1803. ] 
ftreet loungers would be driven to wear arti- 
ficial ones. He made a promife one night 
when he was very thirfty, that as foon as he 
had accumulated a thoufand pounds, he would © 
treat Kinfelf with a pint of beer every Satur- 
day. Fortune foon put it in his power to per- 
form this promife, and he continued to obferve 
it till the additional duty was laid on porter. 
He then funk to balfa pint, as he thought 
that fufficient for any man that did not with 
to yet. drunk, and of courfe die in aswork- 
houfe.. “if-he heard of an auétion in the 
neighbotrhood, he was fure-to ran for a Ca- 
talogue, and when he had collected a number 
together, heufed to fell them for wafte paper. 
When he was firft told that the Bank was 
reftrited from paying in fpecie, he fhook 
loudly, (as Klopftock the poet fays,) tovic to 
his bed, and could not be prevailed on to tafte 
a mortel, or wet his lips, till he was affured 
that all was right. On Sundays, after din- 
ner, he uftd to lock himielf up in his room, 
and amute himfelf with reading an old 
newl{paper, or writing rhymes, many of which. 
he left behind him, on flips of paper, The 
foliowing will ferve as a fpecimen Of his 
taleats in the rhythmical line :— 
On hearing that fmall beer was raifed: 
They’ve raifed the price of table-drink, 
What is the reafon do you think? 
The tax on malt, the caufe, I hear! 
But what has malt to do with table-beer? 
He was never known, even in the depth of 
the coldeft winter, to kindlea fire in his room, 
or to go to bed by candle-light. He was a 
great friend to good cheer at the expence of 
another. Every man, faid he, ought to eat 
when be can get it.—-An empty fack can’t 
fiand. If he ventured into a public-houfe, 
he always fat in the darkef corner of the 
room, and never opened his lips, unlefs Bo. 
naparte happened to be mentioned, or a parifh 
dinner, then indeed he would launch out in 
praife of roa beef and plum-pudding, as 
the ftaple dithes of every Briton’s board. 
Sometimes he would fay a few words againtt 
the vile fin of gluttony, but it was always 
with a full belly. He was verv civil tothe 
fair fex, efpecially his cuftomers, but it is 
fuppofed by thofe that had the beft opportu- 
nity of knowing him, that he never thought 
of matrimony. For the laft ten years of his 
life he livei with Mrs! Addifon and Son, 
at a falary of forty pounds a-year, meat and 
drink included. - In his manners-he was ex- 
tremely inoffenfive, and honeft in all his 
dealings. So miuch for the life of Thomas 
Pett, who lived forty-two years as a journey- 
man butcher in Clare-market, thirty of which 
he refided in one room, which was never 
brightened up with coal or candle-light 
till about fix days before his death. In all 
that period he was never known to treat an 
acquaintance witha glats of liquor; torun one 
penny in debt; to lend or borrow a fhilling 5 
er tu ipeak ill of any perfon, For the {pace 
Marriages and Deaths in and near London. 
179 
of twenty years he ufed to fay that his pulfe 
rofe and fell with the funds; and that gold 
was the clouded cane of youth, and the 
crutch of old age. In his illnefs he was ad 
vifed to make his will, which at length he 
relugtantly affented to; and when he had 
figned his name, he obferved with a figh, that 
it was a pity a man fhould fign away his pro- 
perty with his own hand, which he had been 
{craping together all his I fe. He left 2475le 
in the 3 per cents toa number of diftant re- 
lations; and lamented with his laf breath 
that he did not live to make it the round: 
furn of three thoufand pounds. 
At her father’s feat, the Priory, near 
Stanmore, Middlefex, in her 22d year, of an 
inflam mation of the membrane which lines 
the wind-pipe, and which very fuddenly pro- 
duced fuffocation, Lady Harriet Havmiltony 
eldeft daughter of the Marquis of Abercorn. 
She was to have been married to the Mar- 
quis of Waterford ina few days; the articles 
were drawn up, and the liveries made. Pof- 
feffed of every reguifite to render her beloved 
by the noble Lord to whom fhe was betroth- 
ed, her perfon was beautiful, but her mental 
qualifications were fuperioi 5 fhe had, in fact, 
devoted her time to continued aéts of bene- 
volence. Inthe funeral proceflion appeared 
thirty female charity-children, from the age 
of fix to twelve, dreffedein white. ‘Thete 
children were brought,up at a fchool at Har- 
row, built and endowed by Lady Harriet, 
where they were taught reading, and ulfctul 
work, and cloathed twice a- year, folely at her 
lady thip’s expence. 
At Woolwich, in his 80th year, Mr. Sas 
muel Hardin, farmer and gardener; a man 
who was the founder of his own fortune, 
which heacquired by the beft means——by pur- 
fuing honeit principles; by induftfy, tempe- 
rance, and pruience. The poor never afked 
him for help in vain; he was chearful with his 
equals, kind and benevolent to his inferiors, 
and affable to all. Mr. Hardin was one of 
thofe fteacy, fober, and thinking individuals, 
whofe honeft efforts to improve the condition 
of. themielvea and families increafe the Com- 
mon ftock of wealth and comfort. He re 
ceived the following honorary compliment, 
on a-particu'ar occalion: ‘¢ From his Grace 
the Mafter-general, and Board of Ordnance, 
to Mr. Samuel Hardin: As an acknowledgs 
ment, fromthem, of his civility and readinefs 
to accommodate the Royal Regiment of Ar- 
tillery with the ufe of his fields, for his Ma- 
jeity’s review of that corps, on the-gth day 
of July, 1738, and in confequence of his 
having refuted to accept of any récompence 
for the damage his property unavoidably fufs 
tained on that occafién.’? Such is-the in- 
{cription on a filver medal, with the Ord- 
nance arms, which wWas prefented ‘by the 
Duke of Richmond to Mr. Hardin, asa tef- 
timony of efteem for him. His remains 
were interred in the family-vault at Wool- 
wich, when che pall was fupported, from the 
Aaz hearfe 
