In common with most people whose names are well known, Bishop
Walsham How received many letters from lunatics. He also met
with a few and has recorded one or two of his experiences. One
of these dates from somewhat early days, as will be seen from
the reference to Dr. Christopher Wordsworth. It runs as
follows:
Once when I was staying at St. John's Wood I took an early omnibus to
Westminster, and as it was fine I got up outside and had for a companion
a very gentlemanly looking man of military appearance. He soon began to
talk about prophecy and the revelation, showing an intimate acquaintance
with the Bible, and at last he asked me if I did not think the time had
arrived for the Messiah to be again revealed in the flesh. I of course
deprecated all attempts to fix the date of the Second Advent, but he
persisted in his attempts to prove that the Messiah would again be
incarnate. I saw he was full of wild notions, but I was rather startled
when he asked me if I could name any one on earth who seemed to me to
answer to all the requirements I should look for in the Messiah, and
when I said, "Certainly not," he startled me still more by saying, "Now
I should be disposed to say Dr. Christopher Wordsworth" (then Dean of
Westminster) "answered most nearly, if it were not for his extraordinary
hallucination with regard to the millenium." Of course by this time I
saw the man was mad. However, I asked him if he could name any one more
perfectly answering to his expectation. He then asked me if I understood
the meaning of the Frogs in the book of Revelation, and, on my answering
in the negative, he said. "I ask myself what can you predicate of frogs?
Only two things, they croak and they jump. So when I hear any one clear
his throat, suddenly putting his hand up to his mouth, I say to myself,
'That is the sign of the frogs. The time is come'." He then said, "You
will allow, I presume, that the Messiah must appear from a mountain?" To
which I of course assented, as I did to everything else now. "And that
mountain must bear a name equivalent to Armageddon?" "Yes." "Do you know
what Armageddon means?" "No." "It is a name of the devil." "Oh!" "Well,
such a mountain exists." "Where?" "In the county of Tipperary, and at
the foot of that mountain I was born." He then went on with a long
rhapsody, saying, "Yes, I am the Messiah, though men won't believe it.
It's a most curious fact that, while the interests of humanity centre in
me, each man believes that they centre in himself. Yes, I am the
scape-goat. You know that goat was sent into the wilderness by the
priest. Ah! that event happened on" (here he mentioned very rapidly some
date which I forget). "I was the goat: moral wilderness, you
know--commission in lunacy. My brother was the priest--sent me into the
wilderness, &c. &c." He was now talking very rapidly and excitedly, and
I was glad our journey came to an end.
The other incident recorded in the note-book occurred more
recently, when on the Monday before Ash Wednesday the Bishop had
been preaching in a London church, and a young man came to the
vestry after the service to speak to him. The Bishop having
asked him how he could help him, the young man laid one hand on
the Bishop's knee, looked him earnestly in the face, and said in
a loud impressive whisper, "To-morrow's pancake day, and the
next day's salt-fish!"