A person advertised to be engaged as _a hermit_, in the _Courier_,
January 11th, 1810: "A young man, who wishes to retire from the world
and live as a hermit, in some convenient spot in England, is willing
to engage with any nobleman or gentleman who may be desirous of having
one. Any letter directed to S. Lawrence (post paid), to be left at Mr.
Otton's, No. 6, Coleman's Lane, Plymouth, mentioning what gratuity will
be given, and all other particulars, will be duly attended."
In 1840, there died in the neighbourhood of Farnham, in Surrey, a
recluse or hermit, who had been originally a wealthy brewer, but
becoming bankrupt, wandered about the country, and having spent at an
inn what little money he had, took up his abode in the cavern popularly
known as "Mother Ludlam's Hole," in Moor Park. The "poor man" did not
long avail himself of this ready-made excavation, but chose his resting
place just above, in the sandstone rock, upon a spot where a fox had
been run to ground and dug out not long since. The hermit occasionally
walked out, but was little noticed, although, from the bareness of
the trees, his retreat was seen from a distance. He soon excavated
for himself twenty-five feet in the sandstone, and about five feet in
height, with a shaft to the summit of the hill, for the admission of
light and air. Here, in unbroken solitude, with fewer luxuries than
Parnell's hermit--
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well--
our Surrey hermit subsisted almost entirely upon _ferns_, which abound
in this neighbourhood. On January 11th, 1840, he was seen by two
labourers, who described him as not having "two pounds of flesh on
all his bones." He was carried to the nearest cottage, placed in a
warm bath, next wrapped in blankets, and conveyed to the poor-house of
Farnham, where he soon died; his last words being, "Do take me to the
cave again."
A few miles from Stevenage, and not more than thirty from the
metropolis, there was living, not many years since, in strange
seclusion, a man of high intellectual powers, in the prime of manhood,
and possessing ample means, yet wasting his days in eremitic misery. A
Correspondent of the _Wolverhampton Chronicle_ was invited to see this
extraordinary character, and here is the result of his visit:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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