104 



an open, cheerful, and hospitable temper ; endowed with fine 

 talents for conversation, and the courtesy and affability of a 

 gentleman.'* He farther thus speaks of one of his poems: 

 " It is not for their courtly and elegant turn, that the verses 

 of Charles Cotton ought to be praised; there is such a de- 

 lightful flow of feeling and sentiment, so much of the best 

 part of our nature mixed up in them, and so much fancy dis- 

 played, that one of our most distinguished living poets has 

 adduced several passages of his Ode upon Winter, for a 

 general illustration of the characteristics of fancy/' He must 

 have possessed many endearing qualities, for the benevolent 

 and pious Walton thus concludes a letter to his "most 



know. A modern writer on horticulture, nearly concludes a very pleasing 

 work, by enumerating (with slight historical notices) the several plants cul- 

 tivated in our gardens. He thus concludes his account of one: "Queen 

 Elizabeth, in her last illness, eat little but Succory Pottage." Mr. Loudon 

 says it is used "as a fodder for cattle." The French call it Chicoree sauvage. 

 Her taste must have been something like her heart. Poor Mary eat no 

 supper the night previous to her last illness. Had it been possible for Eliza- 

 beth to have read those pages of Robertson, which paint the long succession 

 of calamities which befel Mary, and the insolence and brutality she received 

 from Darnley, and which so eloquently plead for her frailties, perhaps even 

 these pages would not have softened her bloody disposition, which she seems 

 to have inherited from that insolent monster, her father. " Mary's sufferings 

 (says this enchanting historian) exceed, both in degree and duration, those 

 tragical distresses which fancy has feigned, to excite sorrow and commisera- 

 tion; and while we survey them, we are apt altogether to forget her frailties; 

 we think of her faults with less indignation, and approve of our tears as if 

 they were shed for a person who had attained much nearer to pure virtue. 

 With regard to the queen's person, all contemporary authors agree in ascrib- 

 ing to Mary the utmost beauty of countenance, and elegance of shape, of 

 which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though, according 

 to the fashion of that age, she frequently borrowed locks, and of different 

 colours. Her eyes were a dark grey; her complexion was exquisitely fine, 

 and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to iliape and colour 

 Her stature was of an height that rose to the majestic. She danced, she 

 walked, and she rode with equal grace. She sung, and played upon the 

 lute with uncommon skill." 



