Whether it is because going a hermiting does not come under the Doctor's "energising objects" I know not; but this is clear, that the two following instances proved unsuccessful:
"M. Hamilton, once the proprietor of Payne's Hill, near Cobham, Surrey, advertised for a person who was willing to become a hermit in that beautiful retreat of his. The conditions were, that he was to continue in the hermitage seven years, where he should be provided with a Bible, optical glasses, a mat for his bed, a hassock for his pillow, an hour-glass for his timepiece, water for his beverage, food from the house, but never to exchange a syllable with the servant. He was to wear a camlet robe, never to cut his beard or nails, nor ever to stray beyond the limits of the grounds. If he lived there, under all these restrictions, till the end of the term, he was to receive seven hundred guineas. But on breach of any of them, or if he quitted the place any time previous to that term, the whole was to be forfeited. One person attempted it, but a three weeks' trial cured him.
"Mr. Powyss, of Marcham, near Preston, Lancashire, was more successful in this singularity: he advertised a reward of 50l. a-year for life, to any man who would undertake to live seven years under ground, without seeing anything human: and to let his toe and finger nails grow, with his hair and beard, during the whole time. Apartments were prepared under ground, very commodious, with a cold bath, a chamber organ, as many books as the occupier pleased, and provisions served from his own table. Whenever the recluse wanted any convenience, he was to ring a bell, and it was provided for him. Singular as this residence may appear, an occupier offered himself, and actually staid in it, observing the required conditions for four years."
FLORENCE.
Dublin.
DAVID MALLET, HIS CHARACTER AND BIOGRAPHY.
When an editor selects a favourite ballad for notes and illustrations, he may be supposed, naturally, to have a sort of respect, not to say veneration, for its author. Such is the case with the recent editor of Edwin and Emma (Dr. Dinsdale), when, in his brief biography of David Mallet, he glosses over the vices of this man's character in the quietest and most inoffensive manner possible. If he was a "heartless villain" I do not see that we ought to screen him; and I think those who may choose to look into his doings will find him full as "black" as he is painted.
Southey, in his Specimens of the Later English Poets, vol. ii. p. 342., does not mince the matter. His words are these:—
"A man of more talents than honesty, who was always ready to perform any dirty work for interest; to blast the character either of the dead or the living, and to destroy life as well as reputation. Mallet was 'first assassin' in the tragedy of Admiral Byng's murder."
In a copy of Gascoigne's Works, sold in Heber's sale, was the following MS. note by George Steevens:—