The Book of Curiosities

by John Platts

The celebrated Dr. Graham.—About the year 1782, there appeared in London one of the most extraordinary empirics of modern times. His name was Graham. He was a graduate of Edinburgh, wrote in a bombastic style, and possessed a great fluency of elocution. He opened in Pall-Mall, a mansion, which he called the “Temple of Health.” The front was ornamented with an enormous gilt sun, a statue of Hygenia, and other attractive emblems; the suit of rooms, in the interior, was superbly furnished; and the walls were decorated with mirrors, so as to confer on the place an effect like that from an enchanted palace. Here he delivered lectures on health, &c. at the extravagant price of two guineas per lecture; and the price, together with the novelty of his subjects, drew considerable audiences of the wealthy and dissipated. He entertained a female, of beautiful figure, whom he called the Goddess of Health, and it was her business to deliver a concluding discourse after the Doctor himself had finished his lecture. As a further means of attraction, he hired two men of extraordinary stature, provided with enormous cocked hats, and with showy and bulky liveries, whose business it was to distribute bills from house to house through the town. Graham became, therefore, an object of universal curiosity. But, as his two-guinea auditors were soon exhausted, he dropped his lectures successively to one guinea, half-a-guinea, five shillings, and (as he said, “for the benefit of all,”) to half-a-crown; and, when he could no longer draw this price, he exhibited the temple itself for one shilling, to daily crowds, for several months.

Among his furniture was a Celestial Bed, as he called it, standing on glass legs, provided with the richest hangings, and possessing properties peculiar to itself. For sleeping in this bed, he demanded one hundred pounds per night; and such is the folly of wealth, that heirless persons, of high rank, were named, who acceded to his terms. He also pretended to have discovered the “Elixir of Life,” by taking which, a person might live as long as he pleased, and he modestly demanded one thousand pounds for a supply of it; and more than one noble person was reported to have paid this enormous price to be cured of folly.

Having worn out his character in these various projects, he then recommended Earth-bathing, and undertook to sanction it by his own practice. During one hour every day, he, therefore, admitted spectators, at first at a guinea, and then descended, as in a former instance, to a shilling, to view him and the goddess of health immersed naked in the ground to their chins; the Doctor having his hair full-dressed and powdered, and the lady’s head being dressed also in the best fashion of the times. When no more money was to be drained from the population of London, the Doctor visited the great provincial towns, and lectured and exhibited in the same manner whenever he could obtain permission of the magistrates. In the end, the goddess of health nearly fell a victim to the practice; and the Doctor retired from public notice, and died in poor circumstances a few years afterwards, in spite of his “Elixir of Life,” at the early age of fifty-two. His brother married the celebrated Mrs. Macauley Graham, and his sister was married to Dr. Arnold, of Leicester, the respectable author of a very able treatise on insanity.

It is generally understood, that the lady who performed the singular part of the goddess of health, was Emma, afterwards wife of Sir W. H. and a personal favourite of a late celebrated naval character.

The Admirable Crichton.—Mr. James Crichton, according to the generality of his biographers, was born in the year 1551; but Lord Buchan fixes the time of his nativity in the month of August, 1560. It is admitted by all, that this celebrated man was a native of Scotland; but although Perth has in general been considered as his birth-place, even this circumstance has been perplexed with conflicting opinions. Of his ancestors, the accounts are equally diversified. Some assert that his father, Robert Crichton, commanded the army of Queen Mary at the battle of Langside: others state, with equal confidence, that he was Lord Advocate of Scotland from 1560 to 1573. His mother’s name was Elizabeth Stewart, the only daughter of Sir James Stewart, of Beath, a descendant of Robert, duke of Albany, the third son of king Robert the Second. Relying on his pedigree, he was accustomed to boast, when he displayed his astonishing acquirements in foreign countries, of his lineal descent from the Scottish kings.

At what time Mr. James Crichton began his studies, we are not informed; neither have we any satisfactory accounts when those diversified powers of his mind, on which all Europe gazed with admiration, first appeared to excite attention. The primary rudiments of his grammatical education were received at Perth; after which he studied philosophy in the University of St. Andrew. In that University, his tutor was the celebrated John Rutherford, a professor, famous for his learning, and distinguished by four books, which he had written on Aristotle’s Logic, and a commentary on his Poetics. But it is not to this professor alone, that the honour of forming this extraordinary character is to be ascribed. Manutius, who calls Crichton first cousin to the king, says, that he was educated with James I. under Buchanan, Hepburn, and Robertson, as well as under Rutherford. We cannot doubt, from the favourable circumstances under which Crichton entered life, that the best masters were assigned him that could be procured in every department of learning.

Under their tuition, and through the native vigour of his understanding, he had acquired a knowledge of ten different languages, and had run through the whole circle of the sciences, by the time he had attained the twentieth year of his age. Arduous, however, as these varied pursuits may seem to common minds, they occupied a part only of Crichton’s attention. A portion of his time was devoted to music, in the knowledge of which he made an astonishing proficiency. He learnt to play on various instruments; and improved himself, to the highest degree, in dancing, fencing, singing, and horsemanship.

Having made himself master of these various acquirements, he left his native land, and, proceeding to Paris, introduced himself to the literati of that city in the following manner. On his arrival, he caused six placards to be fixed on the gates of the schools, halls, and colleges, belonging to the University, and on all the pillars and posts of the houses inhabited by men most renowned for literature and science, inviting all who thought themselves well versed in any art, to meet and dispute with him in the college of Navarre, on that day six weeks, by nine in the morning. In this challenge, which was according to the practice of the age, he declared himself ready to answer any question which should be proposed to him, on any art or science, in any of the twelve following languages, viz. Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, Dutch, Flemish, and Sclavonian; and this either in prose or verse, at the choice of his antagonist.

Bold as this challenge may appear, instead of devoting himself to the minute examination of the various articles contained in its comprehensive embrace, upon the issues of which he had risked his reputation, his time was chiefly spent in hunting, hawking, tilting, vaulting, riding, tossing the pike, handling the musket, and such military feats and athletic exercises; and, when tired with these, the interim was filled up in domestic engagements, such as balls, concerts of music, vocal and instrumental, cards, dice, and tennis, together with such diversions as frequently occupy the mind of youth. A mode of conduct, apparently so inconsistent with the character he had assumed in his placards, the students of the University were at a loss how to interpret. And so provoked were they at the insolence of this daring foreigner, that, beneath the placard which was fixed on the gate at Navarre, they caused the following words to be written:—“If you would meet with this monster of perfection, to make search for him either in the tavern or the brothel is the readiest way to find him.”

But notwithstanding this dissipation, when the appointed day arrived, Crichton appeared in the college of Navarre, and engaged in a disputation, which lasted from nine in the morning until six in the evening. And so well did he acquit himself, that the President, after expatiating on the many rare and excellent endowments which God had bestowed upon him, rose from his chair, and, accompanied by four of the most eminent professors of the University, presented him with a diamond ring, and a purse full of gold, as a testimony of their high approbation. On what subjects these antagonists disputed, we have not been informed; neither is it known with certainty in what languages they addressed each other. We are only told, that the interview ended amidst the reiterated acclamations and huzzas of the spectators; and that this conquest obtained for him the appellation of “The Admirable Crichton.” It has been added, to the preceding account, that so little was he fatigued with the dispute, that he went to the Louvre, on the ensuing day, and engaging in a tilting match, an exercise then much in use, carried off the ring fifteen times successively, and broke as many lances, in the presence of some princes of the French court, and of a great many ladies, whose applauses were deemed a glorious reward, by all the heroes of chivalry.