At the Wagon and Horses Inn were preserved two suits of Lambert's
clothes: seven ordinarily-sized men were repeatedly enclosed within his
waistcoat, without breaking a stitch or straining a button; each suit
of clothes cost 20_l._ His name was remembered for a time as a tavern
sign: one on the north side of Ludgate Street remained till within a
few years.
The great weight of Edward Bright, the miller of Malden, has been
incidentally mentioned. He died on November 10th, 1750, at the age of
30. He was an active man till within a year or two of his death; when
his corpulency so overpowered his strength, that his life was a burthen
to him; yet, as we have seen, he was ten stone four pounds lighter than
Lambert. Mr. Wadd says it is supposed that Bright's weight at his death
was forty-four stone, or 616 pounds.
Horace Walpole relates the following story of Bright's weight backed
against that of the Duke of Cumberland:--"There has been a droll cause
in Westminster Hall: a man laid another a wager that he produced a
person who should weigh as much again as the Duke. When they had
betted, they recollected not knowing how to desire the Duke to step
into the scale. They agreed to establish his weight at twenty stone,
which, however, is supposed to be two more than he weighs. One
Bright was then produced, who is since dead, and who actually weighed
forty-two stone and a half. As soon as he was dead, the person who had
lost objected that he had been weighed in his clothes, and though it
was impossible to suppose that his clothes could weigh above two stone,
they went to law. There were the Duke's twenty stone bawled over a
thousand times,--but the righteous law decided against the man who had
won!"
Bright, when twelve years old, weighed one hundred and forty-four
pounds; and there was another boy in Malden at the same time, fourteen
years of age, who weighed as much.
There was, however, an Essex man, who not only attained a great weight,
but lived to a great age, which is remarkable among persons of this
class. This was James Mansfield, a butcher, who died at the village of
Debden, on November 9th, 1862, in his 82nd year. Though not above the
ordinary height, he measured nine feet round and weighed thirty-three
stone. When sitting in his chair, made especially for his use, his
abdomen covered his knees and hung down almost to the ground. When he
lay down, it was necessary to pack his head to prevent suffocation: he
could only lie upon one side. He was exhibited, in 1851, in Leicester
Square, as "the greatest man in the world." In a suit of his clothes
four ordinarily-sized men might be comfortably buttoned up. Mansfield,
just before his death, was a hale old man, of good constitution, and a
sanguine and happy temperament.
Corpulency naturally subjects its bearers to some of
"The thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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