Which public ardour cools,
Fools and fanatics they who doubt—
Fanatics all and fools!”
Funny Folks.
The City Press lately reported (April 1888), that the Tichborne Claimant has returned to this country from America, travelling under the name of Sir Roger Tichborne, with Lady Tichborne. His ticket-of-leave is now out, and he boasts of a determination to re-open the Tichborne case.
MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS.
Born 1775.—Died May 14, 1818.
The first work of this author that attracted general attention was a somewhat licentious romance, published in 1795, entitled Ambrosio, or the Monk, from which circumstance he was afterwards generally styled “Monk Lewis.” He had a morbid taste for the horrible and supernatural in literature, and having achieved some fame by his Monk and Castle Spectre he continued to write ghost stories till, following as he did in the wake of Mrs. Radcliffe, he quite overstocked the market. Upon one occasion Lewis, speaking to Lady Holland about The Rejected Addresses, remarked
“Many of them are very fair, but mine is not at all like; they have made me write burlesque, which I never do.” “You don’t know your own talent,” answered the lady. Lewis was very small in stature, he had large grey eyes, thick features, and an inexpressive countenance, he was, however, exceedingly vain, and very foppish in his dress. But he was a generous, kind hearted man, Sir Walter Scott spoke highly of him, and Byron wrote