IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 55 



Beresford Dale forms the uppermost part of the 

 glen called Dovedale. 



The Beresford estates came to the Cottons by 

 the aforesaid marriage. The Hall is now a ruin. 

 The only child of this marriage was Charles 

 Cotton, who was born at Beresford on the 

 28th of April 1630. It is doubtful whether he 

 was educated at Cambridge, as most of his 

 biographers state he was, but it appears he was 

 highly educated and had travelled abroad for some 

 time, and was a particularly good French scholar. 

 He obtained a captain's commission in the army, 

 and if we construe rightly some lines of his own 

 poetry he became a Justice of the Peace. He 

 married twice — first his cousin, Isabella, daughter 

 of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, of Owthorpe, Notts, 

 Knight ; she died in 1670, having had issue three 

 sons and five daughters. About 1675 he married 

 his second wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir 

 William Russell, Baronet, of Strensham Park, 

 Worcestershire, and widow of Wingfield, Earl of 

 Ardglass, by whom he had no issue. The elder 

 Cotton died in 1658. 



The friendship between Walton and Cotton 

 was no doubt due in the first instance to the fact 

 that the former was the fi:'iend of the latter 's 

 father; but a similarity of political opinions 

 existed between them, which must be noted, as 

 well as a common love of literature and angling. 



