CHAP, xxxi HIS PERSON AND ATTIRE 385 



address " was so perfectly accompanied by the most 

 engaging attentions, that he was the genuine polite man 

 above all forms of breeding." His Quaker dress was 

 extremely neat and simple, a perfect transcript of the 

 order of his mind ; he never altered it under the changes 

 of fashion. " He usually wore," his nephew tells us, "a 

 large low three-cornered hat ; a white medical wig, with 

 rows of small curls descending one under another from 

 near the crown to his shoulders ; a coat, waistcoat and 

 breeches of nearly white superfine cloth ; the coat without 

 any collar, large cuffs, and two of the buttons buttoned 

 over his breast ; the waistcoat with long flaps ; the ends 

 of his cravat were buttoned within his waistcoat ; the 

 stockings he wore were silk and the colour of his clothes ; 

 his buckles were small. His coach was dark green, with 

 wheels of the same colour ; the horses were tall black 

 ones, with very short docked tails after the old manner. 

 His coachman was exceedingly lusty ; he weighed at 

 least sixteen stone ; his livery was a plain cocked hat, 

 a white wig, a light drab coat, with a velvet collar the 

 same colour and bright haycock buttons. My uncle left 

 him 50 per annum." x At his meals Fothergill was 

 temperate ; some thought him too abstemious ; " eating 

 sparingly, but with a good relish, and rarely exceeding 

 two glasses of wine at supper." 



Fothergill had a strong intelligence. His mental 

 faculties were of the judicial type, and they worked 

 rapidly, so that he reached conclusions with swiftness and 

 held them with tenacity. He had a just sense of his 

 intellectual powers, and was solicitous to improve them 

 to the utmost, suffering none of them to be wasted in 

 indolence. 2 His emotions were lively. The passion of 

 love, which burns too often with a fitful or feeble flame, 

 or mixed with selfishness, shone in his case with a steady 

 light upon all his fellows. It gave him understanding 

 and insight ; for a loving heart, as Carlyle said, is the 



1 Extract from MS. Records of John Fothergill, of York (1793), quoted by 

 J. H. Tuke, Sketch, p. 68. 



2 G. Thompson, Memoirs, p. 29. 



2C 



