thinking he mocked at him, seized the man on a sudden, and declared he was a sturdy rogue, and he would teach him his manners, and have him put in the stocks. Thereupon the other, in his fright, could not but stut the more, seeing how obnoxious he was to so fine a gentleman; till at length Mr. Cotton, finding it to be a real entanglement in the fellow's speech, was all at once mollified, and did humbly ask pardon for his first severity; and after that fell a laughing, and with pleasant persuasions called him into his house, and feasted him there, till the beggar became valiant with ale, and thought himself as g-great as a L-Lord.

PAINTER.-Ah! ha! ha! a mighty pleasant

story.

ANGLER. I dare to think the beggar was not the only guest at the Hall that has tasted too well of Mr. Cotton's good ale and wine.

HOST.-Sir, you are right; and I well remember, when my master resolved to build the fishing-house, and that Prospect Tower, that you shall see to-morrow, he engaged a master architect from the town of Nottingham, to see that the stone-work was skilfully managed. This was Mr. Lancelot Rolston,* a man of solid abilities, and instructed in many arts; and because he was of a fertile wit, and withal a brother of the angle, Mr. Cotton held him to be, as he always proved himself, a brave gentleman and a scholar, and after a time, entered into a

Probably the son of Mr. Thomas Rolleston, who built the church at Mayfield, in Dove Vale, in 1616.-Pitt's Survey of Staffordshire, p. 225.-ED.

familiarity with him, which hath continued to this day-but Sirs,-I humbly ask your pardon;-I would not be thought to venture myself on your civility, nor take too much of the conversation.

PAINTER. Trust me, we think ourselves happy in these testimonies of Mr. Cotton; but see, the ale tarries with you; so fill your cup, and let us hear further of Mr. Rolston.

HOST.-Well then, Sir, as I told you, that architect was often persuaded by Mr. Cotton to come to him at Beresford; and I cannot doubt was largely rewarded; and this was only reasonable, seeing he was a famous man in these parts, and above all a delicate limner. And so it happened on a time, when he came all the way from Nottingham to give order for the works, that Mr. Cotton greatly desired his company one day more at Beresford, that he might finish some landskip pictures in the fishing house. This the other could not do with accommodation to himself, at that time; therefore he asked leave to be gone after dinner. But Mr. Cotton did so entertain his guest with good wine, and better conversation, that the architect became more brisk than ordinary, and forgot, or would not care for, his journey until the night was come. Then Mr. Cotton told him how there was no moonlight, and he might chance to break his neck between this and Ashbourne, whither his occasions called him, and endeavoured to persuade him it would be more prudent to take his bed at the Hall, and promised he might depart early the next morning. But the other,

who, as I said, was grown valiant, declared he was able to find his way by Hanson Toot and Bentley Brook, though he were hoodwinked.

Well, Sirs, Mr. Cotton, seeing him bent on his dark journey, secretly desired his servants should bring one of his own horses from the stable; and when the architect mounted into his saddle with alacrity, not seeing how he had another man's jennet, Mr. Cotton wished him a good journey at the gate with a secret mirthful composure. And so the other got to Ashbourne and slept at the Talbot Inn; and on the morrow, when the hostler brought him the nag, how was he then astonished to find he had not his own beast; and declared the man was not awake to give him such a sorry jade. Then the other humbly disabused him, and said, he knew the horse these many a year, for it was noble Mr. Cotton's at Beresford Hall.

ANGLER.-Bravely done: and what followed? HOST.-Then the architect began unwillingly to perceive how my master had served him this facetious turn; and because the exchange was not to his advantage, he considered it was best for him to come again to Beresford; and so he did, as Mr. Cotton hoped he would: then they laughed together at the innocent fraud thus put upon him, and Mr. Rolston, being in a happy mood, set his thoughts to work, and painted all that day and the day after in the fishing house, and contrived some natural imitations of the rocks and other prospects thereabouts.

ANGLER. Excellent!

PAINTER. I doubt not the limnings are traced with a dextrous freedom.

HOST.-Aye, truly; and some ornaments of his workmanship are there, which I hope to make you welcome to, more worthy than the landskips: for it chanced in the last summer, when Mr. Izaak Walton passed some peaceful days at Beresford, this artist rode thither from Nottingham; and nothing would content my master, but he must have Mr. Walton's portraiture, painted from the life in colours on the pannel of the beaufet, opposite to the mantel in the fishing-house. But Mr. Rolston declared, with many protestations, he was not skilful painter enough for such endeavours. Thereupon a friendly contest arose between all three; for Mr. Walton liked not the motion, and was so modest as to insist that the fishinghouse should be better graced with the picture of Mr. Cotton himself, who was the happy inventor of it. Nevertheless my master would, for this time, have his pleasure, and did entreat Mr. Walton to sit with an angler's professed patience, and suffer Mr. Rolston to paint his likeness; and moreover, he promised he would read them a book, and converse the while. And then he opened the beaufet, and said gaily; now, Sir, can you resist the temptation of The Shepheards' Oracles, delivered in certain Eglogues, by Francis Quarles?' Whereupon Mr. Walton replied, there you touch me nearly, and I promise to sit and listen quietly, if you will be pleased to read

F

aloud Canonicus', the Shepheard's, reproofs against the scismatical Anarchus. That will I, (then my master said,) but first I crave leave to entertain Mr. Rolston with your friend John Marriott's address to the Reader; and he will not think it the less ingenious when I make bold to declare that some other pen than the Printer's (then he looked with a meaning at Mr. Walton) hath touched the description of Francis Quarles, as he walked down towards the brook, furnished with all proper 'angle rods, lines, and flyes.'

ANGLER. I remember, he fell in with some Arcadian shepheardesses, keeping the festival of their great god Pan. Would I could repeat it, for it is a sparkling allegory, especially suitable to all fishermen.

HOST.-Sir, I have the book itself, locked up in this cabinet.

ANGLER.-Indeed! then, I beseech you, let us look into it, that my brother may judge whether or no Mr. Walton had a hand in the composition of that address to the Reader. HOST.-Sir, here it is.

ANGLER.-The

SHEPHEARDS' ORACLES:'

Printed by M. F. for John Marriott and Richard Marriott, and are to be sold at their shop in St. Dunstan's Church-yard, Fleet Street, under the Dyall, 1646. A posthumous work, as the poet died in 1644. Francis Quarles, author of Divine Emblems, had been cup bearer to Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, daughter of James I., and afterwards Secretary to Archbishop Usher. His loyalty exposed him to persecution during the Rebellion.-ED.