he first took was the Red-lion, at the corner of the City Road, nearly opposite St. Luke's Hospital, in order that he might be near the ring in Moorfields, at that time the theatre of gymnastic exhibitions, such as cudgeling, wrestling, backsword and boxing.

It was here that he gave the first public display of his astonishing corporeal powers, by pulling against a horse, with his feet placed against a low wall, which divided upper and lower Moorfields. He next tried his strength against two horses, but his legs not being properly placed, he received an injury in one of his knees from a jerk. But the most extraordinary feat in point of magnitude was that which he performed in Bath street, Cold Bath Fields, on the 28th of May, 1741, when he lifted three hogsheads of water, weighing 1836 pounds, in the presence of thousands of spectators, assembled to witness this uncommon exertion.

The various performances of this prodigy of strength are of such a nature as almost to exceed credibility, were they not attested by persons of undoubted veracity and who were themselves eye-witnesses of the facts they relate. Dr. Desaguliers assures us, that he saw him perform the following feats :-With his fingers he rolled up a very large and strong pewter dish. Thrusting the bowl of a strong tobacco-pipe under his garter, his legs being bent, he broke it to pieces with the tendons of his ham. He broke another bowl of the same kind between his first and second finger, by pressing them together sideways. A table, six feet long, with half a hundred weight fastened to the end of it, he lifted with his teeth, and held a considerable time in a horizontal position. He struck an iron poker, a yard long and three inches thick, against his bare left arm, between the elbow and wrist, till the instrument was bent so as nearly to form a right angle. Taking another poker of the same kind, he held the ends of it in his hands, and placing the middle against the back of his neck, made both ends meet before him, after which he pulled it almost straight again. He broke a rope two inches in circumference, though he was obliged to exert four times the strength that was requisite for the purpose, in consequence of the awkward manner which he adopted. He lifted a stone roller, weighing eight hundred pounds, by a chain to which it was fastened, with his hands only, and standing on a frame above it.

These exhibitions probably took up Topham's time, and drew his attention from his business, for we find that he failed at the Golden-lion; after which he took another house in the same line at Islington. His fame for strength now began to spread all over the country, and he visited various provincial towns for the purpose of exhibiting his wonderful feats. His performances at Derby are thus described by Mr. Hutton of Birmingham, who, at that time, was an inhabitant of the former place.

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"We learnt," says he, "from private accounts well attested, that Thomas Topham, a man who kept a public house at Islington, performed sur

prising feats of strength, such as breaking a broom-stick of the largest size by striking it against his bare arm: lifting two hogsheads of water; heaving his horse over a turnpike gate; carrying the beam of a house, as a soldier his firelock; and others of a similar description. However belief might at first be staggered, all doubt was soon removed when this second Samson appeared at Derby, as a performer in public, and that at the rate of a shilling for each spectator. On application to Alderman Cooper for permission to exhibit, the magistrate was surprised at the feats he proposed, and as his appearance resembled that of other men, he requested him to strip that he might examine whether he was made like them. He was found to be extremely muscular; what were hollows under the arms and hams of others were filled up with ligaments in him.

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"He appeared to be nearly five feet ten inches in height, upwards of thirty years of age, well-made, but without any singularity. He walked with a small limp. He had formerly laid a wager, the usual decider of disputes, that three horses could not draw him from a post which he should clasp with his feet; but the driver giving them a sudden lash turned them aside, and the unexpected jerk broke his thigh.

"The performances of this wonderful man, in whom were united the strength of twelve, consisted in rolling up a pewter dish of seven pounds, as a man rolls up a sheet of paper-holding a pewter quart at arm's length and squeezing the sides together like an egg-shell-lifting two hundred weight with his little finger and moving it gently over his head. The bodies he touched seemed to have lost their power of gravitation. He also broke a rope, fastened to the floor, that would sustain twenty hundred weight; lifted an oak table six feet long with his teeth, though half a hundred weight was hung to the extremity: a piece of leather was fixed to one end for his teeth to hold, two of the feet stood upon his knees, and he raised the end with the weight higher than that in his mouth. He took Mr. Chambers, vicar of All Saints, who weighed twenty-seven stone, and raised him with one hand; his head being laid on one chair and his feet on another, four people, of fourteen stone each, sat upon his body, which he heaved at pleasure. He struck a round bar of iron one inch in diameter against his naked arm, and at one stroke bent it like a bow. Weakness and feeling seemed fled together.

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Being a master of music, he entertained the company with Mad Tom. I heard him sing a solo to the organ in St. Werburgh's church, then the only one in Derby; but though he might perform with judgment, yet the voice, more terrible than sweet, seemed scarcely human. Though of a pacific temper, and with the appearance of a gentleman, yet he was liable to the insults of the rude. The hostler, at the Virgin's Inn, where he resided, having given him some cause of displeasure, he took one of the kitchen spits from the mantel-piece, and bent it round his neck like a hand

kerchief; but as he did not choose to tuck the ends into the hostler's bosom, the cumbrous ornament excited the laughter of the company, till he condescended to untie his cravat.. Had he not abounded with good nature, the men might have been in fear for the safety of their persons, and the women for that of their pewter shelves, as he could instantly roll up both. One blow with his fist would for ever have silenced those heroes of the bear-garden, Johnston and Mendoza."

These, however, were only the usual performances of Topham, when he went about for the purpose of showing his powers. Many other occasional lemonstrations of them are related by persons who knew him. One night perceiving a watchman asleep in his box, he raised them both from the ground, and carrying the load with the greatest ease, at length dropped the wooden tenement with its inhabitant over the wall of Tindall's buryingground. The consternation of the watchman on awaking from his nap, may be more easily conceived than described.

Sitting one day at the window of a low public house in Chiswell street, a butcher passed by tottering under the burden of nearly half an ox. Of this Topham relieved him with so much ease and dexterity, that the fellow swore that nothing but the devil could have flown away with his load. On another occasion, having gone on board a West Indiaman lying in the river, he was presented with a cocoa-nut, which, to the no small astonishment of the crew, he cracked close to the ear of one of the sailors, with the same facility as an ordinary person would crack an egg-shell. The mate having made some remark displeasing to Topham, the latter observed that, if he had pleased, he could have cracked the bowsprit over his head.

Topham having one day gone to witness a race that was run on the Hackney road, the spectators were greatly annoyed by a man in a cart, who endeavoured to keep close to the contending parties. Topham at length resolved to stop the career of this disagreeable intruder, and laying hold of the tail of the cart, drew it back with the greatest ease, in spite of all the exertions of the driver to make his horse advance. The rage of the latter was equalled only by the delight and astonishment of the beholders; while nothing but the fear of being crushed or torn to pieces prevented the fellow from exercising his whip on the formidable cause of his mortification.

Notwithstanding his superiority, Topham seems to have been a man of a quiet and peaceable disposition. He even possessed a greater share of patience than falls to the lot of the generality of people. While he kept a public house he was visited by two men who were so exceedingly quarrelsome, that though Topham quietly put up with their humour for a considerable time, yet, at last, nothing would satisfy them but fighting the landlord. Topham finding it impossible to appease them in any other

way, seized them both by the neck, as if they had been children, and knocked their heads together, till they asked pardon with the most abject submission.

Topham, however, was not endued with fortitude of mind equal to his strength of body. A faithless woman embittered the concluding portion of his life, as it did that of his prototype of old. Unable to endure the reflections occasioned by his wife's inconstancy, Topham at length embraced the desperate resolution of putting an end to his life in the flower of his age.

JOHN BAKER.

N the history of those persons who have inherited pecu

liarities from nature, this old veteran deserves particular notice, as he could, at pleasure, distort his countenance in the most incredible manner, to the astonishment of every beholder. He was not formed, like Old Boots, of Rippon, in Yorkshire, with a loving nose and chin; for, on the contrary, his nose was rather small, yet he could, with the greatest facility, take a piece of money from a table, between his nose and chin, and hold it fast, to the great entertainment of the spectators. And, what is still more astonishing, he could, in a moment, contract his face in such a way as to put his nose into his mouth, and his lip then appeared nearly upon a level with his forehead. He could also force a tobacco-pipe through his nose, and take up a glass of gin with his nose and chin, as shown in the portrait. These exploits were seen by thousands of persons, among whom were many medical men, who acknowledged him to be the greatest curiosity of the kind ever seen.

He was born at Eye, in Northamptonshire, in the year 1733, and was apprenticed to a shoemaker at Peterborough; but his master failed, and he repaired to London, where he lived several years in various situations. In 1757, he entered on board a man-of-war, in which he continued ten years, and was, during that time, in several severe engagements, particu

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