In 1643, Mr. Walton, having declined business, retired to a small estate in Staffordshire, not far from the town of Stafford. His loyalty made him obnoxious to the ruling powers; and we are assured by himself, that he was a sufferer during the time of the civil wars d. In 1643 the Covenanters came back into England, marching with the Covenant gloriously upon their pikes and in their hats, with this motto, "FOR THE CROWN 66 This," AND COVENANT OF BOTH KINGDOMS." he adds, "I saw, and suffered by it. But when "I look back upon the ruine of families, the blood"shed, the decay of common honesty, and how "the former piety and plain dealing of this now " sinful nation is turned into cruelty and cunning; "when I consider this, I praise God, that he pre"vented me from being of that party which helped "to bring in this Covenant, and those sad confu"sions that have followed it." He persevered in the most inviolable attachment to the royal cause. In many of his writings he pathetically laments the afflictions of his Sovereign, and the wretched condition of his beloved country involved in all the miseries of intestine dissentions. The incident of his being instrumental in preserving the lesser George, which belonged to Charles II. is related in "Ashmole's History of the Order of the Garter "."

* See " Walton's Life of Dr. Sanderson."

The account is also preserved, by tradition, in the family. “Col. Blague remained at Mr. Barlow's house at Blore-Pipe, in Staffordshire,

We may now apply to him what has been said of Mr. Cowley; "some few friends, a book, a cheerful heart, and innocent conscience were his companions." In this scene of rural privacy he was not unfrequently indulged with the company of learned and good men. Here, as in a safe and peaceful asylum, they met with the most cordial and grateful reception. And we are informed by the Oxford Antiquary, that, whenever he went from home, he resorted principally to the houses of the eminent clergymen of the Church of England, of whom he was much beloved. To a man desirous of dilating his intellectual improvements, no conversation could be more agreeable, than that of those Divines, who were known to have distinguished him with their personal regard.

The Roman Poet, of whom it has been remarked that he made the happiest union of the courtier and the scholar, was of plebeian origin. Yet such was the attraction of his manners and deportment, that he classed among his friends the first and most illustrious of his contemporaries,

Staffordshire, where, with Mr. Barlow's privity and advice, he hid his Majesty's George under a heap of dust and chips, whence it was conveyed through the trusty hands of Mr. Robert Milward of Stafford, to Mr. Isaac Walton, who conveyed it to London, to Col. Blague, then in the Tower; whence escaping not long after, he carried it with him beyond seas, and restored it to his Majesty's own hands." (Plot's Hist. of Staffordshire, Ch. VIII. Sect. 77. See also Ashmole's History of the Order of the Garter, p. 228.)

Plotius and Varus, Pollio and Fuscus, the Visci and the Messalæ. Nor was Isaac Walton less fortunate in his social connexions. The times in which he lived were times of gloomy suspicion, of danger and distress, when a severe scrutiny into the public and private behaviour of men established a rigid discrimination of character. He must therefore be allowed to have possessed a peculiar excellency of disposition, who conciliated to himself an habitual intimacy with Usher the Apostolical Primate of Ireland, with Archbishop Sheldon, with Morton, Bishop of Durham, Pearson of Chester, and Sanderson of Lincoln, with the ever-memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton, and the judicious Mr. Chillingworth; in short, with those who were most celebrated for their piety and learning. Nor could he be deficient in urbanity of manners or elegance of taste, who was the companion of Sir Henry Wotton, the most accomplished gentleman of his age'. The singular circumspection which he observed in the choice of his acquaintance, has not escaped the notice of

f "My next and last example shall be that undervaluer of money, the late Provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, a man with whom I have often fished and conversed; a man, whom foreign employments in the service of this nation, and whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind."-(Complete Angler, P 1. Ch. 1.)

In Sir Henry Worton's verses, written by him as he sate fishing on the bank of a river, he probably alludes to Walton himself, who often accompanied him in his innocent amusement :

"There

Mr. Cotton. “ My Father Walton," says he, "will "be seen twice in no man's company he does not "like; and likes none but such as he believes to "be very honest men; which is one of the best

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arguments, or at least of the best testimonies I "have, that I either am, or that he thinks me one "of those, seeing I have not yet found him weary "of me."

"There stood my friend, with patient skill,

"Attending of his trembling quill."

That this amiable and excellent person set a high value on the conversation of his humble friend appears from the follow. ing letter:

"MY WORTHY FRIEND,

"Since I last saw you, I have been confined to my chamber "by a quotidian feaver, I thank God of more contumacy than "malignity. It had once left me, as I thought, but it was only "to fetch more company, returning with a surcrew of those

splentetick vapours, that are called Hypocondriacal; of which "most say the cure is good company, and I desire no better "physician than yourself. I have in one of those fits endea"voured to make it more easie by composing a short hymn; " and since I have apparelled my best thoughts so lightly as in "verse, I hope I shall be pardoned a second vanity, if I com"municated it with such a friend as yourself; to whom I wish “a cheerful spirit, and a thankful heart to value it, as one of "the greatest blessings of our good God; in whose dear love I "leave you, remaining

"Your poor friend to serve you,

“ H. WOTTON."

(Reliquia Wottoniana, p. 361. 4th edit.See the Hymn men tioned in this Letter, in Walton's Life of Dr. Donne.)

Complete Angler, P. II. Ch. I.

Before his retirement into the country, he pub-: lished "The Life of Dr. Donne:" It was origi-: nally appended to "LXXX Sermons, preached

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by that learned and reverend Divine, John "Donne, Dr. in Divinity, late Dean of the "Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, London, 1640." He had been solicited by Sir Henry Wotton,: to supply him with materials for writing that Life. Sir Henry dying in 1639, before he had made any progress in the work, Isaac Walton engaged in it. This, his first essay in biography, was by more accurate revisals corrected, and considerably enlarged in subsequent editions. Donne has been principally commended as a poet;-Walton, who, as it has been already remarked, was a constant hearer of his sermons, makes him known to us as a preacher, eloquent, animated, affecting. His poems, like the sky bespangled with small stars, are occasionally interspersed with the ornaments of fine imagery. They must however be pronounced generally devoid of harmony of numbers, or beauty of versification. Involved in the language of metaphysical obscurity ", they cannot be

Dr. DONNE affects the metaphysics, not only in his satires, but in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign, and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts and entertain them with the softnesses of love. In this, if I may be pardoned for so bold a truth, Mr. Cowley has copied him to a fau't, so great a one in my opinion, that it throws his "Mistress" infi-. nitely below his Pindariques and his latter compositions, which, VOL. II. Y

are