HENRY EVANS,

BORN 1642, AND DIED 1771.

HIS person is only remarkable as an instance of longevity in the dense atmosphere of London. He was a native of Wales, and of a race distinguished even in Cambria, for attaining to a great age. At what period he came to reside in the metropolis has not been ascertained, but it is certain that he lived many years in Spital Street, Spitalfields, where he died in 1771. There have been disputes about the date of his birth, some asserting that it was in 1606, but this would have made him 165, or nearly as old as Henry Jenkins. Caulfield thinks that he has been confounded erroneously with another Henry Evans, born at Caernarvon, and who was 104 in 1710, and shows this to be inconsistent with the fact of the Spitalfields Evans, having been just seven years old when Charles I. was beheaded, which ascertains his birth to have been in 1642. He was consequently just 129 when he died. It is said that he retained all his faculties to the last.

In correcting the dates which ascertain Evans's age, Caulfield gives an instance of the improper means sometimes taken to procure parish certificates. Donald McLeod, an old sailor, travelled from Edinburgh to London, accompanied by a female of middle age, who passed for his wife, and they carried a certificate which bore that he was in his 102d year. The principal object of this was to get him into Chelsea Hospital. It turned out, however, that Donald had taken his father's certificate, he himself being only about seventy. The cheat being thus discovered, the poor old man died of vexation and disappointment. This occurred in 1792.

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HIS female is not otherwise remarkable except as having lived during the reign of eight sovereigns, from Elizabeth to Anne, and attained, like Henry Evans, a great age in the dense atmosphere of London. She was born there on the 3d of April, 1584, in the parish of St. Mary-le-bone. Her father is described as Mr. Thomas Scrimshaw, woolstapler, but he must have been in humble circumstances, at his death, as we find that the daughter, when little more than forty years of age, was under the necessity of seeking an asylum in Merchant Taylors' Almshouse, near Little Tower-hill, where she resided till the year 1711, or upwards of eighty consecutive years. In consequenee of her great age at that time, her portrait was taken, and it bears an inscription which describes her as being then in good health. She died, however, on the 25th of December the same year, a short time after she had been removed to Rosemary-lane work house. She was one hundred and twenty-seven years old, and had never been married. Her death is supposed to have been accelerated by vexation in consequence of her removal from Merchant Taylors' Alms-house to the workhouse in Rosemary-lane.

We have a more recent instance of metropolitan longevity in the person of Elizabeth Alexander, who resided in Hanway Street, Tottenham-court road. She was living there in 1810, and when upwards of 108, so perfect were her faculties, that when walking in the streets, if looked after, she would quickly turn to observe if any part of her dress was soiled or in disorder. Her walk would frequently extend to Camden Town, a distance of two miles, in order to see her friends.

DANIEL LAMBERT.

HILE this extraordinary person lived, his immense bulk and other peculiarities made him not only an object of surprise and wonder to the multitude, but of curious and interesting speculation to the man of science and the medical practitioner. It was impossible to behold his excessive corpulence, without being astonished that he was not suffocated by such an accumulation of fat; but when the spectator ascertained that his breathing was perfectly free, and his respiration not in the least obstructed, even in sleep, that astonishment was proportionably augmented. Altogether, he was considered by his contemporaries as one of the greatest wonders of his time. We shall proceed to give a few particulars of his life and character.

Daniel Lambert was born on the 13th of March, 1770, in the parish of St. Margaret, at Leicester. From the very extraordinary bulk to which Mr. Lambert attained, the reader may naturally be disposed to inquire whether his parents were persons of remarkable dimensions. This was not the case, nor were any of his family inclined to corpulence, excepting an uncle and an aunt on the father's side, who were both very heavy. The former died during the infancy of Lambert, in the capacity of gamekeeper to the Earl of Stamford, to whose predecessor his father had been huntsman in early life. The family of Mr. Lambert, senior, consisted,

besides Daniel, of another son, who died young, and two daughters, who were both women of common size.

The habits of the subject of this memoir were not in any respect differ ent from those of other young persons till the age of fourteen. Even at that early period he was strongly attached to all the sports of the field. This, however, was only the natural effect of a very obvious cause, aided probably by an innate propensity to those diversions. We have already mentioned the profession of his father and his uncle, and have yet to observe that his maternal grandfather was a great cock-fighter. Born and bred, as it were, among horses, dogs, cocks, and all the other appendages of sporting, in the pursuits of which he was encouraged, even in his childhood, it cannot be matter of wonder that he should be passionately fond of all those exercises and amusements which are comprehended under the denomination of field sports, as well as of racing, cock-fighting, and fishing.

Brought up under the eye of his parents till the age of fourteen, young Lambert was then placed with Mr. Benjamin Patrick, in the manufactory of Taylor & Co., at Birmingham, to learn the business of a die-sinker and engraver. This establishment, then one of the most flourishing in that opulent town, was afterwards destroyed in the riots of 1795, by which the celebrated Dr. Priestley was so considerable a sufferer.

Owing to the fluctuations to which all those manufactures that administer to the luxuries of the community are liable from the caprices of fashion, the wares connected with the profession which had been chosen for young Lambert, ceased to be in request. Buckles were all at once proscribed, and a total revolution took place at the same period in the public taste with respect to buttons. The consequence was, that a numerous class of artisans were thrown out of employment, and obliged to seek a subsistence in a different occupation. Among these was Lambert, who had then served only four years of his apprenticeship.

Leaving Birmingham, he returned to Leicester to his father, who held the situation of keeper of the prison in that town. Soon afterwards, at the age of nineteen, he began to imagine that he should be a heavy man, but had not previously perceived any indications that could lead him to suppose he should ever attain the excessive corpulence for which he was afterwards distinguished. He always possessed extraordinary muscular power, and at the time we are speaking of, could lift great weights, and carry five hundred weight with ease. Had his habits been such as to bring his strength into action, he would doubtless have been an uncommonly powerful man.

His father having resigned the office of keeper of the prison, Mr. Lambert succeeded to the situation. It was within a year after this appointment that his bulk received the greatest and most rapid increase. This he

attributed to the confinement and sedentary life to which he was now obliged to submit, which produced an effect so much the more striking, as from his attachment to sporting, he had previously been in the 'habit of taking a great deal of exercise. Though he never possessed any extraordinary agility, he was still able to kick to the height of seven feet, standing on one leg.

About the year 1793, when Mr. Lambert weighed thirty-two stone, he had occasion to visit Woolwich, in company with the keeper of the county jail of Leicester. As the tide did not serve to bring them up again to London, he walked from Woolwich to the metropolis with much less apparent fatigue than several middle-sized men who were of the party.

The inhabitants of Leicester are remarkable for their expertness in swimming, an art which they are encouraged to practise by their vicinity to the river Soar. From the age of eight years, Mr. Lambert was an excellent swimmer, and such was his celebrity, that all the young people in his native town who were learning to swim, resorted to him for instruction. His power of floating, owing to his uncommon bulk, was so great, that he could swim with two men of ordinary size upon his back. We have heard him relate, that on these occasions, when any of his young pupils manifested any timidity, he would convey them to the opposite bank of the river from that on which they had laid their clothes, and there leave them to find their way back as well as they could. By these means they soon acquired that courage which is so indispensably necessary to the attainment of excellence in the art of swimming.

Mr. Lambert's father died about five years after his son's appointment to be keeper of the prison, which office he held till Easter, 1805. In this situation he manifested a disposition fraught with humanity and benevolence. Whatever severity he might be under the necessity of exercising towards the unhappy obiects committed to his care during their confinement, he never forbore to make the greatest exertions to assist them at the time of their trials. Few left the prison without testifying their gratitude, and tears often bespoke the sincerity of the feelings they expressed. His removal from the office was in consequence of a wish on the part of the magistrates to employ the prisoners in the manufactures of the town. As a proof of the approbation which his conduct had merited, they settled upon him an annuity of £50 for life, without any solicitation whatever, and what was still more gratifying to his feelings, this grant was accompanied with a declaration, that it was a mark of their esteem, and of the universal satisfaction which he had given in the discharge of the duties of his office.

Mr. Lambert, notwithstanding his gross appearance, was a man of nice feelings, and it was with much difficulty that he was brought to entertain the idea of exhibiting himself. Though he lived exceedingly retired at