We commenced this article by considering how fleeting this reputation was; yet still it is strange that in this case it has died from amongst us so soon. Garrick said of Foote that he was a man of wonderful abilities, and the most entertaining man he had ever known; and this was a tribute from a rival manager and actor, be it remembered. Fox, eminent conversationalist as he was, said that whatever was the subject of conversation, 'Foote instantly took the lead, and delighted us all.' Davies, Tate Wilkinson, and Horace Walpole joined in the chorus of his praise; and even Dr. Samuel Johnson, who perhaps feared Foote as much as he disliked him, admitted that he was a scholar, that his humour was irresistible, and that he could drive any of his rivals out of the room by the sheer force of his wit. The remarks of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Macaulay fall flat after such tributes as the above; and they are probably to be explained by the fact that they never came within the range of the personal influence of the man--without having done which they can hardly be considered competent judges of so amusing an actor, and such an invariably ready, courageous wit and satirist as was Samuel Foote. [Illustration: (end of chapter vignette.)] FOOTNOTES: [129] It may be well to note that there was another Samuel Foote, perhaps a family connexion of our hero's, who held the Plymouth Theatre from 1780 to 1784. [130] According to Taylor, the author of 'Monsieur Tonson,' the grave Murphy intended to write Foote's life; it was afterwards written by Cooke. [131] Mr. Vivian was Mayor of Truro in 1741 and again in 1754. [132] There was a John Foote, an eminent attorney, who lived at Lambesso, was town-clerk of Truro in 1676, and Mayor in 1678 and 1696. [133] A case, with pedigree and opinion, signed Henry Brooke, Oxon, Jan. 21, 1737, states that Mr. Foote was a 'cognatus and consanguineus' of the founder of Worcester College, Sir Thomas Cooke of Bentley, Worcestershire, and was therefore entitled to a fellowship.--MSS. Worcester College. [134] Garrick and Foote did not get on well together--they were 'two of a trade,' with the usual result; and, whenever they met, our hero, who, as Davies says, 'ran a-tilt at everybody, and was at the same time caressed and feared, admired and hated by all,' never failed to launch the shafts of his satire against Garrick, who was obliged to sit dumb in his presence. It has been said that while the wit of the one shone like a star, that of the other blazed like a meteor: yet the two often dined with each other. [135] Foote was such a dandy, when a young man, that he was often mistaken for a foreigner. [136] Cooke, with what, I suppose, he intended as a witticism, introduced Foote to his club at Covent Garden as 'Mr. Foote, the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for murdering his brother.'