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Relics Of Izaak Walton


Flatman's beautiful lines to Walton, (says Mr. Jesse) commencing--



"Happy old man, whose worth all mankind knows

Except himself,"



have always struck us as conveying a true picture of Walton's character,

and of the estimation in which he was held after the appearance of his

"Angler."



The last male descendant of our "honest father," the Rev. Dr. Herbert

Hawes, die
in 1839. He very liberally bequeathed the beautiful painting

of Walton, by Houseman, to the National Gallery; and it is a curious

fact, as showing the estimation in which anything connected with Walton

is held in the present day, that the lord of the manor in which Dr.

Hawes resided, laid claim to this portrait as a heriot, though not

successfully. Dr. Hawes also bequeathed the greater portion of his

library to the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury; and his executor and

friend presented the celebrated prayer-book, which was Walton's, to

Mr. Pickering, the publisher. The watch which belonged to Walton's

connexion, the excellent Bishop Ken, has been presented to his amiable

biographer, the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles.



Walton died at the house of his son-in-law, Dr. Hawkins, at Winchester.

He was buried in Winchester Cathedral, in the south aisle, called Prior

Silkstead's Chapel. A large black marble slab is placed over his remains;

and, to use the poetical language of Mr. Bowles, "the morning sunshine

falls directly on it, reminding the contemplative man of the mornings

when he was, for so many years, up and abroad with his angle, on the

banks of the neighbouring stream."



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