LIFE OF WALTON. 



Stafford, for certain charitable purposes; this son, upon his attain- 

 ment of that age without having married, sent to the mayor of Staf- 

 ford, acquainting him, that the estate was improved to almost double 

 its former value, and that upon his decease the corporation would be- 

 come entitled thereto. 



Tfcis worthy person died, at the age of sixty-nine, on the 29th day 

 of December, 1719; and lies interred in the cathedral church of Sa- 

 lisbury. 



Annt, the daughter of old Isaac Walton, and sister of the above 

 person, was married to Dr. IVWAcMt AneAfcw, a divine and ara- 

 bendary of Winchester, mentioned above ; for whom Walton, inTiis 

 will, expresses great affection, declaring that he loved him as his own 

 son : he died the 17th day of July, 1691, aged fifty-eight, leaving issue, 

 by his said wife, a daughter named Anne, and a son named FHOfcMft, 

 The daughter was never married, but lived with her uncle, the canon, 

 as his housekeeper, and the management of his domestic concerns : 

 she remained settled at Salisbury after his decease, until the 27th of 

 November, 1728, when she died, and lies buried in the cathedral. 



M ///torn, the son of Dr. Ifmrkinx, and brother of the last mentioned 

 Anne, was bred to the study of the law ; and from the Middle Temple, 

 called to the bar ; but attained to no degree of eminence in his pro- 

 fession. He wrote and published in 8ro, anno 1713, A short Account 

 of the life of Bishop Ken, with a small specimen, in order to a publi- 

 cation of his FfbrAsat large; and, accordingly, in the year 1721, they 

 were published, in four volumes 8ro. From this Account, some of 

 the above particulars respecting the family connections of Walton are 

 taken. 



I am informed, that this gentleman for several years laboured under 

 the affliction of incurable blindness, and that he died on the 29th day 

 of November, 1748. 



A few moments before his death, our Author made his will, which 

 appears by the peculiarity of many expressions contained in it, as 

 well as by the hand ti . be of his own writing. As there is something 

 characteristic in this last solemn act of his life, it has been thought 

 proper to insert an authentic copy thereof in this account of him ; 

 postponing it, only to the following reflections on his life and character. 

 Upon a retrospect to the foregoing particulars, and a view of some 

 others mentioned in a subsequent letter 1 and in his Will, it will appear 

 that Walton possessed that essential ingredient in human felicity, mens 

 tana in corpore sano; for in his eighty-third year he professes a re- 

 solution to begin a pilgrimage of more than a hundred miles into a 

 country the most difficult and hazardous that can be conceived for an 

 aged man to travel in, to visit his friend Cotton, * and doubtless to en- 

 joy his favourite diversion of angling in the delightful streams of the 



(1) See his Letter to Clutrlet Cotton, Esq. prefixed to the Second Part. 



(t) To this journey he seems to have been invited l>y Mr. Cnitnn, in the 

 following beautiful Stanzas, printed with other of his Poems in 1689, 8vo. 

 and addressed to his dear and most worthy friend Mr. Isaac Walton. 



Whilst in this cold and blust'ring clime, 

 Where bleak winds howl and tempests roar, 



We pass away the roughest time 

 Has been of many years before ; 



