LIFE OF WALTON. XXXV 



served, 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 Stafford- 

 shire, 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 hap- 

 pily 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 dan- 

 gers, was persuaded it could yet secure one hazardous attempt of his 

 own; and thereupon, leaving the Tower without leave-taking, hasted 

 the presentation of it to the present sovereign's hand." l 



The religious opinions of good men are of little importance to 

 others, any farther than they necessarily conduce to virtuous practice; 

 since we see, that as well the different persuasions of Papist and Pro- 

 testant, as the several no less differing parties into which the Reformed 

 Religion is unhappily sub-divided, have produced men equally re- 

 markable for their endowments, sincere in their professions, and ex- 

 emplary in their lives ; but were it necessary, after what has been 

 above remarked of him, to be particular on this head, with respect to 

 our Author we should say, that he was a very dutiful son of the 

 Church of England ; nay further, that he was a friend to an hierarchy, 

 or, as we should now call such a one, a high-churchman ; for which 

 propensity of his, if it needs an apology, it may be said, That he had 

 lived to see hypochruy and fanaticism triumph in the subversion of 

 both our ecclesiastical and civil constitution, the important question 

 of toleration had not been discussed, the extent of regal prerogative, 

 and the bounds of civil and religious liberty, had never been ascer- 

 tained, and he, like many other good men, might look on the inte- 

 rests of the Church, and those of Religion, as inseparable. 



Besides the Works of Walton above-mentioned, there are extant, 

 of his writing, Verges on the death of Dr. Donne, beginning, " Our 

 Donne is dead;*' Verses to his reverend friend the Author of the Sy- 

 n>i</f/ue, printed together with Herbert's Temple; 3 Verses before 

 Alexander Brome's Poems, octavo, 1646, and before Shirley's Poems, 

 octavo, 1646, and before Cartwright's Plays and Poems, octavo, 

 1651. He wrote also the following Lines under an engraving of Dr. 

 Donne, before his Poems, published in 1635. 



This wax for youth, strength, mirth, and wit that time 

 Most count their golden age ,4 but was not thine : 



(1) See also Dr. Plolt's Staffordshire, 311. 



(2) If the intelligent reader doubts the truth of this position, let him 

 reflect on, and compare with each other, the characters of HOOKER, Father 

 PAUL, and Mr. RICHARD BAXTER. 



(3) Vide infra, the SIGNATURE to the second Copy of Commendatory 

 Verses, and Chap. V. note. 



(4) Alluding to his age, viz. eighteen, when the picture was painted from 

 which the print was taken. 



