BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 35
of Edinburgh affords ; but, though the tacksman was willing, the noble proprietor
would not listen to the project.
Amongst other eccentric plans recommended to his patients was that of earthbathing,-
which was neither more nor less than burying them alive up to the
neck in the earth, in which position they were to remain for ten or twelve hours.
He tried this extraordinary remedy upon himself and one of his daughters, and
actually induced his brother-in-law to follow their example. Other persons were
also found simple enough to submit to this new species of temporary sepulture.
In 1787, this singular being appeared in a new character, as a special delegate
from Heaven to announce the Millennium. He not only styled himself
“ The Servant of the Lord, 0. W. L.” i.e. “ Oh, Wonderful Love,” but attempted
to begin a new chronology-dating his bills such a day of the first month of
the New Jerusalem Church ; but before the coming of the second month the
prophet was, by order of the Magistrates, put under restraint, not indeed in
prison, but in his own house, from whence he, some months afterwards, removed
to the north of England. His religious frenzy appears to have lasted some
time; and we learn from the following extract, copied from the Whitehawen
Packet, that a year afterwards his mind still wandered :-
“ JVHITEHAVEN-Tuesday morning’ Dr. James Graham was sent off to
Edinburgh in the custody of two constables. This unfortunate man had, for
some days past, discovered such marks of insanity as made it advisable to secure
him.‘-August 22, 1788.“
His death took place somewhat suddenly, in his house, opposite to the
Archers’ Hall, upon the 23d June 1794-it was occasioned by the bursting of a
bloodvessel. He was buried in the Greyfriars’ churchyard, Edinburgh. His
widow survived him about seven years, and died at Ardwick, near Manchester,
in the year 1801.
His circumstances during the latter period of his existence were far from
affluent. To one of his publications, however, he was indebted for an annuity
of fifty pounds for life j for it happened that a gentleman in Geneva, who had
perused it, found his health so much improved by following the advice of its
author, that, out of gratitude, he presented him with a bond for the yearly
payment of that sum.
With all his eccentricities, he had a benevolent and charitable disposition,
and his conduct towards his parents was exemplary. Even when in his “ hi&
and palmy state,” he paid them every attention. Whilst in Edinburgh, he took
’ Whether he ever got entirely quit of his religious fancies, is uncertain ; and in a very complete and
curious collection of tracts, advertisements, etc., by, or relative to, Dr. Graham, occurring in the late Mr.
John Stevenson’a sale catalogue for 1825, there is a “manuscript written expressly for Dr. Graham,
regarding his religiow concerns, by Benjamin Dockray, a Quaker at Newtoun, near Carlisle, in 1790,”
which would seem to indicate that hia mind, on that head, waa not at that date entirely settled.
