LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. cxxiii 



Canon Walton also bequeathed legacies to his three cousins, 

 Elizabeth, William, and Susan Hoskins, children of Matthew 

 Hoskins ; but it has not been discovered in what way they were 

 related to him. It is, however, most likely that they were the 

 children of one of Bishop Ken's sisters, as the bishop bequeathed 

 ;£2o to his niece, Mrs Elizabeth Hoskins,^ to be paid her on the 

 day of her marriage. Matthew Hoskins was perhaps the father 

 of the " little Matthew," whom Bishop Ken thus mentions in one 

 of his letters from Winchester : " Little Matthew is very well, and 

 the schoolmaster, at whose house I lodge, tells me he is very 

 regular and minds his book."' Mrs Mary Ireland, and Mrs Anne 

 Farwell, the two other cousins mentioned by Canon Walton, have 

 not been identified ; nor does any clue exist by which to ascertain 

 the parentage of his "godson Isaac Walton." A Mr Richard 

 Walton is mentioned in Izaac Walton's will in 1683 ; but neither 

 he nor the godson are called relations. As there is cause to 

 believe that branches of the Walton family continued for several 

 generations in Staffordshire, it is extraordinary that none of them 

 should be mentioned in the will of Izaak Walton, or of his son. 



It is not by his literary reputation alone that the memory of 

 Izaak Walton is preserved from oblivion. His benefactions to his 

 native town still exist, and are recorded on a tablet in St Mary's 

 Church at Stafford.* 



This Memoir must not be concluded without alluding to the 

 tributes which some of the most distinguished writers of the present 

 age have paid to Izaak Walton's memory; and it is gratifying to 

 perceive that time has had no injurious effect upon his fame, that 

 men of the highest attainments, with minds of kindred goodness 

 to his own, have generously paid homage to his worth, and that, 

 in his case at least, it may be truly said, that virtue can never die. 

 In the wide range of British literature, from the sage to the poet, 

 from the profound philosopher to the frivolous antiquary, and 

 imaginative novelist, writers of every class, and of every degree of 

 fame, have expressed their admiration of " honest Izaak Walton." 



The giant of English literature, Dr Johnson, ranks foremost 

 among the modern admirers of Walton. It is said that he, at one 

 time, intended to write his life ; and it is a subject of regret 

 that his virtues and talents were not immortalised by his pen. 

 It was at Johnson's suggestion that the " Complete Angler " 



^Erroneously printed Hawkins in the copy of Bishop Ken's will, in Mr Bowles's life * 

 of that prelate. ^ Bowles's Life of Ken, ii. 229. 



* For a copy of that inscription, and an account of Walton's' charities, see the 

 Appendix. 



