A FRIEND TO PHYSIC.
Mr. Samuel Jessup, who died at Heckington, Lincolnshire, in 1817, was an opulent grazier and of pill-taking memory. He lived in a very eccentric way, as a bachelor, without known relatives, and at his decease was possessed of a good fortune, notwithstanding a most inordinate craving for physic, by which he was distinguished for the last thirty years of his life, as appeared on a trial for the amount of an apothecary's bill, at the assizes at Lincoln, a short time before Mr. Jessup's death, wherein he was defendant. The evidence on the trial affords the following materials for the epitaph of the deceased, which will not be transcended by the memorabilia of the life of any man. In twenty-one years (from 1791 to 1816) the deceased took 226,934 pills (supplied by a most highly respectable apothecary and worthy person of the name of Wright, who resided at Bottesford), which is at the rate of 10,806 pills a year, or 29 pills each day; but as the patient begun with a more moderate appetite, and increased it as he proceeded, in the last five years preceding 1816, he took the pills at the rate of 78 a-day, and in the year 1814, he swallowed not less than 51,590. Notwithstanding this, and the addition of 40,000 bottles of mixture, and juleps and electuaries, extending altogether to fifty-five closely written columns of an apothecary's bill, the deceased lived to attain the advanced age of sixty-five years.
AN INCULPATORY EPITAPH.
The following epitaph at West Allington, Devon, is deserving a place in our record of curiosities, inasmuch as it appears to be a successful attempt in making a monumental stone, both a memorial of the deceased, and also a means of reproving the parson of the parish:—
"Here lyeth the Body of
Daniel Jeffery the Son of Michael
Jeffery and Joan his Wife he
was buried ye 22 day of September
1746 and in ye 18th year of his age.
This Youth When In his sickness lay
did for the minister Send + that he would
Come and With him Pray + But he would not atend
But When this young man Buried was
The minister did him admit + he should be
Caried into Church + that he might money geet
By this you See what man will dwo + to geet
money if he can + who did refuse to come
pray + by the Foresaid young man."
HUNTING A SHEEP KILLER.
It has been remarked, that when once a dog acquires wild habits, and takes to killing sheep, he does far more mischief than a wild beast, since to the cunning of the tamed animal he adds the ferocity of the untamed. A remarkable case of this sort is mentioned in the following paragraph, which we have copied from the Newcastle Courant of the year 1823. It is also curious to note the account of the chase, and of the joy which the whole country-side seems to have manifested at the slaughter of the animal.—September 21—A few days ago a dog of a most destructive nature infested the fells of Caldbeck, Carrock, and High Pike, about sixteen miles south of Carlisle. Little doubt remains of its being the same dog which has been so injurious to the farmers in the northern parts of Northumberland, as no less than sixty sheep or upwards have fallen victims to its ferocity. It was thought proper to lose no time in attempting to destroy it, and Tuesday last was fixed upon. Sir H. Fletcher, Bart., of Clea Hall, offered his pack of hounds, and several other dogs with about fifty horsemen set out from Hesket New-market. Several persons with firearms were stationed at different parts. The dog was descried upon an eminence of Carrock-fell, and on sight of the pursuers set off by way of Hesket New-market, Stocklewath, and Barwick-field, then returned by Cowclose, Castle Sowerby, and attempted to gain the fells again, when Mr. Sewell, farmer at Wedlock, lying in ambush at Mossdale, fired, and succeeded in shooting him. He appears to be of the Newfoundland breed, of a common size, wire-haired, and extremely lean. During the chase he frequently turned upon the dogs which were headmost, and so wounded several as obliged them to give up the pursuit. The joy manifested on this occasion was uncommon, insomuch that on the day following about thirty persons sat down to a dinner provided at Mr. Tomlinson's, Hesket New-market. Upon the most moderate computation, excluding the various windings, the chase could not be less than thirty miles, and occupied no less than six hours.
LONGEVITY.
Henry Jenkins, of Ellerton-upon-Swale, Yorkshire, died 1670, aged 169. He remembered the battle of Flodden Field, fought between the English and the Scotch, September 9, 1513, when he was about twelve years old. He was then sent to Northallerton with a cartload of arrows, but an older boy was employed to convey them to the army. At Ellerton there was also living, at the same time, four or five other old men, reputed to be of the age of one hundred years and thereabouts, and they all testified that Jenkins was an elderly man when first they knew him. Jenkins was once butler to Lord Conyers; he perfectly remembered the Abbot of Fountain's Dale before the dissolution of the monasteries. In the last century of his life he was a fisherman, and often swam in the river after he was a hundred years old. In the King's Remembrancer Office in the Exchequer, there is a record of a deposition in a cause, taken April, 1665, at Kettlewell, Yorkshire, where Henry Jenkins, of Ellerton-upon-Swale, labourer, aged 157 years, was produced, and made deposition as a witness. He was buried at Bolton, Yorkshire. In 1743, a monument, with a suitable inscription, was erected to perpetuate his memory.
THE PULPIT OF JOHN KNOX AT ST. ANDREW'S.