“The verse of John Cotton”, in which I set out details of the discovery of Rhymes of my leisure: or attempts at versification. By a squatter of Australia Felix and the proof of John Cotton's authorship, appeared in the La Trobe Library journal in 1969.'1

In it I showed that the linking of lines in the poem “Lines suggested by a recent visit after a lapse of about twenty years to my father's house, and the place of my birth. 1839” with a remark in Gerald Hamilton-Edwards’ The leisured connoiseur: William Cotton of Ivybridge provided conclusive evidence. The key proved to be a garden gate “composed entirely, after a whimsical design of their mother's, of garden tools and farm implements.”2

Some time after the publication of my article I learned, in correspondence with Major Hamilton-Edwards, that he held “Certain reminiscences of my life”, an unpublished manuscript by John Cotton's brother William, bound up in a quarto volume and handed down through generations of the Cotton family. The volume contains “… many delightful sketches by himself [William] and others …” including a water-colour painting of the gate. Major Hamilton-Edwards kindly sent me the photograph reproduced here.

Also reproduced here, as a postscript to my earlier article, are the title-page of Rhymes of my leisure and pages 49 and 53 of the La Trobe Library's copy of John Cotton's Journal of a voyage in the barque Parkfield, which bear corrections in Cotton's hand.