Note 62 — Chapter III · The Host conducts the Angler and Painter to Beresford Hall and Mr. Cotton’s Fishing House on the River Dove. (continued 2)

Sir John Hawkins, in his life of Cotton, states that ‘a natural excavation in the rocky Hill on which Beresford Hall stands, is shewn as Mr. Cotton’s occasional refuge from his creditors:’ and to this Cotton himself probably alludes in the following lines of his Ode to Retirement.

‘O my beloved Caves! from Dog-star heats,

‘And hotter perfection’s safe retreats,

‘What safety, privacy, what true delight

‘In the artificial night

‘Your gloomy entrails make,

‘Have I taken, do I take!

‘How oft, when grief has made me fly

‘To hide me from society,

‘Even of my dearest friends have I

‘In your recesses’ friendly shade

‘All my sorrows open laid,

‘And my most secret woes entrusted to your privacy.’

Occasional Poems, p. 138.—Ed.