cxiv LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. [1683, 



afforded him to hear his wife sing his favourite songs ; * and he 

 was intimate with Basse, an eminent composer, in whose science 

 he took great interest, and says that Basse had made a song at 

 his request in praise of angling.^ In no part of Walton's writings, 

 however, are the charms of music so beautifully described as in 

 the following exquisite passages on the singing of birds : " I will 

 not pass by those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble 

 forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them 

 to the shame of art. As first the Lark, when she means to re- 

 joice, to cheer herself and Ifeose that hear her; she then quits the 

 earth, and sings as she ascends higher into the air, and having 

 ended her heavenly employment, grows then mute and sad, 

 to think she must descend to the dull earth, which she would not 

 touch, but for necessity. How do the Blackbird and Thrassel with 

 their melodious voices bid welcome to the cheerful spring, and in 

 their fixed months warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument 

 can reach to ! Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their 

 particular seasons, as namely, the Laverock, the Tit-lark, the little 

 Linnet, and the honest Robin that loves mankind both alive and 

 dead. But the Nightingale,^ another of my airy creatures, 

 breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental 

 throat, that it might make mankind to think miracles are not 

 ceased. He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps 

 securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the 

 sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and 

 redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, 

 -iord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in Heaven, 

 when thou affordest bad men such music on earth ! " ^ 



Of the sister art, Design, Walton seems to have had some 

 knowledge, as he often alludes to painters ; and one of his best 

 metaphors is founded upon the particular style of ancient masters. 

 He formed a small collection of prints and pictures, which he 

 bequeathed to his son, who excelled in the use of the pencil ; and 



4 Complete Angler, p. ijg. 6 Ibid, p. 124. 



6 Upon this passage Dr Drake has remarked, " It is somewhat singular, however, 

 that -the noblest and sweetest description of the song of this plaintive warbler should be 

 the production of a prose" writer. Who can adduce on the subject a morsel of such 

 impressive beauty as the following! 'But the nightingale,' hc^Literary Hours, ii. 

 318. Bishop Home has quoted it in his Commentary on the 104th Psalm, v. 12, vol. ii. 

 p. 223 ; and Headley, in the Notes to his Select Beauties of the Ancient English Poetry, 

 says : " But above all the panegyrics that have been deservedly passed upon this uni- 

 versal favourite, I have seen nothing yet, that in any degree approaches the notice of 

 one who was certainly no poet : my reader will be surprised perhaps when I name 

 Honest Isaak Walton, but let him read this and judge.'' — Vol. ii. p. 167. 



7 Complete Angler, p. 38. 



