the Great Fire of London, which, however, did not reach his residence in Fleet Street (near the west corner of Chancery Lane); the date on the Fishing House is 1674, which is doubtless the date of its erection. Walton had left Fleet Street, as well as his subsequent residence on the west side of Chancery Lane, a few doors from Fleet Street, before that period.

It is a pity the old signboard is not perfectly accurate in this respect, but it sufficiently indicates the proper route for weary travellers to take from the turnpike road up the coach drive which winds itself pleasantly through the green meadow to the door of "The Izaak Walton,” and lands them comfortably in the tavern where it is good to be. This is surely the kind of inn that Shenstone had in his mind when he scratched these well-known lines on the window of an inn:

"Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,

Whate'er his stages may have been,

May sigh to think he still has found

His warmest welcome at an inn."

And our host of "The Izaak Walton" has very appropriately quoted on his prospectus Dr. Johnson's reply to Boswell: