When Faber engraved his portrait from a painting by Ellys, he was at a loss what he should insert, as an appropriate motto, and consulting with a friend what he should put, was answered, "A Figg for the Irish." This was immediately adopted, and the print had a rapid sale.
Figg died in 1734. William Flander a noted scholar of his, fought at the amphitheatre, in 1723, with Christopher Clarkson, from Lancashire, who was called the Old Soldier. The fashion of attending prizefighting matches had attained its highest zenith in Figg's time, and it was looked upon as a very great proof of self-denial in an amateur if he failed a meeting on those occasions.
From Figg's theatre he will not miss a night,
Though cocks, and bulls, and Irish women, fight.
Figg left a widow and several children; so recently as 1794 a daughter-in-law of his was living, and resided in Charles-street, Westminster, where she kept a house, and supported herself very decently by letting lodgings, aided by a very small income.
DRESS IN 1573.
The wardrobe of a country gentleman is thus given from a will, dated 1573, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, in Brayley and Britton's Graphic Illustrator—"I give unto my brother Mr. William Sheney my best black gown, garded and faced with velvet, and my velvet cap; also I will unto my brother Thomas Marcal my new shepe colored gowne, garded with velvet and faced with cony; also I give unto my son Tyble my shorte gown, faced with wolf (skin), and laid with Billements lace; also I give unto my brother Cowper my other shorte gowne, faced with foxe; also I give unto Thomas Walker my night gown, faced with cony, with one lace also, and my ready (ruddy) colored hose; also I give unto my man Thomas Swaine my doublet of canvas that Forde made me, and my new gaskyns that Forde made me; also I give unto John Wyldinge a cassock of shepes colour, edged with ponts skins; also I give unto John Woodzyle my doublet of fruite canvas, and my hose with fryze bryches; also I give unto Strowde my frize jerkin with silke buttons; also I give Symonde Bisshoppe, the smyth, my other frize jerkyn, with stone buttons; also I give to Adam Ashame my hose with the frendge (fringe), and lined with crane-coloured silk; which gifts I will to be delivered, immediately after my decease."
ORIGIN OF THE CREST OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.
The loss of the French at the battle of Creçy was immense. There fell 1,200 knights; 1,400 esquires; 4,000 commissioned officers; 30,000 rank and file; Dukes of Lorraine and Bourbon; Earls of Flanders, Blois, Harcourt, Vaudemont, and Aumale; the King of Bohemia; the King of Majorca. The English lost one esquire, three knights, and less than one hundred rank and file. Here did they first use field artillery; and on this battle-field did the young Prince of Wales adopt the ostrich plumes and motto of the slain King of Bohemia, who, being blind, desired to be led at a gallop between two knights into the thick of the fight, and thus met death. Those feathers and the two words "Ich dien," "I serve," are to this day the heraldic bearings of the Prince of Wales, whom God preserve! So much for Creçy or Cressy!
SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF A THIEF IN 1822.