Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/281

 reminded of his engagement early in 1676, and he wrote his dialogue between ‘Piscator’ and ‘Viator’ in the early part of March. It was published as a second part with the fifth edition of the ‘Compleat Angler,’ which appeared in the same year (1676). ‘The Experienced Angler,’ by Robert Venables [q. v.], was appended as a third part, and the three were issued with the collective title ‘The Universal Angler, made so by Three Books of Fishing.’ Some two years later Walton's daughter Anne was married to William Hawkins, a prebendary of Winchester, and Izaak henceforth spent part of his time in his daughter's home. In May 1678 appeared his ‘Life of Robert Sanderson,’ in which he acknowledged help from Bishop Barlow. In 1683 he edited a pastoral history, ‘Thealma and Clearchus,’ by his deceased friend John Chalkhill [q. v.]; verses were prefixed by Thomas Flatman.

As late as 26 May 1683 Walton wrote to Wood in answer to a query respecting Aylmer (Athenæ Oxon.) He was then at Morley's seat at Farnham Castle, but he soon after returned to Winchester, and on 9 Aug. completed his will, which he signed and sealed on 24 Oct. He died at his son-in-law's house in Winchester, during a severe frost, on 15 Dec. 1683. He was buried in Winchester Cathedral in Prior Silkstede's chapel in the north transept, where a black marble floor-slab bears an inscription by Ken. Among other bequests he left his holding at Shalford, which he acquired about 1654, for the benefit of the poor of Stafford. Many of Walton's books are now in the library of Salisbury Cathedral.

The famous portrait of Walton by Jacob Huysmans is in the National Gallery. It has been repeatedly engraved—by Scott in 1811, by Robinson in 1844, by Charles Rolls, Sherlock, Philip Audinet, and many others. A marble bust of Walton by Belt was erected in 1878 by public subscription in the church of St. Mary's, Stafford, where he was baptised, and a statue by Miss Mary Grant, subscribed by ‘The Fishermen of England,’ was placed in the great screen of Winchester Cathedral in 1888. A memorial to Walton has been erected in St. Dunstan's in the West.

Walton was twice married. On 27 Dec. 1626 he wedded Rachel Floud at St. Mildred's, Canterbury. She was daughter of William Floyd or Floud by Susannah, daughter of Thomas Cranmer, a great-nephew of the archbishop. She died on 22 Aug. 1640, and was buried three days later in St. Dunstan's Church. All Walton's seven children by her died in infancy. About 1646 he married, secondly, Anne, daughter of Thomas Ken, and half-sister of Bishop Ken. On 11 March 1647–8 his daughter Anne was born, two years later a son Izaak, who died within the year, and, on 7 Sept. 1651, a second son Isaac [see below]. Walton's second wife, Anne, died, aged 52, on 17 April 1662, and was buried three days later in the Lady-chapel in Worcester Cathedral, where Walton placed an inscription to her memory (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. v. 369).

Walton's career is seen to be that of a man born in humble position, but attracting by his charm of character and happy religion the friendship of learned divines and prelates. More than most authors he lives in his writings, which are the pure expression of a kind, humorous, and pious soul in love with nature, while the expression itself is unique for apparent simplicity which is really elaborately studied art. His character is no less apparent in his biographies than in his ‘Angler,’ where we find him as he was in his holiday mood, in company with ‘honest Nat. and R. Roe.’ His descriptions of flowers, fields, and streams are the prose of the poetry in Shakespeare's incidental rustic songs, or Marlowe's ‘Come live with me.’ His love of music is continually evident in the pages of his ‘Angler.’ Such qualities won for him, after his death, the admiration of Dr. Johnson (who must also have been drawn to him as a royalist and churchman), of Wordsworth, of Lamb, and of Landor.

This is not the place to discuss Walton's faults as a practical angler. What the contemporary puritan angler thought of the royalist fisherman may be gleaned from Richard Franck's ‘Northern Memoirs.’ Written in 1658 by Franck, a Cromwellian soldier, who fished for salmon from Esk to Naver, the ‘Northern Memoirs’ are not known to have been published till 1694. Franck, as a practical salmon-fisher, despised Walton's methods, disdained his natural history, and had a rather unpleasant personal discussion with him about the breeding of pike out of pickerel-weed. He was confessedly a bottom-fisher; his ‘jury of flies’ is traditional, going back to the ‘Book of St. Albans.’ Of salmon he practically knew nothing; and he regards a reel as a new-fangled engine difficult to describe. He has no idea of fishing up stream. But Walton is not read as an instructor; he is an idyllist, and as such is unmatched in English prose.

It is characteristic of Walton's kindly nature that he was a frequent contributor of complimentary addresses, in verse and prose, to works written by his friends. In 1638 he prefixed a copy of verses to Lewis Roberts's ‘Merchants Mappe of Commerce.’