240] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



This little work also passed through several editions ; but if we 

 may judge from the event, both these humourous productions did 

 not realize the philosopher's stone to the author. 



There is no record of the demise of Mr. Cotton's first wife ; no 

 monument consecrated by conjugal affection marks the spot where 

 her relics rest, no elegiac strain from her poetical spouse celebrates 

 her domestic virtues arid the anguish and regret of the survivor. 

 This neglect of the virtuous mother of his children on his part was 

 succeeded by a retributive oblivion of his own remains a few years 

 afterwards. 



Mr. Cotton afterwards paid his addresses to a noble widow. He 

 was a successful suitor, and was married to Mary Countess Dow- 

 ager of Ardglass, widow of Wingfielcl Lord Cromwell, second Earl 

 of Ardglass. This lady was possessed of a jointure of fifteen 

 hundred pounds a-year, which was secured by law from the impru- 

 dence of our poet. 



In the year 1681, Mr. Cotton published "The Wonders of the 

 Peak," an original poem. This descriptive piece did not add to his 

 poetical reputation. What poet indeed can hope, after Dante's 

 Inferno, to gratify the imagination of the reader with ideal views 

 of subterranean horrors. What imagery can the bleak and barren 

 hills of Derbyshire, and their hideous caverns, afford for the grati- 

 fication of the lover of nature ? Mineralogists indeed may profit by 

 the exploration of valuable strata, but the muses turn away in dis- 

 gust from subjects so little suited to the regions of fancy. 



The last great effort of Mr. Cotton's mind, was a translation of 

 Montaigne's Essays, which he inscribed to George Saville Mar- 

 quis of Halifax, a courtly son of Apollo. This polite nobleman 

 was highly gratified with such a mark of respect from the cele- 

 brated author of -" Virgil Travestie," and expressed his satisfac- 

 tion in strong terms of approbation. The translation is allowed 

 by the best critics to possess the merit of expressing the sense of 

 the original with great felicity. 



After his second marriage he spent much of his time in the Me- 

 tropolis; and the fortune possessed by his lady doubtless contri- 

 buted to his comfortable accommodation in the decline of life. But 

 his personal estate still continued in a state of temporary alie- 

 nation, and he died insolvent] in the parish of St. James, Westmin- 

 ster, in 1687, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. It is recorded, 

 that, Elizabeth Bludworth, his principal creditor, administered to 

 his effects, his widow aiid children having previously renounced 



