Plate Page 31. THE PIKE, painted by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by Fox 30. THE SALMON, painted by Mr Inskipp, engraved by Fox 29. THE GRAYLING, painted by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by Fox 176 185 197 32. BASKET OF PIKE, painted by Sir Francis Sykes, Bart. engraved by J. G. Armytage 205 33. THE CARP, painted by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by Fox. 34. THE BREAM, painted by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by Fox 213 219 35. THE TENCH, painted by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by Fox 227 36. VIGNETTE OF MILL-DAM, near St. Cross, Winchester, drawn by De lamotte, engraved by Fox 228 37. THE PERCH, painted by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by Fox 43. OLD LONDON BRIDGE, from a Drawing by Pine, engraved by Roberts 44. THE PARTING AT TOTTENHAM, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by Fox 40. THE ROACH, DACE, GUDGEON, BLEAK, RUFFE, BULLHEAD, MINNOW, 253 258 271 273 309 45. VIGNETTE OF A YOUTH ANGLING, painted by T. S. Cafe, Esq. engraved by W. J. Wilkinson 46. PORTRAIT (whole length) OF CHARLES COTTON, ESQ. from a Painting by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by W. Humphrys 321 47. WOOD-CUT of the FISHING-HOUSE, from a Sketch by Worthington, engraved on wood by J. Thompson 48. PIKE POOL, near Beresford Hall, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by Fox 322 330 49. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by Worthington 331 50. VIEW OF ASHBOURN, from the Old Road, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by W. J. Cooke 337 51. HANSON TOOT IN DOVE DALE, with Alstonefield Church in the distance, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by W. J. Cooke 346 52. BERESFORD HALL, the seat of C. Cotton, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by W. J. Cooke 53. PICKERING. TOR, AND THE IRON CHEST, Dove Dale, drawn by T. 350 351 55. DISTANT VIEW OF THE FISHING-HOUSE AND THE RIVER DOVE, winding 'like a snake,' drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by W. J. Cooke 56. THE FISHING-HOUSE, front view, drawn by T. Stothard, Ř.A. engraved by Fox 57. THE BACK FRONT OF THE FISHING-HOUSE, 'in a kind of peninsula, with a delicate clear river about it,' drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by W. J. Cooke 58. LANDING THE GRAYLING, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by Fox 59. VIEW OF PIKE POOL, painted by Mr. Inskipp, engraved by Freebairn 60. BERESFORD HALL, from the Hill,' drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by W. J. Cooke 61. VIGNETTE, Head-piece, drawn by T. Stothard, R.A. engraved by Worthington CONTENTS. List of the Books formerly belonging to Izaak Walton, now in cly His Epistles to the Reader in the First, Second, and Fifth editions Containing The First Chapter, being "A Conference betwixt an The Third Chapter, containing Directions "How to Fish for and to Dress the Chavender or Chub" The Fourth Chapter, "On the Nature and Breeding THE FOURTH DAY:- Containing The remainder of the Fifth Chapter, "On the Trout" The Thirteenth Chapter, "Of the Eel, and other Fish that want Scales" 234-245 THE FIFTH DAY:- Containing The Seventeenth Chapter, "Of Roach and Dace" 271-287 The Eighteenth Chapter, "Of the Minnow or Penk, 287-290 367-374 The Sixth The Seventh and Eighth, containing a List of Artificial LIFE OF IZAAK WALTON. "WALTON, crime it were to leave unsung Thy gentle mind, thy breast unblanch'd by wrong; Thy guileless manners, and thy hallowed age.' IZAAK WALTON was born at Stafford on the 9th of August, 1593, and was baptized there on the 21st of September following. He was the son of Jervis Walton of that town, who is presumed to have been the second son of George Walton, some time bailiff of Yoxhall,' a small village about fifteen miles from Stafford; beyond whom the pedigree cannot be traced with certainty. The name of WALTON existed in Staffordshire at an early period, and was general in that county about the middle of the sixteenth century, at which time the family were substantial yeomen. Of Izaak Walton's father, Jervis Walton, nothing has been discovered, except what occurs in the register of St. Mary's church at Stafford, from which it may be inferred that he had a second son named Ambrose, who was buried on the 3rd March, 1595-6, and who probably died young. Jervis Walton died early in February, 1596-7, and was buried at St. Mary's on the 11th of that month. Of his wife, not even the name has been discovered; and it is doubtful whether she survived her husband. At the tender age of four years, IZAAK WALTON seems therefore to have been thrown upon the world an orphan. Of his childhood, his guardians, or the means by which he was supported, nothing whatever is known. He received a good, though not, strictly speaking, a classical 1 "1593, Septem. Baptiz. fuit Isaac filius Jervis Walton xxj die mensis et anni prædict."-Register of St. Mary's, Stafford. The date of his birth is shewn by the preamble to his will. 2 See Pedigree, No. I. in the Appendix. To the signature to his will he added "late baylie of Yoxhall." 3 Some remarks on the pedigree of the Walton family will be found in Note K in the Appendix. b education, and it is likely that he was sent to the grammar school of his native town; but not a single fact can be stated respecting him from the time of his baptism, until he attained his twentieth year, when he appears to have been a resident of London. Neither the cause nor the period of his removal from Stafford to the metropolis has been ascertained; though it is probable that he was apprenticed when very young, to a distant relation of the name of Henry Walton, who was haberdasher at Whitechapel.5 The earliest notice of Walton after his birth is of 5 This conjecture is principally founded on the following facts. It is well known that Izaak Walton followed the trade of a sempster or haberdasher. Henry Walton, "citizen and haberdasher, of Whitechapel," is so described in the will of his cousin Samuel Walton, of St. Mary's Cray, in Kent, gentleman, son of Henry Walton, citizen and cloth-worker, of London, dated on the 2nd, and proved on the 9th of April, 1631; and his connection with the county of Stafford is shewn by the testator's mentioning his uncle John Walton, of Mathfield, in that county, who may have been the father of the said Henry Walton of Whitechapel. An abstract of Henry Walton's will is inserted in Note L in the Appendix, where other reasons are stated for thinking the hypothesis correct. The records of the Haberdashers' Company do not contain the names of Henry or Izaak Walton between 1600 and 1630. Sir John Hawkins supposes that Walton first settled in London as a shopkeeper in the Royal Exchange, under the patronage of Sir Thomas Gresham, but his opinion has been shewn to be erroneous. See Anthony Wood, Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss. I. 698. 6 It is necessary to advert to an article which appeared in a weekly publication, called "The Freebooter," on the 18th of October, 1823, where it is stated that "there is a manuscript in the Lansdowne collection of the British Museum, which throws some light upon the early life of Izaak Walton. By whom it was written and at what precise date, does not appear; but the handwriting is evidently of about the time of the Revolution, and in it the author speaks of Walton as 'not long since deceased, to the great grief of all his loving friends.'" The MS., it is said, refers very much to the interval between his birth in 1593 and 1624: "it fixes the place of his education at Stafford, where he was born, and from whence he removed to London, where he was regularly apprenticed to one Holmes, a sempster, with whom he lived until he was twenty-two or twenty-three years old. Sir J. Hawkins conjectures that he married about 1632, but on what ground it is difficult to discover: now the author of this MS. asserts that Walton took a wife' before he was twenty-four years old, and while he held a shop near the Exchange. The date of his removal into Fleet Street is not supplied with precision, but it is clear that it was at least as early as 1618, and after his marriage; but the document is written in a rough, sketchy style, and consists generally rather of biographical hints and anecdotes than of regular details of events relating to any of the persons mentioned in the volume, of which the |