LIFE OF COTTON. 255 



that she revoked a clause in her will, whereby she had bequeathed to 

 him an estate of five hundred pounds a -year: but as two unlikely 

 circumstances must concur to render such a report credible, great 

 imprudence in himself, and want of charity in her ; and there is no 

 such offensive passage to be found in any of his writings ; we may 

 presume the tradition to be groundless. 



Of the future fortunes of his descendants little is known ; save that, 

 to his son, Beresford Cotton, was given a company in a regiment 

 of foot, raised by the Earl of Derby for the service of King William ; 

 and that one of his daughters became the wife of that eminent divine, 

 Dr. George Stanhope, dean of Canterbury, who from his name, the 

 same with that of Mr. Cotton's mother, is conjectured to have been 

 distantly allied to the family. 



The above are the most remarkable particulars that at this time 

 are recoverable of the life of Mr. Cotton. His moral character is to 

 be collected, and indeed does naturally arise, out of the several senti- 

 ments contained in his writings ; more especially those in the Collec- 

 tion of his Poems above-mentioned ; which, consisting of all such 

 Verses of his as the publishers could get together, as namely, 

 Eclogues, Odes, and Epistles to his friends, and Translations from 

 Ausonious, Catullus, Martial, Mons. Maynard, Corneille, Benserade, 

 Guarini, and others ; if perused with a severe and indiscriminating 

 eye, may, perhaps, be thought to reflect no great credit on his me- 

 mory : for many of them are so inexcusably licentious as to induce a 

 suspicion, that the author was but too well practised in the vices of 

 the town : and yet it may be said of the book, that it contains the only 

 good POEMS he ever wrote. 



It is true, that for the looseness of his writings, and, if we may 

 judge by them, of his manners, he deserves censure : but, at the same 

 time, it is to be noted, that he was a warm and steady friend, and a 

 lover of such as he thought more worthy than himself; of which last 

 quality, his attachment to Mr. Walton affords the clearest proof. 



Nor did it derogate from the character of honest old Isaak, to con- 

 tract and cherish an intimacy with one who, being of the cavalier 

 party, might have somewhat of the gallant, not to say the rake, in 

 him, and be guilty of some of those practices which it was the em- 

 ployment of Isaak's life and writings to discountenance. Mr. Cotton 

 was both a wit and a scholar; of an open, cheerful, and hospitable 

 temper; endowed with fine talents for conversation, and the courtesy 

 and affability of a gentleman : and was, withal, as great a proficient 

 in the art, as a lover of the recreation, of angling : these qualities, 

 together with the profound reverence which he uniformly entertained 

 for his father Walton, could not but endear him to the good old man; 

 whose charitable practice it was, to resolve all the deviations from 

 that rule of conduct which he had prescribed himself, not into vicious 

 inclination, but error. 



But notwithstanding this creditable connection, and the qualities 

 above ascribed to him, Mr. Cotton's moral cliaracter must appear 

 very ambiguous to any one that shall reflect on the subjects by him 

 chosen for the exercise of his poetical talent: a burlesque of an epic 

 poem ; a version of the most licentious of Luc ian's dialogues ; and a 



