24 



The Chronicle of 



choice of the artift, than were fought for by him, and were 

 certainly the mod: falient, for artiftic purpofes, the work con- 

 tained. This interpretation has been confirmed, in recent 

 times, by the example of Stothard and Abfolon, both artifts of 

 unqueftionable originality, but who have worked in precifely 

 the fame grooves as their predeceflbrs. Apart from this, the 

 treatment of the fubjects by Wale was altogether diflimilar ; 

 he avoided the anachronifms into which the former defigner 

 had fallen, and with the exception of the allegorical frontifpiece, 

 which, like moft allegories, was mere <c leather and prunella," 

 his feries of drawings afluredly bore away the bell from thofe 

 of his competitor. 



As to Browne's afieveration that Hawkins' life of Walton 

 was merely borrowed from his own, the charge is fimply 

 abfurd. Browne wrote no life of Walton worthy of that 

 name. He merely fwept together fome loofe litter, in the 

 courfe of his editing, but took no pains either to fift or to 

 enlarge it as the years went by. 



Hawkins was the firft biographer of Walton in any tangible 

 fenfe, and it is on his foundation that after workers in the 

 fame field have built up the fabric to fuller and more com- 

 plete dimenfions. That his memoir is meagre, infufficient, 

 fometimes inexact, is true, but to judge juftly of it, we muft 

 judge leniently, remembering how many and great were the 

 difficulties that befet the tafik and baffled the feeker. How ePCen- 

 tially private, tranquil and unobtrufive, for inftance, Walton's 

 career was, from firft to laft ; how, though aflbciated with 

 fome of the greateft and wifeft of his time, he took no rank 



