PREFACE..

admiration of the wisest and oldest.

We are surrounded with wonders; witness the eye, the ear, the mind, the power of motion, light, darkness, colours, heat, cold, the earth and planets, the elements; the history of that wonder of wonders man, his capacities, his avarice, his ambition, his mortality, his immortality, &c. together with all animate and inanimate creation, from the elephant to the mite, from the lofty mountain to the mole hill, from the sturdy oak and towering pine to the tender starting blade; 'all, all is wonder all around.' Nature frequently steps aside, for purposes best known to her Allwise controler, and produces still other wonders at which we are particularly surprised, and which reasonably excite the curiosity and inquiry of both learned and unlearned. The subject of the present memoir is one of these; and the publisher is induced to believe it will be acceptable to his varied class of readers.

THE

LIFE

OF

Daniel Lambert.

DANIEL LAMBERT was born on the 13th of March, 1770, in the Parish of St. Margaret, at Leicester. From the extraordinary bulk to which he attained, the reader may be naturally disposed to inquire, whether or no his parents were persons of remarkable dimensions. This was not the case; nor were any of his family inclined to corpulence, excepting an uncle and aunt on the father's side, who were both very heavy. The former died during the infancy of Lambert, in

the capacity of gamekeeper to the Earl of Stamford, to whose predecessor his father had been huntsman in early life. The family of Lambert, senior, consisted besides Daniel, of another son, who died young, and two daughters, who are still living, and both women of the common size.

The habits of the subject of this memoir were not, in any repect, different from those of other young persons till the age of fourteen. Even at that early period he was strongly attached to the sports of the field. This, however, was only the natural effect of a very obvious cause, aided probably by an innate propensity to those diversions.We have already mentioned the profession of his father and uncle, and have yet to observe, that his maternal grandfather was a great cock-fighter. Born and bred among horses, dogs, and cocks, and all the other appendages of sporting, in the pursuits of which he was encouraged even in his childhood, it cannot be a matter of wonder that he should be passionately fond of all those exercises and amusements, which are com

prehended under the denomination of field sports.

Brought up under the eye of his parents till the age of fourteen, young Lambert was then placed with Benjamin Patrick, in the manufactory of Taylor & Co. at Birmingham, to learn the business of a die-sinker and engraver. This establishment, then one of the most flourishing in that opulent town, was afterwards destroyed in the riots of 1791, by which the celebrated Dr. Priestly was so considerable a sufferer.

Owing to the fluctuations to which all those manufactures that administer to the luxuries of the community are liable, from the caprices of fashion, the wares connected with the profession which had been chosen for young Lambert ceased to be in request. Buckles were all at once proscribed, and a total revolution took place at the same period in the public taste with respect to buttons; the consequence was, that a numerous class of artisans were thrown out of employment, and obliged to seek a subsistence in a differeut occupation. Among these was

Lambert, who had then served only four years of his apprenticeship.

Leaving Birmingham, he returned to Leicester to his father, who held the situation of keeper of the prison of that town. Soon afterwards, at the age of nineteen, he began to imagine that he should be a heavy man, but had not previously any indications that could lead him to suppose he should attain the excessive corpulence for which he was afterwards distinguished. He always possessed extraordinary muscular power, and at the time we are speaking of could lift great weights, and carry five hundred pounds with ease. Had his habits been such as to bring his strength into action, he would donbtless have been an uncommonly powerful man.

That he was not deficient in physical strength or courage, is demonstrated by the following adventure, in which he was about this period engaged :

Standing one day in his father's house at Leicester, his attention was attracted by a company of Savoyards with their dancing