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544 TESTIMONY OF CONTEMPORARIES. [Doc. 261.
had [before] lodged in Coldbath Fields ; and upon his return
to England, came to the same place : but the people had
removed and he was recommended to Mr. Shearsmith’s, where
he lodged about two years. Then he left England, and went
to Amsterdam in Holland, at which place he had published
many of his Latin works. He stayed there some time, and
then returned to England, and came to the same place to
lodge with Mr. Shearsmith, and remained at his house till his
death, which might be about two years. [Compare Docu
ment 269, B; where this portion of Peckitt’s testimony is
analyzed.]
3. The dress that he generally wore, when he went out to
visit, was a suit of black velvet, made after an old fashion ; a
pair of long ruffles ; a curious hilted sword ; and a gold-headed
cane.* He ate little or no animal food, only a few eels
sometimes. His chief sustenance was cakes, tea, and coffee
made generally exceedingly sweeet. His drink was water. He
took a great deal of snuff.t
4. Mr. Shearsmith was affrighted when he first lodged
with him, by reason of his talking in the night and day. He
said, he would sometimes be writing, and sometimes would
stand talking in the door-stead of his room, as if he was holding
a conversation with some person : but as he spoke in a
* Concerning this cane, see Document 265, no. 12.
Mr. Hindmarsh says here, "One advantage of the Author’s profuse
snuff-taking appears to have been the preservation of the Manuscripts; for
when printing his posthumous work, entitled, Apocalypsis Explicata, I found
everywhere between the leaves a sufficient quantity of snuff to prevent
their being perforated and injured by those little active mites or insects
which are so destructive to old books and papers." The editor of these
documents can likewise attest that when he took some of Swedenborg’s MSS.
out oftheir original binding, with a view of having them photo-lithographed,
a large quantity of snuff was found in the back of the volumes; especially
of that volume which contains one of Swedenborg’s Indexes to the "Apo
calypsis Revelata," Codex 7.
The Rev. Mr. Madeley, adds here, "Swedenborg’s visits to the European
mines, his chemical and anatomical researches, and his voyages in ill-ventilated
vessels, will go far to account for this habit."
See in this connection the anecdote told by Mr. Hindmarsh in Do
cument 265, no. 8.
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