j68 APPENDIX. Chap. III. 



I will give Mr Burgefs's account of Peter in liis own words, as I 

 cannot give it in better. After acknowledging, in the mod polite 

 terms, the obligation which, he is pieafed to fay, he has to me, for 

 givin'>- him an opportunity of feeing fo great a natural curiofity, he 

 tells me that he had been twice at Berkhempftead, to fee Peter, 

 within a mile of v^^hich he lives in a farm-houfe called Broadway, 

 and that he had got his information from the farmer with whom he 

 Jives — from the mailer of the Inn at Berkhempftead— from the peo- 

 ple at the Ttvo Waters^ a fmall village, within about two miles of 

 Berkhempllead — and from an old gentleman in Hemftead, a greater 

 village, within about three miles of Berkhempftead ; Then he pro- 

 ceeds thus : , 



" Peter the Wild Boy lives at a farmer Brill's, at a place, or ra- 

 ther a farm, called Broadway, about a mile from Berkhemftead, 

 where he has lived about thirteen years. The farmer faid he was 

 eighty-four years old. He has a fair clear countenance, and a 

 quick eye. He is about five feet fix inches high ; and is ftill very 

 robuft and mufcular. In his youth he was very remarkable for his 

 ftrength. He is faid to have fometimes run feventy or eighty miles 

 a- day. His ftrength always appeared fo much fuperior, that the 

 ftrongeft young men were afraid to contend with him : And this 

 ftrength continued almaft unimpaired till about a year and a half a- 

 co, when he was fuddenly taken ill, fell down before the fire, and 

 for a time loft the ufe of his right fide ;'fi nee which, it has been vi- 

 fibly lefs than before. The farmer told me that his portrait has been 

 lately feveral times taken. A print of him v^rould be a great curi- 

 ofity, and an ornament to your book. 



** 1 could get no intelligence of the old woman whom you men*- 

 tioned ; but 1 met with an old gentleman, a furgeon, at Hempftead, 

 who remembers to have feen Peter in London, between the years 



1724 



