that you dwell in. And I have ventured also to give him a "Copy of Verses" that you were pleased to send me, now some years past, in which he may see a good picture of both; and so much of your own mind too, as will make any reader, that is blessed with a generous soul, to love you the better. I confess, that for doing this you may justly judge me too bold: if you do, I will say so too; and so far commute for my offence, that, though I be more than a hundred miles from you, and in the eighty-third year of my age, yet I will forget both, and the next month begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon; for I would die in your favour, and till then will live,

LONDON,

April 29th, 1676.

Sir,

Your most affectionate father and friend,

IZAAK WALTON.

take up my inn.

ISC. You are happily overtaken, sir; may a man be so bold as to inquire how far you travel this way?

VIAT. Yes sure, sir, very freely, though it be a question I cannot very well resolve you, as not knowing myself how far it is to Ashborn, where I intend to-night to

PISC. Why then, sir, seeing I perceive you to be a stranger in these parts, I shall take upon me to inform you, that from the town you last came through, called Brelsford, it is five miles; and you are not yet above half a mile on this side.

VIAT. So much? I was told it was but ten miles from Derby; and, methinks, I have rode almost so far already.

PISC. O sir, find no fault with large measure of good land, which Derbyshire abounds in, as much as most counties of England.

VIAT. It may be so; and good land, I confess, affords a pleasant prospect: but, by your good leave, sir, large measure of foul way is not altogether so acceptable.

PISC. True, sir; but the foul way serves to justify the fertility of the soil, according to the proverb, "There is good land where there is foul way;" and is of good use to inform you of the riches of the country you are come into, and of its continual travel and traffic to the country town you came from; which is also very observable by the fulness of its road, and the loaden horses you meet everywhere upon the

way.

VIAT. Well, sir, I will be content to think as well of your country as you would desire; and I shall have a great deal of reason both to think, and to speak very well of you, if I may obtain the happiness of your company to the forementioned place, provided your affairs lead you that way, and that they will permit you to slack your pace, out of complacency to a traveller utterly a stranger in these parts, and who am still to wander further out of my own knowledge.

PISC. Sir, you invite me to my own advantage, and I am ready to attend you, my way lying through that town; but my business, that is, my home, some miles beyond it however, I shall have time enough to lodge you in your quarters, and afterward to perform my own journey. In the meantime, may I be so bold as to inquire the end of your journey?

VIAT. 'Tis into Lancashire, sir; and about some business of concern to a near relation of mine; for I assure you I do not use to take such long journeys as from Essex upon the single account of pleasure.

PISC. From thence, sir! I do not then wonder you should appear dissatisfied with the length of the miles, and the foulness of the way though I am sorry you should begin to quarrel with them so soon; for, believe me, sir, you will find the miles much longer, and the way much worse, before you come to your journey's end.

VIAT. Why! truly, sir! for that I am prepared to expect