[60] There may be some who will object to this word, as too important for the action. I have the example of a very eminent personage, dignified with the pompous addition of B.D., to justify its insertion. This great man, a few years ago, placed against the wall of his house, in the neighbourhood of Hatton Garden, a board, broad as a church-door, on which was inscribed, in letters of two feet long, THE DESTROYER LIVES HERE. On a close inspection of the sign, it appeared to be sprinkled over with a number of little black dots intended to represent bugs.
[61] The meagre figure is a portrait of Dr. Misaubin, a foreigner, at that time in considerable practice.
These disputes, I have been told, sometimes happen at a consultation of regular physicians, and a patient has been so unpolite as to die before they could determine on the name of his disorder.
"About the symptoms, how they disagree,
But how unanimous about the fee!"
[62] The enumeration of its various virtues and never-failing efficacy, at this enlightened and philosophical period, covers one side of a house in Long Acre.
[63] The woman seated next to the divine was intended for Elizabeth Adams, who, on the 10th of September 1737, at the age of thirty, was executed for a robbery which had been attended with circumstances that aggravated the crime.
[64] When the celebrated Nancy Elliot found that she must pass "that bourne from whence no traveller returns," she was very solicitous to see her sister, whose life had not been strictly virtuous, to deliver her last advice and dying admonition. Her father used his best endeavours to effect this pious purpose, but was too late; and reached her house, accompanied by his other daughter, a few moments before she died.
When her death was announced, he grasped his remaining child by the hand, and, pointing to her emaciated sister, pathetically exclaimed, "Look there!"—and sunk down in a swoon, from which he was with difficulty recovered.
[65] Under a pirated set of the "Harlot's Progress," published by Boitard, were inscribed six miserable verses; our painter of domestic story, finding they had some effect, requested his friend Dr. Hoadley to explain the "Rake's Progress" by poetical illustrations. The request was complied with, and the verses to each print are added to this work.