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JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ November 35, 1876. 



men." Walton thus concluded one of his letters, " Though I 

 be more than a hundred miles from you and in the eighty- 

 third year of my age, yet I will forget both, and next month 

 begin a pilgrimage to beg your pardon, for I would die in your 

 favour, and till then will live your most affectionate father and 

 friend." That letter was addressed to " My most honoured 

 friend Charles Cotton, Esq." Walton calls himself Cotton's 

 "father," in accordance with the prevailing custom with the 

 teachers of other arts and sciences to speak of and to address 

 their pupils as "sons." Astrologers, alchemists, and even 

 poets adopted this term of kindliness, for Ben Jonson made 

 many such adoptions from among his friends ; nor was the 

 practice of recent origin, for in our translation of the Bible 

 " the sons of the prophets " is the designation given to their 

 disciples. 



Cotton was born of honourable parentage on the 28th of 

 April, lC30,at Ovingdean, close 

 to Lewes in Sussex ; but he 

 had the worst of inheritances 

 — the position of a gentleman 

 with an encumbered estate 

 and no profession. He had the 

 best of substitutes, a liberal 

 education. He was a member 

 cf Cambridge University, and 

 he there became master of 

 modern as well as of ancient 

 languages. These were his 

 Bustainers in times of need — 

 times too frequently recurring ; 

 so that he had to write, not of 

 themes he preferred, but of 

 those which suited the public 

 taste. He complains in cue 

 of his prefaces that that taste 

 in all things was " Frenchi- 

 fied," and the poetry of the 

 period was not an exception. 

 His poems were suiilciently 

 impure to be praised by Sir 

 John Suckling. Others of his 

 popular works are irreproach- 

 able, and one of them, a trans- 

 lation of Montaigne's Essays, 

 is still unsurpassed ; but it is 

 by his second part of " The 

 Complete Angle: " that he will 

 be ever most remembered. 



As a member of society he 

 was justly highly esteemed. 

 He was twice married, and by 

 more than one contemporary 

 he has been praised for his 

 cheerful hospitality, his su- 

 perior conversational power, 

 and moral rectitude. Although 

 obliged to be much in society, 

 yet the quiet amusement of 

 angling and the cultivation of 

 his garden were his favourite 

 occupations, and we are assured that he wrote from his heart's 

 dictate these lines : — 



" Dear Solitude, the foul'a best friend, 

 That man acquainted with himself dost make, 

 And all bis Maimer's wonders to intend : 

 With thee I here converse at will. 

 And would bo glad to do so stOl, 

 For it is thou alone that liee^j'st the soul awate." 



In the State Papers there tre several documents relative to 

 Charles Cotton, chiefly concerning duels ; but one shows that 

 in 1667 a captain's commissicn in a foot regiment was given 

 to him, and hence the armour he wore as represented in the 

 portrait. He served in Ireland, and here probably met with 

 his second wife, the Dowager Countess of Ardglass, and her 

 jointure, £1500 a-year, was secured from his creditors. His 

 house at Berisford, on the banks of the Dove in Derbyshire, 

 was the frequent resort of Isaac Walton for the sake of its 

 trout-fishing. There he built a fishing house still remaining. 

 He entitled it " Piscatoribus sacrum," and had inscribed 

 Walton's and his own initials in united cyphers over the door. 

 His Derbyshire residence furnished him with authentic infor- 

 mation for composing the only one of the publications which 

 need notice before proceeding to that which entitles him to a 



place in these sketches. It is entitled " The Wonders of the 

 Peake." In it he descants on the beauties of Chatsworth. 



" This palace, with wild prospects girded round. 

 Placed in the middle of a falling ground ; 

 On the south side the stately gardens lie. 

 Where the scorn'd Peake rivals proud Italy." 



The description, however, is very meagre, and the real details 

 then were not even approaching to the present excellencies. 

 The poet speaks in wonder of a fountain that spouted water 

 " 20 foot high," where now is that " Emperor " fountain which 

 ejects the water to a height of 240 feet, which is 38 feet higher 

 than the London monument on Fish Street Hill. 



Being fond of gardening, and as the taste for it was rapidly 

 increasing, it was to be expected that he would write upon its 

 practice — the booksellers would readily purchase his produc- 

 tion, and consequently in 1673 appeared his " Planter's Manual." 



We need only refer to Sir 

 Henry Wotton's writings for 

 evidence that gardening in all 

 its branches, and among all 

 classes, was being pursued ar- 

 dently, and that it was prac- 

 tised judiciously we learn from 

 the contemporary writings of 

 Evelyn, Eea, Worlidge, Cooke, 

 Meager, and others. 



The full title of Cotton's 

 volume is " The Planter's 

 Manual, being instructions for 

 the raising, planting, and cul- 

 tivating all sorts of fruit trees, 

 whether stone fruits or pepin 

 fruits, with their natures and 

 seasons. Very useful for such 

 as are curious in planting and 

 grafting. By Charles Cotton, 

 Esq." 1675. It is a small 

 duodecimo of 139 pages, but 

 throughout is evidently found- 

 ed on practice. In the preface 

 he warns his readers that su- 

 perior fruits, especially in the 

 northern parts, require a brick 

 wall. He defines as he writes 

 the terms employed : — " Ea- 

 pallier, a hedgerow of fruit 

 trees against a latticed pale or 

 stakes. Contrespallier, a hedge 

 of fruit trees against a wall in 

 the open air." The Pomme da 

 Paradise, he states, was " a 

 sweet Apple that comes of a 

 Pearmain grafted upon a 

 Quince." His enumeration of 

 the requirements for success 

 are a good soil, quincunx order 

 of planting, not planting deep, 

 not to prune at the time of 

 planting, not to hoe deep but 

 to break the crust frequently 

 in the summer, to plant in October. He gives good directions 

 for pruning and training ; but instead of nailing preferred 

 sheepshanks fixed in the wall in quincunx order, 5 inches 

 apart and projecting an inch, to which to tie the shoots. His 

 directions for fjrafting and inoculating are unobjectionable, 

 and he concludes with lists of fruits, all French. Among 

 Plums he names " L'isle vert ;" is this our Green Gage ? 



Cotton seems to have died as ho had Uved, in pecuniary 

 difficulties, for administration to his effects was granted on the 

 12th of September, 1687, " to Elizabeth Bludworth, his prin- 

 cipal creditrix." In that grant he is described as living in the 

 parish of St. James's, Westminster. Belying on that record 

 I proceeded to the church of St. James's, Piccadilly, in the 

 hope of finding there some memorial. Let those who have not 

 seen the interior of this. Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece, 

 Jo so. The object he had in view was to enable two thousand 

 people to hear distinctly and see the clergyman ; he effected 

 that object, and I think he was justified in saying, "It is 

 beautiful, convenient, and of the cheapest form." But I was 

 not less struck with the number of celebrated men who are 

 there entombed, and whono memorial tablets are on tho walls 

 and pillars. The two Vanderveldes, Dahl, and Hnysman, 



