London for two pence.

The first to attract the attention of the
upper classes, however, was one Richardson, who
appeared in France in the year 1667 and enjoyed
a vogue sufficient to justify the record
of his promise in the Journal des Savants.
Later on he came to London, and John Evelyn,
in his diary, mentions him under date of
October 8th, 1672, as follows:


I took leave of my Lady Sunderland,
who was going to Paris to my Lord, now
Ambassador there. She made me stay
dinner at Leicester House, and afterwards
sent for Richardson, the famous fire-eater.
He devoured brimstone on glowing coals
before us, chewing and swallowing them;
he melted a beere-glass and eate it quite up;
then taking a live coale on his tongue he
put on it a raw oyster; the coal was blown
on with bellows till it flamed and sparkled
in his mouthe, and so remained until the
oyster gaped and was quite boil'd.

Then he melted pitch and wax with
sulphur, which he drank down as it flamed:
I saw it flaming in his mouthe a good while;
he also took up a thick piece of iron, such