PLATE 15. THE THATCHED HOUSE, Hoddesdon, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved by Fox. 16. AMWELL HILL, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke 17. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Worthington 18. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved by Worthington 19. THE BREAKFAST, drawn by T. Stothard, R. A., engraved by Fox 20. THE CHUB, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox 21. MASTER AND SCHOLAR ANGLING, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 22. BLEAK HALL, drawn by W. Hixon, engraved by J. Richard son 23. THE MILKMAID'S SONG, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 24. THE TROUT, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox 78 79 84 25. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Worthington 26. THE SYCAMORE-TREE, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox. 27. GEORGE INN, WARE, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 28. THE FLY-FISHER, from a Picture by Mr Inskipp, engraved by H. Robinson 120 29. THE GRAYLING, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox by J. G. Armytage 33. THE CARP, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox 35. THE TENCH, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox 37. THE PERCH, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox 121 126 135 140 145 149 154 155 157 163 168 41. THE SUPPER, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 174 42. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Worthington 181 PLATE 43. OLD LONDON BRIDGE, from a Drawing by Pine, engraved by Roberts. 182 44. THE PARTING AT TOTTENHAM, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 45. VIGNETTE OF A YOUTH ANGLING, painted by T. S. Cafe, Esq., engraved by W. J. Wilkinson 46. PORTRAIT (whole length) of Charles COTTON, ESQ., from a Painting by Mr Inskipp, engraved by W. Humphrys 47. WOODCUT of the FISHING-HOUSE, from a Sketch by Worthington, engraved on wood by J. Thompson 48. PIKE POOL, near Beresford Hall, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 49. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Worthington 50. VIEW OF ASHBOURN, from the Old Road, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cboke 51. HANSON TOOT IN DOVE DALE, with Alstonefield Church in the distance, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke 207 211 215 216 221 222 227 233 52. BERESFORD HALL, the seat of C. Cotton, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke 53. PICKERING TOR, AND THE IRON CHEST, DOVE DALE, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke 54. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Worthington 55. DISTANT VIEW OF THE FISHING-HOUSE AND THE RIVER DOVE, winding "like a snake," drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke 56. THE FISHING-HOUSE, front view, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 57. THE BACK FRONT OF THE FISHING-HOUSE, " in a kind of peninsula, with a delicate clear river about it," drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke 235 236 237 238 239 58. LANDING THE GRAYLING, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Fox 249 59. VIEW OF PIKE POOL, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Freebairn 250 60. BERESFORD HALL, "from the Hill," drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by W. J. Cooke 251 61. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A., engraved by Worthington 264 LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. Sir Nicholas, &arris ficool "WALTON, crime it were to leave unsung Thy gentle mind, thy breast unblanch'd by wrong; Thy guileless manners, and thy hallowed age." He IZAAK WALTON was born at Stafford on the 9th of August 1593, and was baptized there on the 21st of September following.1 was the son of Jervis Walton of that town, who is presumed to have been the second son of George Walton, sometime bailiff of Yoxhall, a small village about fifteen miles from Stafford; beyond whom the pedigree cannot be traced with certainty.3 The name of WALTON existed in Staffordshire at an early period, and was general in that county about the middle of the sixteenth century, at which time the family were substantial yeomen. Of Izaak Walton's father, Jervis Walton, nothing has been discovered, except what occurs in the register of St Mary's Church at Stafford, from which it may be inferred that he had a second son named Ambrose, who was buried on the 3d March 1595-6, and who probably died young. Jervis Walton died early in February 1596-7, and was buried at St Mary's on the 11th of that month. Of his wife, not even the name has been discovered; and it is doubtful whether she survived her husband. At the tender age of four years, IZAAK WALTON seems, there. fore, to have been thrown upon the world an orphan. Of his childhood, his guardians, or the means by which he was supported, nothing whatever is known. He received a good, though not, strictly speaking, a classical education, and it is likely that he was sent to the grammar-school of his native town; but not a single 1593, Septem. Baptiz. fuit Isaac filius Jervis Walton xxj die mensis et anni prædict."-Register of St Mary's, Stafford. The date of his birth is shown by the preamble to his will. 2 See Pedigree, No. I. in the Appendix. To the signature to his will he added "late baylie of Yoxhall." Some remarks on the pedigree of the Walton family will be found in note K in the Appendix. fact can be stated respecting him from the time of his baptism, until he attained his twentieth year, when he appears to have been a resident of London. Neither the cause nor the period of his removal from Stafford to the metropolis has been ascertained; though it is probable that he was apprenticed, when very young, to a distant relation of the name of Henry Walton, who was haberdasher at Whitechapel.* The earliest notice 5 of Walton after his birth is of a very inter This conjecture is principally founded on the following facts. It is well known that Izaak Walton followed the trade of a sempster or haberdasher. Henry Walton, "citizen and haberdasher, of Whitechapel," is so described in the will of his cousin Samuel Walton, of St Mary's, Cray, in Kent, gentleman, son of Henry Walton, citizen and cloth-worker, of London, dated on the 2d, and proved on the 9th of April 1631; and his connection with the county of Stafford is shown by the testator's mentioning his uncle John Walton, of Mathfield, in that county, who may have been the father of the said Henry Walton, of Whitechapel. An abstract of Henry Walton's will is inserted in Note L in the Appendix, where other reasons are stated for thinking the hypothesis correct. records of the Haberdashers' Company do not contain the names of Henry or Izaak Walton between 1600 and 1630. Sir John Hawkins supposes that Walton first settled in London as a shopkeeper in the Royal Exchange, under the patronage of Sir Thomas Gresham, but his opinion has been shown to be erroneous. See Anthony Wood, Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss. I. 698. The 5 It is necessary to advert to an article which appeared in a weekly publication called The Freebooter, on the 18th of October 1823, where it is stated that "there is a manuscript in the Lansdowne Collection of the British Museum, which throws some light upon the early life of Izaak Walton. By whom it was written, and at what precise date, does not appear; but the handwriting is evidently of about the time of the Revolu tion, and in it the author speaks of Walton as 'not long since deceased, to the great grief of all his loving friends.'" The MS., it is said, refers very much to the interval between his birth in 1593 and 1624: "it fixes the place of his education at Stafford, where he was born, and from whence he removed to London, where he was regularly apprenticed to one Holmes, a sempster, with whom he lived until he was twenty-two or twenty-three years old. Sir J. Hawkins conjectures that he married about 1632, but on what ground it is difficult to discover now the author of this MS. asserts that Walton 'took a wife' before he was twenty-four years old, and while he held a shop near the Exchange. The date of his removal into Fleet Street is not supplied with precision, but it is clear that it was at least as early as 1618, and after his marriage; but the document is written in a rough, sketchy style, and consists generally rather of biographical hints and anecdotes than of regular details of events relating to any of the persons mentioned in the volume, of which the notice of Walton forms a very small part.' "The author of the MS. speaks of Walton as a very sweet poet in his youth, and more than all in matters of love.' In consequence of this statement considerable trouble has been taken to discover the MS. alluded to; but no trace of it can be found in the British Museum; and it is presumed that the article is a mere fiction. No reference is given to the volume in which it is said to occur; and if such an interesting account of Walton really existed in a collection so well known and so fully catalogued as the Lansdowne MSS., it is impos sible to suppose that it would not long since have been brought to light; or that it would have escaped the particular search which has been recently made for it. Be this however as it may, little reliance could be placed on the article, even if it were genuine, because one of the few facts stated in it can be disproved, as it is said that Walton married before he was twenty-four years of age, whereas his marriage took place in December 1626, when he was about thirty-three; and there is not the slightest cause to suppose that he had a former wife. But the article in question is not the only doubtful statement which has been published respecting Walton: his residence in the Royal Exchange; his retirement in 1643 to a cottage in Staffordshire, where Dr Morley is said to have found an asylum; and his having written the epitaph of an old servant called "David Hookham !" (a name very appropriately chosen for the purpose), who died in 1647. ætat. 63 (vide Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. C. part II. p. 296), are equally apocryphal. esting nature, as it is intimately connected with those literary pursuits, to which he is indebted for the regard of posterity. In 1619 a small poem was published, entitled "The Love of Amos and Laura, written by S. P." which was dedicated to Walton in the following verses: "TO MY APPROVED AND MUCH-RESPECTED FRIEND, IZ. Wa. To thee, thou more than thrice beloved friend, I too unworthy of so great a bliss; These harsh-tuned lines I here to thee commend, For hadst thou held thy tongue, by silence might If they were pleasing, I would call them thine, But being bad, I needs must call them mine. S. P." 6 It is evident that Walton either suggested various improvements in, or had written part of the poem, whilst two of the lines prove that it was printed at his recommendation. The poem was first published in 1613, six years before, together with three others; but in the only known copy of that edition, which is unfortunately imperfect, the verses to Walton do not occur; and it is doubtful whether they were omitted, or have been abstracted from that particular copy. As there is no variation (excepting of a single word) between the two editions, the alterations, which the author so gratefully acknowledges, must have been made in the original manuscript; and as Walton was only twenty years of age in 1613, the love of literature, which never deserted him, must have commenced at a very early period of his life. Much light would perhaps be thrown upon this part of Walton's career, if "his more than thrice beloved friend," S. P., could be identified; but the attempt to discover him has not been successful, though some circumstances render it likely that the initials were those of Samuel Purchas, the author of "The Pilgrimage," who is known to have 6 Attention was first drawn to this poem by J. Payne Collier, Esq., in the Poetical Decameron, vol. ii. p. 111. A copy of "The Love of Amos and Laura," 18mo ed 1619, will be found in the British Museum. It was again printed in 4to in 1628. See Note 7. 7 In the library of Benjamin Heywood Bright, Esq. The title is "Alcilia. Philoparthens loning folly. whereunto js added Pigmalions Image: with the Loue of Amos and Lavra and also Epigrammes by Sir J. H. and others. never before imprinted. London for Richard Hawkins dwelling in Chancery Lane near Sarjeants Inn, 1613." 4to. At the end of Alcilia [edit. 1619] are the initials, J. C. [John Chalkhill?] Pigmalion's Image is by John Marston, and the Epigrams by Sir John Harington. Amos and Laura in this copy is without the dedication, and is imperfect at the end. |