58 IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



1676 he wrote Part II. of T}ie Complete Angler, 

 as to which see Chapter IV. He was the author 

 of various other books, and is generally be- 

 lieved to have written The Complete Gamester,'^ 

 which is the earliest account of the game of 

 billiards in English. It is there said: ''The 

 genteel, cleanly and ingenious game at billiards 

 had its first original in Italy (in another 

 place he says in Spain), and for the excellency 

 of the recreation is much approved of and played 

 by most nations in Europe, especially in England, 

 there being few towns of note therein which 

 hath not a public billiard-table, neither are they 

 wanting in many noble and private families in the 

 country for the recreation of the mind and exercise 

 of the body." In 1681 Cotton produced Tlie 

 Wonders of the Peak, and in 1685 he published 

 his famous translation of Montaigne's Essays. 

 Although it is true Cotton could not have sung 

 in the words of Sir Lewis Morris : — 



" Nay, what care I though all verse shall die, 

 If only it is pure ; " 



still, we must recollect the " peculiarities of the age 

 in which the author lived " before we judge him 

 too severely. He seems to have been a most 

 inconsistent man and inconsistent writer also, and 



1 In the preface the author sajs, " It is not any private interest of 

 my own that caused me to adventure on this subject." 



