Ancient, Curious, and Famous WillsHarris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
History
Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills
Harris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
Wills
“Item, To my Daughter Elizabeth,
My Receipt for preserving dead Caterpillars,
As also my preparations of Winter May-Dew, and Embrio Pickle.
“Item, To my little Daughter Fanny,
Three Crocodiles’ Eggs.
And upon the Birth of her first Child, if she marries with her
Mother’s Consent,
The Nest of a Humming-Bird.
“Item, To my eldest Brother, as an Acknowledgment for the
Lands he has vested in my Son Charles, I bequeath
My last Year’s Collection of Grasshoppers.
“Item, To his Daughter, Susanna, being his only Child,
I bequeath my English Weeds pasted on Royal Paper,
With my large Folio of Indian Cabbage.
* * * * *
“Having fully provided for my Nephew Isaac, by making over to him some
years since
A Horned Scarabæus,
The Skin of a Rattle-Snake, and
The Mummy of an Egyptian King,
I make no further Provision for him in this my Will.
“My eldest son John having spoken disrespectfully of his little sister,
whom I keep by me in Spirits of Wine, and in many other instances
behaved himself undutifully towards me, I do disinherit, and wholly cut
off from any Part of this my Personal Estate, by giving him a single
Cockle-Shell.
“To my Second Son Charles, I give and bequeath all my Flowers, Plants,
Minerals, Mosses, Shells, Pebbles, Fossils, Beetles, Butterflies,
Caterpillars, Grasshoppers, and Vermin, not above specified: As also all
my Monsters, both wet and dry, making the said Charles whole and sole
Executor of this my Last Will and Testament, he paying or causing to be
paid the aforesaid Legacies within the space of Six Months after my
Decease. And I do hereby revoke all other Wills whatsoever by me
formerly made.”
EUSTACE BUDGELL
Pope was an excellent satirist; he writes:
“Let Budgell charge lone Grub Street on my quill,
And write whate’er he please,--except my will.”
Eustace Budgell was born at St. Thomas near Exeter, England, in 1685,
and died in 1737. He was an essayist and miscellaneous writer, and a
friend and kinsman of Joseph Addison, who was for a time Secretary of
State for Ireland: he accompanied Addison to Ireland as Clerk, and later
became under Secretary of State: he was, however, forced to resign his
post, and returned to England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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