Joseph Capper, an eccentric. Stipple engraving by G. Scott.

"Capper's habits were very methodical, drinking tea only out of his favourite cup and sitting only in his favourite chair in the parlour of The Horns [tavern in Kennington]. He would not allow anyone to poke the fire without his permission. He called himself the champion of government, and nothing angered him more than to hear anyone declaiming against the British constitution. His favourite amusement was killing flies with his cane, before doing which he generally told a story about the treachery of all Frenchmen, 'whom', he said, 'I hate and detest, and would knock down just the same as these flies' (Kirby's … Museum, 2.477)."-- Oxford dictionary of national biography