Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 360: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. —_—— 347 bent upon me a stern look. “It is sufficient for | haunting of the public officers had led him; and Mrs. Granby to find you here, in order to induce | thus was he placed in an asylum where he enjoyed her to treat you with courtesy; and if she be| every comfort and luxury—where he was kindly generously disposed to gloss over the circum- stances in which yourself and other gentlemen are placed within these walls, it is scarcely polite or generous of you to seek to argue the point with her.” I felt that there was more or less justice in this reproof: for the simple fact was that the Granbys kept an asylum for the insane, and if persons were legally consigned to their care, they had a perfect right to receive them without previously investi- gating the true circumstances of each individual ease. Perhaps too Mrs. Granby might really have thought that I laboured under some peculiar hal- lucination, as did each of the others around her; and it was therefore kind of her to treat me asa sane person, though in her heart having the con- viction that my mind was really diseased. All these reflections swept rapidly through my brain in consequenee of that reproof which Mr. Granby had addressed to me; and without another syllable I took the place which he indicated at the table. I found that both himself and his wife studied to sustain a cheerful conversation on gene- ral topics, —dexterously and carefully avoiding those particular ones which might be connected with the hallucinations of individuals present; and if a stranger, ignorant of the nature of the place, had been suddenly introduced there and invited to breakfast he could not possibly have suspected from anything which occurred, that he was in the society of a number of persons nearly all of whom had a mental disease of some kind or another. I am not going to spin out this portion of my narrative with unnecessary details: but still some few explanations are necessary. At first I could not help thinking that there were within those walls many unfortunate beivgs who, like myself, had been placed in confinement without any just cause : but as weeks passed away, I found out that such was not the fact. Sooner or later I dis- covered that every one laboured under a delusion of some sort; and which, though for the most part it remained as it were latent, yet would in an in- stant flame up if the spark were inadvertently set to a particular train of ideas. In nearly all in- stances I ascertained too that this delusion was of a nature which really incapacitated the individual from the management of his own worldly affairs, and rendered it desirable that he should be con- signed to some peaceful seclusion where he would be removed from the influences which had in the origin operated with such fatal effect upon his mind. Thus, for instance, there was one indivi- vidual who believed that he had discovered the longitude—and who had spent half his fortune in publishing treatises on the subject, or advertising his arguments throughout whole columns of the newspapers, and for which he had to pay most dearly. He had likewise haunted the Govern. ment officers and the lobbies of the Houses of Par- liament, in the hope of finding patrons for a dis- covery which really was no discovery at all. He had gone mad upon this one subject: while in respect to all others he was perfectly sane. His friends had interfered to prevent the total ruin of _his fortane, as well as tu save him from the effects of those indiscretions into which his pertinacious treated—and where his mind was undergoing a steady but gradual improvement. I must here observe that Mr. Granby did not seek to detain his patients beneath his roof one week longer than was absolutely necessary. Asa general rule it was his pride to restore them to their relatives or friends with the least possible delay, in order that his reputation might be en- hanced; and thus, if for a moment he lost an in- mate from whose presence he derived a good revenue, the vacant place was sure to be filled speedily, while recommendation brought him others in addition. I was one day the witness of a singular circum- stance. I was walking in the grounds, when the bell at the entrance rang—the porter opened the gates—and a handsome carriage and pair drove into the enclosure. A well-dressed gentleman, of about thirty, leapt out; and meeting Mr. Granby a& the moment, he shook him cordially by the hand, exclaiming, “Here I am, my dear sir, once more, I feel the old delusion returning: [ am haunted by all kinds of evil spirits—and I am come for you to cure me:”’—then coolly turning round to his coachman, he added, “Come back again in three months, John, and fetch me. I shall be all right by that time.” “ Very good, sir,” replied the coachman, touch- ing his hat: and the equipage drove off. “ Now let me go and pay my respects to Mrs. Granby,” said this hallucinationist who had thus voluntarily confided himself to a lunatic asylum: and he hastened into the house with a degree of happiness which evidently arose from the conyie- tion that by a short sojourn there he would be cured of those horrible thoughts which he knew to be a delusion, but which he had not strength of mind sufficient to triumph over of his own ac- cord. There were between twenty and thirty patients in the establishment,—the greater portion of whom belonged to the class I have already described : namely, those who were merely mad upon one point and sane upon allothers. But there were six or eight whose intellects were far more un- settled, and who at times were eyen dangerous. These were not permitted to take their meals with the rest—but were kept in their own rooms; and they only took exercise when attended by their keepers. It was one of these unfortunate beings who had sent forth that wild and mournful cry which so horrified me on the first night of my in- troduction to Mr. Granby’s establishment. CHAPTER CL. NOVEMBER, 1842. It was in the middle of May, 1842, that I was consigned by a hideous treachery to the lunatic- asylum; and therefore, as the reader will recollect, it wanted exactly six months to that date in the ensuing November when I was to present myself at Heseltine Hall, And you will start, gentle ECORNICLO@ ER - SSS esses rls essere em (©)