CHAPTER I.
Birth-Parentage-Brother in law to Izaak Walton-En-
tered at Winchester College. William of Wykeham-
Founder of St. Mary Colleges at Winton and Oxford.
HE birth-place of Thomas Ken was Little Berkhampftead in Hertfordfhire; a retired village that even yet retains fomething of a primitive repofe. Here he received the grace of Regeneration and the Sign of the Crofs, "in token that he fhould continue Chrift's faithful foldier and fervant unto his life's end." In one of his poems he vividly expreffes his defire to fulfil the vows made for him at the Font:
"Chriftians, who Chrift's anointed are,
In His celeftial unction fhare;
The Spirit, templing in their hearts,
His all-fufficient aid imparts.
O may I, with a faith unfeign'd,
Preferve my Christian name unftain'd:
To copy Chrift O may I ftrive,
From Whom I that dear name derive;
And die, when death fhall me arrest,
A Christian, with Chrift's unction bleft."