_La Bruyère._--What is known concerning the family of Jean de la Bruyère,
author of _Les Caractères_? Did he belong to the great French house of that
name? One of the biographical dictionaries states that he was grandson of a
Lieutenant Civil, engaged in the Fronde; but M. Suard, in his "Notice"
prefixed to _Les Caractères_, says that nothing is known of the author
except his birth, death, and office. His grand-daughter, {39} Magdalen
Rachel de la Bruyère, married an officer of the name of Shrom, and died in
1780, at Morden in Surrey, where there is a handsome monument to her
memory. Being one of her descendants in the female line, I should feel much
obliged by any information respecting her father, the son of Jean de la
Bruyère; or tending to connect that writer with the family founded by
Thibault de la Bruyère, the Crusader.