Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
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ECHOES OF OLD LEEDS.<br />
Late in the century (about 1760) flourished the wellknown<br />
painter,Benjamin Wilson, a native of Leeds. A<br />
celebratedpaintingofhis, the raisingofJairus's daughter,<br />
is nowin the GeneralInfirmary, and was a gift from the<br />
accomplished artist. He is alsoknown for his marvellous<br />
imitations of Rembrandt'setchings, which were so perfect<br />
that they are stated to have perplexed and deceived the<br />
authorities of his day on the subject. Another notable<br />
native of Leeds who died during the period was Thomas<br />
Hudson,who,from being a Governmentclerk, became by<br />
a bequest the possessor of a large fortune, which he<br />
invested in South Sea Shares, and upon the bursting of<br />
that bubble became a maniac, and leaving his pleasant<br />
seat in Staffordshire, where just before the final catastrophe<br />
he had buried his wife, roamed as a homeless<br />
beggar, calling himself "Tom of Ten Thousand," and<br />
limping about on a crutch in wretchedness and misery.<br />
This is merely one instance among many of the evil<br />
wrought by that infamous swindle.<br />
A humorous incident of the timewas the advertising by<br />
Major Bradley,in 1769, that his wifehad left him for the<br />
fourteenth time.<br />
Among other remarkableindividualsmay be mentioned<br />
Isabella Cryer, a person who is said to have weighed 40<br />
stones. She measured three yards round, and at her<br />
death, in 1774, was borne to the grave by ten men.<br />
Another character whichaffords speculationto thecurious,<br />
was an old huntsman, Amos Street, who died in 1774,<br />
and was buried inBirstalChurchyard,where thefollowing<br />
epitaphis to be seen: —<br />
This is to the memory of old Amos<br />
Who was whenalive for hunting famous;<br />
But now his chases are all o'er,<br />
And here he's earthed,ofyears four score.<br />
Upon this tomb he's oftensat<br />
And tried to read his epitaph;<br />
And thou who dost so at this moment<br />
Shall ere long,like him, be dormant.<br />
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