THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 109 



welcome company in this approaching time of the 

 Fly and the Cork, and so I rest 



" Your very hearty poor friend to serve you, 



" H. WOTTON." 



In another letter to Walton he mentions an 

 attack of " those splenetic vapours that are called 

 hypochondriachal, of which most say the cure is 

 good company ; and I desire no better physician 

 than yourself." 



Sir Henry Wotton died the ensuing December 

 (1639), and Walton, hearing that Dr. Donne's 

 sermons were about to be published without a life 

 of the author, he determined to supply the deficiency 

 from the materials he had collected at the sugges- 

 -tion of Sir Henry Wotton. 



The first volume of Donne's sermons, to which 

 Walton's " Life " of him was prefixed, was published 

 in 1640 in folio by John Marriott, probably the 

 father of the Richard Marriott who published " The 

 Compleat Angler" in 1653, and was Walton's friend 

 as well as publisher for nearly fifty years. 



Walton's first essay as a biographer was highly 

 applauded by his contemporaries. King Charles 

 the First honoured it with his approbation, and the 

 learned and "ever memorable" John Hales, who 



