12 Feb Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton’s name is forever associated with his most famous book, The Compleat Angler (1653-76): a celebration of fishing in prose and verse. He also wrote biographies, including one of his friend John Donne. Walton was born in Stafford (140 miles northwest of London) around 1593. He moved to London as a young man, then moved back to Staffordshire in 1644. He bought a property in the village of Shallowford (five miles north of Stafford) comprising a 16th Century cottage, a fine garden and several fields.
The pretty thatched cottage is now a museum. Its rooms are furnished in keeping with Walton’s time there. The ground floor is dedicated to the man and his literary output, while the upstairs rooms focus on the history of fishing. The cottage is open to the public on Sunday afternoons from May to August. In Stafford’s Victoria Park there’s a larger-than-life statue of Walton looking across the River Stow. Walton died in Winchester in 1683, aged about 90. He is buried in Winchester Cathedral, also the final resting place of Jane Austen.