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particulars of several hundred Cures in confirmed Diseases, lately performed at the Temple of Health, with the Names and Residence of the Patients, at their own particular Desire, to be had of the Porter at the Temple, price only 3d.

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As a further attraction to his establishment, Graham secured the services of a beautiful young woman, whom he styled "Vestina, the Rosy Goddess of Health," who presided over the evening lectures, and, according to the advertisements, assisted at the display of the Celestial Meteors, and of that sacred Vital Fire over which she watches, and whose application in the cure of diseases, she daily has the honour of directing." The lady who acted this part subsequently became notorious as the wife of Sir William Hamilton, ambassador to the Court of Naples. Her name was Emma Hart, and before she was raised to the dignity of Goddess of Health, she had officiated in the more humble capacity of nursery and lady's maid in gentlemen's families. Eventually, after having sat as model to Romney and other painters, and having lived under the protection of different gentlemen, she was finally married in 1791 at St George's, Hanover Square, to Sir William Hamilton. Her subsequent connection with Lord Nelson, and her power over that great naval hero but weak human being, as well as the humiliating positions in which she placed her dotard of a husband, form part of the history of this country.

In another of his advertisements Graham offers to explain "the whole art of enjoying health and vigour of body and mind, and of preserving and exalting personal beauty and loveliness; or, in other words, of living with health, honour, and happiness in this world, for at least a hundred years." One of the means for ensuring this end was the constant use of mud baths; and that the Doctor might be observed to practise what he preached, he was to be seen, on stated occasions, immersed in mud to the chin, accompanied by Vestina, who had only then recently left off nursing children

and attending on ladies. Her beauty attracted general attention, and brought Graham a deal of practice. While she remained in the mud bath, she had her hair elaborately dressed in the prevailing fashion, with powder, flowers, feathers, and ropes of pearls; Graham appearing in an equally elaborate wig.

In the spring of 1781 the Temple of Health was removed to Schomberg House (now the Ordnance Office), Pall Mall, and the "Temple of Hymen" and "Celestial Bed" were exhibited to the gaze of the profane and the curious. Altogether the establishment was of a very extraordinary description. The front was ornamented with an enormous gilt sun, a statue of Hygieia, and other attractive emblems; the suites of rooms were superbly furnished, and the walls decorated with mirrors, so as to confer on the place an effect like that of an enchanted palace. All the exertions of the painter and sculptor, all the enchantments of vocal and instrumental music, all the powers of electricity and magnetism, were called into operation to enliven and heighten the scene. In a word, all that could delight the eye or ravish the ear, all that could please the smell, give poignancy to the taste, or gratify the touch, were combined to give effect to the whole-at least such was his own account. As a further means of attraction, he hired two men of extraordinary stature, two sons of Anak, whom he appareled in showy and startling liveries, and each of whom wore an enormous cocked-hat, whose business it was to distribute bills from house to house through the town. These handbills were curiously suggestive of the wonderful Doctor's general bombastic style. Here is one of them :—

TH

Temple of Health and of Hymen. Pall Mall.

HE LECTURE at the above place having been received by very numerous, polite and brilliant audiences of Ladies and Gentlemen with unbounded applause, it will be repeated This and every Evening this Week; and precisely at 8 o'clock the Gentleman Usher of the Rosy Rod, assisted by the High Priestess, will conduct the

rosy, the gigantic, the stupendous Goddess of Health to the Celestial Throne.

The blooming PRIESTESS of the TEMPLE will endeavour to entertain Ladies and Gentlemen of candour and good nature, by reading a Lecture on the simplest and most efficacious means of preserving health, beauty, and personal loveliness, and serene mental brilliancy, even to the extremest old age.

VESTINA, the GIGANTIC! on the Celestial Throne, as the Goddess of Health, will exhibit in her own person, a proof of the all-blessing effects of virtue, temperance, regularity, simplicity, and moderation; and in these luxurious, artificial, and effeminate times, to recommend those great virtues.

The Temple (which exhibits more riches, more elegance, and more brilliancy than any royal Palace in the world) will as usual be sweetly illuminated with wax, in the highest, most dazzling, and most celestial magnificence from 7 till 10 o'clock, This evening and every Evening this week, and the Lecture will begin precisely at eight. Both before and after the Lecture, one of Vestina's Fairy Train will warble forth sweet celestial sounds.-Admittance only ONE SHILLING.

The magnificent Electrical Apparatus, and the supremely brilliant and unique decorations of this magical Edifice of this enchanting Elysian Palace! where wit and mirth, love and beauty-all that can delight the soul, and all that can ravish the senses, will hold their court, This and every Evening this week, in chaste and joyous assem• blage.

*

**Ladies of rank and character are assured, that nothing will be said or seen, which can give even the smallest offence to the chastest and most delicate female eye or ear, and that every thing will be conducted with the most perfect decency and decorum.-Ladies are requested to come early, in order that they may be agreeably accommodated with seats.

** A very few copies still remaining of Dr. Graham's Private Advisers (sealed up, price One Guinea) to those Ladies and Gentlemen who wish to have children, or to become snowy pillars of Health and Beauty, studded as it were with roses, and streaked with celestial blue, may now be had at only Half a Guinea; his other curious and eccentric works, containing full descriptions of his Travels, Discoveries, Improvements, Principles, Cures, Electrical Apparatus, etc.-formerly 3s. 6d., now only is. 9d., and VESTINA, the rosy Goddess's warm Lecture, price 2s. 6d.

All Dr. Graham's Medicines to be had as usual, at the Temple

of Health.

Note. Ladies and Gentlemen Electrified.

All went well for a time, and the Temple was nightly crowded with silly people who paid their half-guineas, for

the shilling of the advertisements only just admitted to the "body of the hall.” Sometimes there were magnificent illuminations and Elysian promenades for both ladies and gentlemen, to which persons in masks were also admitted. "The enchanting glory of these seemingly magical scenes," said the advertisements, "will break forth about seven, and die away about ten o'clock; during which time Oriental odours and ætherial essences will perfume the air, while the hymænal sopha blazes forth with the plenitude of the soft lambent celestial fire." Having opened such scenes to the eyes of the wondering world, the Doctor thus addresses his contemporaries in another advertisement :

IF

TEMPLE OF HEALTH AND HYMEN,

PALL MALL,

Near the King's Palace.

F there be one human Being, rich or poor, Male or Female, or of the doubtful Gender, in or near this great Metropolis of the World, who has not had the good Fortune and the Happiness of hearing the celebrated Lecture, and of seeing the grand celestial Bed, the magnificent electrical Apparatus, and the supremely brilliant and unique Decorations of this magical Edifice, of this enchanting Elysian Palace! -where Wit and Mirth, Love and Beauty-all that can delight the Soul and all that can ravish the Senses-will hold their Court, this, and every Evening this week, in chaste and joyous Assemblage-let them now come forth, or for ever afterwards let them blame themselves and bewail their irremediable Misfortune.

But the most important feature of Dr Graham's establishment was the Celestial Bed. This wonder-working piece of furniture was made by one Denton,* a tinman, who lived in Coventry Street, and subsequently kept a bookseller's shop in High Holborn, and it was said to have cost £12,000. It was beautifully carved and gilt, covered with silk damask,

* This Denton was a man of great mechanical skill, who made some very curious automaton figures. He was afterwards tried for coining, and acquitted on that charge, but was found guilty on a second count of having implements of coining in his possession. For this crime he was executed at Tyburn, on which occasion Dr Graham was present.

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supported by twenty-eight glass pillars, and surmounted by a richly carved and gilt canopy, from which crimson silk curtains with fringe and tassels were suspended. Graham pretended that married couples without children might have heirs by sleeping in this bed, for which privilege he demanded one hundred pounds per night; and such is the folly of wealth, that persons of high rank were named who had acceded to these terms. This modern Æsculapius sold also for half a guinea a Treatise on Health," which was intended to render marriages happy, and entered into full particulars of the means to ensure this great and important object. After a long list of preliminary and necessary preparations, the principal of which was the utmost attention to cleanliness, the writer insisted on certain regulations. He recommended particularly the practice of early hours for rising and for retiring to rest. He advised that in bed-chambers the light, especially that of the moon, should not be excluded by curtains. He confessed he could give no sufficient reason for this predilection for the lunar rays, but observed that there are a thousand things in nature which exist without our being able to explain the reasons of their existence. He also advised married people to sing sometimes. "Music," said he, "softens the mind of a happy couple, makes them all love, all harmony; their bodies, their souls unite, their existence is melted into a single being, which yields itself up with rapture to divine transports, and loses itself in an Elysium of bliss. In this state, this incessantly progressive enjoy ment, the happy couple imagine themselves raised above this world, and become inhabitants of a supérior region." Thus he continued, till coming at last to the principal part of his discourse: "When the preliminary regimen which I have just described has been scrupulously observed and followed, and a new vigour has been acquired by drinking of the divine balm, which for the benefit of the human race, I have concocted with my own hand, and which, however,

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