160 THE COMPLETE ANGLEE. [PART i. 



Or a leverock build her nest : 



Here give my weary spirits rest, 



And raise iny 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, l and a book 

 Loiter long-days near Shawford-brook : 2 

 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 the place ; and 

 saw a brother of the angle sit under that honeysuckle hedge, 

 one that will prove worth your acquaintance ; I sat down 



" My food shall be of care and sorrow made, 



My drink nought else but tears fall'n from mine eyes, 

 And for my light in this obscure shade 



The flames may serve which from my heart arise. 



And at my gates, &c." 



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

 of his airs, in folio, 1609 ; but Laneare's is the better composition. 



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

 a favourite ; for some years after the restoration, the three first words 

 of it had become a phrase. North, in his "Life of the Lord-keeper 

 Guildford," speaking of Sir Job Charleton, then chief-justice of Chester, 

 says he wanted to speak with the king, and went to Whitehall, 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 

 Phineas Fletcher, a metaphrase of Psalm xlii., 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 Probably the name of his favourite dog. H. It has been supposed that 

 Walton may have named him Brian, after one or other of his distinguished 

 contemporaries : Brian Walton, or more probably Brian Duppa, Bishop of 

 Winchester, who was succeeded by Walton's friend Bishop Morley. ED. 



2 Shawford -brook is the name of that part of the river Sow that runs 

 through the land which Walton bequeathed to the corporation of Stafford, 

 to find coals for the poor ; the right of fishery in which attaches to this 

 little estate. R. 



