“Je meurs en adorant Dieu,
En aimant mes amis,
En ne haissant point mes ennemis,
En detestant la superstition.”
Voltaire spent his last days in Paris, dying there in 1778. It was there Benjamin Franklin took to him his grandson on whom he asked Voltaire to pronounce a blessing. Voltaire placed his hand upon the young man’s head, uttering at the same time in English, “God and liberty.”
Will of Izaak Walton
“Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.
They say unto him, we also go with thee.”
Izaak Walton died December 15, 1683, at the age of ninety, and was buried in the north transept of Winchester Cathedral. He is best known and loved by his work, “The Compleat Angler, or Contemplative Man’s Recreation;” for quaintness and pastoral freshness it has never been excelled and has passed through more than a hundred editions. Of the book Charles Lamb said: “It would sweeten a man’s temper at any time to read it.” The following verses in praise of tobacco, are taken from a poem of considerable length, Gosden’s edition of the “Journey to Beresford Hall.”
“Me thinks I see Charles Cotton, and his friend,
The modest Walton, from Augusta’s town,
Enter the Fishing-house an hour to spend,
And by the marble table set them down.
“‘Boy, bring me in the jug of Derby Ale,
My best tobacco, and my smoking tray;’
The boy, obedient, brings the rich regale,
And each assumes his pipe of polished clay.
. . . . . . . . . .
“Now cloud on cloud pervades the fishers’ room,
The Moreland Ale rich sparkles to the sight;
They draw fresh wisdom from the circling gloom,
And deal a converse pregnant with delight.
. . . . . . . . . .
“Me thinks I see them with the mental eye,
I hear their lessons with attentive ear,
Of early fishing with the summer fly,
And many a pleasing tale to Anglers dear.”
The Fishing-house of Charles Cotton, where Walton visited and where Piscator and Viator communed, stood “in a kind of peninsula,” as Cotton describes it, “with a delicate clear river about it;” this “little house” was on the river Dove in Staffordshire: over the arched door were the words “Piscatoribus Sacrum” and on the Key-stone the Cypher of Cotton and Walton. In 1835 this venerable and historic building was restored to nearly the same state as when originally built, by its owner, the Marquis of Beresford.
The will of Walton is deposited in the great registry of English wills at Somerset House, London, and may there be seen by the visitor. An exact copy recently taken from the original is here given, word for word:
“In the name of God, Amen: I, Izaak Walton, the elder, of Winchester, being the present day in the ninetyeth yeare of my age and in perfect memory, for which praysed be God, but considering how suddainly I may be deprived of both, doe therefore make this my last will and testament as followeth; and first, I doe declare my beleife to be that their is only one God who hath made the whole world and mee and all mankind, to whome I shall give an account of all my actions which are not to be justified but I hope pardoned for all the merrets of my saviour Jesus, and because the profession of Christianity does at this time seeme to be subdivided into papist and protestant I take it at least to be convenient to declare my beleife to be in all points of ffaith as the Church of England now professeth and this I doe, the rather because of a very long and a very true friendship with some of the Roman Church and for my worldly estate (which I have neither got by falsehood or flattery or the extreame Cruelty of the law of this nation) I doe hereby give and bequeath it as followeth: first I give my sonne in law Doct. Hawkins and to his wife to them I give all my title and right of or in a part of a house and shop in Pater noster rowe in London which I hold by lease from the Lord Bishop of London for about ffifty years to come, and I doe alsoe give to them all my right and title of or to a house in Chansery Lane London wherein Mr. Greinwood now dwelleth in which is now about sixteene yeares to come I give these two leases to them they saving my Executor from all damage concerning the same; and I give to my sonne Izaak all my right and title to a lease of Norington Farme which I hold from the Lord Bishop of Winton and I doe also give him all my right and title to a Farme or land neare to Stafford which I bought of Mr. Walter Noell; I say I give it to him and his heires for ever but upon the condicon following namely; if my sonne shall not marry before he shall be of the age of forty and one yeare, or being married shall dye before the said age and leave noe sonne to inherit the said Farme or Land, or if his sonne or sonns shall not live to obtaine the age of twenty and one yeares, to dispose otherwayes of it then I give the said Farme or land to the Towne or Corporation of Stafford (in which I was borne) for the good and benefit of some of the said towne as I shall direct and as followeth, but first note that it is at this present time rented for twenty one pounds tenn shillings a yeare (and is like to hold the said rent if care be taken to keepe the barne and houseing in repaire) and I wood have and doe give ten pound of the said rent to bind out yearly two boyes, the sonns of honest and poore parents, to be aprentizes to some Tradesmen or handycraft men to the intent the said boyes may the better afterward get their owne liveing; and I doe alsoe give five pound yearly out of the said rent to be given to some maide Servant that hath attained the age of twenty and one yeare (not lesse) and dwelt long in one service or to some honest poore mans daughter that hath attained to that age, to be paid her at or on the day of her marriage and this being done my will is that what rent shall remaine of the said Farme or land shall be disposed of as Followeth: first I doe give twenty shillings yearly to be spent by the Mayor of Stafford and those that shall collect the said rent and dispose of it as I have and shall hereafter direct, and that what mony or rent shall remaine undisposed off shall be imployed to buy Coales for some poore people that shall most need them in the said towne, the said Coales to be delivered the first weeke in January or in every first weeke in February; I say then because I take that time to be the hardest and most pinching times with poore people and God reward those that shall doe this without partialitie and with honestie and a good conscience; and if the said Mayor and others of the said towne of Stafford shall prove so negligent or dishonest as not to imploy the rent by mee given as intended and exprest in this my will (which God forbid) then I give the said rents and profitts of the said Farme or land to the Towne and cheife magastraits or governers of Ecles-hall to be disposed by them in such manner as I have ordered the disposall of it by the towne of Stafford, the said Farme or land being near the Towne of Ecles-hall; and I give to my sonne in Law Doctor Hawkins (whome I love as my owne sonn) and to my daughter, his wife, and my sonne Izaak to each of them a ring with these words or motto—“love my memory I: W. obiet;” to the Lord Bishop of Winton a ring with this motto “a mitt for a million I: W. obiet;” and to the friends hereafter named I give to each of them a ring with this motto “A friend’s farewell I: W. obiet;” and my will is the said rings be delivered within forty dayes after my death, and that the price or value of all the said rings shall be thirteen shillings and four pence a peece. I give to Doctor Hawkins Doctor Donn’s Sermons, which I have heard preacht and read with much content; to my sonn Izaak I give Doctor Sibbs his Soules conflict, and to my daughter his brused reed desireing them to read them for as to be well acquainted with them; and I alsoe give unto her all my bookes at Winchester and Droxford and whatever in those two places are or I can call mine except a Trunck of Linnen which I give to my sonne Izaak; but if he doe not live to Marry or make use of it then I give the same to my Granddaughter, Anne Hawkins, and I give my daughter Doctor Halls works which be now at Farnham: to my sonn Izaak I give all my bookes (not yet given) at Farnham Castell and a deske of prints and pictures, alsoe a Cabinet nere my bedshead in which are some little things that he will value, tho of noe great worth, and my will and desire is that he will be kind to his Aunt Beachame and his Aunt Rose Ken by allowing the first about fifty shillings a yeare in or for Bacon and Cheese (not more) and paying four pound a yeare toward the boarding of her sonnes dyet to Mr. John Whitehead; for his Aunt Ken I desire him to be kind to her according to her necessity and his own abilitie and I commend one of her children to breed up (as I have said I intend to do) if he shall be able to doe it, as I know he will, for they be good folke. I give—to Mr. John Darbishire the Sermons of Mr. Anthony Faringdon or of Dor.: Sunderson, which my Executor thinks fitt: to my servant, Thomas Edghill, I give five pound in mony and all my Clothes linnen and wollen (except one sute of Clothes which I give to Mr. Holinshed and forty shillings) if the said Thomas be my servant at my death, if not my Clothes only; and I give my old friend, Mr. Richard Marriot, tenn pound, in mony to be paid him within three Months after my death, and I desire my sonne to shew kindness to him if he shall neede and my son can spare it; and I doe hereby will and declare my sonn Izaak to be my sole Executor of this my last will and testament and doctor Hawkins to see that he performes it, which I doubt not but he will. I desire my burial may be neare the place of my death and free from any ostentation or charge but privately: this I make to be my last will (to which I shall only add the Codicell for rings) this sixteenth day of August, One Thousand Six hundred eighty three. Izaak Walton. Witnesse to this will