The wonderful discovery, a particular account of Peter Raeney, the maniac, of Woodseats, Norton, Derbyshire.

Date:
[between 1828-1830]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wonderful discovery, a particular account of Peter Raeney, the maniac, of Woodseats, Norton, Derbyshire. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lax ©r alter the position of a single joint. Consequently the only change of attitude of which he was capable, was rolling from side to side, or balancing himself on the cen¬ tre. His state of health 1 am not competent to judge of,hut I can assert that he exhibited most of the popu¬ lar signs of convalesence; a clear full eye, and a sound skin, though the latter had evidently taken a hue foreign to its nature. I looked round the miserable loft, which for so many years had been his resting-place, and it literally contained nothing hut the naked body of the poor maniac, and the dirty sheet I have spoken of, my¬ self, my friend, and the woman who conducted us. In spite of my appetite for information, I grew physically as well as mentally sick ; when, to my surprise, and al¬ most horror, the poor wretch, who had kept his wild looks almost continually upon us, turned his face to¬ wards the floor, and said in a tone which smote the heart, “ I am baun to sleep.” We hurried down the dangerous stairs, and in a moment we were breathing the fresh air-after we had recovered the surprise which the sound of the maniac’s voice had produced, (for ima¬ gination had nothing to do with our emotion, he whom we looked upon as lower than the brute spoke our lan- | guage, with a tone and pathos deeper than those of the 3 most gifted actors,) we thought we could converse with i the madman’s sister, who might supply us with that i portion of thd poor man’s tale which had escaped the I old woman’s garrulity. Her story is the following ;—f< Fourteen years ago my brother was about twenty years old, and as fine a young man, about six feet high, as a v©u would see* any where. He courted one Mary Jones, whose father own- 3 cd a bit of land just yonder opposite us. It was at last settled they should be married at dronfield Church ; iny brother was ready at the time appoint- ; t ©d, but Mary Jones, without giving any notice, on the same day, at a jf, Qhurch in a different part of the country, married one W- y Sheffield. It was too much for Peier, who doated upon her. He returned II -home, and going into the loft which you have ffeen, ( it then had a bed, a i ] chair and a table in it ) he merely said he would never leave it, and he ft> went to bed. We took him food, but he would not. speak; we left the door j j en at night time, and after a while he woiuld creep down when it was dark, J and pearly bury himself in the earth of the garden or roll in any pbol he