Location
The Bodmin area of Cornwall. Tregarrick fair in the story is Bodmin fair and the moors are Bodmin Moor. The high road is the present A30. The ridge is Racecourse Downs. The hillside opposite and glass-house are Halgavor Moor.
Summary
An Italian scholar, ill-dressed, hungry and consumptive, leads a flock of geese from the moor to Tregarrick fair and meets the narrator on a ridge overlooking the town. Fortunio sells his geese at Tregarrick fair so as to rent a ‘glass-house’ below (Halgavor) moor. He teaches the narrator Latin for one year, before succumbing to his illness. Although he has an Anglican burial, his real religion is literature.