"On Sir J—— H—— being turned out in one year, now doing at 20 guineas per cent.
"On John Wilkes's life for one year, now doing at 5 per cent.—N. B. Warranted to remain in prison during that period.
"On a declaration of war with France or Spain in one year, 8 guineas per cent.
"And many other innocent things of that kind.
"But when policies come to be opened on two of the first Peers in Britain losing their heads within a year, at 10s. 6d. per cent. and on the dissolution of the present Parliament within one year, at 5 guineas per cent. which are now actually doing, and underwrote, chiefly by Scotsmen, at the above Coffee-house; it is surely high time for Administration to interfere, and by exerting the rigour of the laws against the authors and encouragers of such insurances (which must be done for some bad purpose) effectually put a stop to it."
There are certain wags who find great amusement in contriving wonderful stories for the publick, which are sometimes circulated verbally, and frequently inserted in the newspapers.—This waggery has recently received the elegant term of hoaxing. Twice very lately crowds have been sent to the ship-yards below London to witness the launching of men of war and Indiamen which were not ready to launch; and last winter re-produced an old story of a gardener digging a pit to receive the body of a servant he had seduced, whom he intended to have murdered, had not his master luckily discovered the plan by the intervention of a dream. Many of these inventions are so slightly contrived that persons of very little sagacity might detect the impostor; and yet numbers are deceived.
The newspapers of 1772 furnish a rare instance of this description, which take verbatim:
"At the house of one Mrs. Goulding, a single gentlewoman, at Stockwell, in the parish of Lambeth, in Surrey, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon on Monday last, there being no person except herself and servant (Ann Robinson, aged fifteen years or thereabouts) several earthen plates, and one dish, of what is called the Queen's-ware, which were placed on a shelf in one of the kitchens, fell down, and all broke except the dish, without any visible cause; in a little time after, several candlesticks, and other things, the furniture of a mantle-piece in the back kitchen, were thrown into the middle of the floor, though no person was in that room; then some china, &c. on the mantle-piece in the other kitchen was in like manner thrown into the middle of the floor, and broke, and as the pieces lay, they snapped and flew just as though they had been thrown on an exceeding hot fire; a glazed lanthorn, which hung on the staircase, was thrown down; a clock also was thrown down and broke; a red earthen pan, containing salt beef, flew in pieces, and the beef fell about; and many such like uncommon things happened; which causing an alarm, the people from the road, without distinction, ran into the house, some supposing it to be on fire, others thought the house had received a shock from the explosion of a powder-mill
at Hounslow, which was blown up about an hour before. However, all concurred in moving the goods; and Mrs. Goulding, together with her maid-servant, went to Mr. Gresham's, a gentleman who lives in the next house to Mrs. Goulding's, whither the goods were carried, and particularly a tray full of china, an iron bread-basket japanned, two mahogany waiters, several bottles of different sorts of liquors, a gallipot of jelly, and a pier-glass worth about five pounds, which glass was taken down by one Mr. Saville (a neighbour to Mrs. Goulding) who handed it to one Robert Hames, and a part of the gilt-work on each side of the frame flew off before he could put it down in the garden; but when it was laid down, remained without farther damage till it was taken into Mr. Gresham's, and put under a side-board, where it flew to pieces. Mr. Saville and others going to drink of a bottle of rum and a bottle of wine, they both flew in pieces, though they were uncorked; the china in the tray flew in pieces, some while it was in the house, and the rest in the garden, whither it was removed by the affrighted spectators after it began to break; the bread-basket was thrown down and broke, as also were the two mahogany waiters, and the pot of jelly, together with bottles of liquors and jars of pickles, all of them the property of Mrs. Goulding. Mrs Goulding, being ill with the fright, was let blood by Mr. Gardener, a
Surgeon of Clapham, who borrowed a pint china bowl of Mr. Gresham's people to receive the blood, which being afterwards set upon a side-board, near a bottle of rum, the property of Mrs. Goulding, both bottle and bowl jumped on the floor and broke, the bowl going into five pieces (a piece of which is now in the possession of Mr. Waterfield at the Royal Oak Inn, Vauxhall). Mrs. Goulding and her servant then went to Mr. Maylin's next door to Mr. Gresham's; but during their stay there (which was but very short) nothing extraordinary happened; from thence they went to the house of Farmer Payne (to whose wife Mrs. Goulding is related) on Rush-common, near the Wash-way, about half a mile distant from her own house, where they found Mr. and Miss Gresham, Mr. Payne and his family; it being about dinner-time, they all dined with Mr. Payne; some time after dinner Mrs. Goulding's servant was sent home to examine into the state of the house, and returned with an account that every thing there had been quiet from the time they left it. In a little time after the return of the servant, Mr. and Miss Gresham went home (nothing unaccountable having yet happened at Mr. Payne's); but Mrs. Goulding and her servant staid, and about seven o'clock in the evening the same kind of uncommon operations as had been seen at Mrs. Goulding's began at Mr. Payne's, by seven pewter dishes out of eight falling from the top shelf over a dresser in the kitchen, without