S I R,
IN your paper of Saturday, October 5, a writer, who subscribes himself An Enemy to Impostors, seems desirous of knowing whether Mr. M—h, of Hatton-street, was not employed by Mr. Angelo, of Westminister, as a riding master, upon the recommendation of Dr. Grifffenberg.
I am well acquainted with the whole transaction, and will give your correspondent the information he requests, after observing, that I think his reflections against Dr. G. illiberal; the transaction he alludes to should now be obliterated. We have each of us some time erred, and this is a sufficient motive to extend forgiveness.
I shall not relate the reasons which induced Mr. M—h to visit England, because it would obliged me to introduce a history of misery and distress, which humanity induces me to suppress, Mr. M—h’s private letters, and those of his wife’s brother, affording the most affecting picture of the situation of the former, are now in my possession, and some of them I shall communicate by means of the publick prints. In November 1773, Mr. M—h had a room in a shoemaker’s house, in Rupert—street, Goodman’s fields, and in this miserable lodging Mrs. M—h was attacked with a fever of the putrid kind, and was attended by Mr. Toennius, of Mansell-street. This fever proved fatal, and Mr. M—h, after various attempts to get a livelihood, applied, by means of Dr. G. to Mr. Angelo, as a horse-rider, who refused him on account of his figure, which he observed was too diminutive for an Equestrian posture-master. This refusal was indeed very lucky for our adventurer, who quitted the stable for the chamber-pot, in which he discovered a very copious settlement of English gold, that he collects from washing off the slime from the kidneys and liver.*
The above circumstances I do not retail from hearsay, I can prove these facts by letters wrote by Mr. M—h, and his brother-in-law, to different persons in London. About thirty of these letters are now in my possession, signed by Theodore Van Mayersbach himself, not stiled[sic] Dr. M—h, which afford a proper key to al his impostures; some of which, as I have before remarked, shall be published in the newspapers, as soon as I have procured accurate translations of the German originals. The publick[sic] will then stand astonished at the delusion which has deceived them, but which shall be exposed by
CASSIUS.
* Expressions very common with Mr. Mayersbach, as well as disorders of the womb, which our supposed Doctor has positively discovered in both sexes.
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British Library Newspaper Collection Colindale - Burney Collection
12 October 1776 (2308) Page 1 Columns 3 and 4 |