the more humble abode of Walton is seen adjoining, apparently with a modern front, and retiring a little back, as if awed by the greatness of its lofty neighbour.

We are ignorant of the causes which led Walton to take up his abode in this neighbourhood. Its vicinity to the Temple and to Lincoln's Inn, no doubt, made it a good trading locality in those times, when so many of the nobility and the members of the Bar resided close to the spot. But whatever may have been the motives for fixing his home in this part of London, the influence upon his character and fame was most important. He was certainly living in Fleet Street in 1624; in the previous year Dr. Donne had become the Vicar of the Parish, St. Dunstan's in the West. Walton was then in his thirty-first year, and Donne twenty years older, but the two men quickly became acquainted; the religious fervour, frankness, and simplicity of the younger were soon understood and prized by the man who had been the companion of scholars, courtiers, divines, and lawyers. It is difficult to say which is under the heavier obligations to the other. Perhaps the Satires and the Sermons of Donne might have kept his name alive amongst a small company of literary men; but Walton has made Donne familiar to the majority of English churchmen. But probably Walton would never have written either the "Lives" or the "Angler" had he remained unknown to the Vicar of St. Dunstan's. was Donne who made his parishioner acquainted with such men as Sir Henry Wotton and Hales of Eton. These were soon delighted with the simple manliness and intelligence of Walton, and introduced him to their numerous friends.

It

The next decisive event in the life of Walton was his marriage with Rachel Floud, a distant relation of Arch

bishop Cranmer. The marriage was celebrated at St. Mildred's Church, Canterbury, on December the 27th, 1626. This union had a considerable influence on Walton's fame. The relations of his wife bore the honoured name of Cranmer; her uncle had been a pupil of the famous Hooker, and through this channel Walton gained much of that information which he afterwards used in his life of that divine.

Walton continued to reside in the house in Fleet Street, or in one a few doors up Chancery Lane, until the year 1644, when the civil war was entering upon its second and more decisive course. The unflinching opposition of the City of London to the King, and the increasing exasperation of men's minds, may have made a longer residence in the metropolis unsafe for Walton. Under the date of the 20th of August, 1644, the parish book of St. Dunstan's has an entry relating to the selecting of a vestryman, who is stated to be elected "in room of Izaak Walton lately departed out of this parish." Before this Walton's heart had been grieved by the news which had thrown London into all the exultations of triumph. The battle of Marston Moor, fought within sight of York in the preceding month, had given a blow to the royal cause which induced many a disheartened friend of the King to leave London, where the Parliament was wholly dominant.

The events of Walton's life, during his twenty years' residence in St. Dunstan's were marked by many a sorrow. In 1631 his firm and influential friend, Dr. Donne, died; the next year was marked by the birth and speedy death of his son Henry, and in 1634 another son, named after the former, died at the age of nine months. At the close of 1639 his intimate companion, Sir Henry Wotton, closed his life; and in the following

year Walton lost his wife Rachel, who was buried in St. Dunstan's on the 25th of August. Even again death came to the home of Walton; his infant daughter Anne died in less than two years after her mother, and his house was now desolate. It was during this period, and in the very year of his heaviest calamity, that he published his first literary work, the Life of Donne. He had previously collected information for such a work at the request of Sir Henry Wotton, who had intended to write the memoir himself. The death of Wotton compelled Walton to undertake the task. Hales of Eton, the ever memorable," is reported to have said of this work, “He had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the subject, or more reputation to the writer, than that of Dr. Donne." The laudatory tone of the memoir was indeed sufficient to win the approbation of those who wished to see the virtues separated from the defects of their deceased friend. The work introduced Walton to the respectful regards of many eminent men to whom he had hitherto been a stranger. This part of his life certainly closed in gloom, but it was also from this time that his influence made itself felt.

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How he was affected by the deaths of children and wife we know not; on this he no where speaks in direct language, but his frequent references to the goodness and mercy of God leave us in no doubt as to the spirit in which he met these visitations. Although it is evident that Walton left his house in St. Dunstan's in the year 1644, it is not certain that he departed from London. Wood indeed says that he retired to the place of his birth, Stafford; and as Wood was for many years a contemporary of Walton, this may have been the fact. But we find Walton in London at the beginning of 1645, when Archbishop Laud was executed. It also appears,