630 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



kept his bed but three days previ- 

 ous to his dissolution. As a scho- 

 lar, a prelate, and a statesman, his 

 grace stood pre-eminently high. 

 He was in his 73rd year, and is suc- 

 ceeded in his titles by his eldest son, 

 Viscount Somerton, now Earl of 

 Normanton. 



At Scottlethorpe, Mr. Samuel 

 Clay, who for 30 years was cele- 

 brated throughout that neighbour- 

 hood as a conjuror, and practised 

 his art with great success. If any 

 thing could excuse the credulity of 

 those whom he deceived, his supe- 

 rior cunning, and the very extraor- 

 dinary and impressive figure of the 

 man, might perhaps be pleaded. 

 He was born at Scottlethorpe, and 

 was a short time apprenticed to a 

 baker there ; but having had a little 

 education, he disdained that pur- 

 suit, and led an idle half-studious 

 life in his father's cottage, on the 

 Grimsthorpe domain ; to which 

 cottage, on the death of his father, 

 he succeeded. By that time the re- 

 cluse life of the man had occasion- 

 ed some conversation, and he was 

 regarded with a degree of terror 

 by the children of the neighbour- 

 ing villages. He stood six feet in 

 height, was remarkably erect and 

 thin, with •' eyes severe and coat 

 of formal cut, full of wise saws he 

 was and modern instances ;'' and 

 his loins were usually girt with a 

 belt, his waistcoat was of goat or 

 dog-skin, and ever at the " witch- 

 ing time o' night" he prowled 

 abroad ! In a little while his fame 

 became very general, and silly peo- 

 ple from considerable distances re- 

 sorted to his habitition, to have 

 their difficulties dispelled, and take 

 the benefit of his occult studies : al- 

 most innumerable are the instances 

 adduced in which this cunning man 



hit upon expedients to relieve and 

 satisfy his ignorant votaries. Being 

 consulted by a man who had lost 

 some traps for catching vermin in 

 the purlieus of Grimsthorpe Parke, 

 the astrologer told him he would, 

 by the second sun-rise, discover the 

 person who had stolen them ! He 

 employed the interval in making 

 inquiries; and having suspicion of 

 the offender, he went to a field in 

 which the man was at work, and, 

 accosting him with all the confi- 

 dence and severity necessary for his 



purpose, " You stole 's trap," 



said he. The appalled offender, 

 smitten with his guilt, and with the 

 impossibility of deceiving his accu- 

 ser, confessed the fact, and told 

 where he had secreted the stolen ar- 

 ticles. " I charge you," concluded 

 the conjuror, " move them not from 

 the spot in which they lie, nor speak 

 of the confession you have made to 

 me, on pain of the most terrible 

 torments my skill is able to inflict." 

 The man who had sustained the loss, 

 called again at the time appointed, 

 and, by the direction of Sam. Clay, 

 to a particular part of the offender's 

 cottage, recovered his property. Of 

 course the amazing skill of the con- 

 juror was trumpeted in all quarters. 

 A few years ago, however, having, 

 we suppose, misplaced one of his 

 spells, he was reduced to the dire 

 necessity of declaring, by advertise- 

 ment, that HE WAS NO CONJUROR ! 



and of begging pardon of an inno- 

 cent person whom he had charged 

 with theft ! This circumstance had 

 but a slight and temporary effect 

 upon his reputation, and he died in 

 full credit as a magician, in the 50th 

 year of his age. 



At Stamford, Mr. Daniel Lam- 

 bert, whose extraordinary dimen- 

 sions have for some years rendered 



him 



