nds of
him. Three times he regularly paid the interest, and the third time
FitzGerald put his note of hand in the fire, just saying he thought that
would do. His simplicity dated from very early times. For when he was
at Trinity, his mother called on him in her coach-and-four, and sent a
gyp to ask him to step down to the college-gate, but he could not
come--his only pair of shoes was at the cobbler's. And down to the last
he was always perfectly careless as to dress. I can see him now, walking
down into Woodbridge, with an old Inverness cape, double-breasted,
flowered satin waistcoat, slippers on feet, and a handkerchief, very
likely, tied over his hat. Yet one always recognised in him the Hidalgo.
Never was there a more perfect gentleman. His courtesy came out even in
his rebukes. A lady one day was sitting in a Woodbridge shop, gossiping
to a friend about the eccentricities of the Squire of Boulge, when a
gentleman, who was sitting with his back to them, turned round, and,
gravely bowing, gravely said, "Madam, he is my brother." They were
eccentric, certainly, the FitzGeralds. FitzGerald himself remarked of
the family: "We are all mad, but with this difference--_I_ know that I
am." And of that same brother he once wrote to my father:--

LOWESTOFT: _Dec._ 2/66.

MY DEAR GROOME,--"At least for what I know" (as old Isaac Clarke used
to say), I shall be at home next week as well as this. How could you
_expect_ my Brother 3 times? You, as well as others, should really
(for his Benefit, as well as your own) either leave it all to Chance,
or appoint _one_ Day, and then decline any further Negotiation. This
would really spare poor John an immense deal of (in sober Truth)
"Taking the Lord's Name in vain." I mean his eternal _D.V._, which,
translated, only means, "If _I_ happen to be in the Humour." You must
know that the feeling of being _bound_ to an Engagement is the very
thing that makes him wish to break it. Spedding once told me this was
rather my case. I believe it, and am therefore shy of ever making an
engagement. _O si sic omnia_!--Yours truly,

E. F. G.

Of another brother, Peter, the Catholic brother, as John was the
Protestant one, he wrote:--

LOWESTOFT, _Tuesday_, _Feb._ 16, 1875.

You may have heard that my Brother Peter is dead, of Bronchitis, at
Bournemouth. He was taken seriously ill on Thursday last, and died on
Saturday withou