A north-country labouring man, admitted 30th November 1820. This poor
fellow had been, previous to his coming here, confined in some lunatic
asylum in the country; and when he was presented for admission here,
came so corded and tied up at all points, as to be unable to move. He
was described by his conductors as extremely violent, but when his
restrictions were relaxed, and afterwards wholly removed, he became,
and has continued extremely quiet and harmless, though under the
influence of strong delusion.
When he first came in he brought with him an old brass inkstand, two
oyster-shells, containing the remains of various coloured paints,
and the printed copy of a last dying-speech, purporting to be that
of an unfortunate young woman who had been convicted and executed in
the country for setting fire to a barn. These trifles he gave to the
safe custody of his keeper, with a strict charge not to allow any
person whatever to open them; especially the dying speech, which was
carefully wrapped up in thirty or forty envelopes of brown paper. The
oyster shells he considered very precious jewels, and the inkstand a
sacred deposit beyond all price, as being the identical one his father
had used in writing his last dying words &c., bequeathing him all his
property (or rather all his poverty). The keeper threw these trifles
loosely into his drawer, and thought no more of them: but in the month
of January following, when this poor fellow came to be discharged as
perfectly cured, he had a strong recollection of his treasures, and
brought his then keeper to the former one, who had been his trustee
for the deposit, to demand the restoration of his precious articles.
The keeper, in some surprise, told Fletcher he was astonished to
observe a man in all other respects perfectly rational, should think
any thing about such trifles as oyster-shells and dying speeches.
But he answered, that his mind was all along impressed with a fixed
certainty that his father’s will bequeathed him a handsome sum, and
that the paper he asked for contained the original will; and he was
much surprised the keeper should in the least doubt it. On opening
the dying-speech, enveloped within forty wrappers, it appeared to be
adorned with the figure of a female hanging on a gibbet. Poor Fletcher
seized it with rapture, declaring that was the very thing that made him
happy.
Now this poor man was utterly illiterate, and could not read the
printed paper, and there must have been some unexplained cause for
his valuing it so highly; that the impression which began with his
derangement, and was probably the very cause of it, should still
continue when he was in other respects perfectly freed from his
delusion, was a singular circumstance. He was discharged cured on the
11th January 1821, and does not appear to have since relapsed.