DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0252
222 MANNER OF DRAWING LOTTERIES, &C.
Elizabeth’s) reign, the author of the pamphlet describes
more particularly that lottery which was then carrying
on in London by some foreigners; and how greedily the
poor adventurers strove to make themselves beggars in it.
The prizes in the lottery were all of plate, the highest
worth a hundred and fifty, or threescore pounds. Though
the tickets were but one shilling a-piece, to one prize there
were no less than forty blanks. The manner of drawing
seems to have been very tumultuous. The doors ever
crowded, the room continually filled with people : every
mouth bawling out for lots: every hand stretched forth to
snatch them: both hands lifted up at once, the one to de-
liver the condemned shillings, the other to receive the
papers of life and death. It is said to have been as divert-
ing as so many comedies, to have seen the entrance into
the place; but grievous to consider what tragical ends be-
fel many of the poor housekeepers, servants, and others
of that simple flock, who, in the end, were stripped and
plumed in such a manner, as to have no more feathers left
on their backs, than geese that had been newly plucked.
Such infatuation was still more excusable than at present,
since time has supplied so many fatal instances of its pre-
judice.
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A SINGULAR CHARACTER.
HE village of Threlkeld, in Cumberland, a curacy,
was once in the possession of a clergyman, remarkable for
the oddity of his character. This gentleman, by name
Alexander Naughley, was a native of Scotland. The cure
in his time was very poor, only eight pounds sixteen shil-
lings yearly; but as he lived the life of Diogenes, it was
enough. His dress was mean and even beggarly: he lived
alone, without a servant to do the meanest drudgery for
him: his victuals he cooked himself, not very elegantly we
may suppose: his bed was straw, with only two blankets
But with all these outward marks of a sloven, no man pos-
sessed
Elizabeth’s) reign, the author of the pamphlet describes
more particularly that lottery which was then carrying
on in London by some foreigners; and how greedily the
poor adventurers strove to make themselves beggars in it.
The prizes in the lottery were all of plate, the highest
worth a hundred and fifty, or threescore pounds. Though
the tickets were but one shilling a-piece, to one prize there
were no less than forty blanks. The manner of drawing
seems to have been very tumultuous. The doors ever
crowded, the room continually filled with people : every
mouth bawling out for lots: every hand stretched forth to
snatch them: both hands lifted up at once, the one to de-
liver the condemned shillings, the other to receive the
papers of life and death. It is said to have been as divert-
ing as so many comedies, to have seen the entrance into
the place; but grievous to consider what tragical ends be-
fel many of the poor housekeepers, servants, and others
of that simple flock, who, in the end, were stripped and
plumed in such a manner, as to have no more feathers left
on their backs, than geese that had been newly plucked.
Such infatuation was still more excusable than at present,
since time has supplied so many fatal instances of its pre-
judice.
/////////
A SINGULAR CHARACTER.
HE village of Threlkeld, in Cumberland, a curacy,
was once in the possession of a clergyman, remarkable for
the oddity of his character. This gentleman, by name
Alexander Naughley, was a native of Scotland. The cure
in his time was very poor, only eight pounds sixteen shil-
lings yearly; but as he lived the life of Diogenes, it was
enough. His dress was mean and even beggarly: he lived
alone, without a servant to do the meanest drudgery for
him: his victuals he cooked himself, not very elegantly we
may suppose: his bed was straw, with only two blankets
But with all these outward marks of a sloven, no man pos-
sessed