DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0299
LIFE OF JOHN ELWES, ESQ.
265
rolled in upon him like a torrent; but as he knew scarcely
any thing- of accounts, and never reduced his affairs to
writing, he was obliged, in the disposal of his money, to
trust much to memory, and still more to the suggestions of
others. Every person who had a want or a scheme, with
an apparently high interest, adventurer or honest, it sig-
nified not, was prey to him. He caught at every bait, and
to this cause must be ascribed visions of distant property
in America, phantoms of annuities on lives that could
never pay, and bureaus filled with bonds of promising
peers and senators. In this manner Mr. Elwes lost at
least one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
Thus there was a reflux of some portion of that
wealth which he was denying himself every comfort to
amass. All earthly enjoyments he voluntarily renounced.
When in London, he would walk home in the rain rather
than pay a shilling for a coach, and would sit in wet
clothes rather than have a fire to dry them. He would
eat his provisions in the last stage of putrefaction, rather
than have a fresh joint from the butcher ; and at one time
he wore a wig above a fortnight, which he picked up out
of a rut in a lane, and which had, apparently, been thrown
away by some beggar. The day on which he first appeared
in this ornament, he had torn an old brown coat which
he generally wore, and had therefore been obliged to
have recourse to the old chest of Sir Jervaise, (his uncle’s
father) from which he selected a full-dress green velvet
coat, with slash sleeves; and there he sat at dinner, in
boots, the above-mentioned green velvet, his own white
hair appearing round his face, and the black stray wig at
the top of all.
Mr. Elwes had inherited from his father some property
in houses in London, particularly about the Haymarket.
To this he began to add by engagements for building,
which he increased from year to year, to a very great ex-
Eccentric, No. VI. m m tent.
265
rolled in upon him like a torrent; but as he knew scarcely
any thing- of accounts, and never reduced his affairs to
writing, he was obliged, in the disposal of his money, to
trust much to memory, and still more to the suggestions of
others. Every person who had a want or a scheme, with
an apparently high interest, adventurer or honest, it sig-
nified not, was prey to him. He caught at every bait, and
to this cause must be ascribed visions of distant property
in America, phantoms of annuities on lives that could
never pay, and bureaus filled with bonds of promising
peers and senators. In this manner Mr. Elwes lost at
least one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
Thus there was a reflux of some portion of that
wealth which he was denying himself every comfort to
amass. All earthly enjoyments he voluntarily renounced.
When in London, he would walk home in the rain rather
than pay a shilling for a coach, and would sit in wet
clothes rather than have a fire to dry them. He would
eat his provisions in the last stage of putrefaction, rather
than have a fresh joint from the butcher ; and at one time
he wore a wig above a fortnight, which he picked up out
of a rut in a lane, and which had, apparently, been thrown
away by some beggar. The day on which he first appeared
in this ornament, he had torn an old brown coat which
he generally wore, and had therefore been obliged to
have recourse to the old chest of Sir Jervaise, (his uncle’s
father) from which he selected a full-dress green velvet
coat, with slash sleeves; and there he sat at dinner, in
boots, the above-mentioned green velvet, his own white
hair appearing round his face, and the black stray wig at
the top of all.
Mr. Elwes had inherited from his father some property
in houses in London, particularly about the Haymarket.
To this he began to add by engagements for building,
which he increased from year to year, to a very great ex-
Eccentric, No. VI. m m tent.