Sporting

Anecdotes Home

Burton, in his "Anatomie of Melancholy," tells us of a physician
in Milan, who kept a house for the reception of lunatics, and by way of
cure, used to make his patients stand for a length of time in a pit of
water, some up to the knees, some up to the girdle, and others as high as
the chin, according as they were more or less affected. An inmate of this
establishment, who happened, for the time to be pretty well recovered, was
standing at the door of the house, and seeing a gallant cavalier ride past
with a hawk on his fist, and his spaniels after him, asked, "What all these
preparations meant?" The cavalier answered, "To kill game." "What may the
game be worth which you kill in the course of a year?" rejoined the
patient. "About five or ten crowns." "And what may your horse, dogs, and
hawks, cost you for a year?" "Four hundred crowns." On hearing this, the
patient, with great earnestness of manner, bade the cavalier instantly
begone, as he valued his life and welfare; "for" said he, "if our master
come and find you here, he will put you into his pit up to the very chin."

Next: An American heroine

Previous: Sterne

Report
Privacy

SHARE

ADD TO EBOOK

Viewed 2767

Random Anecdotes

Goldsmith's Marlow
Frederick The Great
Old Age Secured
A Reproof
Spare Moments
Hanging Judge
A Ragged Regiment
Servant At Noyon
Legal Point
The Marquess Del Campo
Dey Of Algiers
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Thomson And Quin
Van Dyke
St. Louis
300 Scudi (l62), With The Words, "for The Advocate ..
Vendean Servant
Sir And Sire
The Price Of Bread
Sterne
The Horse Dealer
Equality In Danger
Curran
Doctor
Astley Cooper