3/0 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



late such an author without doing him wrong, must not 

 only make me glad, but proud of being his very humble 

 servant, HALIFAX." 



These are the whole of Mr. Cotton's writings published 

 in his lifetime ; those that came abroad after his decease 

 were "Poems on Several Occasions," 8vo., 1689; a book- 

 seller's publication, tumbled into the world without preface, 

 apology, or even correction ; and a translation from the 

 French of the " Memoirs of the Sieur de Pontis," published 

 in 1694 by his son, Mr. Beresford Cotton, and by him dedi- 

 cated to the then Duke of Ormond, as having been under- 

 taken and completed at the request of the old duke, his 

 Grace's grandfather, 



It is much to be feared that the difficulties he laboured 

 under, and, in short, the straitness of his circumstances, were 

 the reasons that induced Mr. Cotton to employ himself in 

 writing, and in that, so much more in translation than 

 original composition ; for first, by the way, they are greatly 

 mistaken who think that the business of writing for book- 

 sellers is a new occupation. It is known that Greene, 

 Peacham, and Howel for a great part of their lives subsisted 

 almost wholly by it ; though perhaps Mr. Cotton is the first 

 instance of a gentleman by descent, and the inheritor of a 

 fair estate, being reduced by a sad necessity to write for sub- 

 sistence. But, secondly, whether through misfortune, or the 

 want of economy, or both, it may be collected from number- 

 less passages in his writings that Mr. Cotton's circumstances 

 were narrow, his estates encumbered with mortgages, and 

 his income less than sufficient for his maintenance in the 

 port and character of a gentleman ; why else those querulo 

 exclamations against the clamours of creditors, the hi 



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