A PARISIAN CHARACTER.

Bruce Herald, Volume II, Issue 41, 19 January 1865, Page 7

A PARISIAN CHARACTER.

The Paris correspondent of the ' Daily News ' writes :— ' The Boulevard des Italiens lost last week by the hand of death one of its oldest frequenters, Major Frazer, an old dandy, who from 1827 to 1864 inhabited Paris, and who, when in town, was rarely to be seen elsewhere than on that small but choice section of the Boulevarde which extends from the Chaussee dA n tin to the Rue Lafitte. His history is. curious and few people knew it. Major Frazer was the great grandson of Simon Lord Lovet, executed for high treason in the 'reign of George 11. Some of his family then settled in France, and took service in the French army. Major Fraser's father emigrated to Portugal in 1790, and took a Portuguese wife. The issue of this marriage made its way in the world. Two daughters yet living are the wives of rich noblemen; the one is the Marquis de Bombelles, and the other the Marquis de Gargallo, of Naples ; one son was a secretary of embassy in Austria; the other, Henry Erskine Fraser, who has just gone to his grave. He was born at Badajox, in Portugal, where he lived up to the age of eleven years. He had then lost both fa ther and mother, and was committed to the care of M. de Lebseltern, the tutor of Prince Felix de Schwartzenbevg. The two pupils were sent together to Russia, where they entered the military service as cadets. Their friendship, dating thus earlj r , was continued in Pfavis. The major used to be fond of recounting how he took part in the battle of the Leipsic, and rode into Paris with his regiment of Russian hussars. But of late years he left off telling these stories, because they made him out to be older than he wished to be thought, that he was a singularly well preserved man for his age. He left the Russian ser- j vice in 1827 with the rank of major, and ever after lived in Paris, in an apartment in the large house on the Boulevard des Italiens belonging to the Marquis of Hertford. The furniture of these rooms was simple, and not in proportion to the high rent of lodging in that quarter. There was little to be seen in them be} r ond an iron bed, a large map, a bearskin, a few books, a large assortment of polished leather boots, and a barrel of Cyprus wine, always on tap for the accommodation of friends. One day when his bed Avas broken he replaced it by a coffin, in which he was wont to say he slept better than in bed, because he was not liable to tumble out when disturbed by the nightmare, to whi<;h ! he was very subject He once made a bet with Lord Henry Seymour that he would ride to Brussels and back in thirty-six hours, and he did it. Another time he rode to Compeigne and back every day for six. days running. With all this he was an accomplished scholar, he habitually capped Latin verses with Jules Janin, and was the friend of Alfred de Musset, Bequet and Romieu. He was a member of the most gambling clubs in Paris, but never played himself. Notwithstanding his eccentric, and as many supposed frivolous life, he had a practical taste for the industrial pursuits of the present age. He was a director of several railways, and died ultimately from a fever caught in Portugal, whither- he had gone to organise a company-'