Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 45314-h.htm or 45314-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45314/45314-h/45314-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45314/45314-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/portraitsofcurio00londiala Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). PORTRAITS OF CURIOUS CHARACTERS IN LONDON, &c. &c. With Descriptive and Entertaining Anecdotes. "There's none but has some fault; and he's the best, Most perfect he, who's spotted with the least." London: Printed by and for W. Darton, Jun. 58, Holborn-Hill. 1814. Contents Nathaniel Bentley, Esq. Ann Siggs Martin Van Butchell John Statham Anne Longman John and Robert Green Tom and His Pigeons Roger Smith George Romondo Toby Memoirs of the Famous Sir John Dinely, Baronet Particulars Concerning the Polite Grocers of the Strand Ann Johnson Samuel Horsey Miss Theodora De Verdion Daniel Lambert The Death of Mr. Lambert! Mary Jones A Well-Known Carver The Life of John Elwes, Esq. The Flying Pye-Man Thomas Laugher The Life of Daniel Dancer, Esq. [Illustration] NATHANIEL BENTLEY, Esq. _Known by the Name of Dirty Dick_, Late a Hardware Merchant, in Leadenhall-street. Mr. Bentley resided at the corner of the avenue leading to the house formerly the Old Crown Tavern, Leadenhall-street, not far from the East-India House. The house and character of this eccentric individual are so well described in a poem published in the European Magazine, for January 1801, that we shall transcribe it: "Who but has seen (if he can see at all) 'Twixt Aldgate's well-known pump and Leadenhall, A curious hard-ware shop, in general full Of wares, from Birmingham and Pontipool? Begrim'd with dirt, behold its ample front, With thirty years collected filth upon't. See festoon'd cobwebs pendent o'er the door, While boxes, bales, and trunks, are strew'd around the floor. "Behold how whistling winds and driving rain Gain free admission at each broken pain, Save where the dingy tenant keeps them out With urn or tray, knife-case, or dirty clout! Here snuffers, waiters, patent screws for corks; There castors, card-racks, cheese-trays, knives and forks: Here empty cases pil'd in heaps on high; There pack-thread, papers, rope, in wild disorder lie.