HERMITS, ORNAMENTAL AND EXPERIMENTAL.
Keeping a poet is a luxury enjoyed by many, from the Queen down to Messrs. Moses, Hyam and Co.; but the refinement of keeping an hermit would appear to be a more recherché and less ordinary appendage of wealth and taste.
I send you an advertisement for, and two actual instances of going a hermiting, from my scrapbook:
"A young man, who wishes to retire from the world and live as an hermit in some convenient spot in England, is willing to engage with any nobleman or gentleman who may be desirous of having one. Any letter directed to S. Lawrence (post paid) to be left at Mr. Otton's, No. 6. Colman's Lane, Plymouth, mentioning what gratuity will be given, and all other particulars, will be duly attended to."
Courier, Jan. 11th, 1810.
Can any one tell me whether this retiring young man was engaged in the above capacity? I do not think so: for soon after an advertisement appeared in the papers which I have reasons for thinking was by the same hand.
"Wants a situation in a pious regular family, in a place where the Gospel is preached, a young man of serious mind, who can wait at table and milk a cow."
The immortal Dr. Busby asks—
"When energising objects men pursue,
What are the prodigies they cannot do?"
Whether it is because going a hermiting does not come under the Doctor's "energising objects" I know not; but this is clear, that the two following instances proved unsuccessful:
"M. Hamilton, once the proprietor of Payne's Hill, near Cobham, Surrey, advertised for a person who was willing to become a hermit in that beautiful retreat of his. The conditions were, that he was to continue in the hermitage seven years, where he should be provided with a Bible, optical glasses, a mat for his bed, a hassock for his pillow, an hour-glass for his timepiece, water for his beverage, food from the house, but never to exchange a syllable with the servant. He was to wear a camlet robe, never to cut his beard or nails, nor ever to stray beyond the limits of the grounds. If he lived there, under all these restrictions, till the end of the term, he was to receive seven hundred guineas. But on breach of any of them, or if he quitted the place any time previous to that term, the whole was to be forfeited. One person attempted it, but a three weeks' trial cured him.
"Mr. Powyss, of Marcham, near Preston, Lancashire, was more successful in this singularity: he advertised a reward of 50l. a-year for life, to any man who would undertake to live seven years under ground, without seeing anything human: and to let his toe and finger nails grow, with his hair and beard, during the whole time. Apartments were prepared under ground, very commodious, with a cold bath, a chamber organ, as many books as the occupier pleased, and provisions served from his own table. Whenever the recluse wanted any convenience, he was to ring a bell, and it was provided for him. Singular as this residence may appear, an occupier offered himself, and actually staid in it, observing the required conditions for four years."
FLORENCE.
Dublin.