When King William and Queen Mary died, he was a little boy: he very well remembers Queen Anne going to the House of Peers, 1705, on horseback, seated on a pillion, behind the Lord Chancellor. He says he was formerly a wholesale wine and brandy merchant in Tower-street, and that he lost, by the failure of the house of Neele, Fordyce and James, Bartholomew-lane, the sum of £198,000; and that the sudden loss of his property took such an effect upon him, that it struck him blind, and speechless, and caused quantities of skin to come from off his body. He was educated at Christ's College, Oxford; and, after a residence of eleven years and a half at that place, he took a tour on the continent of Europe, and visited many parts of Turkey, in which he resided upwards of seven years. He never drank strong beer, small beer, wine, or spirits, until he was above 53 years of age. His principal sustenance was tea, coffee, bread and spring water. He never ate any animal food whatever, nor butter, nor cheese. He recollects the quartern loaf at 2-1/4d., primest meat at 1d. per pound, and the best fresh butter at 2-1/4d. per pound. His grandmother died 141 years old, and she lived upon dry bread and cold pump water. This astonishing man, whose looks are truly venerable, is, to all appearance, strong and hearty, and seems likely to live many more years; and, for a man of his great age, can walk about extremely well. He rises mostly at 4 o'clock in the morning, takes a long walk before breakfast, and eats and drinks very sparingly, though he now lives upon animal food and beer, and but rarely, if ever, drinks any spirits, except for their proper use. [Since the foregoing account was written, he has departed this life, in the year 1812.] [Illustration] THE LIFE OF DANIEL DANCER, ESQ. Content is wealth, the riches of the mind, And happy he who can that treasure find; But the base miser starves amidst his store, Broods o'er his gold; and, griping still for more, Sits sadly pining, and believes he's poor. DRYDEN. It is presumed by philosophers, that the most important study for the improvement of mankind is MAN; and this knowledge cannot be more profitably acquired, than in perusing those true examples of human life, recorded in the vicissitudes and incidents which biography presents impartially to the mind, with the direction of truth for their application to the purposes of our own lives and actions, for imitation or abhorrence.