Engraved pom a Fac Simile of

MRS WALTON'S TOMB STONE

The Original Drawing in the Possession of MT. Gooden,

His next work was the Life of Mr. Richard Hooker7," which first appeared in 1665. It was composed at the earnest request of Dr. Sheldon, then bishop of London; and with the express purpose of correcting some errors committed by Dr. Gauden, from mere inadvertency and haste, in his account of that immortal man,' as he has been emphatically styled,' who spoke no language but that of truth dictated by conscience.' Gauden seems to have been extremely deficient in his information, and, dying soon afterwards, had no opportunity of revising and amending his very imperfect and inaccurate memoir. This was followed in 1670, by the Life of Mr. George Herbert, usually called the Divine Herbert ;' and in 1678, he concluded his biographical labours with the the Life of Dr. Robert Sanderson 8. Previous to

to many, it is remarkable for nothing but its singularity, which consists in the starting of a metaphor, and the hunting it down.'

7 Sir John Hawkins inadvertently observes, that Hooker was personally known to his biographer. It seems to have escaped his recollection, that Hooker died in 1600, and Walton, being born in 1593, was then only seven years of age.-ED.

8 Walton erroneously says, that Bishop Sanderson was born at Rotherham, in the county of York.' The parish register of Sheffield records his baptism in the church of that town, Sept. 20, 1587;' and in Hopkinson's MSS., under Sanderson, of Gilthwait, his birth is thus noticed-" Robert,

the publication of this last work, he received the following interesting letter from Dr. Thomas Barlow, then bishop of Lincoln, who had been for many years the intimate friend of Dr. Sanderson, during his residence at Oxford, and after his retirement into the country :

(6 MY WORTHY FRIEND MR. WALTON,

"I am heartily glad, that you have undertaken to write the life of that excellent person, and, both for learning and piety, eminent prelate, Dr. Sanderson, late bishop of Lincoln ; because I know your ability to know, and integrity to write truth and sure I am, that the life and actions of that pious and learned prelate will afford you matter enough for his commendation, and the imitation of posterity. In order to the carrying on your intended good work, you desire my assistance, that I would communicate to you such particular passages of his life, as were certainly known to me. I confess I had the happiness to be particularly known to him for about the space of twenty years; and, in Oxon, to enjoy his conversation, and his learned and pious instructions, while he was Regius Professor of Divinity there. Afterwards, when (in the time of our late unhappy

second son of Robert Sanderson of Gilthwait, was born in a house called the Lane-head-stone, near the Irish Cross, in Sheffield, on the 19th, and baptized on the next day, of September, 1587."-ED.

confusions) he left Oxon, and was retired into the country; I had the benefit of his letters, wherein, with great candour and kindness, he answered those doubts I proposed, and gave me that satisfaction, which I neither had nor expected from some others of greater confidence, but less judgment and humility. Having in a letter named two or three books writ (ex professo) against the being of any original sin; and that Adam, by his fall, transmitted some calamity only, but no crime to his posterity; the good old man was exceedingly troubled, and bewailed the misery of those licentious times, and seemed to wonder (save that the times were such) that any should write, or be permitted to publish any error so contradictory to truth, and the doctrine of the Church of England, established (as he truly said) by clear evidence of Scripture, and the just and supreme power of this nation, both sacred and civil. I name not the books, nor their authors, which are not unknown to learned men (and I wish they had never been known), because both the doctrine, and the unadvised abettors of it are, and shall be, to me apocryphal.9

Another little story I must not pass in silence,

9 The writer principally alluded to in this part of the letter, was the excellent Dr. Jeremy Taylor, appointed Bishop of Down and Connor, in Ireland, in 1660, and of Dromore, in 1661.

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