A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume IVMcCarthy, Justin H. (Justin Huntly)
History
A History of the Four Georges and of William IV, Volume IV
McCarthy, Justin H. (Justin Huntly)
Great Britain -- History -- 1714-1837; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1714-1837
Wapping who proclaimed himself to be Sir Roger Tichborne. The later
years of the self-created Princess Olivia were spent in poverty, and she
died within the rules of the {288} King's Bench. Even in much later
days, however, her name was not wholly forgotten.
A few lines may be spared to describe the career of a man who died not
long after the death of the Princess Olivia, and who belonged to that
class which used to be described as wonderful characters. This was a man
named James Norris, who came of a family of good position having property
near Devizes. Norris received a good education, and at one time promised
to make a name for himself as a student of natural history. He is
described as "handsome in person and elegant in manners," and we are told
that "he possessed a highly cultivated mind which seemed to promise in
early life eminence in society, and that he would rise to be an ornament
to the age in which he lived." At a comparatively early age he had
outlived all his family, and thus became the owner of large landed
property. He suddenly became a prey to strange, overmastering habits of
indolence, apathy, and shyness, which gradually estranged him from all
society. He neglected his property, allowed his rents to remain for
years and years in the hands of his steward, without troubling himself
about them, and allowed his dividends to grow up in the hands of his
bankers without concerning himself as to their amount, or even opening
any letters which might be addressed to him on the subject. He gave up
shaving and allowed his hair and board to grow as they would; he never
changed his clothing or his linen until they became worn to rags; he lay
in bed for the greater part of the day, took his principal meal about
midnight, then had a lonely ramble, and returned to bed as the morning
drew near. He was hardly ever seen by anybody but his servants, and
declined any communication even with his nearest neighbors. When an
occasion arose which actually compelled him to communicate with any one
from the outer world, he would only consent to speak with a door, or at
least a screen, between him and the other party to the conversation. All
the time he does not seem to have been engaged in any manner of study or
work, and he appears to have simply devoted himself to the full
indulgence of his {289} passion for solitude. His figure, or some sketch
suggested by it, has been made use of more than once by writers of
fiction, but the man himself was a living figure in the reign of William
the Fourth, and died not long before its close.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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