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FISHER. FITZMAURICE.

year of his age. All his works have bee n collected into twelve volumes, 12mo.

FISHER (MARY), a quaker, of the last century, was so anxious to promote the tenets of her religion, that she took it in her head to go to Constantinople, in order to convert the Grand Seignior. On her arrival at Smyrna, the English consul sent her to Venice. From thence she travelled to Constantinople, all the way by land, and actually appeared before the Sultan Mahomet IV. who patiently attended her expostulation, and then caused her to be conveyed back to her own country, where she married a preacher of her own sect. This couple afterwards went as missionaries into Languedoc, to preach the tenets of quakerism among the protestants of that province. FITZMAURICE (the Hon. THOMAS.-Cursory Memoirs of). This gentleman, who was brother to the present Marquis of Lansdowne, had a peculiar turn for humour, which did not forsake him even in the most painful moments of the illness which terminated in his death. He enjoyed a joke; and the awful approach of dissolution could not restrain him from uttering it, when an occasion occurred. That we may not exceed our prescribed limits, we shall only relate one remarkable instance of his disposition, which happened almost at the very close of his life. This gentleman laboured under a complication of disorders, the most formidable of which was a dropsy. It was thought, by some of his medical attendants, that it was necessary for him to be tapped;

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a consultation was held upon this subject, to which the late Mr. John Hunter, Dr. Ashe, and some others were called. Dr. Ashe is not more remarkable for his professional knowledge, than for the rotundity of his shape, insomuch that among his legal acquaintance he is named a corporation sole. The result of the consultation was communicated to Mr. Fitzmaurice, by Mr. Hunter, who told him with that honest bluntness, which was peculiar to him, that the proposed operation would serve only to give him agony, without affording him any material relief, and that the endeavours of surgeons or physicians would be wholly ineffectual. The patient heard this sentence of death pronounced without emotion or dejection; but on the contrary, preserving his usual disposition to create a laugh, or join in it, he thus replied to Mr. Hunter, with an affected air of gravity, "My Dear sir, I am very sorry, that you, who are so excellent an operator, should have had the trouble of coming so far (the long room at Hampstead) without having an opportunity of displaying your skill upon me; but since you think, that, in my present emaciated and debilitated state, it would not be of service to me, I readily submit to your opinion: but it gives me concern that you should go away without having performed an operation; and, therefore, permit me to request, that you will tap Dr. Ashe, as there can be no objection in that quarter on the score of emaciation." The Doctor, who was a man of pleasantry and good-humour, laughed heartily at the conceit. Mr. Fitzmaurice seemed highly pleased; and no one

13

could

could have imagined, for some minutes, that there was a person in the room who had just heard, from authority, that he had but a very short time to live.

FLETCHER (AUGUSTUS ROY). This singular character was an inhabitant of Glenorchay, and principally supported himself by hunting and fishing. A faithful dog was his attendant; the gun and the dirk were his companions. Sometimes, indeed, he exchanged the gun for the fishing spear, but was never seen without one or the other of them. At a distance from 30cial life, his residence was in the wildest and most remote parts of the lofty mountains, which separate the country of Glenorchay from that of Rannoch. In the midst of these wilds he erected his hut, where he passed the spring, summer, and autumn, and a considerable part of the winter. He had a few goats, which he occasionally tended on these lofty cliffs. These, with his dog, gun, the spear, and the dirk, a belted plaid, hose, and brogs, constituted the whole of his property. While his goats fed among the rocks, and wide extended heaths, he ranged the hill and the forest in pursuit of game. He returned to his little flock in the evening, and conducted them to his solitary hut. He milked them with his own hands, and after making a comfortable meal, laid himself down to rest in the midst of them. By day they were his principal care, and by night they were his only companions, except the dog. He wished not to associate with any of his own specie, either male or female; and yet if

the step of the wandering stranger happened to approach his little cabin, Augustus Roy was humane and hospitable in the extreme. Whatever he possessed, even to the last morsel, he cheerfully bestowed upon his guest; at a time too when he knew not certainly where to procure another morsel for himself. Strange, that a man, who apparently had no affection for society, should be so much disposed to exercise one of its noblest virtues! Such was the manner in which this extraordinary man spent the greater part of the year; but when the chill blast of December returned, when the excessive coldness of the climate forced him to depart from the mountain, and to quit the solitary cell, he condescended to hold some intercourse with mankind, he repaired to the village; but he entered with reluctance into society, where no man thought as he did himself; where no man lived or acted in his peculiar manner. In this situation he discovered evident symptoms of uneasiness and disgust. To remove the languor of an intercourse in which he found no enjoyment, he went early every morning to the hill and the wood in search of game, and when he returned, he stole unobserved to rest. If he ever felt the force of love, it must have been in a very moderate degree, for he hardly ever displayed any propensity to that passion; and yet he dressed after the manner of the most finished coxcomb. The belted plaid and the dirk were fitted on with a wild and affected elegance; and his bonnet which was very small, was in a similar taste. His

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hair, which was naturally curled, and very, thick, was always tied with a silken, or variegated cord, which he esteemed as one of the brightest ornaments. His look was lofty, though he condescended to be his own butcher, cook, and baker; and when he killed a hare, or game of any denomination, he prepared it himself for eating. Under all these circumstances, so seemingly depressing, he was haughty and high-minded in the extreme. Were he starving for want of food, he would not deign to ask any person living to bestow on him the smallest pittance. In conformity to established custom, he took off his bonnet to what is called a gentleman, but he did it with reluctance, and in a manner which indicated contempt, rather than respect, for the person whom he addressed. Upon the whole, Augustus Roy Fletcher, merited the appellation of a most singular character. In circumstances the most humiliating, he had hardly his equal among the proud and haughty. Among coxcombs, he would make a distinguished figure. He could neither read nor write.

FOOTE (SAMUEL), an eminent dramatic writer and performer, was born at Truro, in Cornwall, in 1722. His father was a justice of peace for that county, and his mother sister to Sir John Dinely Goodere, of Herefordshire. Foote was educated at Worcester college, Oxford, from whence he removed to the Temple, being intended for the bar; but as the vivacity and volatility of his genius, did not accord with the dry profession of the law, he

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