LIFE OE WALTON. 9 



the authority of our author, related two of the instances of the 

 voracity of the pike, mentioned part I. chap 8 ; and confirmed 

 them by two other signal ones. 



Fuller as we all know, wrote a "Church History," which, 

 soon after its publication Walton having read, applied to the 

 author for some information touching Hooker, whose life he was 

 then about to write. Upon this occason Fuller, knowing how 

 intimate Walton was with several of the bishops and ancient 

 clergy, asked his opinion of it, and what reception it met with 

 among his friends ? Walton answered, that " he thought it would 

 be acceptable to all tempers, because there were shades in it for 

 the warm, and sunshine for those of cold constitution : that with 

 youthful readers, the facetious parts would be profitable to make 

 the serious more palatable, while some reverend old readers 

 might fancy themselves in his ' History of the Church ' as in 

 a flower garden, or one full of evergreens." "And why not," 

 said Fuller, " ' The Church History ' so decked, as well as the 

 Church itself at a most holy season, or the tabernacle of old 

 at the feast of boughs" "That was but for a season," said 

 Walton ; " in your feast of boughs, they may conceive we are 

 so overshadowed throughout, that the parson is more seen 

 than his congregation, and this, sometimes, invisible to its 

 own acquaintance, who may wander in the search till they are 

 lost in the labyrinth." " Oh," said Fuller, " the very children 

 of our Israel may find their way out of this wilderness." 

 "True," replied Walton, "as, indeed, they have here such a 

 Moses to conduct them." 



About two years after the restoration, Walton wrote the 

 " Life of Mr. Eichard Hooker," author of the " Ecclesiastical 

 Polity." He was enjoined to undertake this work by his friend 

 Doctor Gilbert Sheldon, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury ; 

 who, by the way, was an angler. Bishop King, in a letter to the 

 author, says of this life ; " I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my 

 father, who was afterwards Bishop of London ; from whom, and 

 others at that time, I have heard most of the material passages 

 which you relate in the history of his life." Sir William 

 Dugdale, speaking of the three posthumous books of the " Eccle- 

 siastical Polity," refers the reader " to that seasonable historical 

 discourse, lately compiled and published, with great judgment 

 and integrity, by that much deserving person, Mr. Isaac Walton." * 

 In this Life we are told, that Hooker while he was at college 

 made a visit to the famous Doctor Jewel, then Bishop of Salisbury, 

 his good friend and patron : an account of the Bishop's reception 

 of him and behaviour at his departure as it contains a lively 



1 ''Short View of the late Troubles in England." Fol. 1681, p. 39. 



