COSWAY, RICHARD, a distinguished miniature portrait-painter, born at Tiverton; Correggio his model (1740-1821).

COTE D’OR, a range of hills in the NE. of France, connecting the Cevennes with the Vosges, which gives name to a department (376) famed for its wines.

COTENTIN, a peninsula NW. of Normandy, France, jutting into the English Channel, now forms the northern part of the dep.  La Manche, the fatherland of many of the Norman conquerors of England.

COTES, ROGER, an English mathematician of such promise, that Newton said of him, “If he had lived, we should have known something” (1682-1716).

COTES DU NORD (618), a dep. forming part of Brittany; the chief manufacture is linen.

COTIN, THE ABBE, a French preacher, born in Paris; a butt of the sarcasm of Moliere and Boileau (1604-1682)

COTMAN, JOHN SELL, an English painter, born at Norwich; made Turner’s acquaintance; produced water-colour landscapes, growing in repute; has been pronounced “the most gifted of the Norwich School” (1782-1842).

COTOPAXI, a volcano of the Andes, in Ecuador, the highest and most active in the world, nearly 20,000 ft., 35 m.  SE. of Quito; it rises in a perfect cone, 4400 ft. above the plateau of Quito.

COTSWOLD HILLS, in Gloucestershire, separating the Lower Severn from the sources of the Thames; they are of limestone rock, 50 m. long, and extend N. and S.

COTTA, CAIUS, a distinguished Roman orator, 1st century B.C.; mentioned with honour by Cicero.

COTTA, German publisher, born at Stuttgart; established in Tuebingen; published the works of Goethe, Schiller, Jean Paul, Herder, and others of note among their contemporaries (1764-1832).

COTTIAN ALPS, the range N. of the Maritime between France and Italy.

COTTIN, SOPHIE, a celebrated French authoress; wrote, among other romances, the well-known and extensively translated “Elizabeth; or, the Exiles of Siberia,” a wildly romantic but irreproachably moral tale (1773-1807).

COTTLE, JOSEPH, a publisher and author; started business in Bristol; published the works of Coleridge and Southey on generous terms; wrote in his “Early Recollections” an exposure of Coleridge that has been severely criticised and generally condemned (1770-1853).

COTTON, BISHOP, born at Chester; eminent as a master at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, and as head-master at Marlborough College; was appointed Bishop of Calcutta, an office he fulfilled zealously; was drowned in the Ganges; he figures as “the young master” in “Tom Brown’s School-days” (1813-1866).

COTTON, CHARLES, a poet, born in Staffordshire; his poetry was of the burlesque order, and somewhat gross; chiefly famous for his translation of “Montaigne’s Essays”; was friend and admirer of Isaak Walton, and wrote a supplement to his “Angler” (1630-1687).

COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE, a distinguished antiquary, and founder of the Cottonian Library, now in the British Museum, born at Denton; was a friend of Camden, and assisted him in his great work; was a great book-collector; was exposed to persecution for his presumed share in the publication of an obnoxious book, of which the original was found in his collection; had his books, in which he prided himself, taken from him, in consequence of which he pined and died (1571-1631).