2 LIFE OF WALTON, 



(at the church of St. Mildred, Canterbury,) he married his first 

 wife, Eachel Floud, who was maternally descended from Arch- 

 bishop Cranmer. Of seven children by this marriage, he had the 

 misfortune to lose every one, either in infancy or at a very early 

 age ; and on the 22nd of August, 1640, six weeks after the birth 

 of a daughter (who died in her second year) he underwent the 

 calamity of also losing his wife. 



His second wife, to whom he was married about 1646, was 

 Anne, daughter of Thomas Ken, of Furnival's-inn, and sister of 

 Dr. Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, one of the seven that 

 were sent to the Tower, and who at the Revolution was 

 deprived, and died in retirement. Walton seems to have been 

 as happy in this marriage as the society and friendship of a 

 prudent and pious woman of great endowments could make him ; 

 and that Mrs. Walton was such, we have every reason to believe. 



About this period (the exact date is uncertain) he left London, 

 and with a fortune very far short of what would now be called 

 a competency, retired altogether from business ; at which time 

 (to use the words of Wood) " finding it dangerous for honest men 

 to be there, he left that city, and lived sometimes at Stafford, 1 

 and elsewhere ; but mostly in the families of the eminent 

 clergymen of England, by whom he was much beloved." 



While he resided in London, his favourite recreation was 

 angling, in which he was the greatest proficient of his time ; and 

 indeed so great was his skill and experience in that art, that 

 there is scarce any writer on the subject since his time who 

 has not made the rules and practice of Walton his very founda- 

 tion. It is, therefore, with the greatest propriety, that Lang- 

 baine calls him, " the common father of all anglers. " 



The river he seems mostly to have frequented for this purpose 

 was the Lea, which has its source above Ware in Hertfordshire, 

 and falls into the Thames a little below Blackwall ; unless we 

 suppose that the vicinity of the New Elver 3 to the place of 

 his habitation, might sometimes tempt him out with his friends, 

 honest Nat. and E. Eoe, whose loss he so pathetically mentions, 4 

 to spend an afternoon there. 



1 He retired to a small estate in Staffordshire, not far from the town of 

 Stafford. His loyalty made Mm obnoxious to the ruling powers ; and we 

 are assured by himself, in his "Life of Sanderson," that ke was a sufferer 

 in the civil wars. ZOUOH. 



2 Lives of the English Dramatic Poets, art. Charles Cotton, Esq. 



3 That great work, the bringing of water from Chadwell and Amwell, in 

 Hertfordshire, to London, by means of the trench called the New River, 

 was completed on Michaelmas Day, 1613. Stowe's "Survey," Fol. 1633, 

 p. 12. H. 



4 Preface to "Complete Angler." 



