Chapter Foss to Fourteen of F by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Foss to Fourteen

Foss (Corporal), a disabled soldier, who served many years under lieutenant Worthington, and remained his ordinary when the lieutenant retired from the service. Corporal Foss loved his master and Miss Emily the lieutenant’s daughter, and he gloried in his profession. Though brusque in manner, he was tender- hearted as a child.—Colman: The Poor Gentleman (1802).

(Corporal Foss is modelled from “corporal Trim,” in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, 1759.)

Foss-way, the longest of the Roman roads, from Mount Michael, in Cornwall, to Caithness (the furthest north of Scotland). Drayton says the Foss-way, Watling Street, and Icknield Street were constructed by Mulmutius, son of Cloten king of Cornwall, who gained the sceptre of Britain after the period of anarchy which followed the murder of Porrex by his mother (about B.C. 700).

The Foss exceeds me [Watling Street] many a mile.
That holds from shore to shore the! ength of all the isle,
From where rich Cornwall points to the Iberian seas,
Till colder Caithness tells the scattered Orcades.
   —Drayton: Polyolbion, xvi. (1613).

FOSTER (Captain), on guard at Tully Veolan ruin.—Sir W. Scott: Waverley (time, George II.).

Foster, the English champion.—Sir W. Scott: The Laird’s Jock (time, Elizabeth).

Foster (Anthony), or “Tony-fire-the-Faggot,” agent of the earl of Leicester at Cumnor Place.—Sir W. Scott: Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).

Foster (Sir John), the English warden.—Sir W. Scott: The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Foster (Dr. James), a dissenting minister, who preached on Sunday evenings for above twenty years (from 1728–1749), in Old Jewry (died 1753).

Let modest Foster, if he will, excel
Ten metropolitans in preaching well.
   —Pope.

Fotheringay (Miss), an actress whose real name is Costigan.—Thackeray: Pendennis (1850).

Foul-weather Jack, commodore Byron (1723–1786).

Foundling (The). Harriet Raymond, whose mother died in child-birth, was committed to the charge of a gouvernante, who announced to her father (sir Charles Raymond) that the child was dead. This, however, was not true, for the gouvernante changed the child’s name to Fidelia, and sold her at the age of 12 to one Villiard, One night, Charles Belmont, passing Villiard’s house, heard the cries of a girl for help; he rescued her and took her to his own home, where he gave her in charge to his sister Rosetta, The two girls became companions and friends, and Charles fell in love with the “foundling.” The gouvernante, on her death-bed, revealed the secret to sir Charles Raymond, the mystery was cleared up, and Fidelia became the wife of Charles Belmont. Rosetta gave her hand to Fidelia’s brother, colonel Raymond.—Edward Moore: The Foundling (1748).

Foundling of the Forest (The). (See Florian, p. 376.)

Fountain, Bellamore, and Harebrain, suitors to lady Hartwell, a widow. They are the chums of Valentine the gallant, who would not be persuaded to keep his estate.—Fletcher: Wit without Money (1639).

Fountain of Life, Alexander Hales, “the Irrefragible Doctor” (*–1245).

Fountain of Youth, a marvellous fountai n in the island of Bimini (one of the Bahama group). It had the virtue of restoring the aged to youth again. In the Middle Ages it was really believed to exist, and Juan Ponce de Leon, among other Spanish navigators, sailed to Florida in search of it.