London, aged forty-seven, admitted January 3d 1822. This man was one of
the class of lunatic visitants, who some years since, during the life
of his late Majesty, were so assiduous and troublesome in their visits
to Buckingham House, and their endeavours to gain admission there.
He has been frequently, in the course of the last eighteen years,
deranged, and in different places of confinement on that account. He
was discharged from this hospital on the 12th November 1818; but was
afterwards sent hither, by an order from the Secretary of State, and
on the 11th of April 1822 was liberated by the same authority, and
discharged well.
When in his state of derangement, his propensity was to claim as his
own property the royal palaces at Windsor, Kew, St. James’s, Buckingham
House, &c.; and he would frequently visit them all, and take imaginary
possession of them, by contriving to get within their entrances. He
did not imagine himself to be the king, but that the king had no right
to those palaces, as they were his property; and he therefore demanded
that they might be surrendered to him.
His ordinary employment for livelihood had been hawking laces,
garters, braces, &c. about the country; and while in this house, he
was generally employed in knitting garters. He conducted himself very
properly; he was well acquainted with the history of Bedlam, and was
continually passing his remarks upon the whole system of management
adopted here, which sometimes he approved, and at others censured. Not
the minutest circumstance in the conduct of physicians, keepers, or
patients, escaped his notice or observation; and when discharged, in
1818, he published a pamphlet on the management of the hospital, and
was pretty free in his criticisms upon all points that did not square
with his notions of propriety.
He was a neat little man, of peculiar aspect: his face curiously
formed, small and sallow, with a stiff black beard; his eyes
diminutive, black, and piercing, like those of a water-rat.
Since his last discharge from this place he has again become deranged,
and is confined at an asylum in York.