"this good man was a dear lover and constant practiser of Angling, as any age can produce; and his custom was to spend besides his fixed hours of prayer . . . a tenth part of his time in Angling; and also, for I have conversed with those which have conversed with him, to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, and usually all his fish, amongst the poor that inhabited near to those rivers in which it was caught: saying often, 'That charity gave life to religion'; and, at his return to his house, would praise God that he had spent that day free from worldly trouble; both harmlessly, and in recreation that became a churchman. And this good man was well content, if not desirous, that posterity should know he was an Angler; as may appear by his picture, now to be seen, and carefully kept, in Brazenose College, to which he was a liberal benefactor. In which picture he is drawn, leaning on a desk, with his Bible before him; and on one hand of him, his lines, hooks, and other tackling, lying in a round; and on his other hand, are his Angle-rods of several sorts; and by them is written, That he died 13 Feb. 1601, being aged ninety five years, forty-four of which he had been Dean of St. Pauls Church; and that his age had neither impaired his hearing, nor dimmed his eyes, nor weakened his memory, nor made any of the faculties of his mind weak or useless. 'Tis said that Angling and temperance were great causes of these blessings; and I wish the like to all that imitate him, and love the memory of so good a man."

Isaak Walton, The Compleat Angler