_Friday, June 23, 1809._
We have to announce the death of this celebrated man, which took place
in this town _at half past 8 o'clock on Wednesday morning last_.
Mr. Lambert had travelled from Huntingdon hither in the early part of
the week, intending to receive the visits of the curious who might
attend the ensuing races. On Tuesday evening he sent a message to the
office of this paper, requesting that, as "the mountain could not wait
upon Mahomet, Mahomet would go to the mountain." Or, in other words,
that the printer would call upon him to receive an order for executing
some handbills, announcing Mr. Lambert's arrival, and his desire to
see company.
The orders he gave upon that occasion were delivered without any
presentiment that they were to be his last, and with his usual
cheerfulness. He was in bed--one of large dimensions--("Ossa upon
Olympus, and Pelion upon Ossa")--fatigued with his journey; but
anxious that the bills might be quickly printed, in order to his
seeing company next morning.
Before nine o'clock on that morning, however, he was a corpse! Nature
had endured all the trespass she could admit: the poor man's
corpulency had constantly increased, until, at the time we have
_mentioned_, the clogged machinery of life stood still, and the
prodigy of Mammon was numbered with the dead.
He was in his 40th year; and upon being weighed, within a few days, by
the famous Caledon's balance, was found to be 52 stone 11 pounds in
weight (14lb. to the stone), which is 10 stone 11lb. more than the
great Mr. Bright, of Essex, ever weighed.--He had apartments at Mr.
Berridge's, the Waggon and Horses, in St. Martin's, on the ground
floor--for he had been long incapable of walking up stairs.
His coffin, in which there has been great difficulty of placing him,
is 6 feet 4 inches long, 4 feet 4 inches wide, and 2 feet 4 inches
deep; the immense substance of his legs makes it necessarily almost a
square case. The celebrated sarcophagus of Alexander, viewed with so
much admiration at the British Museum, would not nearly contain this
immense sheer hulk.
The coffin, which consists of 112 superficial feet of elm, is built
upon 2 axletrees and 4 cog wheels; and upon these the remains of the
poor man will be rolled into his grave; which we understand is to be
in the new burial-ground at the back of St. Martin's church.--A
regular descent will be made by cutting away the earth slopingly for
some distance--the window and wall of the room in which he lies must
be taken down to allow his exit.--He is to be buried at 8 o'clock this
morning.
N.B. There is a very good coloured portrait of Daniel Lambert,
published by W. DARTON, Holborn; with particulars concerning him.
Price One Shilling.
[Illustration]