2»* 8. No 40., Oct. 4. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



273 



The essay was originally written as an academi- 

 cal exercise at Cambridge in 16G4-5, but was not 

 printed until 1670, and then only on the advice 

 of Dr. Seth Ward, Bishop of Exeter, and Dr. 

 Wilkiris, Bishop of Chester. The first edition, 

 now somewhat rare, created much sensation. It 

 was answered by Sir George Ent, M.D., then the 

 leading physician in London, who had already for 

 some years occupied the presidential chair of the 

 College of Physicians, had been the intimate friend 

 of the immortal Harvey, and the editor of one of 

 his works. A second edition of Dr. Thrnston's 

 work was published at Leyden in 1679. It was 

 again reprinted in 1685 in the Bibliotheca Anato- 

 mica of Le Clerc and Mangetus. 



W. MuNK, M.D. 

 Finsbury Place. 



EICHABD DICKINSON OF SCARBOROUGH SPA. 



(2"'i S. ii. 189.) 



History does not inform us on what day, or in 

 what year, the celebrated Richard Dickinson, 

 better known as Dicky Dickinson, first saw the 

 light. He was one of those beings whom Nature, 

 in her sportive moods, formed and sent into the 

 world to prove the great variety in her works ; 

 and although he had every limb and member in 

 common with other men, yet they were so 

 strangely contrived and put together as to render 

 him the universal object of admiration and laugh- 

 ter. " There is," observes Swift, " naturally in 

 the English character a tendency to humour." 

 Dicky Dickinson possessed this faculty in a very 

 eminent degree, and this, joined with the singu- 

 larity of his figure, contributed to bring him into 

 great notice among the gentry and others who 

 visited Scarborough Spa, where he resided, and 

 followed the double occupation of shoe-cleaner 

 and vender of gingerbread. In 1732 he appears 

 to have rented the Spa of the Corporation of 

 Scarborough, which before that time was merely 

 a cistern for collecting the mineral water. He 

 had then saved enough money to build a house, 

 and to erect a suite of houses of office. He then 

 brought home a mistress, to whose care and at- 

 tention he consigned the charge of the ladies 

 whom the waters of the Spa compelled to visit 

 for conveniency, while he, with the most polite 

 attention, attended the like calls of the gentlemen. 



It is said that Dicky was never at a loss for an 

 answer to any joke that might be levelled against 

 him ; and, with a quaintness of manner peculiarly 

 his own, was ever certain of raising the laugh at 

 the expense of his antagonists. It is a curious 

 fact, that on August 28 and 29, 1738, the Spa at 

 Scarborough was utterly destroyed by an earth- 

 quake ; the earth behind Dicky's house sunk, and 

 forced up the sand and soil around (for the space 



of 100 yards) to the height of eighteen feet or 

 more above its level, and some years elapsed be- 

 fore the mineral spring .was again discovered. It 

 seems that Dicky Dickinson did not long survive 

 this catastrophe, as he departed this life at Scar- 

 borough, on Sunday, February 12, 1738-9. 



There is a mezzotinto of Dickinson, copied from 

 Vertue's print*, having the figure of a monkey on 

 one side, and that of a fox on the other (symbolic 

 I suppose of the man and his cunning) with the 

 following lines underneath : 



" Behold the Governor of Scarborough Spaw, 

 The uglyest Fizz and Form you ever saw ; 

 Yet when j-ou view the Beauty of his Mind, 

 In him a second -lEsop you ma}' find. 

 Samos unenvied boasts her iEsop gone, 

 And France may glory in her late Scarron, 

 While England has a living Dickinson." 



To a whole-length etching of Dickinson, drawn 

 from his very person by a gentleman who had the 

 advantage of a twelvemonth's observation of his 

 most natural posture and countenance, is given 

 the following title : 



"The exact Effigies of Dicky Dickinson, commonly 

 called King Dicky, Governor of the Privy Houses of 

 Scarborough Spaw, whose ingenuity, industry, and ex- 

 pense in contriving and building Conveniences for Gent" 

 and Lady's is worthy Notice, and no small advantage to 

 Scarborow." 



His person is described in the following way, 

 under the etching : 



" Thus, he wallis as upright as he can, 

 Judge if Nature designed him a Man, 



If you'd prove him a Man, from his talent in Wh g, 



He has done no more than all Monkj's before him : 

 Whether Monkey or Man, 'twas that Nature design'd, 

 Pray guess from his Figure, and not from his Mind." 



Under another etching, representing Dickinson 

 in a sitting posture, are the following verses : 



" King Dicky thus seated, his subjects to greet. 

 With scurvy jokes treats them, and fancies they're 



Wit; 

 Then laughs 'til the Rheum runs down from both' 



eyes, 

 To his grizzled beard, which the drivle supplies. 

 And, like to Old Sydrophel, fain would seem wise.' 



In the Scarborough Miscellany for 1734 is the 

 following poem : 



" On the Scarborough Waters. 



" These cure disease of every kind — 

 Of fanc}', body, or of Mind — 

 Infallible, in every Evil — 

 As Ilolj'-water drives the Devil. 

 To Scarborough haste from various regions, 

 And pay to ' Dicky ' due allegiance ; 

 To view so oddly form'd a Creature, 

 To note his Limbs, and every feature, 



1 both "J 

 nse." J 



* There is a portrait of Dickinson engraved by Ver- 

 tue, after a painting by H. Hysing, dated 1725, to which 

 are appended some curious verses. 



