Eccentric Characters.
We propose to give to our readers a few chapters upon eccentric characters. We cannot better begin than with the
DessessauCHEVALIER DESSESSAU.
CHEVALIER DESSESSAU.
Amongthe singular personages who have occasionally attracted public noticein London, the individual just mentioned is not the least remarkable. He was a native of Prussia, and bore a military commission in the service of that country; but a quarrel with a brother officer resulted in a duel, in which he wounded his antagonist. Uncertain of the result, he sought refuge in England, and conceiving a partiality for the country, he resolved to pass the remainder of his days there.
The singularity of his dress and character soon drew the attention of the curious. He affected literature, and wrote poetry, which he used to recite to his friends. Of this, we have only been able to discover the following couplet, which evinces no small stock of that comfortable commodity, self-complacency.
“In all the world but heroes two I know,Prussia’s famed king, and Chevalier Dessessau.”
“In all the world but heroes two I know,Prussia’s famed king, and Chevalier Dessessau.”
“In all the world but heroes two I know,
Prussia’s famed king, and Chevalier Dessessau.”
He was well acquainted with Burke, Johnson, Murphy, Goldsmith, and most of their contemporaries, eminent for genius and talent in the walks of literature and the drama. These persons seemed to find great amusement in the quaint humors and amiable eccentricity of this singular personage. The preceding sketch gives an idea of the dress in which he appeared abroad. His clothes were black, and their fashion had all the stiff formality of those of an ancient buck. In his hand, he carried a gold-headed cane, a roll of his poetry, and a sword.
Toward the latter part of his life, the count was reduced by misfortunes to a residence within the walls of the Fleet prison. Yet such was the confidence placed in his honor, that he was permitted to go where he pleased. He died in 1775, aged seventy, having bequeathed a “curious sword, a gold medal, and a curious picture, to a great personage”—probably the king of Prussia.
John BiggJOHN BIGG, THE DINTON HERMIT.
JOHN BIGG, THE DINTON HERMIT.
Thisstrange man lived in England, about one hundred and twenty years ago. He was a person of some wealth and learning, and was clerk to Simon Mayne, one of the judges who passed sentence of death on Charles I. After CharlesII.was restored, he grew melancholy, perhaps on account of the turn public affairs had taken, and retiring to a cave in Dinton, he spent the remainder of his life there, as a hermit.
He was often visited, and lived upon charity. It is curious that he never asked for anything but leather. When a piece was given to him, he would nail it to his clothes. Thus he became, at length, thatched over with pieces of leather. He kept three bottles hung to his girdle—one for strong beer, one for small beer, and one for milk.
He was regarded as a great curiosity in his time. His shoes were preservedso late as 1712; they were enormous, consisting of near a thousand small bits of leather, each. After his death, the cave was dug over, in the expectation of finding money, or some relics of the hermit, but without success. He died in 1696.