DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0187
ORIGINAL ANECDOTES OF TOPHAM. 161
and Dr. Hutton, were only the common place perform-
ances of Topham, when he went about purposely to shew
himself; some aged persons who knew him in his neigh-
bourhood, relate a variety of pranks which he was occa-
sionally in the habit of playing:—for instance, one night
finding a watchman fast asleep in his box, near Chiswell-
street, he took both, and carrying the load with the greatest
ease, at length dropped the watchman and his wooden case
over the wall of Tindall’s burying ground, where the poor
fellow, only half awake, and doubting whether he was in
the land of the living, in recovering from his fright, seemed
to be waiting for the opening of the graves around him.—•
Another time, sitting at the window of a low public house,
in the same street, while a butcher from a slaughter-house
was going by with nearly half an ox on his back, Topham.
relieved him of it, with so much ease and dexterity, that the
fellow almost petrified with astonishment, swore that
nothing but the devil could have flown aw*ay with his load.
A third time, thinking to enjoy a little sport with some
bricklayers, by removing part of a scaffold just before they
intended to strike it, from a small building, his grasp was
so rude, that a part of the front wall following the timber,
the fellows conceived it had been the effects of an earth-
quake, and immediately ran, without looking behind them,
into an adjoining field. Merc, however, Topham was
near paying dearly for his jest, as one of the poles struck
him on his side, and gave him great pain.
Another time being persuaded by one of his acquaint-
ance, to accompany him on board a West Indiaman in the
river, and being presented with a cocoa nut, he threw one
of the sailors into the utmost astonishment, by suddenly
cracking it close to his ear, with the same facility as we
crack an egg-shell ; and upon some remark being made
upon an observation deemed rather insolent, by the mate
of the ship, Topham replied, that he could have cracked
the
and Dr. Hutton, were only the common place perform-
ances of Topham, when he went about purposely to shew
himself; some aged persons who knew him in his neigh-
bourhood, relate a variety of pranks which he was occa-
sionally in the habit of playing:—for instance, one night
finding a watchman fast asleep in his box, near Chiswell-
street, he took both, and carrying the load with the greatest
ease, at length dropped the watchman and his wooden case
over the wall of Tindall’s burying ground, where the poor
fellow, only half awake, and doubting whether he was in
the land of the living, in recovering from his fright, seemed
to be waiting for the opening of the graves around him.—•
Another time, sitting at the window of a low public house,
in the same street, while a butcher from a slaughter-house
was going by with nearly half an ox on his back, Topham.
relieved him of it, with so much ease and dexterity, that the
fellow almost petrified with astonishment, swore that
nothing but the devil could have flown aw*ay with his load.
A third time, thinking to enjoy a little sport with some
bricklayers, by removing part of a scaffold just before they
intended to strike it, from a small building, his grasp was
so rude, that a part of the front wall following the timber,
the fellows conceived it had been the effects of an earth-
quake, and immediately ran, without looking behind them,
into an adjoining field. Merc, however, Topham was
near paying dearly for his jest, as one of the poles struck
him on his side, and gave him great pain.
Another time being persuaded by one of his acquaint-
ance, to accompany him on board a West Indiaman in the
river, and being presented with a cocoa nut, he threw one
of the sailors into the utmost astonishment, by suddenly
cracking it close to his ear, with the same facility as we
crack an egg-shell ; and upon some remark being made
upon an observation deemed rather insolent, by the mate
of the ship, Topham replied, that he could have cracked
the