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?"