BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 117
key, and then the coat will fit to a certainty.’’ The servant kept his promise.
In a day or two the t.ailor returned-found O’Brien in excellent humour ; and
the greatcoat-“ 0, nothing in the world could be more completer 1”
While in Edinburgh, O’Brien exhibited himself in the premises known as
the “ Salamander Land,”l opposite the Royal Exchange. The following piece
of bombast was a standing paragraph in his advertisements :-
‘I How fortunate for Mr. O’Brien that he holds such a situation in existence that no one can
rival him in the public estimation. Kings may be dethroned-ministers dismissed-actors
supplanted-tradesmen ruined-and every other situation experience a similar reverse of fortune,
except the above gentleman, whose transcendent superiority is universally acknowledged ; and
who would not be injured in the least if kings, ministers, actors, and tradesmen were to unite
their efforts to produce a rival, since they would find themselves unequal to such magnanimous
undertaking. ”
Our giant was, in money matters, a very prudent person. He managed his
receipts so well, “that,” as observes his biographer,’ “ at the moment he is distinguished
as the largest, he is also known to be not the least independent man
in the kingdom, having in the neighbourhood of his residence at Enfield several
houses his own property ; which render his further exhibition unnecessary.”
O’Brien died at the Hot-Wells, Bristol, upon the 8th of September 1806,
and was interred at the Catholic Chapel, in Trenchard Street. His coffin was
nine feet five inches, and so broad that five ordinary men could lie in it with
ease. The brass plate contained the following inscription :-“ Patrick Cotter
O’Brien, of Kinsale, Ireland, whose stature was eight feet one inch, died Sth
September 1806, aged forty-six”
AIR. WILLIAM RANKEN, although diminutive in contrast with the
enormous bulk of the Irish Hercules, was of the middle size, and a man of
goodly proportions. He was a native of the south side of Edinburgh, and the
son of a respectable tailor. Having been brought up to his father’s profession,
he commenced business on his own account about the year 1778, in one of the
old houses’ opposite the City Guard. He afterwards moved to a house in the
Lawnmarket ; and latterly resided in the land forming the north-east corner of
the Parliament Square-with piazzas and a stone stair in frontdestroyed by
the great f i e in 1524. This property he purchased from the heirs of the late
Mr. Dempster, jeweller.
Mr. Ranken was one of the most extensive and respectable clothiers in
Edinburgh. He took an interest in city politics, and was first chosen Deacon
of the Incorporation in 1791, and Deacon Convener in 1799 and 1800. These
offices he filled repeatedly afterwards, and was for many years an influential
1 So called from its having escaped two great fires ; the lsst of which, in 1824, destroyed the
“Extraordinary Characters of the Nineteenth Century,” London, 1805, 8vo ; a very rare and
Parliament Square, and a portion of the south side of the High Street.
curious work, which was never finished. The text and plates are both engraved on copper.
a Since rebuilt.
