Antique & Vintage Postcards

Rendered in rich sepia by Bradford's Walter Scott publishing house, this real-photo postcard immortalises the memorial ledger stone of Isaac Walton inside Winchester Cathedral — the 17th-century angler and author of The Compleat Angler (1653) who died at ninety in December 1683 and was buried in the cathedral's Prior Silkstede Chapel. The inscription is recorded in full: the tender English epitaph beginning "Alas: hee's gone before, / Gone to returne noe more" and concluding with the Latin dedication Votis modestis hic flerunt liberi — "Here his children wept with humble prayers." Isaac was venerated by fly-fishermen worldwide as the patron saint of angling, and Winchester Cathedral became a pilgrimage site for fishing enthusiasts well into the Edwardian era. Walter Scott of Bradford was a prestigious publisher of architectural and ecclesiastical real-photo cards across Britain; card T641 is a documented number in their cathedral series.