# Cotgrave — Short Fiction character guide

> Cotgrave in Short Fiction by Arthur Machen.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0015-the-white-people

## Snapshot

A curious gentleman who gathers the tale of the White People, treating each strange account as a Chinese box with stranger workmanship inside.

## Who they are

Cotgrave moves through clubs and quiet rooms collecting stories that others would rather leave untold, and he listens to Herbert's narrative as proof rather than hearsay. His habit of thinking in nested boxes, each opening onto quainter craft, marks him as a man who expects the uncanny to keep unfolding rather than resolve. That appetite for the next layer is what carries the reader deeper into the occult territory the story is mapping.

## In the story

### [The White People](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/the-white-people)

The narrator who receives the green book from Ambrose and reads the diary.

### [Prologue](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/prologue)

Visits Ambrose and engages in a philosophical discussion about the nature of sin and evil.

### [Epilogue](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/chapters/epilogue)

Returns the green book to Ambrose and questions him about the manuscript's meaning, especially the reference to 'nymphs'.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/characters/cotgrave
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_6_se/characters