English Eccentrics and Eccentricities

Part 1

ENGLISH ECCENTRICS.

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON

ENGLISH ECCENTRICS AND ECCENTRICITIES

BY JOHN TIMBS

AUTHOR OF 'CLUBS AND CLUB LIFE IN LONDON' ETC.

A NEW EDITION WITH 48 ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1898

PREFACE.

Gentle Reader, a few words before we introduce you to our ECCENTRICS. They may be odd company: yet how often do we find eccentricity in the minds of persons of good understanding. Their sayings and doings, it is true, may not rank as high among the delicacies of intellectual epicures as the Strasburg pies among the dishes described in the Almanach des Gourmands; but they possess attractions in proportion to the degree in which "man favours wonders." Swift has remarked, that "a little grain of the romance is no ill ingredient to preserve and exalt the dignity of human nature, without which it is apt to degenerate into everything that is sordid, vicious, and low." Into the latter extremes Eccentricity is occasionally apt to run, somewhat like certain fermenting liquors which cannot be checked in their acidifying courses.

Into such headlong excesses our Eccentrics rarely stray; and one of our objects in sketching their ways, is to show that with oddity of character may co-exist much goodness of heart; and your strange fellow, though, according to the lexicographer, he be outlandish, odd, queer, and eccentric, may possess claims to our notice which the man who is ever studying the fitness of things would not so readily present.

Many books of character have been published which have recorded the acts, sayings, and fortunes of Eccentrics. The instances in the present Work are, for the most part, drawn from our own time, so as to present points of novelty which could not so reasonably be expected in portraits of older date. They are motley-minded and grotesque in many instances; and from their rare accidents may be gathered many a lesson of thrift, as well as many a scene of humour to laugh at; while some realize the well-remembered couplet or the near alliance of wits to madness.

A glance at the Table of Contents and the Index to this volume will, it is hoped, convey a fair idea of the number and variety of characters and incidents to be found in this gallery of ENGLISH ECCENTRICS.

It should be added, that in the preparation of this Work, the Author has availed himself of the most trustworthy materials for the staple of his narratives, which, in certain cases, he has preferred giving ipsissimis verbis of his authorities to "re-writing" them, as it is termed; a process which rarely adds to the veracity of story-telling, but, on the other hand, often gives a colour to the incidents which the original narrator never intended to convey. The object has been to render the book truthful as well as entertaining.

JOHN TIMBS.

CONTENTS.

WEALTH AND FASHION.

PAGE

The Beckfords and Fonthill 1

Alderman Beckford's Monument Speech in Guildhall 19

Beau Brummel 22

Sir Lumley Skeffington, Bart 36

"Romeo" Coates 41

Abraham Newland 44

The Spendthrift Squire of Halston, John Mytton 48

Lord Petersham 55

The King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands 57

Sir Edward Dering's Luckless Courtship 59

Gretna-Green Marriages 63

Part 2

The Agapemone, or Abode of Love 68

Singular Scotch Ladies 70

Mrs. Bond, of Hackney 72

John Ward, the Hackney Miser 74

"Poor Man of Mutton" 76

Lord Kenyon's Parsimony 77

Mary Moser, the Flower-Painter 78

The Eccentric Miss Banks 80

Thomas Cooke, the Miser of Pentonville 82

Thomas Cooke, the Turkey Merchant 87

"Lady Lewson," of Clerkenwell 89

Profits of Dust-sifting and Dust-heaps 92

Sir John Dinely, Bart. 95

The Rothschilds 96

A Legacy of Half-a-Million of Money 99

Eccentricities of the Earl of Bridgewater 103

The Denisons, and the Conyngham Family 105

"Dog Jennings" 107

Baron Ward's Remarkable Career 109

A Costly House-Warming 112

Devonshire Eccentrics 113

Hannah Snell, the Female Soldier 116

Lady Archer 122

DELUSIONS, IMPOSTURES, AND FANATIC MISSIONS.

Modern Alchemists 124

Jack Adams, the Astrologer 130

The Woman-hating Cavendish 132

Modern Astrology.--"Witch Pickles" 136

Part 3

Hannah Green; or, "Ling Bob" 139

Oddities of Lady Hester Stanhope 141

Hermits and Eremitical Life 145

The Recluses of Llangollen 155

Snuff-taking Legacies 158

Burial Bequests 159

Burials on Box Hill and Leith Hill 163

Jeremy Bentham's Bequest of his Remains 166

The Marquis of Anglesey's Leg 169

The Cottle Church 171

Horace Walpole's Chattels saved by a Talisman 174

Norwood Gipsies 177

"Cunning Mary," of Clerkenwell 179

"Jerusalem Whalley" 181

Father Mathew and the Temperance Movement 182

Eccentric Preachers 184

Irving a Millenarian 187

A Trio of Fanatics 189

The Spenceans 197

Joanna Southcote, and the Coming of Shiloh 198

The Founder of Mormonism 210

Huntington, the Preacher 219

Amen--Peter Isnell 231

Strangely Eccentric, yet Sane 232

Strange Hallucination 236

"Corner Memory Thompson" 238

Mummy of a Manchester Lady 239

Hypochondriasis 240

Part 4

STRANGE SIGHTS AND SPORTING SCENES.

"The Wonder of all the Wonders that the World ever Wondered at" 243

"The Princess Caraboo" 246

Fat Folks.--Lambert and Bright 249

A Cure for Corpulence 256

Epitaphs on Fat Folks 257

Count Boruwlaski, the Polish Dwarf 258

The Irish Giant 270

Birth Extraordinary 271

William Hutton's "Strong Woman" 274

Wildman and his Bees 276

Lord Stowell's Love of Sight-seeing 277

John Day and Fairlop Fair 280

A Princely Hoax 283

Sir John Waters's Escape 285

Colonel Mackinnon's Practical Joking 287

A Gourmand Physician 288

Dick England, the Gambler 290

Brighton Races, Thirty Years since 292

Colonel Mellish 294

Doncaster Eccentrics 296

"Walking Stewart" 300

Youthful Days of the Hon. Grantley Berkeley 304

What became of the Seven Dials 310

An Old Bailey Character 312

Bone and Shell Exhibition 317

"Quid Rides?" 318

"Bolton Trotters" 319

Part 5

Eccentric Lord Coleraine 321

Eccentric Travellers 323

Elegy on a Geologist 328

ECCENTRIC ARTISTS.

Gilray and his Caricatures 330

William Blake, Painter and Poet 339

Nollekens, the Sculptor 350

THEATRICAL FOLKS.

The Young Roscius 363

Hardham's "No. 37" 368

Rare Criticism 370

The O. P. Riot 371

Origin of "Paul Pry" 372

Mrs. Garrick 374

Mathews, a Spanish Ambassador 378

Grimaldi, the Clown 382

Munden's Last Performance 387

Oddities of Dowton 389

Liston in Tragedy 391

Boyhood of Edmund Kean 398

A Mysterious Parcel 400

Masquerade Incident 402

Mr. T. P. Cooke in Melodrama and Pantomime 404

"Romeo and Juliet" in America 407

The Mulberries, a Shakspearian Club 408

Colley Cibber's Daughter 410

An Eccentric Love-Passage 413

True to the Text 415

Part 6

MEN OF LETTERS.

Monk Lewis 417

Porson's Eccentricities 425

Parriana: Oddities of Dr. Parr 435

Oddities of John Horne Tooke 444

Mr. Canning's Humour 451

Peter Pindar.--Dr. Wolcot 460

The Author of "Dr. Syntax" 472

Mrs. Radcliffe and the Critics 475

Cool Sir James Mackintosh 478

Eccentricities of Cobbett 481

Heber, the Book-Collector 485

Sir John Soane Lampooned 488

Extraordinary Calculators 490

Charles Lamb's Cottage at Islington 494

Thomas Hood 497

A Witty Archbishop 504

Literary Madmen 508

A Perpetual-Motion Seeker 513

The Romantic Duchess of Newcastle 516

Sources of Laughter 520

CONVIVIAL ECCENTRICITIES.

Busby's Folly and Bull Feather Hall 525

Old Islington Taverns 526

The Oyster and Parched-Pea Club 529

A Manchester Punch-House 530

"The Blue Key" 533

Brandy in Tea 534

Part 7

"The Wooden Spoon" 535

A Tipsy Village 535

What an Epicure Eats in his Life-Time 536

Epitaph on Dr. William Maginn 538

Greenwich Dinners 539

Lord Pembroke's Port Wine 540

A Tremendous Bowl of Punch 541

MISCELLANEA.

Long Sir Thomas Robinson 542

Lord Chesterfield's Will 542

An Odd Family 543

An Eccentric Host 544

Quackery Successful 545

The Grateful Footpad 546

A Notoriety of the Temple 546

A Ride in a Sedan 548

Mr. John Scott (Lord Eldon) in Parliament 549

A Chancery Jeu-d'Esprit 551

Hanging by Compact 553

The Ambassador Floored 553

"The Dutch Mail" 554

Bad Spelling 556

A "Single Conspirator" 559

A Miscalculation 560

An Indiscriminate Collector 561

The Bishops' Saturday Night 563

"Rather than Otherwise" 564

Classic Soup Distribution 565

Part 8

Alphabet Single Rhymed 565

Non Sequitur and Therefore 566

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

"Vathek" Beckford. From a Medallion 1

John Farquhar surveying the Ruins of Fonthill 21

Beau Brummel. From a Miniature 22

Lord Alvanley. A Pillar of White's 27

Beau Brummel in Retirement at Calais 35

Sir Lumley Skeffington in a "Jean de Brie" 36

Sir Lumley Skeffington, as dressed for the "Birthday Ball" 40

Robert Coates, the Amateur of Fashion, as "Romeo" 41

Squire Mytton of Halston on his Bear 48

Lord Petersham; a noble Aide-de-Camp 55

The Eccentric Miss Banks, an Old Maid on a Journey 80

The First Rothschild--a well-known Character on 'Change 96

Hannah Snell, the Female Soldier 116

Lady Archer, Enamelling at her Toilet 122

The Alchemist 124

Jack Adams, the Astrologer 130

A Hermit of the Sixteenth Century 145

Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Mary Ponsonby, the Recluses of Llangollen 156

Major Peter Labelliere, a Christian Patriot 163

Margaret Finch, the Norwood Gipsy 177

Edward Irving, the Millenarian 184

Joanna Southcote 198

Facsimile of Autograph with Seal of the Elect 209

William Huntington, the Converted Coalheaver 219

Continue reading English Eccentrics and Eccentricities free in the Wunder reader →