?6 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



Clopton, esq. Aboutniueo'clockin 

 themominglierungthebell; on the 

 entrance of the servant he was walk- 

 ing up and down the roora, appa- 

 rently in a disordered state of mind. 

 Suddenly turning round, he said, 

 " Why do you look at me so earn- 

 estly? What do you do here ?" The 

 man said, he attended his commands. 

 Mr. B. always drank cold tea for 

 breakfast, which the servant neglect- 

 ed to make over night, and apolo- 

 gized. Mr. B. said, " It is of no 

 consequence ; I shall drink no more 

 this year." About two, he ordered 

 his horse to be got readv to ride in 

 the park ; his valet put on one of 

 his boots ; he did not like them, and 

 said, " You may have those boots, 

 I shall not wear them any more." 

 When in the park, he was observed 

 to gallop furiously, which he was 

 never accustomed to do, but, on the 

 contrary, always rode a canter; and 

 in returninghome kept up the same 

 pace over the stones. At the corner 

 of Clarges-street, in Curzon-street, 

 he got off, delivered the horse to 

 the groom, and walked home ; it 

 was then half past five. Entering 

 the parlour, he desired his valet to 

 attend to the serving up of dinner 

 at six : a few minutes after, he went 

 into a back room, placed his right 

 foot on the bed, and a horse-pistol 

 in his mouth ; the explosion blew 

 oiFthe upper jaw, and the back part 

 of the head : the ball went through 

 the chimney-glass, and lodged in the 

 wainscot. Instantaneous death en- 

 sued, and he fell with one foot on 

 the bed, the other under it. The 

 servants in the kitchen heard a noise, 

 which they conceived to be their 

 master uncorking a bottle of spruce- 

 beer ; and, had it not been for the 

 breaking of the glass, they would 

 not have attended immediateljr to 



the alarm. It was proved before 

 the coroner's jury, that he had been 

 for some months in a state of melan- 

 choly derangement ; they therefore 

 returned a verdict of lunacy. He 

 was a very respectable gentleman, 

 and during his lifetime in the habits 

 of intimacy with the first noblemen 

 in this country. The late duke of 

 Rutland, earlsofCarlisle and Derby, 

 and Mr. Fox, were among the num- 

 ber of his particular friends and ac- 

 quaintances. He was a great fre- 

 quenter of the subscription-houses, 

 and, from his eccentricity in dress, 

 was styled by his friends, prince 

 Boothby, on coming to his estate at 

 SwaS"ham, in Norfolk. Mr. B. was 

 the person supposed to be alluded to 

 by Mr. Foote in one of his farces, 

 as distinguished by his partiality to 

 people of rank, and inclined to leave 

 one acquaintance to walk with ano- 

 ther of superior dignity. Hence 

 arose the denomination of prince 

 Boothby. His chief peculiarity in 

 dress was in the form of his hat, 

 which was uniformly of the same 

 shape for the last twenty years, 

 though he mixed with the most 

 fashionable circles, and was con- 

 stantly ridiculed by his friends for 

 this whimsical propensity. He was 

 brother to the wife of the celebrated 

 fox-hunter, Mr. HugoMeynel; had 

 been jjossessed of three lai'ge estates ; 

 the first his own inheritance ; the 

 second from a distant familyalliance : 

 and the third, from Mrs. Clopton 

 Parthericke, whose name he latterly 

 assumed. The value of the last pro- 

 perty is said to be nearly 7000/. a 

 year. 



AUGUST. 



7th. A dreadful fire broke out 

 this day at Balassa, in Hungary, 



