Charles Cotton was an English poet and writer, best known for translating the work of Michel de Montaigne from French, for his contributions to The Compleat Angler, and for the influential The Compleat Gamester attributed to him.
Charles Cotton from Angling by Alexander Cargill, 1897
Charles Cotton's Fishing House, built in 1674 on the Banks of the River Dove. Cotton lived in nearby Beresford Hall and practised his sport on the trout and grayling of the River Dove.
A memorial to Charles Cotton in St James's Church, Piccadilly
Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne, commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight. Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous Western writers; his massive volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.
Portrait of Montaigne, 1570s
Portrait of Montaigne c. 1565, by an anonymous artist
Château de Montaigne, a house built on the land once owned by Montaigne's family. His original family home no longer exists, although the tower in which he wrote still stands.
The Tour de Montaigne (Montaigne's tower), where Montaigne's library was located, remains mostly unchanged since the sixteenth century.
