These were honourable men in their ge"nerations." Ecclefiafticus XLIV. 7 *.

And indeed, the fame may be faid of all his friends; who were of fuch diftinguished characters, and fo many in number †, that it is matter of great wonder, by what means a man, in his ftation, could obtain admittance among fo illuftrious a fociety; unless we will fuppofe, as doubtlefs was the cafe, that his integrity and amiable difpofition attracted the notice, and conciliated the affections of all with whom he had any concern.

It is obfervable, that not only thefe, but the rest of Walton's friends, were eminent royalists; and that he himself was in great repute for his attachment to the royal caufe, will appear by the following relation, taken from Afhmole's Hiftory of the order of the garter, page 228; where the author fpeaking of the enfigns of the order, fays; "Nor "will it be unfitly here remembered, by what

66

good fortune the prefent fovereign's leffer "George, fet with fair diamonds, was pre

*Motto to the Collection of Lives.

+ In the number of his intimate friends we find Archbishop Usher, Archbishop Sheldon, Bishop Morton, Bishop Barlow, Dr. Fuller, Dr. Price, Dr. Woodford, Dr. Featly, Dr. Holdsworth, Sir Edward Byfh, Mr. Cranmer, and that celebrated fcholar and critick Mr. John Hales, of Eton.

" ferved,

1

«ferved, after the defeat given to the Scotch "forces at Worcester, ann. 4 Car. II. Among "the rest of his atttendants then difperfed, "Colonel Blague was one; who, (taking "fhelter at Blore-pipe-boufe) in Stafford

fhire, where one Mr. George Barlow then "dwelt, delivered his wife this George to "fecure. Within a week after Mr. Bar"low himself carried it to Robert Milward,

Efq; he being then a prisoner to the par"liament, in the garrison of Stafford ; and

by his means was it happily preferved, "and restored; for not long after he deli"vered it to Mr. Ifaac Walton (a man well

known, and as well beloved of all good "men; and will be better known to pofte

rity by his ingenious pen, in the lives of "Dr. Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Mr. Richard "Hooker, and Mr. George Herbert) to be

given to Colonel Blague, then a prisoner in "the Tower; who, confidering it had al

ready paft fo many dangers, was per"fuaded it could yet fecure one hazardous "attempt of his own; and thereupon leaving the Tower, without leave-taking, "hafted the presentation of it to the prefent fovereign's hand.”

86

The religious opinions of good men are of little importance to others, any farther than they neceffarily conduce to virtuous practice; fince we fee that, as well the different persuasions of papist and proteftant, as the fe

veral no lefs militant parties into which the reformed religion is unhappily fubdivided, have produced men equally remarkable for their talents, and exemplary in their lives; but were it neceffary to be particular on this head, with refpect to our author, we should fay of him, that he was a very dutiful fon of the church of England; and that though he feems to speak of fuch as feparated from it with fome acrimony *, poffibly the age he lived in, might, in fome measure, excuse him. He had lived to fee hypocrify called into the aid of a caufe, that needed no fuch auxiliary; the important question of toleration had not been difcuffed; the extent of regal prerogative, and the bounds of civil liberty, had never been ascertained; and he, like many other good men, might imagine the interefts of the church, and thofe of religion, infeparable.

Befides the works of Walton abovementioned, there are extant of his writing, verfes on the death of Dr. Donne, beginning, "Our Donne is dead," verfes before Alexander Brome's poems, Octavo, 1664, before Shirley's poems, Octavo, 1646, and before Cartwright's plays and poems, Octavo, 1651. He wrote alfo the following lines under a print of Dr. Donne, before his poems, published in 1639.

* Complete Angler, Page 130.

This was for youth, ftrength, mirth, and wit, that

time

Moft count their golden age *; but was not thine : Thine was thy later years, fo much refin'd

From youth's drofs, mirth, and wit; as thy pure

mind

Thought (like the angels) nothing but the praise
Of thy Creator, in those last, best days.

Witness this book, (thy emblem) which begins With love; but ends, with fighs and tears for fins.

The late Mr. Des Maizeaux, fome years ago, told a gentleman now living †, that there were several letters of Walton extant, in the Ashmolean Museum, relating to a life of Sir Henry Savile, which Walton had entertained thoughts of writing.

In 1683, when he was ninety years old, he published Thealma and Clearchus, a paftoral biftory, in smooth and eafy verfe; written long fince by John Chalkhill, Efq; an acquaintant and friend of Edmund Spenfer : to this poem he wrote a preface, containing a very amiable character of the author.

He lived but a very little time after the publication of this poem: for, as Wood fays,

* Alluding to his age, viz. eighteen, when the picture was painted from which the print was taken.

The very learned and ingenious William Oldys, Efq; Norroy king at arms, to whom the reader and myself are indebted for the life of Mr. Cotton, prefixed to the second part of this work.

"he

"he ended his days on the fifteenth day of "December, 1683, in the great frost, at Winchester, in the house of Dr. William "Hawkins, a prebendary of the church there, where he lies buried *.”

Walton's wife was the fifter of Dr. Thomas Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells; by her he had a fon named Ifaac +, who, as Cotton fays, had been in France, and at Rome, and Venice; he was bred a clergyman, and became a refidentiary of the cathedral church of Sarum; he died a batchelor, at a good old age, and his memory is ftill greatly respected in that diocese of this fon mention is made in a remarkable will of Dr. Donne, the younger, printed on a half sheet, in 1662: whereby he bequeaths to Walton all his father's writings and common-placebook; which, he fays, may be of use to his fon, if he makes him a scholar ‡.

He had also a daughter, married to the above-named Dr. William Hawkins, who had iffue by her a daughter named Anne, and a

Athen. Oxon. Vol. I. Col. 305.

+ Short account of the life of bishop Ken, by W. Hawkins, Efq; Octavo, 1713.

Mr. Cotton, Compl. Angl. Part II. pag. 45, fpeaks of this gentleman as having been at the above-mentioned places. And it further appears, that he, with his uncle bifhop Ken, in 1675, being the year of the jubilee, took a tour to Rome. Mr. Walton was then a batchelor of arts, and of Chrift-church College in Oxford. Biogr. Brit. KEN.

C.

fon;