A Spring Ramble by the lichen. 37 



William of Wykeham's substitution for the Norman of the 

 severely beautiful Perpendicular. Cromwell had a word or 

 two to say, necessarily, about the decorations of our 

 cathedral, but, as well-preserved specimens of all the above 

 styles remain, though amidst many incongruities, it may be 

 well observed that to the student of architecture Winchester 

 Cathedral is an object of admiration. 



The angler, though I will not do him the heinous injustice 

 to hint that he cares for none of these things, remembers the 

 cathedral for another reason. He passes by Walkelyn's 

 Norman work in the north transept, the corner by which, 

 descending to the crypt, may be inspected the most ancient 

 architectural features of the structure, and makes his way 

 towards the eastern side to the little chapel, to which the 

 name of Silkstede is given; but its singular wirework and 

 other peculiarities are of secondary consideration, for here lie 

 the bones of dear old Izaak Walton. 



The good angler was a great traveller for his time. There 

 were few parts of England unfamiliar to him. He fished 

 many rivers, north and south ; in Worcester Cathedral he 

 buried his wife, " a woman of remarkable prudence and of 

 primitive piety, who was blest with general knowledge, true 

 humility, and Christian meekness," and who was therefore 

 a worthy mate of the man who could write no higher praise 

 of Dean Nowel, of St. Paul's, than the words—" This good 

 old man was a dear lover and constant practiser of angling 

 as any age can produce ; and his custom was to spend, 

 besides his fixed hours of prayer .... a tenth part of his 

 time in angling, and also .... to bestow a tenth part of 

 his revenue, and usually all his fish, amongst the poor that 

 inhabited near to those rivers in which it was caught." 



Walton's son Izaak was a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral, 

 and Waltpn. himself, dying during the hard frost of 1683 in 



