This eccentric baronet, of the family of the Dinelys, of Charlton,
descended by the female line from the Royal House of Plantagenet,
having dissipated the wreck of the family estates, obtained the
pension and situation of a poor knight of Windsor. His chief
occupation consisted in advertising for a wife, and nearly thirty
years were passed in assignations to meet the fair respondents to his
advertisements. His figure was truly grotesque: in wet weather he was
mounted on a high pair of pattens; he wore the coat of the Windsor
uniform, with a velvet embroidered waistcoat, satin breeches, silk
stockings, and a full-bottomed wig. In this finery he might be seen
strolling one day; and next out marketing, carrying a penny loaf, a
morsel of butter, a quartern of sugar, and a farthing candle. Twice
or thrice a year he came to London, and visited Vauxhall Gardens
and the theatres. His fortune, if he could recover it, he estimated
at 300,000_l._ He invited the widow as well as the blooming maiden
of sixteen, and addressed them in printed documents, bearing his
signature, in which he specified the sum the ladies must possess; he
expected less property with youth than age or widowhood; adding that
few ladies would be eligible that did not possess at least 10,000_l._ a
year, which, however, was nothing compared to the honour his high birth
and noble descent would confer; the incredulous he referred to Nash's
_Worcestershire_. He addressed his advertisements to "the angelic fair"
from his house in Windsor Castle (one of the poor knight's houses). He
cherished to the last the expectation of forming a connubial connection
with some lady of property, but, alas! he died a bachelor in 1808.[12]
[12] We know an instance of an old Baronet advertising twenty years for
a wife; at last he succeeded in marrying an out-and-out Xantippe.
[Illustration: A well-known character on 'Change. Rothschild.]
The Rothschilds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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