and the cost of hearing, &c. in all upwards of four shillings and sixpence. This had such an effect on Mr. Dancer's mind, that he ever afterwards held the lawyers in abhorrence; for to give, or pay, were not to be found in his vocabulary. Addition and multiplication were his favorite rules, and usury was the foundation of his good deeds.

Though Mr. Dancer, by his spirit of covetousness, debased himself in this sordid manner, yet he kept a mare, for which he showed a great partiality; but he never allowed her more than two shoes at one time, deeming it an unnecessary expense to shoe the hind feet of the animal; and he used to say, it was more pleasant for a horse to feel the naked grass, than to be confined in unnatural shoes.

Mr. Dancer was the most perfect picture of human penury that perhaps ever existed, and the most singular character that ever lived; his habits were those of an hermit, and his extreme avarice rendered him abstemious as any ascetic of the desert.

In this manner lived, and in this situation died, Daniel Dancer, Esquire, a monumental proof to the world, that the advantages of fortune, unless properly directed, will not make their possessor happy. Lady Tempest, it ought to be observed here, had but a very short enjoyment of the great accession of wealth she acquired by this miser's death; for she contracted an illness during her attendance upon Mr. Dancer's last hours, that in a few months closed the period of her own life, which happened in January, 1795.

The house, or rather the heap of ruins, in which Mr. Dancer lived, and which at his death devolved to the right of Captain Holmes, was a most

miserable decayed building, frightful and terrific in its outside appearance; for it had not been repaired for more than half a century. But though poor in external appearance, the ruinous fabric was very rich in the interior. It took many weeks to explore its whole contents; and Captain Holmes and Lady Tempest found it a

very

agreeable task to dive into the miser's secrets One of the late Mr. Dancer's richest scrutoires was found to be a dung-heap in the cow-house; a sum little short of £2500 was contained in this rich piece of manure; and in an old jacket, carefully tied, and strongly nailed down to the manger, in bank-notes and gold, five hundred pounds more.

Several large bowls filled with guineas, half guineas, and quantities of silver, were discovered, at different times, in searching the corners of the house; and various parcels of bank-notes stuffed under the covers of old chairs and cushions. In the stable the Captain found some jugs of dollars and shillings. It was observable, that Mr. Dancer used to visit this place in the dead of the night, but for what purpose even old Griffiths himself could not guess; but it is supposed, it was to rob one jug to add to a bowl which he had buried, and was nearly full, when taken up from under one of the hearth tiles.

The chimney was not left unsearched, and paid very well for the trouble; for in nineteen different holes, all filled with soot, were found various sums of money, amounting together to more than 2001. Bank-notes to the value of 6001. were found doubled up in the bottom of an old tea-pot. Over these was a bit of paper, whimsically inscribed, "Not to be too hastily looked

over.

Mr. Dancer's principal acquaintance, and the most congenial companion of his soul, was the penurious Jemmy Taylor, of the Borough of Southwark. This genius became acquainted with him accidentally at the Stock Exchange, where they chanced to meet to transact some money affairs: and they often visited each other afterwards; for it was a certain satisfaction to each to edify by the other's experience. No doubt their conversation ran much upon refinements in hard living, for Jemmy was as rigid an ascetic as the other, though he did not go quite in so beggarly a style.

BARBARA URSELIN.

IN 1655, this female was exhibited for money. Her name was Augusta Barbara; she was the daughter of Balthazar Urselin, and was then in her twenty-second year. Her whole body, and even her face, was covered with curled hair of a yellow colour, and very soft, like wool; she had besides a thick beard that reached to her girdle, and from her ears hung long tufts of yellowish hair. She had been married above a year, but then had no issue. Her husband's name was Vaubeck, and he married her merely to make a show of her, for which purpose he visited various countries of Europe, and England among others. Barbara Urselin is believed to be the hairy girl mentioned by Bartoline, and appears not to differ from her whom Borelli describes by the name of Barba, who he believed improved, if not procured, that hairiness by art

MULLED SACK.

JOHN COTTINGTON, better known by the name of Mulled Sack, was one of the most notorious highwaymen this country has produced. He was the son of a haberdasher in Cheapside, who having exhausted his property died poor, and was buried by the parish, leaving fifteen daughters and four sons, of whom our hero was the youngest. At eight years of age he was put apprentice to a chimney-sweeper of St. Mary-le-bow, with whom he remained about five years: as soon as he entered his teens he ran away; and soon afterwards received the name of Mulled Sack, from his drinking sack mulled, morning, noon and night. To support a life of dissipation he turned pickpocket; and one of his first robberies of this sort was committed on Lady Fairfax, from whom he got a rich gold watch: and his depredations were afterwards so numerous, that his biographers state "the many various neat tricks Mulled Sack played upon Ludgate-hill, by making stops of coaches and carts, and the money that he and his consorts got there by picking pockets, would have been almost enough to have built St. Paul's Cathedral."

Mulled Sack was detected in picking the pocket of Oliver Cromwell as he came out of the Parliament House; but escaped hanging by the political changes of the times. He next turned highwayman, and was so audacious as to rob Colonel Hewson when marching over Hounslow at the head of his regiment, in company with one Tom Cheney. They were pursued by a body of troopers; Mulled Sack escaped, but his companion, after defending himself against eighteen horsemen,

was overpowered and taken: he was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted, and executed at Tyburn. Mulled Sack, afterwards, along with several other of his companions, waylaid a waggon which was conveying £4,000 to Oxford and Gloucester, and seized the money, which they soon spent: he also robbed the house of the Receiver-General of Reading of £6,000, which he was preparing to send up to town. For this offence Mulled Sack, who was taken, was tried at Reading, but acquitted; it is said, by bribing the jury. He had not been long at liberty before he killed one John Bridges, for which he was obliged to quit the kingdom, and went to Cologne, where he robbed King Charles II., then in exile, of as much plate as was valued at £1,500. On returning to England he promised to give Oliver Cromwell some of his Majesty's papers, but, says his biographer, "not making good his promise, he was sent to Newgate, and receiving sentence of death, was hanged in Smithfield rounds, in April 1659, aged fifty-five years."

MOLL CUT PURSE.

MARY FRITH, or as she was more generally called, Moll Cut Purse, was a woman of masculine figure and spirit, who lived in the reign of Charles the First. She was a participator in most of the crimes and wild frolics of her time; and was notorious as a fortune-teller, a pickpocket, and a receiver of stolen goods. In this she acted much on the same plan that was afterwards adopted by Jonathan Wild, keeping a correspondence with most of the thieves of that time. She was