of which , 

 in good faith, I have not much hope : and these meet with a fortune so ill 

 provided, for physic, and such relief, that if God should ease us with 

 burials, I know not how to perform even that. Bat I flatter myself with 

 this hope, that I am dying too ; for I cannot waste faster than by such 

 griefs." Life of Donne, in the Collection of Lives, edit. 1070, page 29. 



