LIFE OF CHARLES COTTON. 373 



that he might have been thereby enabled to extricate him- 

 self out of the greatest of his difficulties, and in reality to 

 enjoy that tranquillity of mind which he describes with so 

 much feeling in the " Stanzes Irreguliers ; " but this sup- 

 position seems to be contradicted by a fact, which the act 

 of administration of his effects upon his decease discloses, 

 viz., that the same was granted " to Elizabeth Bludworth, 

 his principal creditrix ; the Honourable Mary, Countess 

 Dowager of Ardglas, his widow ; Beresford Cotton, Esq., 

 Olive Cotton, Catherine Cotton, Jane Cotton, and Mary 

 Cotton, his natural and lawful children, first renouncing." 



The above act, bearing date the I2th day of September, 

 1687, fixes, perhaps, within a few days, the day of his death, 

 and describes him as having lived in the parish of St. James, 

 Westminster ; it also ascertains his issue, which were all by 

 his first lady. 



[NOTE. The part written by Cotton is far more practical than that 

 written by Walton, and it does not call for the editorial notes and com- 

 ments which Walton's does. All Cotton's directions, however, should 

 be read subject to the Practical Essays in the First Part. His flies are 

 all good working flies ; but the angler will find it more to his profit to 

 adopt the directions already given. ED.] 



