THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 21 



It is not a little curious that two years afterwards 



his half-brother Izaak Walton, without the plea of 



youth, for he was then sixty-five, perpetrated a 



similar offence on the monument of Isaak Casaubon 



I W 

 in Westminster Abbey — — a very improper 



thing to do in both instances, but it may safely be 

 said that no authorities of either cathedral will ever 

 commit such an act of vandalism as to have those 

 scratchings removed (see Part II. Chap. xiv.). 



The most important and the most interesting 

 circumstance connected with Ken's residence at 

 Oxford was the commencement of that friendship 

 with Lord Viscount Weymouth, which led him in the 

 reverses of his lot, and the evening of his days (when 

 he had no home on earth), to the asylum in that 

 noble mansion where he closed his days, Longleat, 

 Wiltshire. 



Mr. Bowles gives an interesting retrospect (from 

 the Churchman's point of view) of the Religious 

 Parties in the 17th century, from the opening of the 

 Long Parliament in 1640 to the death of Cromwell, 

 '1658. It may not be uninteresting, before passing 

 on, to cull one or two choice specimens of the 

 language used in the name of Holy Religion. 



It is the fashion in these days to extol the 



