ooner deliberated, but dropped his argument, and leaves Gesner to defend
it, so huffed away. . . . ' 'So note, the true character of an
industrious angler more deservedly falls upon Merrill and Faulkner, or
rather Izaak Ouldham, a man that fished salmon with but three hairs at
hook, whose collections and experiments were lost with himself,'--a
matter much to be regretted. It will be observed, of course, that hair
was then used, and gut is first mentioned for angling purposes by Mr.
Pepys. Indeed, the flies which Scott was hunting for when he found the
lost Ms. of the first part of _Waverley_ are tied on horse-hairs. They
are in the possession of the descendants of Scott's friend, Mr. William
Laidlaw. The curious angler, consulting Franck, will find that his
salmon flies are much like our own, but less variegated. Scott justly
remarks that, while Walton was habit and repute a bait-fisher, even
Cotton knows nothing of salmon. Scott wished that Walton had made the
northern tour, but Izaak would have been sadly to seek, running after a
fish down a gorge of the Shin or the Brora, and the discomforts of the
north would have finished his career. In Scotland he would not have
found fresh sheets smelling of lavender.

Walton was in London 'in the dangerous year 1655.' He speaks of his
meeting Bishop Sanderson there, 'in sad-coloured clothes, and, God knows,
far from being costly.' The friends were driven by wind and rain into 'a
cleanly house, where we had bread, cheese, ale, and a fire, for our ready
money. The rain and wind were so obliging to me, as to force our stay
there for at least an hour, to my great content and advantage; for in
that time he made to me many useful observations of the present times
with much clearness and conscientious freedom.' It was a year of
Republican and Royalist conspiracies: the clergy were persecuted and
banished from London.

No more is known of Walton till the happy year 1660, when the king came
to his own again, and Walton's Episcopal friends to their palaces. Izaak
produced an 'Eglog,' on May 29:--

'The king! The king's returned! And now
Let's banish all sad thoughts, and sing:
We have our laws, and have our king.'

If Izaak was so eccentric as to go to bed sober on that glorious twenty-
ninth of May, I greatly misjudge him. But he grew elderly. In 1661 he
chronicles the deaths of 'honest Nat. and R. Roe,--they are gone, and
with them most of my pleasant hours