Bichwa’ appeared in the Christmas number of the ‘Bristol Times and Mirror,’ and ‘A Dead Man's Face’ in the Christmas number of ‘Harper's Magazine.’ Early in 1885 he was suddenly ordered abroad by reason of a weakness in the lungs. While in the Riviera in the spring he was attacked by typhoid fever. When convalescent, he caught a chill, and died at Monte Carlo on 15 May 1885. On the 18th of that month he was buried in the cemetery at Nice. An epitaph by Lord Houghton placed over his grave describes him as ‘A British writer of fiction of great renown and greater promise, who died prematurely.’ A memorial tablet in his honour has been erected by public subscription in Bristol Cathedral.
Until about two years before his death Fargus had been engaged in his business as an auctioneer at Bristol, where he was principally known as a good judge of art, curiosities, china, and bric-à-brac, and as such was employed to value and catalogue the Strawberry Hill collection. Fargus married on 26 Aug. 1871 Amy, the youngest daughter of Alderman Spark, J.P., of Bristol, by whom he had four children, three boys and a girl. Several of his works appeared posthumously. In the summer number of the ‘Graphic’ for 1885 was his story of ‘Cariston's Gift.’ In August his most promising novel, entitled ‘A Family Affair,’ was reprinted in 3 vols. from the ‘English Illustrated Magazine.’ Another book was published in October, called ‘At what Cost,’ comprising two other tales, ‘The Story of a Sculptor’ and ‘Capital Wine.’ His last Christmas annual, called ‘Slings and Arrows,’ appeared (1885) in ‘Arrowsmith's Bristol Library.’ Besides these works Fargus left for publication another three-volume novel called ‘Living or Dead’ (1886). His latest performance appeared a year afterwards as ‘Somebody's Story, by Hugh Conway.’ It was written in nine days for the ‘Shakespearean Show Book,’ in aid of the Chelsea Hospital for Women, the manuscript of its being published in facsimile in twenty-three pages, oblong 8vo, followed by twenty additional pages, giving the text in ordinary type.
[For several of the particulars mentioned in this memoir the writer is indebted to Fargus's widow. Notices appeared in the Times, 16 May 1885, p. 12; Athenæum, 23 May 1885, p. 662; Illustrated London News, 30 May 1885, p. 559, giving both portrait and notice; Annual Register for 1885, p. 161. See also the Sketch of the Life of Hugh Conway, prefixed to the 1885 illustrated edition of Called Back, pp. vii–xiii, the frontispiece to which volume is an admirable photograph.]
FARICIUS (d. 1117), abbot of Abingdon, a native of Arezzo in Tuscany, a skilful physician, and a man of letters, was in England in 1078, when he witnessed the translation of the relics of St. Aldhelm [q. v.], and was cellarer of Malmesbury Abbey when, in 1100, he was elected abbot of Abingdon. He owed his election to a vision. The abbey of Abingdon had fallen into decay; cloister, dormitory, and chapter-house were in ruins, the brethren scarcely had bread to eat, and the abbacy was vacant. A young monk had a vision of the Virgin, who bade him tell the prior and convent to elect her chaplain, the cellarer of Malmesbury, as their abbot. They applied to Henry I, and received license to elect Faricius, who was either already, or soon afterwards, the king's physician. He was consecrated on 1 Nov. by Robert, bishop of Lincoln, and the next year was received with much rejoicing by the brethren of his new house. It is said that as Archbishop Anselm was then in exile, Faricius laid his pastoral staff on the high altar. Anselm, however, returned to England on 23 Sept. 1100, and did not leave it again until 1103, so the story no doubt belongs to the period of the archbishop's second absence, and shows that Faricius belonged to the strict ecclesiastical party. He was learned and industrious, courteous in manners, and eloquent, though his foreign tongue was some disadvantage to him (Gesta Pontificum, p. 331). Moreover he was a man of quick understanding and great ability, and seems in all points to have been a good specimen of the scientific churchman of southern Europe. The restoration of the conventual buildings was his first care, and he further rebuilt a large part of the church, probably the whole of the eastern end, the transepts, and the central tower, placing his new building to the south of St. Æthelwold's church (Chronicon de Abingdon, ii. 286; Leland, Itinerary, ii. 13). He enriched the abbey by obtaining grants of land and by costly gifts of various kinds, caused several books, both of divinity and medicine, to be copied for the library, was liberal and kind to the monks, and raised their number from twenty-eight to eighty. The payments he received for his work as a physician enabled him to do all this, for many of the chief persons in the kingdom sought his advice. When Queen Matilda was expecting her first child the king sent her to stay in the immediate neighbourhood of Abingdon, and placed her under the care of Faricius and another Italian physician named Grimbald or Grimaldi, his intimate friend. The abbot interested the queen in the rebuilding of the church, and obtained through her intercession
