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Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
PORTRAITS OF CURIOUS CHARACTERS IN LONDON, &c. &c.
With Descriptive and Entertaining Anecdotes.
"There's none but has some fault; and he's the best,
Most perfect he, who's spotted with the least."
London:
Printed by and for W. Darton, Jun.
58, Holborn-Hill.
1814.
Contents
Nathaniel Bentley, Esq.
Ann Siggs
Martin Van Butchell
John Statham
Anne Longman
John and Robert Green
Tom and His Pigeons
Roger Smith
George Romondo
Toby
Memoirs of the Famous Sir John Dinely, Baronet
Particulars Concerning the Polite Grocers of the Strand
Ann Johnson
Samuel Horsey
Miss Theodora De Verdion
Daniel Lambert
The Death of Mr. Lambert!
Mary Jones
A Well-Known Carver
The Life of John Elwes, Esq.
The Flying Pye-Man
Thomas Laugher
The Life of Daniel Dancer, Esq.
[Illustration]
NATHANIEL BENTLEY, Esq.
_Known by the Name of Dirty Dick_,
Late a Hardware Merchant, in Leadenhall-street.
Mr. Bentley resided at the corner of the avenue leading to the house
formerly the Old Crown Tavern, Leadenhall-street, not far from the
East-India House.
The house and character of this eccentric individual are so well
described in a poem published in the European Magazine, for January
1801, that we shall transcribe it:
"Who but has seen (if he can see at all)
'Twixt Aldgate's well-known pump and Leadenhall,
A curious hard-ware shop, in general full
Of wares, from Birmingham and Pontipool?
Begrim'd with dirt, behold its ample front,
With thirty years collected filth upon't.
See festoon'd cobwebs pendent o'er the door,
While boxes, bales, and trunks, are strew'd around the floor.
"Behold how whistling winds and driving rain
Gain free admission at each broken pain,
Save where the dingy tenant keeps them out
With urn or tray, knife-case, or dirty clout!
Here snuffers, waiters, patent screws for corks;
There castors, card-racks, cheese-trays, knives and forks:
Here empty cases pil'd in heaps on high;
There pack-thread, papers, rope, in wild disorder lie.
"O say, thou enemy to soap and towels!
Hast no compassion lurking in thy bowels?
Think what thy neighbours suffer by thy whim
Of keeping self and house in such a trim!
The officers of health should view the scene,
And put thy shop and thee in quarantine.
Consider thou, in summer's ardent heat,
When various means are tried to cool the street,
What must each decent neighbour suffer then
From various vapours issuing from thy den.
"When fell Disease, with all her horrid train,
Spreads her dark pinions o'er ill-fated Spain,
That Britain may not witness such a scene,
Behoves us doubly now to keep our dwellings clean.
"Say, if, within the street where thou dost dwell,
Each house were kept exactly like thy cell;
O, say, thou enemy to brooms and mops!
How long thy neighbours could keep open shops,
If, following thee in taste, each wretched elf,
Unshav'd, unwash'd, and squalid like thyself,
Resolv'd to live?--The answer's very plain,
One year would be the utmost of their reign:
Victims to filth, each vot'ry soon would fall,
And one grand jail-distemper kill them all.
"Persons there are, who say thou hast been seen
(Some years ago) with hands and face wash'd clean;
And, wouldst thou quit this most unseemly plan,
Thou art ('tis said) a very comely man:
Of polish'd language, partial to the fair,
Then why not wash thy face and comb thy matted hair?
Clear from thy house accumulated dirt,
New paint the front, and wear a cleaner shirt."
Many are the reports concerning his civility, and polite manner of
attending to the ladies whenever they have honoured him with their
commands; and several curious persons have come to town from various
parts of the country, on purpose to see so remarkable a figure.
Before the powder-tax was introduced, Nathaniel frequently paid a
shilling for dressing that head, which of late years he scarcely
seemed to think worthy of a comb! He mends his own clothes and washes
his own linen, which he proudly acknowledges. His answer to a
gentleman who wished to convert him to cleanliness, was, "It is of no
use, Sir; if I wash my hands to-day, they will be dirty again
to-morrow." On being asked whether he kept a dog or cat to destroy
rats, mice, &c. he replied, "No, Sir, they only make more dirt, and
spoil more goods than any service they are of; but as to rats and
mice, how can they live in my house, when I take care to leave them
nothing to eat?" If asked why he does not take down his shutters which
have been so long up, or why he does not put his goods in proper
order, his answer is, "he has been long thinking of it, but he has not
time."
With all Nathaniel Bentley's eccentricities, it must be acknowledged,
he is both intelligent and polite: like a diamond begrimed with dirt,
which, though it may easily conceal its lustre in such a state, can
easily recover its original polish--not a diamond indeed of the first
water--not a rough diamond--but an _unwashed_ diamond.
In his beauish days, his favourite suit was blue and silver, with his
hair dressed in the extremity of fashion; but now--strange fancy--his
hair frequently stands up like the quills of the porcupine, and
generally attended in his late shop without a coat, while his
waistcoat, breeches, shirt, face, and hands, corresponded with the
dirt of his warehouse.
[Illustration]