To 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.
Eccentricity 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.
Some 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. Their 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."
This 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.
It 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. Palmer, 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. His 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. Henry 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.
In 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.
Politicks 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.
The 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.
I 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."
The 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.
Remember 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? If 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."
The 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.
In 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.
Mist'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!"
Poor 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. He 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. Whereupon
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. And 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.