frugal manners of our forefathers, may not be productive of fimilar confequences. It would, perhaps, beinjuftice to infer from the particular above-mentioned, that the trade of Walton was small, or his circumstances narrow; the reader is enabled to account for this example of his economy; befides, that the extenfiveness of his acquaintance, and the fortune he left, forbid fuch a fuppofition. Ten years after, we find him living in Chancery-lane; there he carried on the bufiness of a Sempfter* or Milliner; a particular from which we may infer, that he was, by this time, if not long before, married; befides that, he was now turned of forty. This houfe belonged to the owner of the former, and it is fuppofed was but a few doors up the lane, on the left hand. About 1643 he left London, and with a fortune very far fhort of what would now be called a competency †, feems to have retired altogether from business; at which time (to afe the words of Wood) "finding it dange rous for honeft men to be there, he left that city, and lived fometimes at Stafford, "and elsewhere; but mostly in the families "of the eminent clergymen of England, of "whom he was much beloved ‡." *Ex vet. Autograph. penes me. While he continued in London, his favourite amusement was angling, in which he was the greatest proficient of his time; and indeed, fo great were his skill and experience in that art, that there is scarce any writer on the fubject fince his time, who has not made the rules and practice of Walton his very foundation. It is therefore with the greatest propriety, that Langbaine calls him" the "common father of all anglers *." The river that he feems moftly to have frequented for this diverfion, was the Lea, which has its fource above Ware in Hertfordfaire, and falls into the Thames a little below Blackwall; unless we will fuppofe that the vicinity of the New-River ‡ to the place of his habitation, might fometimes tempt him out with his friends, honeft Nat, and R. Roe, whofe lofs he fo pathetically mentions, to spend an afternoon there. Living while he was in London, in the parish of St. Dunstan in the west, whereof Dr. John Donne, dean of St. Paul's, was * Lives of the English dramatick poets, Art. Cha. Cotton, Efq; + See Page 274. That great work, the bringing water from Chadwell and Amwell, in Hertfordshire, to London, by means of the trench called the New-River, was compleated on Michaelmas-Day, 1613. Stowe's Surv. Fol. 1633. vicar, he became intimately acquainted with that excellent perfon *; and, upon his decease in 1631, Sir Henry Wotton, of whom mention will be made hereafter, requested Walton to collect materials for a life of the doctor, which it seems Sir Henry had undertaken to write. But Sir Henry dying before he had completed the life, Walton undertook it himfelf, and in the year 1640 finished, and published it, with a collection of the doctor's fermons, in Folio. As foon as the book came out, a complete copy was fent as a prefent to Walton, by Mr. John Donne the doctor's fon, afterwards doctor of laws, and one of the blank leaves contained his letter to Mr. Walton; the letter is yet extant ‡, and is a handfome and grateful acknowledgment of the honour done to the memory of his father. Doctor King, afterwards bishop of Chichefter, in a letter to the author, thus expreffes himself concerning this life: I am glad that the general demonstration of his (Dr. Donne's) worth was fo fairly pre"ferved and reprefented to the world by 66 your pen, in the history of his life; indeed, *Introd. to Dr. Donne's life. + See Reliquia Wottoniana, Octavo, 1695. p. 360. In Peck's Defiderata Curiofa,ol. I. Lib. VI. pag. 24. In the year 1714, the very book, with the original manufcript letter, was in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Borradale, rector of Market-Deeping, in the county of Lincoln. a " fo "fo well, that befide others, the best critic k "of our later time, Mr. John Hales of "Eaton, affirmed to me, he had not feen a life written with more advantage to the fubject, or reputation to the writer, than "that of Doctor Donne *. Sir Henry Wotton dying in 1639, Walton was importuned by bishop King to undertake the writing his life; and, as it should feem, by a circumftance mentioned in the margin, it was finished about 1644 †. Notwithstanding which, the earlieft copy I have yet been able to meet with, is that prefixed to a collection of Sir Henry's remains, undoubtedly made by Walton himself, intitled, Reliquia Wottoniana, and by him, in 1651, dedicated to lady Mary Wotton, and her three daughters; though in a fubfequent edition in 1685, he has recommended them to the patronage of a more remote relation of the author, namely, Philip earl of Chefter field. The precepts of angling, till Walton's time, having hardly ever been reduced to *Bifhop King's letter to Walton before the collection of the Lives, in 1675. + It is certain that Hooker's life was written in 1664. And Walton fays, in his epiftle before the edition of the Lives, in 1675, that "there was an interval of twenty ૯૮ years between the writing of Hooker's life and Wot"ton's, which fixes the date of the latter to 1644,' writing, writing, were propagated from age to age chiefly by tradition; but Walton, whofe benevolent and communicative temper appears in every line of his writings, unwilling to conceal from the world thofe affiftances which his long practice and experience enabled him, perhaps the beft of any man of his time to give, in the year 1653, published, in a very elegant manner, his Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation, in fmall Duodecimo, adorned with exquisite cuts of most of the fish mentioned in it. The artist who engraved them, has been fo modeft as to conceal his name; but there is great reafon to fuppofe they are the work of Lombart, who is mentioned in the Sculptura of Mr. Evelyn. And let no man imagine, that a work on such a subject muft neceffarily be unentertaining, or trifling, or even uninstructive; for the contrary will moft evidently appear, from a perufal of this excellent piece, which, whether we confider the elegant fimplicity of the style, the cafe and unaffected humour of the dialogue, the lovely scenes which it delineates, the enchanting paftoral poetry which it contains, or the fine morality it fo fweetly inculcates, has hardly its fellow in any of the modern languages. The truth is, that there are few fubjects fo barren as not to afford matter of delight, |