are not a few of his poems,’ says Coleridge (Biographia Literaria, ii. 96), ‘replete with every excellence of thought, images, and passions which we expect or desire in the poetry of the milder muse; and yet so worded that the reader sees no one reason, either in the selection or the order of the words, why he might not have said the very same in an appropriate conversation, and cannot conceive how indeed he could have expressed such thoughts otherwise, without loss or injury to his meaning.’ His prose-style is always easy and perspicuous, instinct with energy and life. Though his pecuniary difficulties, which were doubtless largely due to his own improvidence, caused him constant anxiety, his cheerfulness was unfailing. He was loyal to his friends, and generous to the poor; he loved good company and good liquor; he was an excellent angler, a devoted husband, and a man of unaffected piety. The portrait painted by his friend Lely shows him to have been handsome in person, with an engaging, frank countenance.
In addition to the works already mentioned, two anonymous pieces have been ascribed to Cotton: 1. ‘The Valiant Knight, or the Legend of St. Peregrine,’ 1663. 2. ‘The Confinement. A Poem, with Annotations,’ 1679. A copy of commendatory verses by Cotton is prefixed to Thomas Flatman's ‘Poems and Songs,’ 1674. Some letters of Cotton to Philip Kynder, who had projected a ‘Natural History of Derbyshire,’ are preserved among the Ashmolean MSS. The 1689 collection of Cotton's poems has not been reprinted, but selections are given by Chalmers and Sanford. In 1715 was printed ‘The Genuine Works of Charles Cotton,’ comprising ‘Scarronides,’ ‘Lucian Burlesqued,’ ‘The Wonders of the Peak,’ and ‘The Planter's Manual;’ it reached the sixth edition in 1771. The translation of Montaigne's ‘Essays’ has been frequently reprinted down to the present time.
[Memoir by W. O[ldys] prefixed to the Second Part of the Complete Angler, 1760; Langbaine's Dramatick Poets, with Oldys's manuscript annotations; Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas; Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum; Hazlitt's Bibliographical Collections; Cotton's Works.]
COTTON, Sir CHARLES (1753–1812), admiral, grandson of Sir John Hynde Cotton [q. v.], fourth baronet, of Madingley in Cambridgeshire, and third son of Sir John Hynde, fifth baronet, by Anne, daughter of Alderman Parsons of London, was educated at Westminster. When seventeen years old he became a member of Lincoln's Inn; went for a voyage to the East Indies in a merchant ship; and on his return entered the navy on board the Deal Castle on 24 Oct. 1772. After three years in the Deal Castle he was moved to the Niger, in which he went to North America, and on 29 April 1777 was made lieutenant by Lord Howe. On 3 April 1779 he was promoted to be commander, and on 10 Aug. of the same year was posted to the Boyne, which he brought home and paid off on 17 Nov. 1780. In April 1781 he was appointed to the Alarm, which was ordered to the West Indies, and was one of the repeating frigates in the memorable actions of 9 and 12 April 1782. At the peace the Alarm returned to England, and Cotton had no naval employment till, on 1 March 1793, he was appointed to the Majestic for service in the Channel fleet. In the action of 1 June 1794 the Majestic was next astern of the Royal George, flagship of Sir Alexander Hood, by whom he was personally thanked for his gallant support during the engagement. His name was nevertheless omitted from Howe's despatches, and the gold medal was consequently not awarded to him, an indignity which he shared with many of his brother officers [cf. Caldwell, Sir Benjamin; Collingwood, Cuthbert, Lord]. On 1 Oct. Cotton was moved into the Impregnable, and on 28 Nov. was appointed to the Mars of 74 guns. By the death of his father on 23 Jan. 1795, and the still earlier death of his elder brothers, he succeeded to the baronetcy, but was still commanding the Mars on 16 June 1795, when the squadron under the Hon. William Cornwallis [q. v.] fell in with the French fleet off the Penmarcks. In the retreat which won reputation and fame for Cornwallis, the Mars was for long the sternmost ship, and thus more exposed to the enemy's fire, from which she suffered much damage. On 20 Feb. 1797 Cotton was advanced to flag rank, and in March 1799 hoisted his flag in the Prince as third in command in the Channel fleet. In June, when the French fleet escaped from Brest, Cotton followed it to the Mediterranean, whence he returned off Brest in company with Lord Keith [see Elphinstone, George Keith, Lord Keith]. On 29 April 1802 he was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral, and on the renewal of the war was again appointed to a command in the Channel fleet, in the first instance under Cornwallis, and afterwards under St. Vincent. In 1807 he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Tagus, in which capacity he strongly remonstrated against the convention of Cintra, 22 Aug. 1808, and positively refused to accept it so far as related to the stipulation in favour of the Russian fleet then lying in the Tagus, by which they were to have the option of remaining or returning to Russia
