The velvet cap

Late on in his biography Fawcett's son says

Were the writer of these Memoirs to endeavour to trace the remainder of his pilgrimage on earth it would prove that when life is extended beyond its usual span the strength of man is but labour and sorrow. It would exemplify the truth of that description which the wise man gives of the infirmities of old age when the keepers of the house tremble the strong men bow themselves and the grasshopper itself is a burden. A coldness and almost incessant pain in his head obliged him to wear a velvet cap, the weakness in his knees was for a long time so great that he was unable to rise from his seat without help or to walk except for a very short distance without support. He had also repeated attacks of the paralytic kind and was subject to violent bleedings at the nose, these might have a salutary effect as the means of preventing apoplexy to which the stupor and heaviness preceding them indicated a strong tendency but their frequent return occasioned great debility and rendered him incapable for the time of attending to his public labours.