CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 105 



Or a Jeverock build her nest; 

 Here, give my weary spirits rest, 

 And raise my low-pitch d thoughts above 

 Earth, or what poor mortals love : 



Thus, free from law-suits and the noise 



Of princes' courts, I would rejoice : 



Or, with my Bryan, r and a book, 

 Loiter long days near ShawfordJirook ; a 

 There sit by him, and eat my meat, 

 There see the sun both rise and set : 

 There bid good morning to next day ; 

 There meditate my time away ; 



And angle on; and beg to have 



A quiet passage to a welcome grave. 



When I had ended this composure, I left this place, and 

 saw a brother of the angle sit under that honeysuckle 

 hedge, one that will prove worth your acquaintance. I 

 sat down by him, and presently we met with an accidental 

 piece of merriment, which I will relate to you, for it rains 

 still. 



On the other side of this very hedge sat a gang of 



to music by Mr. Nich. Laneare, an eminent master of Walton's time; (who, we 

 are told by Wood, was also an excellent painter ; and whose portrait is yet to 

 be seen in the Music-School at Oxford;) and is printed with the notes, in a 

 Collection entitled Select musical ayre* and dialogue, folio, 1653. 



It was also set by Sig. Alfonso Ferabosco, and published in a collection of 

 his airs, in folio, 1609 ; but Laneare's composition is preferred. 



There is no doubt but tlut this song was (and probably with Mrs. Walton) a 

 favourite one; for, some years after the Restoration, the three first words of it 

 ^ were become a phrase. The affected writer of the Lift of the iMrd-keeper 

 GuUdford, page 212 of that book, speaking of Sir Job Charleton, then chief- 

 justice of Chester, says, he wanted to speak with the King; and went to White- 

 hall, where, returning from his walk in St. James's park, he must pass; and 

 there he sat him down, " like hermit poor." And I also find, among the poems 

 of Mr. Pbineas Fletcher, hereafter mentioned, a metaphrase of the xliid Psalm; 

 which, we are told, may be sung to the tune of, " Like hermit poor." Further, 

 we meet with an allusion to this song in Hudibras, Part I. Canto ii. line 1169. 



"That done, they ope the trap-door gate, 

 And let Crowdero down thereat; 

 Crowdero making doleful face, 

 Like hermit poor in pensive place." 



(1) A friend conjectures this to be the name of his favourite dog. 



(2) Shawford-brook, part of the river Sow, running through the very land 

 which Walton bequeathed in his will to the corporation of Stafford to find coals 

 for the poor: the right of fishery in which attaches to this little estate. 



The house, described by Walton in his will, is now divided. The brook is a 

 beautiful winding stream, and the situation suth as would be likely to create 

 admiration in a mind like Walton's. 



