Anonymous

“ It is not improbable that incessant exercise in the open air, in the early part of his life laid the foundation of an uncommonly healthy constitution. Lambert scarcely knew what it was to be ailing or indisposed. ”

“ He never felt any pain in his progress towards his extraordinary bulk, but increased gradually and imperceptibly. Before he was bulky he never knew what it was to be out of wind. It was evident to all those who were acquainted with him, that he had no oppression upon his lungs, from fat or any other cause: and Dr. Heaviside expressed his opinion, that his life was as good (or comfortable) as that of any other healthy man.
Lambert slept less than the generality of mankind, being never more than eight hours in bed. ”

“ The inhabitants of Leicester are remarkable for their expertness in swimming, an art which they are encouraged to practise by their vicinity to the river Soar. From the age [Pg 15] of eight years Lambert was an excellent swimmer, and such was his celebrity, that about ten years ago, all the young people in his native town, who were learning to swim, resorted to him for instruction. His power of floating, owing to his uncommon bulk, was so great that he could swim with two men of ordinary size upon his back. ”

“ This unexpected meeting of the largest and smallest man, seemed to realize the fabled history of the inhabitants of Lilliput and Brobdinag, particularly when Lambert rose for the purpose of affording the diminutive count a full view of his prodigious [Pg 21] dimensions. In the course of conversation, Lambert asked what quantity of cloth the count required for a coat, and how many he thought his would make him.—“Not many,” answered Borulawski. “I take goot large piece cloth myself—almost tree quarters of a yard.” ”

“ It was impossible to behold his excessive corpulence, without being astonished that he was not long before suffocated by such an accumulation of substance. The perfect and uninterrupted flow of health which he enjoyed in his progress to his vast dimensions is likewise a remarkable trait in the history of Lambert.
While these, and other points of singularity, afford abundant room for speculation to [Pg 46] the philosopher, the moralist will delight to investigate the qualities of that mind which animated such a prodigious body. ”

“ Lambert, being acquainted with the master of the dog, and knowing that, in this case, the animal would be exposed to certain destruction, went out and addressed the people with the intention of pacifying them, and prevailing upon them to suffer the dog to be taken away. Deaf to all his remonstrances, one of the Savoyards still persisting in pulling off the muzzle, the dog being all this time underneath, and in the grasp of the bear. ”

“ The many characters that introduced themselves to Lambert’s observation in the metropolis, furnished him with a great number of anecdotes, which a retentive memory enabled him to relate with good effect.
One day the room being rather crowded with company, a young man in the front, almost [Pg 22] close to Lambert, made incessant use of one of those indispensable appendages of a modern beau, called a quizzing-glass. The conversation turned on the changes of the weather, and in what manner Lambert felt himself affected by them—“What do you dislike most?” ”

“ But the man who approached the nearest to the dimensions of Lambert, was Edward Bright, a grocer, of Malden, in Essex.—Many of Bright’s ancestors were remarkably fat; and he himself was so large and [Pg 38] lusty when a boy, that at the age of twelve years and a half, he weighed 144lbs. He increased as he grew up, so that, before he was twenty he weighed 336lbs. The last time he was weighed, which was about thirteen months before his death, his weight, deducting that of his clothes, was 584lbs. ”

“ The coffin was three feet six inches broad at the shoulders, and upwards of three feet in depth. A way was cut through the wall and stair-case to let it down into the shop. It was drawn to church on a low-wheeled carriage, by ten or twelve men, and was let down into the grave by an engine fixed up in the church for that purpose, amidst a vast concourse of spectators, not only from the town, but from the country for several miles round. After his death, a wager was laid, that five men, twenty-one years of age, could be buttoned in his waistcoat. ”

“ Born and bred among horses, dogs, and cocks, and all the other appendages of sporting, in the pursuits of which he was encouraged even in his childhood, it cannot be a matter of wonder that he should be passionately fond of all those exercises and amusements, which are comprehended [Pg 7] under the denomination of field sports.
Brought up under the eye of his parents till the age of fourteen, young Lambert was then placed with Benjamin Patrick, in the manufactory of Taylor & Co. at Birmingham, to learn the business of a die-sinker and engraver. ”

“ If you think proper to make me a present of a new coat, you will then know exactly what it costs.”
A person who had the appearance of a decent man, one day took the liberty of asking several impertinent questions. Lambert looked him sternly in the face, but without making any reply. A woman now entered the room, and Lambert entered into conversation with her, on which the same person observed that he was more polite to ladies than to gentlemen. ”

“ He has been heard to relate that, on these occasions, when any of his young pupils manifested any timidity, he would convey them to the opposite bank of the river from that on which they layed their clothes, and there leave them to find their way back as well as they could. By this means, they soon acquired that courage which is so indispensably necessary to the attainment of excellence in the art of swimming. ”

“ As it was impossible to procure a carriage large enough to admit him, he had a vehicle constructed expressly to carry him to London, where he arrived for the twenty-second time, in the spring of 1806, and fixed his residence in Piccadilly.
His apartments there had more the air of a place of fashionable resort, than of an exhibition; and as long as the town continued full, he was visited by a great deal of the best company. ”

“ As to his drink, though he did not take any liquor to an intoxicating degree, yet, upon the whole, he perhaps drank more than prudence would have dictated to a man of his excessively corpulent disposition. When a very young man, he was uncommonly fond of ale and strong beer, but for many years, his chief liquor was small beer, of which he usually drank a gallon a day. With respect to other liquors, he was extremely moderate, when alone, sometimes drinking half a pint of wine, or a little punch after dinner, and seldom exceeding this quantity ”

“ We leave to medical men to decide what would have been the probable result of a like procedure with respect to Lambert, but for our own part, we cannot forbear thinking that, with his healthy constitution and less advanced age, its consequences would have been infinitely more striking and beneficial. ”

“ In order to show how far Lambert surpasses all other men who have hitherto been distinguished for bulk and corpulence, we shall subjoin a brief account of some who have been particularly remarked on this score. ”

“ Lambert’s height was five feet eleven inches; three yards four inches round the body; one yard and one inch round the leg; his weight, a few days before his death, was found by the Caledonian balance to be 739lbs. His coffin measured 6 feet 4 inches long, 4 feet 4 inches wide, 2 feet 4 inches deep, and contained 112 superficial feet of elm. ”

“ His extraordinary size tempted his parents to remove him again to the metropolis, and to exhibit him to the public. His dimensions, as stated in the handbills distributed at the place of exhibition, and under a print of Everitt and her son, published in January, 1780, were taken when he was eleven months old. His height was then three feet three inches; his girth round the breast, two feet six inches; the loins three feet one inch; the thigh, one foot ten inches; the leg, one foot two inches; the arm, eleven inches and a half; the wrist nine inches. ”

“ Such was the regimen of diet, as agreeable to his palate as his former food used to be, by means of which, with a considerable share of exercise, Wood got rid of the incumbrance of 140 or 150 pounds of distempered flesh and fat; and, to use his own expression, “was metamorphosed from a monster to a person of moderate size ”