FOOTNOTES:

[1231:A] "This should be _Cuper's_ gardens, formerly the Bear Garden." _European Magazine._

2[231:B] "This should be the _Folly_; a very large vessel, said to have been the hulk of a ship of war or frigate, which was moored on the Surrey-side of the Thames, nearly opposite Hungerford stairs, and, consequently, abreast of _Cuper's_ gardens. It was used as a floating _tavern_ and _bagnio_. The proprietors had an idea, that a licence was not necessary for a place of this _description on the river_, and it was continued many years unrestrained, till at length its enormities became so notorious, that its suppression was deemed a most necessary object of Police." _Ibid._

3[232:A] At Hoxton.

4[233:A] Heraclitus Ridens.

5[244:A] No Coaches to be admitted but with six horses, nor any Coach to come into the Park after ten of the clock in the morning.

6[257:A] Daughter to the earl of Ranelagh.

7[266:A] Original Weekly Journal, May 21, 1720.

8[280:A] "This house was one of the last of the hundreds of Drury Taverns (for in that district it was included). Tradition formerly said it had, in the reign of Charles II. been much celebrated for the gaiety of its visitors. The rooms in which the concerts were performed and balls given, were at the top of the house: these were large, others smaller; the bar conveniently situated to see who went up stairs. All the premises, except the Tavern part, which dwindled into a public-house, were let to an organ-builder and harpsichord-maker."

9_European Magazine._

10[336:A] _Vide_ London Chronicle, vol. IX. p. 375.

11[390:A] "If any Courtier bowed in a cringing manner, or used flattering expressions, he was either banished the Court, if the nature of his place admitted of it; or turned into ridicule, if his dignity exempted him from any severer punishment." Lampridius, Life of Alexander Severus.

12CHAP. IV.

13ANECDOTES OF ECCENTRICITY.

14To particularise every species of Eccentricity which has distinguished this great community would be useless; but the whims of certain individuals of it ought to be noticed, in order that a just estimate may be formed of the grand whole. In the month of November 1700 an old gentleman was found lifeless on the floor of his apartment in Dartmouth-street by his landlady, who had been alarmed by hearing him fall. He died intestate, and worth 600_l. per annum_; but his manner of living was penurious to the most extravagant degree, allowing nature barely four-penny worth of boiled meat and broth _per_ day. When he went from home he was under the necessity of hiring a boy for a penny to lead him across the Park, as he was near-sighted; but this was almost the only intercourse he had with mankind, except to receive his rents, which may be imagined from the state of his clothing as he lay dead: the body had seven shirts on it, each dreadfully soiled, and that next the skin actually decayed; and his other clothing was tied on with cords, that had even lacerated the flesh.

15Eccentricity may exist in the brain of the most exalted character; the best intentions are often marked by it; therefore the reader must not suppose that censure is implied when good actions are classed under this head: he that deviates from the common path is eccentric; but, if his purposes are virtuous, the good man will forgive the deviation.

16Some Professors of Religion are very apt to be eccentric in their conduct. Joseph Jacobs was the leader of a set of enthusiasts in 1702, who preached to his votaries at Turners-hall: he was originally a Linen-draper. "Observator" says, his congregation were "the remnant of the tribe of Ishmael; for their hand is against every body, and every body's hand against them. By their bristles (they suffered their hair to flourish luxuriantly) one would take them to be a herd of the Gaderines swine into which the Devil has newly entered, from whom at latter Lammas we shall have great cry and little wool. They are compounded of Philadelphians, Sweet-singers, Seekers, and Muggletonians.

17Their system of Divinity is a hodge-podge of Jacobs' putting together, and their philosophy is that of Jacob Behmen's. If their women do not backslide from the truth, it is their native virtue keeps them steadfast; for their Pastor by trade is authorised to examine their clouts. He that has the longest whiskers amongst them is by so much the better member; but Jacobs measures their profession by the Mustachio, and not by the ell and yard, as he used to do his linen. By their look you would take them to be of the Society of Bedlam; madmen we found them, and so we leave them."

18This eccentric preacher died in June 1722. He retained the name of Whisker Jacobs to the day of his death. As he was singular in his life, so was he at his departure, having given orders that no mourning should be used at his interment in Bunhill-fields. Accordingly his executors gave the company white gloves and rings, but no scarfs or hatbands.

19It would be extremely wrong not to include Dr. Sacheverell in the list. This gentleman contrived to turn his talents in eccentricity to some account, and was the cause of a wonderful acquisition of members to the class of oddities. I shall leave the Doctor's "birth, parentage, and education," to the biographers who have treated of the subject; and introduce him as a _singular_ character, and a willing instrument in the hands of faction, and as one that contrived to confound the State, rouse the passions, and raise a mob wherever he chose to exhibit himself; nay, even to animate the Rev. Mr.

20Palmer, preacher at Whitehall, at the risk of suspension, to pray for him by name as a patient sufferer under the persecution of the House of Lords, who brought him to trial, Feb. 27, 1709-10, on charges of having maintained that the necessary means used to bring about the Revolution were odious and unjustifiable; that resistance to the Supreme Power was illegal under any pretence whatever; that it was the duty of superior pastors to thunder out their ecclesiastical anathema's against persons entitled to the benefit of the toleration, &c. &c.; which they decreed the Commons had substantiated, contents 69, non-contents 52. After this event he became the idol of the mob, and of several well-meaning but weak people.

21His vanity led him to make a kind of triumphal journey through the country, where he was generally received as a conqueror, and in some instances by Corporations and the Clergy with flags displayed, ringing of bells, and bonfires. However disgraceful such conduct, he furnished the industrious of many classes with the means of enriching themselves: the Printers and Publishers fattened on his Sermons and his Trial; the Engraver on his physiognomy; and even the Fan-maker sold his "Emblematical fans with the true effigies of the Rev. Dr.

22Henry Sacheverell done to the life, and several curious hieroglyphicks in honour of the Church of England finely painted and mounted on extraordinary genteel sticks." After this summary of the Doctor's exploits, who will deny his claim to eccentricity, or that he was a most unworthy son of the Church, a teacher of bigotry, not of peace? But he is forgotten; and but one small marble lozenge shews his present resting-place.

23In 1711 Gustavus Parker entertained the publick with a specimen of his eccentricity, exhibited in a "Monthly Weather-paper," or baroscopical prognosticks of the description of Weather to happen a month _after_ his publication. He even pronounced whether there would be warm or cold rain, or be clear, for the day and night, and from which point the wind would blow. Though Mr. Parker entered into a laboured explanation of the principles on which he founded his infallible judgment, they were confuted most completely by the observations of an individual, who placed the real state of the weather opposite the anticipated; from which I pronounce him no conjurer.

24Politicks had arrived to a dreadful state of effervescence in 1713. Many authors exerted themselves to fan the flames, and but few endeavoured to extinguish them. One eccentric person ("which lived at the sign of the Queen's-arms _and Corn-cutter_ in King-street, Westminster, where a blue sign-board is fixed to _the other_ that shews what cures I perform, _viz._ the scurvy in the gums, or tooth-ache, likewise the piles and all casual sores, and fasteneth loose teeth, and causeth decayed gums to grow firm and well again") with more zeal than ability collected a _farrago_ of scraps of religion and moral sayings, and connected them in a way peculiar to himself by fervent wishes and pious ejaculations; which he published twice a-week under the title of the "Balm of Gilead, or the Healer of Divisions, by Thomas Smith, Operator."--I consider this Thomas Smith a worthy predecessor of many an Itinerant Methodist.

25The public-house is a hot-bed for vulgar eccentricity; and without doubt the following mad exploit of four men in January 1715-16 originated in one of them, which is thus described in the London Post of the 21st. They solemnly bound themselves to support each other in every difficulty and danger that might occur during an excursion up the Thames on the ice for four days, in which they determined to avoid every track made by man, and to explore a way for themselves. They set out provided with poles from the Old Swan near London-bridge; and two of them were seen to fall through air-holes opposite Somerset-house and Lambeth, but the others were never heard of.

26I am rather at a loss under what title to place the ignorance and absurdity displayed in the ensuing paragraph, copied from the News Letter of Feb. 25, 1716; but, as superstition is closely allied to folly, and eccentricity is a species of folly, I believe this to be the proper one. "The Flying Horse, a noted victualling-house in Moor-fields, _next to that of the late Astrologer Trotter_, has been molested for several nights past in an _unaccountable manner_; abundance of stones, glass bottles, clay, &c. being thrown into the back side of the house, to the great _amazement and terror_ of the family and guests. It is altogether unknown how it happened, though all the neighbouring houses were diligently searched, and men appointed in proper places to find the occasion."

27The unknown author of the Advertisement which follows appears to have been nearly related to Thomas Smith the Corn-cutter, but far more enlightened. The motives that dictated it must be approved, however extraordinary such a production may appear in the Postman of July 31, 1716. "Whoever you are to whose hands this comes, let the truth it contains abide upon your mind, as what is intended for your greatest benefit. The method taken I know is uncommon; yet, if there is the least probability of success, though it be only with a few, the design will be justified, as intending the glory of God in your salvation.

28Remember then that you were once told in this manner, that being zealous for names and parties is what will stand you in no stead at death, except you have the life in you that shall never die. Are you a Christian? or, have you only the name from education, as it is the professed Religion of your Country?

29If you can say on your conscience you have endeavoured to lay aside prejudice wherein you might have reason to suspect yourself of it, and, apprehending your lost condition without a Saviour as revealed in the Gospel, you have devoted yourself to God in him, and therefore hope you are a true Christian, it is well--give God the praise; but, if in your conscience you must say you have no more than the name, stay Man, Woman, whoever you be, consider, think before this go out of your mind or hand how you shall escape, if you neglect so great salvation."

30The nobility and young men of fashion of most countries are rather eccentric in their amusements; and surely this observation may safely be applied to those of England in 1717, when a set of _escape graces_ subscribed for a piece of plate, which was run for in Tyburn-road by six Asses rode by Chimney-sweepers; and two boys rode two Asses at Hampstead-heath for a _wooden spoon_ attended by above 500 persons on horseback. Women running for Holland smocks was not uncommon; nay, a match was talked of for a race of women in hooped petticoats; and another actually took place in consequence of a wager of 1000_l._ between the Earl of Lichfield and Esquire Gage, that Gage's Chaise and pair would outrun the Earl's Chariot and four. The ground was from Tyburn to Hayes; and Gage lost through some accident. Vast sums were betted on all these eccentric operations.

31In the month of February 1717-18, James Austin, inventor of the Persian Ink-powder, most extravagantly grateful to his customers, determined to do an act which renders him a fit subject for my groupe of oddities. He selected the Boar's-head in East-cheap for the reception of those persons, and provided for them a Pudding, to be boiled fourteen days, for which he allowed a chaldron of coals; and another baked, a cube of one foot; and nearly a whole Ox roasted. Such was the fare. The musick was commensurate with the vastness of the entertainment, at least in one particular; which was a drum, that had served as an alarm in some Turkish army, eighteen feet in length, and near four feet in diameter. Swift might have made good use of Austin in the travels of Lemuel Gulliver.

32Mist's Journal notices the Austin feast a second time, and asserts that the copper for boiling the great pudding was then, April 19, erected at the Red-lion in Southwark Park, where crowds of people went to see it. Mist adds that the pudding would weigh 900lb.; and when boiled was to be conveyed to the _Swan Tavern_, Fish-street-hill, Monday, May 26, to the tune of "What lumps of pudding my mother gave me!"

33Poor Austin boiled his pudding, and advertised that the company expected was so numerous, he should be under the necessity of carrying it to the Restoration-gardens in St. George's-fields, where he _attempted_ to convey it, as appears from a second notice; but the rabble, attracted by the ridiculous cavalcade, broke through every restraint, and carried off banners, streamers, &c. &c. which he demanded should be restored by the 6th of June under pain of prosecution for robbery.

34He says nothing of the fate of his Pudding; I must therefore leave him, in order to pay attention to a fellow-labourer in the works of singularity--a poor Benedict, who declared in the Flying Post of July 8, 1718, "About two years ago I intermarried with the daughter of Ben Bound of Foster-lane, ironmonger, who agreed to give me 600_l._ Soon after he furnished me three rooms to the value of 50_l._, for which he pretended he gave 300_l._; upon which I asked him for the remainder of the 600_l._; but he answered, if I insisted upon any money, he would sue me for the goods.

35Whereupon I filed a bill in Chancery against him, and he owned in his answer he had given me the goods; but, being resolved to have them again at any rate, upon the 11th of June last he persuaded my wife to carry them away; and upon the 12th I was arrested in a sham action for 200_l._ at the suit of one Jeffery Sharpe (whom I never heard of before), and by 14 officers carried to prison; and in the mean time my house was ransacked; and, had it not been for an Attorney, I had not saved the value of one penny, most of my goods being carried away, and the rest packed up.

36And after they had kept my wife a fortnight, they were so barbarous to let her lie two nights upon chairs; so that she is returned to me again: and I hope if her father desist from giving her ill advice, and coveting the rest of my goods, she will still prove a good wife.