DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0351
'238 CHARACTER. [lECT. IX.
The face and hands of this woman are represented
hairy all over. She has a very long End large spread-
ing beard, the hair of which hangs loose and flow-
ing like the hair of the head. &c. [This prim; we
have seen, and confirm Mr. G.'s description of it.]
Such another lusus naturae is " A\ \ a Macal-
lame, born in the Orkneys in Scotland, A. D. \6\ 5,
being presented to the king's majesties sight, Octo-
ber l6(5'2." She is represented in a fur cap and man's
gown, her beard is very large, and like an old
man's : the following verses are under the print.
Tho' my portraiclure seems to be
A man's, my sex denies me so;
Nature has still variety,
To make the world her wisdom know.
Mr. G. adds, (( I saw, A. D. 1750, at the palace
of St. Ildefonso, in Spain, a portrait of a Neapolitan
woman, with much such another beard as Anna
Macallame's. I also saw, a woman at Ilotherhithe,
with a masculine beard. The largest of these is by
no means comparable to that of Barbara Van-
BECK."
These instances of nature's excentricity, may be
added to that mentioned in the lectuke in con-
firmation of the proverb, ' no rule without excep-
tion :' these are striking exceptions surely !
I -do not find, notwithstanding their singularity,
that the proprietors of these beards were considered
as witches, although such an excrescence was a prin-
cipal flaark attributed to that kind of gentry ; " I
think the 'oman be a witch indeed, I spy a great
peard
The face and hands of this woman are represented
hairy all over. She has a very long End large spread-
ing beard, the hair of which hangs loose and flow-
ing like the hair of the head. &c. [This prim; we
have seen, and confirm Mr. G.'s description of it.]
Such another lusus naturae is " A\ \ a Macal-
lame, born in the Orkneys in Scotland, A. D. \6\ 5,
being presented to the king's majesties sight, Octo-
ber l6(5'2." She is represented in a fur cap and man's
gown, her beard is very large, and like an old
man's : the following verses are under the print.
Tho' my portraiclure seems to be
A man's, my sex denies me so;
Nature has still variety,
To make the world her wisdom know.
Mr. G. adds, (( I saw, A. D. 1750, at the palace
of St. Ildefonso, in Spain, a portrait of a Neapolitan
woman, with much such another beard as Anna
Macallame's. I also saw, a woman at Ilotherhithe,
with a masculine beard. The largest of these is by
no means comparable to that of Barbara Van-
BECK."
These instances of nature's excentricity, may be
added to that mentioned in the lectuke in con-
firmation of the proverb, ' no rule without excep-
tion :' these are striking exceptions surely !
I -do not find, notwithstanding their singularity,
that the proprietors of these beards were considered
as witches, although such an excrescence was a prin-
cipal flaark attributed to that kind of gentry ; " I
think the 'oman be a witch indeed, I spy a great
peard