SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE and WRITINGS OF CHARLES COTTON, Efq; In a LETTER to the EDITOR of THE COMPLETE ANGLER. T HE pleasure we conceive at the revival of fome good old books we have formerly read, by fair and accurate editions, fomewhat resembles, methinks, that which we feel on the return of our hearty old friends and acquaintance to town, from their rural retreats and receffes, where they have been thought loft in obfcurity, and worn out of memory; till finding, by their X 2 fresh fresh and florid aspects, at their revifit, that they have been growing youthful in age, and renewed, as it were, a leafe for years, we then receive them, not with that diffidence and reserve wherewith new faces and ftrangers are at first commonly admitted, but with that ready, free, and familiar chearfulness, or good-will, which we fhew to those in whom we may confide; having before, in a manner, perufed and been pleafed with their delightful and instructive con tents. Such is the fatisfaction I promise myself upon a new impreffion, from your hands, of Mr. Walton and Mr. Cotton's Dialogues of Angling; the two beft performances on that topick, in our tongue. But as the former did alfo oblige the publick with the lives of feveral eminent men, 'tis much that fome little hiftorical monument has not, in grateful retaliation, been raised and devoted to his memory: the few materials I, long fince, with much fearch, gathered up concerning him, you have seen, and extracted, I hope, what you found neceffary for the purpofe intended them. And as Mr. Cotton alfo, though a more voluminous writer, has been no less neglected, little having been attempted in remembrance of his life and works, I was defirous of trying how far I could likewife make fome recovery thereof. This gentleman, descended of a worthy. and honourable family, was the grandfon of Sir George Cotton, Knight, a younger branch thereof, fometime at Southampton; who dying about the year 1613, left by his wife Caffandra, daughter and heirefs of the noble family of M'Williams, two children, namely, Caffandra, who died unmarried; and Charles Cotton, of Ovingden, in the county of Suffex, Efq; who married the daughter of Sir John Stanhope, of Elvafton, in Derbyfhire, Knight, and half-brother to Philip, the firft earl of Chesterfield; which daughter Sir John had by Olive, his first wife, the daughter and heiress of Edward Beresford, of Beresford and Enfon in Staffordshire, and of Bentley in the county of Derby, defcended of the lords of Beresford, &c. as is alfo the prefent earl of Tyrone. This lady, Olive Stanhope, died in 1614, aged about In: *The Vifitation of Staffordshire, in 1663 and 1664, by William Dugdale, Efq; Norroy king at arms. the Coll. of Arms, C. 36. Fol. 114. + The Peerage of Ireland, by Mr. John Lodge, 1754. Vol. II. p. 210. This Sir John, who died in April 1638, by his fecond wife Mary, daughter of Sir John Radcliffe, "of "Oatfal in Lancashire, Knight, was great grandfather "of William earl of Harrington, lord lieutenant of "Ireland" fays Mr. Lodge, as above: but Dugdale calls it Ordfal, in that county; perhaps it is in Nottinghamshire. Vid. J. Adams's Index Villaris, Fol. 1680, p. 164. X 3 thirty thirty-three years; and Michael Drayton, a poet then in no small requeft, among his elegies, has one in her commendation. Her daughter, named likewife Olive, heiress to her mother, left by her hufband Charles, before-mentioned, one fon, named alfo Charles Cotton, of Beresford, Efq; who is the fubject of the enfuing narrative. He was born on the 28th of April, 1630, and received, it feems, his education at Cambridge, as his father had also before him; the particulars and productions whereof may, probably, more diftinctly appear, when the publick thall be obliged with those many and much defired volumes, wherein have been preserved the writers of that university, by a late learned and elaborate member thereof *. Of which univerfity foever he was, he has, in a most cordial and grateful manner, remembered his tutor; and having alfo named him, he should seem to be that fellow of Brazen-Nofe college in Oxford, named Ralph Rawson, who was ejected from his fellowship by the parliament vifitors, in 1648, and fuffered great hardships till after the restoration: yet then could only get restored, but never preferred +. This circumftance, I think, tallies very well with Mr, The Rev. Mr. Thomas Baker. Cotton's Cotton's translation of an ode in Joannes Secundus, and his infcription thereof to his dear tutor, Mr. Ralph Rawfon; declaring what contrarieties or inconfiftencies fhould difconcert or diforder the courfe and frame of nature, before he would neglect to take care of him, alive of dead *. If Mr. Cotton was his pupil at Oxford, he fhould have been registered among the Oxonian writers; if he received his inftruction at Cambridge, as it is most likely he did, Mr. Rawfon might have removed thither after his ejectment, and been his inftructor in that univerfity; or he might be fo at his own habitation, under the eye of his father. Befides his academick or claffical learning, he was happy in a graceful address, and well verfed in the modern languages; accomplishments, which, as they are not always the fruits either of domestick or collegiate cultivation, we may fuppofe he acquired by travel; and indeed he himself mentions his having been in France, and other foreign countries. 'Tis evident that after he came to be settled at home, he was early in much esteem, and converfant with many ingenious perfons of high rank and repute; more espe *C. Cotton's Poems on several occafions, &c. p. $47In his book of Angling, alfo in the volume aforefaid of his poems, &c. X 4 cially |