Stephen Fox, was a son of General Fox,
of the British Army, who fought at the battle of Lexington in 1775,
and a nephew of the eminent statesman, Charles James Fox. He had
served in the British Diplomatic Corps for several years, and was
thoroughly acquainted with his duties, but he held the least possible
intercourse with the Department of State and rarely entered a
private house. He used to rise about three o'clock in the afternoon,
and take his morning walk on Pennsylvania Avenue an hour or two
later. Miss Seaton says that a gentleman on one occasion, meeting
him at dusk in the Capitol grounds, urged him to return with him
to dinner, to which Mr. Fox replied that "he would willingly do
so, but his people were waiting breakfast for him." On the occasion
of the funeral of a member of the Diplomatic Corps, turning to the
wife of the Spanish Minister, he said: "How very old we all look
by daylight!" it being the first time he had seen his colleagues
except by candle-light. He went to bed at daylight, after watering
his plants, of which he was passionately fond.

John Howard Payne visited Washington to solicit from President
Tyler a foreign consulate. He was then in the prime of life,
slightly built, and rather under the medium height. His finely
developed head was bald on the top, but the sides were covered with
light brown hair. His nose was large, his eyes were light blue,
and he wore a full beard, consisting of side-whiskers and a moustache,
which were always well-trimmed. He was scrupulously neat in his
dress, and usually wore a dark brown frock coat and a black vest,
while his neck was covered with a black satin scarf, which was
arranged in graceful folds across his breast. Despite his unpretending
manner and his plain attire, there was something about his appearance
which never failed to attract attention. His voice was low and
musical, and when conversing on any subject in which he was deeply
interested he spoke with a degree of earnestness that enchained
the attention and touched the hearts of his listeners. After much
solicitation by himself and his friends, he obtained the appointment
of United States Consul at Tunis, and left for his post, where he
died, his remains being finally brought to the Capital and buried
in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Among the curiosities of Washington about this time was the studio
of Messrs. Moore & Ward, in one of the committee-rooms at the
Capitol, where likenesses were