Thine was thy later years; so much refined

From youth's dross, mirth and wit,-as thy pure mind
Thought (like the angels) nothing but the praise
Of thy Creator, in those last, best days.

Witness this book, (thy emblem,) which begins
With love; but ends with sighs and tears for sins.

Dr. Henry King, bishop of Chichester-in a Letter to Walton, dated in November, 1664, and in which is contained the judgment (herein-before inserted) of Hales of Eton, on the Life of Dr. Donne— says, that Walton had, in the Life of Hooker, given a more short and significant account of the character of this time, and also of archbishop Whitgift, than he had received from any other pen,-and that he had also done much for Sir Henry Savile, his contemporary and familiar friend; which fact does very well connect with what the late Mr. Des Maizeaux, some years since related to a gentleman now deceased,1 from whom myself had it, viz. that there were then several Letters of Walton extant, in the Ashmolean Museum, relating to a Life of Sir Henry Savile, which Walton had entertained thoughts of writing.

I also find, that he undertook to collect materials for a Life of Hales: it seems, that Mr. Anthony Farringdon, minister of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, London, had begun to write the Life of this memorable person; but dying before he had completed it, his papers were sent to Walton, with a request from Mr. Fulman, who had proposed to himself to continue and finish it, that Walton would furnish him with such information as was to his purpose: Mr. Fulman did not live to complete his design. But a Life of Mr. Hales, from other materials, was compiled by the late Mr. Des Maizeaux, and published by him in 1719, as a specimen of a new Biographical Dictionary.

A Letter of Walton, to Marriot his bookseller, upon this occasion, was sent me by the late Rev. Dr. Birch, soon after the publication of my first edition of the Complete Angler, containing the above facts; to which the Doctor added, that after the year 1719, Mr. Fulman's papers came to the hands of Mr. Des Maizeaux, who intended in some way or other, to avail himself of them: but he never published a second edition of his Life of Hales; nor, for aught that I can hear, have they ever yet found their way into the world.

In 1683, when he was ninety years old, Walton published Thealma and Clearchus; a Pastoral history, in smooth and easy verse, written long since by John Chalkhill, Esq.; an acquaintance and friend of Edmund Spenser: to this poem he wrote a Preface, containing a very amiable character of the author,

(1) William Oldys, esq Norroy king at arms, author of the Life of Mr. Cotton, prefixed to the Second Part, in the former editions of this work. (2) Mr. William Fulman, amanuensis to Dr. Henry Hammond. See him in Athen. Oxon. Vol. II. 823. Some specious arguments have been urged to prove that this person was the author of the Whole Duty of Man, and I once thought they had finally settled that long agitated question, "To whom is the world obliged for that excellent work?" but I find a full and ample refutation of them, in a book entitled Memoirs of several Ladies of Great Britain, by George Ballard, 4to. 1752, p. 318, and that the weight of evidence is greatly in favour of a lady deservedly celebrated by him, viz. Dorothy, the wife of Sir John Packington, Bart. and daughter of Thomas Lord Coventry, lord-keeper of the great seal, temp. Car. I.