LIFE OF COTTON. 345 



cular circumstances touching the course of his life, in a burlesque 

 poem, called "A Voyage to Ireland;" carelessly written, but 

 abounding in humourous description. He thus describes his 

 journey to the place of his embarkation in Wales : 



" A guide I had got, who demanded great vails, 

 For conducting me over the mountains of Wales, 

 Twenty good shillings, which sure very large is : 

 Yet that would not serve, hut I must hear charges : 

 And yet, for all that, rode astride on a beast 

 The worst that ere went on three legs, I protest ; 

 It certainly was the most ugly of jades, 

 His hips and his rump made a right ace of spades ; 

 His sides were two ladders, well spur-gall' d withal. 

 His neck was a helve, and his head was a mall : 

 For his colour, my pains, and your trouble, I'll spare ; 

 For the creature was wholly denuded of hair, 

 And, except for two things, as bare as my nail, 

 A tuft of a mane and a sprig of a tail. 

 Now, such as the beast was such was the rider, 

 With a head like a nutmeg, and legs like a spider : 

 A voice like a cricket, a look like a rat ; 

 The brains of a goose, and the heart of a cat. 

 Even such was my guide, and his beast : Jet them pass, 

 The one for an horse, and the other an ass." 



In this poem he relates, with singular pleasantry, that, at 

 Chester, coming out of church, he was taken notice of by the 

 mayor of the city, for his rich garb, and particularly a gold belt 

 that he then wore ; and by him invited home to supper, and very 

 hospitably entertained. 



In the following year he published a translation of the tragedy, 

 entitled " Les Horaces," i. e. the " Horatii," from the Trench 

 of Pierre Corneille; and in 1674, " The Fair One of Tunis," a 

 novel, translated also from the French, as also a translation of 

 the " Commentaries" of Blaise de Montluc, Marshal of France, 

 a thrasonical Gascon (as Lord Herbert has shown in his " History 

 of Hen. VIII.") far better skilled in the arts of flight than of 

 battle. 



In 1675, Mr. Cotton published two little books ; " The Planter's 

 Manual, being instructions for Cultivating all sorts of Fruit- 

 trees," 8vo ; and a burlesque of sundry select Dialogues of 

 Lucian, with the title of "Burlesque upon Burlesque, or the 

 Scoffer Scoffed," 12mo, which has much the same merit as the 

 " Virgil Travestie." 



Angling having been the favourite recreation of Mr. Cotton, 

 for many years before this, we cannot but suppose, that, the 



