ISAAC, an early writer of great popularity, was born on the 9th of August 1593, in the parish of St Mary and town of Stafford. The condition of his father is not mentioned, but his mother is described as the daughter of Edmund Cranmer, archdeacon of Canterbury, and the niece of the archbishop. His own occupation was that of a shopkeeper; but his love of literature, as well as his upright and amiable simplicity of character, recommended him to the favour and friendship of many individuals distinguished by their talents and station. In 1624 we find him residing on the north side of Fleet-street, two doors west of Chancery-lane; and in 1632 he had removed to a house in the lane. The tradition of his family represented him as a Hamburg merchant, or wholesale linen-dealer; but, according to Anthony Wood, he followed the occupation of a sempster. He married Anne the sister of Thomas Ken, afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells. While an inhabitant of St Dunstan's in the West, he was a regular attendant on the ministrations of Dr Donne, then vicar of the parish; and with this witty poet and divine he contracted a friendship, which was only terminated by death. Walton visited him in his last sickness, and wrote a circumstantial account of his life, which in 1649 accompanied a collection of the dean's Sermons. Another of his distinguished friends was Sir Henry Wotton, whose life he also undertook to write, and finished it about the year 1644. It was prefixed to the "Reliquiae Wottonianae," which he edited in 1651. It is to be regretted that he did not execute his design of writing the lives of other two individuals connected with Eton, Sir Henry Savile and John Hales, both very eminent in their generation. About the year 1643, we are informed, he left London, and, with a fortune very far short of what would now be called a competency, seems to have retired altogether from business. While he resided in the metropolis, angling had been his favourite recreation, and in that art he arrived at great skill and proficiency. The result of his experience he embodied in a very pleasing volume, entitled "The Complete Angler, or contemplative Man's Recreation." Lond. 1653, 8vo. This work was so favourably received, that other four editions were published during the author's lifetime, namely, in 1655, 1664, 1658, and 1676. To this last impression a second part, containing instructions how to angle for trout or grayling, was added by his friend Charles Cotton. Of both parts there are many subsequent editions, and the popularity of the work continues unimpaired. An elaborate edition, with a life of the author, was published by Sir John Hawkins in the year 1760. Walton having resumed his biographical labours, published the life of Hooker in 1662, that of Herbert in 1670, and that of Sanderson in His Lives were afterwards collected together, and in this form have repeatedly been printed. An edition, containing an account of the author, together with annotations, was published by Dr Zouch. York, 1796, 4to. The work, thus illustrated, reached a third impression. York, 1817, 2 vols., 8vo. These specimens of circumstantial biography are rendered very interesting by the native kindness of the author's disposition, and by the garrulous simplicity of his narrative. In 1680 he published, but without his name, "Love and Truth: two modest and sensible Letters, concerning the Distempers of the present times: written from a quiet and conformable Citizen of London, to two busie and factious Shopkeepers in Country." Lond., 1680, 4to. This tract was reprinted in Dr Zouch's edition of the Lives. At the age of ninety, he edited "Thealma and Clearchus; a Pastoral History in smooth and easy verse: written long since by John Chalkhill," an acquaintance and friend of Edmund Spencer. Lond., 1683, 8vo. As to the author, he states "that he was his time a man generally known, and as well beloved; for he was humble, and obliging in his behaviour, a gentleman, a scholar, very innocent and prudent; and in divers of whose life was useful, quiet, and virtuous." Of this poet there is a recent edition. Chiswick, 1820, 12mo. The name of Chalkhill is otherwise so entirely unknown, that Mr Meyer, who published this edition, is inclined to doubt whether the poem may not have been a youthful production of its first editor. Having attained to a healthy and happy old age, he died on the 15th of December 1683, at Winchester, in the prebendal house of his son-in-law Dr Hawkins, and was interred in the cathedral of that city. His wife died in 1662. Their son Isaac Walton having been educated at Oxford, became rector of Polshot, and was residentiary of Salisbury. He died unmarried, in the year 1716. His only sister Anne was married to William Hawkins, rector of Droxford, and prebendary of Winchester. The only son, William Hawkins, was the author of a well-known "Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown."