54 Ikings of tbe IRofc, TCtfle, an& 6un 



had no fortune to leave. In that case, one may dismiss 

 the story, so far as it relates to the lost fortune, as false. 

 But the reference to the lady, even supposing she were 

 dead, could not have failed to give offence to the family, 

 and it is very probable that in this way Cotton may 

 have paid dearly for his reckless satire. 



Anglers both, how different were the lives of Walton 

 and Cotton ! The one had all that sweet content and 

 quiet which he claims as the peculiar heritage of brothers 

 of the angle ; the other, to use his own words : 



Though he had wherewithal to eat, 



His bread did yet 

 Taste of affliction, and his cares 

 His purest wine mix'd and allay'd with tears. 



The one, blest with ample health and wealth, enjoyed a 

 green old age ; the other, broken in body and estate, 

 died when he was four years short of three score. 



Whether Cotton added gambling to his other follies 

 is not certain, but in his " Compleat Gamester " he 

 discourses of billiards, cards, horse-racing, cock-fighting, 

 and bowling, in the language of one who was experienced 

 in all those modes of gaming and had paid for his 

 experience. A more innocent recreation which he 

 loved almost as much as angling was gardening, of 

 which he writes learnedly and pleasantly in his " Planter's 

 Manual." There could not, I take it, have been much 

 inherent vice in a man who was so devoted a fisherman 

 and gardener. One of the Children of the Open Air he 

 was at heart, and so long as he was in his native element 

 his life was cleanly and sweet, 



