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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    t **uld find. M;tsy a lime has liis father wheeled his bar vow over Ids ratked- feody, when he was lying in his gait early in the morning, and hpcould net ?»ee him. At last he refused to go out any more, and pulled his bed all to pieces ; every thing which has since been given him for bedding or clothing lie destroys, and the hole yon saw in the loft, through which the light and air is let in, he tore with bis hands. He afterwards put. himself in the posi¬ tion you saw him in, and years many have gone by, since he has moved a foot from the spot you saw him m,” We enquired if he had ever before his intended marriage shewn symptoms of insanity, or, during any lucid inter¬ val, he had spoken of bijs fatal disappointment. She said that he had never mentioned any thing about the matter, excepting the following words which her mother had previously mentioned. “ No greater.grief, ho meikle pain. Than for to love and not be lov’d again.” And thaf before he fell in love he'was the smartest young man of the place. She added, that he was inoffensive in his manner, excepting that he some¬ times cried out dreadfully in the night tim£, but that on such occasions he always exclaimed‘f Mother! Mother! and was instantly pacified as soon as she had hobbled up the loft and he saw her-. During our return, as may be supposed, we were ruminating on the fright¬ ful sight to which we had been witnesses, Thefirst idea was that of surprise;, that the Maniac’s parents and family should have so kept the secret of his miserable existence, that scarcely one of the neighbouring cottagers knew any thing more than that there was somethng strange to see in Raeney's housd, but they knew not what. In Sheffield, and as we may charitably suppose, at Norton, ( especially to the parish officers of fourteen successive years ) the existence, and, as it mHy .be termed, the horrid imprisonment of the pauper lunatic has not been known, or doubtless, the magistracy would have committed his care, and possible cure, to the great asylums, which the public mantainsoiit of its own purse The possibility that this poor son of humanity may yet be returned to the world, of which he is insensible he forms a part, I thihkmerits attention. His physical powers can never be restored, but it impossible to suppose that the poor wretch whoScould, with a manner and tone not to be mistaken, distinctly say, “I §tm baun to sleep,” is irretrievably fallen to the state of the lowest animal' yet is his treatment and his lodging inferior to that of the ox or the ass. The wuse of his malady is highly interesting ;—mentally he has died for love, “In our boyhood we thought this possible, nay likely ;--m youth, we doubted if it could happen :-~in our manhood we laughed at the mere idea.” Shakespeare. Men have died, and worms have eaten them erenow--but not for love. Alas! we must go back to our juvenile faith, for it cannot be doubted that the falsehood of Mary Jones broke the heart of Peter Raeney.