sides of the windows; and here a bundle of falcons' hoods, bells, and jesses.

SERVANT.-Sir, next to the diversion of angling, my master loves falconry; and I have seen him cast and reclaim his hawks as skilfully as the best gentleman in the county. He entertained a noble large company of falconers, it is now three months past, and there were so many hounds and horses they could scarcely be provided withal. Nevertheless, my master rather applies himself to the practice of angling.

ANGLER.-That I believe: and here is every kind of harness for fishing: fly rods and nets, and spears for eels.

SERVANT.-So please you, Sir, on those two pegs yonder you may see an old angle rod, that my master lays great store by: it is roughly made, but has killed a huge quantity of trouts in its time; for it belongs to a worthy geneman, Mr. Izaak Walton.

ANGLER.-Say you so?

SERVANT. And I have many times seen him with that spliced rod and a little bag of brandlings, with a line and a float for bottom fishing, fill a good sized pannier within a little distance from this, up and down Dove Dale.-Indeed, it is wonderful to see his artful methods.

ANGLER. I perceive you are well acquainted with his person.

SERVANT.-Sir! he is the most familiar of my master's friends: I have oftentimes waited upon him a-fishing, when he has visited the Hall, and hope to do so again; for there is

none of my master's guests we are all so pleased to serve, he is so condescending, and always thinks himself obliged. We have a chamber that my master calls Mr. Walton's 6 own chamber.'

ANGLER.-Indeed! I must tell you I profess myself to be a scholar of his, and we call him the father of anglers may we, therefore, have permission to see that apartment?

SERVANT. With pleasure, Sir.

ANGLER.-Come, brother, have you done with your admiration of those limnings? If you please, we may pass on to see Mr. Walton's bed-chamber.

PAINTER.-I am ready to attend you. SERVANT. This way, Gentlemen, to the great staircase.

ANGLER.-Lead on, and we will follow.
SERVANT.-Sirs, here is the chamber I told

you of.

-

PAINTER. I declare, a goodly apartment; and his bed with handsome coverlid and hangings and I observe three angels' heads stamped on the ceiling in relief.

ANGLER.-A fit emblem of the peaceful slumbers of the innocent; and so, I am sure, are Mr. Walton's. And whose picture is that over the mantel?

SERVANT. That is my master, Sir; it was painted at Court, and brought last summer from London.

ANGLER.-What a lively expression of eye, and a great sweetness in the lips!

SERVANT. It is the very look of my mas

ter; and I have heard say it was done by the king's painter, after the expressed desire of Mr. Walton.

PAINTER.-Aye, methought it was the touch of Lely, who hath been so deservedly honoured by his Majesty with the dignity of knighthood.

ANGLER.- And is celebrated by the best poets* and wits of the age.

PAINTER. This portraiture is so delicately. limned, and the colours so admirable, it could only be of a master's hand.

ANGLER.-Beseech you, brother, may not this chamber deserve to be highly esteemed of all anglers; think-here it was VIATOR had his lodgings, when Mr. Cotton brought him to his house.

HOST.-There is the very bed where he was promised sheets laid up in lavender,' and you may be sure he had them.

PAINTER. And see the pannels of oak-wood in figured patterns over the chimney.

Colonel Richard Lovelace inscribes a panegyric to him in his Lucusta. And the following lines of Mr. Charles Cotton, addressed to the painter on another occasion, are applicable to his own portrait, and testify to the familiarity between the poet and the painter:

'Nature and art are here at strife;
'This shadow comes so near to life,

'Sit still, dear Lely, thou'st done that

Thyself must love and wonder at.'

From a poem of Mr. Cotton's, To my friend Mr. Lely,

• on his picture of the excellently virtuous lady, the Lady Isabella Thynne,' POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. Printed 1689, 8°.-ED.

ANGLER. It is a rich work, and falls in with the rest of the chamber: look at this fine cabinet chiselled in oak and inlaid with paintings.

HOST.-And here again the lattice windows set with the arms of Beresford and Cotton.

PAINTER.-And whose crest is that? An eagle with wings expanded, argent beaked and legged, and holding in his dexter a belt azure!

HOST.-That is my master's crest, and you may see three cotton hanks for arms; that agrees with the name.

ANGLER. With a chevron azure between. PAINTER. And a bear salient, sable armed gules, muzzled and chain'd or.

HOST.-These are the Beresford arms: and here the quarterings of the noble family of the Stanhopes.

PAINTER. Stanhope, say you?- Quarterly ermine and gules-How is that?

HOST.-Sir, you are to note, my late mistress Olive, the mother of Mr. Cotton, was the daughter of Sir John Stanhope, Knt. by the heiress of Beresford.

ANGLER.-I thank you; it is all of a piece, and excellently finished.

HOST.-Gentlemen, if I may be so bold to remind you, we have many other things which will entertain you for some hours-as the Flambeaux Tower, and the Fishing House, and the River.

ANGLER.-True; our present pleasing thoughts had made us forgetful: but we are ready to follow you.

HOST.-Then, if you please, we may descend once more to the hall, and so into the garden.- And now I will lead you by this

rising ground to the Tower.

ANGLER.-What is here?-a handsome terrace of grass, set round with a double row of

trees.

HOST.-This is the bowling green: if you will take the trouble to look over this parapet, you may see a precipice some hundred feet deep.

ANGLER. It is quite a gulph, but overgrown with trees and briars. Here is a smooth ground for bowls; and I remember PISCATOR speaks of this bowling green, and declares himself to be no very great bowler;' but he says, 'I am not so totally devoted to my own plea'sure, but that I have also some regard to 'other men's,'

HOST.-That was but his modest opinion of himself; for I have seen him play and win great matches at bowls and quoits, both here and on Wolfscote Hill, which is a little distance on the other side of the Dove. But here we have the Prospect Tower: you may see how it stands on the highest top of the rock, and within is an ornamented summer room.

PAINTER. It is a costly building, and in due proportions of architecture.

ANGLER.-Then I beseech you deny me not a picture, if it be but an outline,-only a me

mento.

PAINTER.-I am free to do your bidding. And would you have those handsome stone steps