iET. 89.]' LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. cm 



fested towards all who differed from him in religion, and the 

 amicable terms on which he lived with some Roman Catholics, 

 had exposed him to the suspicion that he was himself a member 

 of the Church of Rome. His property was not, he observes, got 

 by " falsehood or flattery, or the extreme cruelty of the law of this 

 nation," an allusion which is not easily explained ; for the 

 suggestion that it referred to the maxim of law, "Summum jus est, 

 summa injuria," does not appear to be correct ; and it is more 

 probable that he referred to the manner in which estates were 

 acquired during the Commonwealth, and to the legal obstacles 

 which prevented the original owners from recovering them. The 

 shop in Paternoster Row has been before noticed ; and the house 

 in Chancery Lane was doubtless that in which he had himself 

 lived. He held a lease under his friend Bishop Morley ; and as 

 his farm near Eccleshall, not far from Stafford, was not inherited 

 from his ancestors, but was purchased by himself of a Mr Walter 

 Noell, it seems that he had little or no patrimony. The chari- 

 table purpose for which he destined that property, in the event 

 of his son not leaving male issue who survived their minority, 

 shows his regard for the place of his nativity, to which he had 

 already been a benefactor by a gift of a small garden (the rent of 

 which was expended in coals for the poor about Christmas), by 

 contributing a sum towards the erection of the wall of the church- 

 yard of St Chads, in that town, and by apprenticing nine poor 

 boys, and presenting each of them with five pounds.' The selec- 

 tion of objects for his bounty was extremely judicious. It may 

 be that he had himself experienced in childhood the benefit of a 

 fostering hand to enable a boy to provide for his future subsistence, 

 whilst his knowledge of the condition of the lower orders taught 

 him the advantages of encouraging the long residence of female 

 servants with the same mistress. Such have been the abuses ot 

 charitable bequests that the striking admonition in Walton's will 

 might, with advantage, be added to all local records of similar 

 foundations, and be read aloud previous to the annual distribu- 

 tion : " God reward those that shall do this without partiality, 

 and with honesty, and a good conscience." That Walton did 

 not consider such an admonition unnecessary is evident from his 

 ordering, that in case the Mayor of Stafford proved so negligent 

 or dishonest as not to fulfill his intentions, the chai-ity should be 

 intrusted to the Magistrates of Eccleshall. He paid a gratifying 

 tribute to the worth of his son-in-law, Dr Hawkins, the husband 



^ Vide postea. 



