The Court of Cacus; Or, The Story of Burke and HareLeighton, Alexander
History
The Court of Cacus; Or, The Story of Burke and Hare
Leighton, Alexander
Body snatching; Burke, William, 1792-1829; Hare, William, 1792?-1870?
[18] "After this exhibition," says an eye-witness, "Burke was cut up and
put in pickle for the lecture-table. He was cut up in quarters, or rather
portions, and salted, and, with a strange aptness of poetical justice, put
into barrels. At that time an early acquaintance and school-fellow was
assistant to the professor, and with him I frequently visited the
dissecting-room, when calling on him at his apartments at the College. He
is now a physician in the Carse of Gowrie. He shewed me Burke's remains,
and gave me the skin of his _neck_ and of the right arm. These I had
_tanned_--the neck brown, and the arm white. The white was as pure as
white kid, but as thick as white sheepskin; and the brown was like brown
tanned sheepskin. It was curious that the mark of the rope remained on the
leather after being tanned. Of that neck-leather I had a tobacco-doss
made; and on the white leather of the right arm I got Johnston to print
the portraits of Burke and his wife, and Hare, which I gave to the noted
antiquarian and collector of curiosities, Mr Fraser, jeweller, and it was
in one of his cases for many years--may be still, if he is alive."
[19] The portraits of Burke and M'Dougal were got by the artist's having
been introduced into the judges' private room, behind the bench. To
complete the group, Mr Johnston, the engraver, managed through the
governor to get an artist into the passage between the airing-grounds,
when Hare was taking his walk. Hare saw the party sketching, came right up
to the iron grating, and stood like a soldier at attention, until the
sketch was completed. He then said, "Now, sir, peetch me a shilling for
that."
[20] For much of what follows of Hare's flight we are indebted to the
pencil-pen of Mr M'Diarmid of the _Dumfries Courier_.
[21] We might, perhaps, say, except till now. Not long ago, we were told
by a lady, who was in Paris about the year 1859, that, having occasion for
a nurse, she employed a woman, apparently between sixty and seventy years
of age. She gave her name as Mrs Hare, and upon being questioned whether
she had been ever in Scotland, she denied it, stating that she came from
Ireland. Yet she often sung Scotch songs; and what brings out the
suspicion that she was the real Mrs Hare the more is, that she had a
daughter, whose age, over thirty, agrees perfectly with that of the infant
she had in her arms when in court. In addition to all this, the woman's
face was just that of the picture published at the time.
[22] After Burke's execution, M'Dougal is said to have made a wonderful
revelation. One night, when the two men were deep in an orgy, Burke put
the question, "What they would do when they could get no more bodies?" to
which Hare answered, "That they could never be absolutely at a loss while
their two wives remained, but that would only be when they were hard up."
The conversation had been overheard by one of the women.
POPULAR WORKS BY ALEXANDER LEIGHTON,
AUTHOR OF "THE COURT OF CACUS," &C.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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