In September, 1806, Lambert returned to Leicester, but repeated his
visit in the following year, and fixed his abode in Leicester Square.
Here, for the first time, he felt inconvenienced by the atmosphere
of the metropolis; accordingly, by the advice of Dr. Heaviside, his
physician, Lambert returned to his native place. He then made a tour
through the principal cities and towns of England, and proved as
attractive in the provinces as he had formerly been in the metropolis.
He now enjoyed excellent health, and felt perfectly at ease, either
while sitting up or lying in bed. His diet was plain, and the
quantity moderate. For many years he never drank anything stronger
than water. He slept well, but scarcely so much as other persons, and
his respiration was as free as any moderately-sized individual. His
countenance was manly and intelligent; he possessed great information,
much ready politeness, and conversed with ease and facility. He had a
powerful and melodious tenor voice, and his articulation was perfectly
clear and unembarrassed.
Lambert had, however, for some time shown dropsical symptoms. In June
1809, he was weighed at Huntingdon, and by the Caledonian balance was
found to be 52 stone 11 lb. (14 lb. to the stone), 10st. 4lb. heavier
than Bright, the miller of Malden. His measure round the body was three
yards four inches, and one yard one inch round the leg.
A few days after this measurement, on June 20th, he arrived from
Huntingdon, at the Wagon and Horses Inn, St. Martin's, Stamford, where
preparations were made to receive company the next day, and during
Stamford races. He was announced for exhibition; he gave his orders
cheerfully, without any presentiment that they were to be his last:
he was then in bed, only fatigued from his journey, but anxious to be
able to see company early in the morning. Before nine o'clock however,
the day following, he was a corpse! He died in his apartment on the
ground-floor of the inn, for he had long been incapable of walking
up-stairs.
His interment was an arduous labour. His coffin measured six feet
four inches long, four feet four inches wide, and two feet four inches
deep, and contained one hundred and twelve superficial feet of elm. It
was built upon two axletrees and four wheels; the room-door and wall
of the room in which he lay were taken down to allow of his exit, and
thus his remains were drawn to the place of interment at St. Martin's,
Stamford. His grave was dug with a gradual slope for several yards; and
upwards of twenty men were employed for nearly half-an-hour in getting
the massive corpse into its resting-place: the immense substance of the
legs made the coffin, of necessity, at most a square case. The funeral
was attended by thousands of persons from Stamford and the country many
miles round.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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