The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. The illustration isof Squire Mytton on his bear. (Page 48)
ENGLISH ECCENTRICS.
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
The Earl of Bridgewater and his dogs.
PREFACE.
GENTLE READER, a few words before weintroduce you to our Eccentrics. Theymay be odd company: yet how often do we findeccentricity in the minds of persons of good understanding.Their sayings and doings, it is true, maynot rank as high among the delicacies of intellectualepicures as the Strasburg pies among the dishesdescribed in the Almanach des Gourmands; but theypossess attractions in proportion to the degree inwhich "man favours wonders." Swift has remarked,that "a little grain of the romance is no ill ingredientto preserve and exalt the dignity of human nature,without which it is apt to degenerate into everythingthat is sordid, vicious, and low." Into the latter extremesEccentricity is occasionally apt to run, somewhatlike certain fermenting liquors which cannot bechecked in their acidifying courses.
Into such headlong excesses our Eccentrics rarelystray; and one of our objects in sketching their ways,is to show that with oddity of character may co-existmuch goodness of heart; and your strange fellow,though, according to the lexicographer, he be outlandish,odd, queer, and eccentric, may possess claims[vi]to our notice which the man who is ever studying thefitness of things would not so readily present.
Many books of character have been publishedwhich have recorded the acts, sayings, and fortunesof Eccentrics. The instances in the present Workare, for the most part, drawn from our own time, soas to present points of novelty which could not soreasonably be expected in portraits of older date.They are motley-minded and grotesque in manyinstances; and from their rare accidents may begathered many a lesson of thrift, as well as many ascene of humour to laugh at; while some realize thewell-remembered couplet or the near alliance of witsto madness.
A glance at the Table of Contents and the Indexto this volume will, it is hoped, convey a fair idea ofthe number and variety of characters and incidents tobe found in this gallery of English Eccentrics.
It should be added, that in the preparation ofthis Work, the Author has availed