Now, wrath on cattle to discharge, When, struck with wonder and amaze, In Ajalon his sister slept. But if such things no more engage, The taste of a politer age, To help them out in time of need Another Tofts must rabbits breed: 424 430 435 438 As an instance of the credulity of the public, in addition to the subject of this poem, the singular imposture of Mary Tofts is deserving of notice. The following relation of it by a believer is too singular to be omitted. The author was no less a man than the eminent mathematician and learned translator of Josephus, the Rev. William Whiston, who in the memoirs of his life, Vol. II. p. 108, contends strongly for the fulfilment of a prophecy of Esdras, viz.: there should be signs in the woman, in the person of Mrs. Mary Tofts, the rabbit woman of Godalming, in 1727. The account this woman gave of herself was briefly this:-She had been weeding in a field, and seeing a rabbit spring up near her, ran after it, with another woman, but could not catch it. Her companion charged her with longing for the rabbit, but she denied it. Soon after another rabbit sprung up which she also endeavoured to catch. The same night she dreamt she had the two rabbits in her lap, and awakened with a sick fit which lasted till morning. For three months she had a constant and strong desire to eat rabbits; but being in indigent circumstances she could not procure any, till at last she was marvellously brought to bed of them. Mr. Whiston proceeds-" this story Each pregnant female trembling hears, Now, to promote their private ends, 444 445 450 has been so long laughed out of countenance that I must distinctly give my reasons for believing it true, and alleging it here as fulfilling an ancient prophecy. Accordingly, besides the testimony of the woman herself, who moved great compassion and was relieved by charitable persons, Mr. Howard, a man-midwife of great skill, honour, and reputation in his profession, attested it. It was then believed by King George to be real, and was generally believed by sober persons in the neighbourhood, till it was unjustly laughed out of countenance in London, and those who acted in the matter were made sport of by the sceptics of the town; nor did the woman ever confess the fraud till she was herself threatened with a painful operation, and with imprisonment. Nor did the surgeons and men-midwives pretend to any ground of suspicion, till they found they were likely to suffer greatly in their reputation and practice had they supported that story any longer. Of which sort of confessions like those made upon torture I have no opinion at all. So I have all along gone by my original evidence, and have ever since believed the fact to have been true, and an eminent completion of the prophecy before us." The circumstance excited a lively controversy in the medical world, particularly between Dr. Douglas and Sir Richard Manningham, Knt., F. R. S., the latter of whom, in 1726, pub Needed a regular supply, And without nourishment must die) Of hunger easily dispense, And, pliant to their wondrous skill, Are taught, like watches, to stand still, With Gascoyne's help, a six months' feast. 455 460 lished " an exact diary of what was observed during a close attendance upon Mary Toft, the pretended Rabbit breeder of Godalming in Surrey, from Monday, Nov. 28 to Wednesday, Dec. 7 following, together with an account of her confession of the fraud." Mr. St. André, an eminent surgeon, after having lent himself to the delusion, found it necessary to publish the following recantation. 66 Having contributed in some measure to the belief of an imposture in a narrative lately published by me of an extraordinary delivery of rabbits performed by Mr. John Howard, surgeon at Guilford, and having been since instrumental in discovering the same, so that I am now thoroughly convinced it is a most abominable fraud: I think myself obliged, in strict regard to truth, to acquaint the public thereof, and that I intend in a short time to publish a full account of this discovery, with some considerations on the extraordinary cir cumstances of this case, which misled me in my apprehensions thereof; and which as I hope they will in some measure excuse the mistakes made by myself and others who have vilified the woman concerned therein, will also be acceptable to the world in separating the innocent from those who have been guilty." 461 In the year 1753, an extraordinary affair attracted Whilst in contempt of all our pains The tyrant Superstition reigns Imperious in the heart of man, And warps his thoughts from Nature's plan; The weight of wholesome doubts could bear, Takes all things blindly upon trust; 463 470 the notice and divided the opinion of the public. A girl of eighteen years of age, named Elizabeth Canning, having been missing from her master eighteen days, came home to her mother in a deplorable and emaciated condition, and declared upon oath that on the 1st of January, about nine in the morning, while walking from Rosemary Lane, she was seized by two men in Moorfields, who first robbed and then gagged her, and that in consequence of their ill usage she fell into a fit, and so continued for some hours; on recovering she found herself in a kitchen with an old gypsy woman and two young women, the former took her by the hand and promised to give her some fine clothes, which expression Elizabeth Canning considering as an invitation to be a prostitute, she utterly refused to comply with it; whereupon the old woman almost stript her and pushed her into a back room like a hay-loft, without any furniture in it, and there locked her up, threatening to cut her throat if she made any disturbance. On looking about her in the morning she discovered a large jug filled with water and several pieces of bread, amounting to about a quartern loaf, scattered on the floor together with some hay. In this room she said she continued from that time until 4 o'clock P. M. of 29 January following, being 27 days and upwards, without any other sustenance than the bread and water mentioned and a minced pie she had in her pocket. She likewise said she left some of these provisions behind her when she made her escape by breaking out of the house. She said that during her confinement not a creature had come near her to see or speak to her. Upon her return an investigation was set on foot, and having fixed upon a house at Enfield Whilst Curiosity, whose rage No mercy shows to sex or age, Of judgment, truth, and common sense; For them, obedient to their will, And trembling at their mighty skill, 475 480 Wash, on the Hertford road, as the place where she had been confined, one Mrs. Wills, who kept it, together with Mary Squires, the gypsy, and Virtue Hall, a young woman who lived with Wills, were taken up and committed for trial. Upon the examination the young woman fully confirmed the statement of Canning. After a full and long trial, Wills and Squires were found guilty, and the latter sentenced to suffer death. Sir Crisp Gascoyne, the Lord Mayor, being dissatisfied with the evidence, took extraordinary pains to unravel the conspiracy, in which he succeeded to his utmost wish. An alibi was clearly made out, and a free pardon granted to Mary Squires. An indictment for perjury was preferred against Elizabeth Canning, who was convicted, on the clearest evidence, of wilful and corrupt perjury, and thereupon sentenced to be transported for seven years. The Egyptian Hall, in the Mansion House, received that appellation from the circumstance of the examinations of the gypsies in this matter having been taken in it. Sir Crisp Gascoyne incurred a great deal of unpopularity by the zeal he displayed in detecting the fraud; but at the expication of his mayoralty the Common Council did justice to his motives by a special vote of thanks for his conduct on the occasion. Henry Fielding, who as a magistrate took the charge and first examinations in support of it, was apparently piqued by the Lord Mayor's superior tact and perseverance in detecting |