Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/243



Alnwick; a Pastoral Elegy on the Death of the Duchess of Northumberland,' 1777, 4to. 2. 'A Visit from the Shades, or Earl Chatham's Adieu to his Friend, Lord Camden; a Poem,' London, 1778, 4to. 3. 'Poems to her Majesty, to which is added a new Tragedy, entitled the Earl of Somerset, literally founded on History,' 1779, 4to. This work is dedicated to the queen, and included among its subscribers Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West, and Peter Pindar. It commences with 'The Ejaculation,' occasioned by seeing the royal children, 'magnum Jovis incrementum,' which is followed by 'An Oblation; a Lyric Poem on her Majesty's happy Delivery of a Daughter, the now amiable Princess Sophia,' and concludes with 'The Earl of Somerset,' a tragedy (in blank verse), which has a fine engraved frontispiece, and deals with the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, who expires in the fourth act with the words, 'Oh, how transient are human joys ! and all this world is—Oh !' Johnson, to whom he insisted on reading the tragedy, may well have exclaimed (as he is said to have done) 'I never did the man an injury' (Gent . Mag. 1791, i. 500). 4. 'The Cypress Wreath; a Poem to the Memory of Lord Robert Manners;' a fulsome eulogy of the Duke of Rutland's family, 1782,4to. 5. 'A Pastoral Elegy in Memory of the Duke of Northumberland,' 1786 6. 'Cœlina, a Mask … commemorative of the Nuptials of their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and Princess Caroline,' London, 1795. In a 'P.S. au lecteur,' Lucas piteously complains that though 'satire never yet tainted his public pen,' he had never been able to obtain a trial on the stage. He is also credited by Baker with 'Love in Disguise,' an opera, 1776 (Biog. Dram. 1812, i. 464).

[Taylor's Univ. of Dublin, p. 456; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 210; Johnson's Letters, ed. G. B. Hill, ii. 9, 10; Lucas's Works in Brit. Museum Library.]  LUCAS, HORATIO JOSEPH (1839–1873), artist, born in London on 27 May 1839, was fourth son of Louis Lucas, a West India merchant, and belonged to an old Jewish family. Lucas was educated at Brighton and at University College, London. Having considerable talents as an artist, he studied painting under F. S. Cary [q. v.], and was a member of the Langham Sketching Club in London. He exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy and at the Salon in Paris. Lucas was a proficient in the art of etching, and a contributor to the various Black and White exhibitions. A selection from his etchings is in the print room at the British Museum. In 1862 Lucas joined his father's business, so that he was only able to devote his leisure time to art. He was an accomplished musician, and an active and useful member of the Jewish community in London. He married Isabel, daughter of Count d'Avigdor, and niece of Sir Francis Goldsmid, bart., and died on 18 Dec. 1873, leaving four children.

[Jewish Chronicle, 26 Dec. 1873; private information.]  LUCAS, JAMES (1813–1874), 'the Hertfordshire hermit,' second son and fourth child of James Lucas, of the firm of Chauncey, Lucas, & Lang, of Liverpool, West India merchants, was born in London, 21 Dec. 1813. His mother's maiden name was Beesly. He received a good education, first at a private school at Clapham, from which he ran away, subsequently at Richmond, and finally with a tutor at Bedford, from whom he also made his escape. He studied medicine for a time under a surgeon in the neighbourhood of his home, near Hitchin. He early exhibited a strangely perverse obstinacy, and an uncontrollable suspicion of all his relatives, with the exception of his mother, who indulged his whims. These peculiarities became accentuated on his father's death in 1830. His mother died on 24 Oct. 1849, and he inherited the family estate at Redcoats Green, Great Wymondley, Hertfordshire. Thenceforth he gave his eccentricities free scope. He refused to administer his parents' wills, deferred for three months (when the sepulture was enforced) the interment of his mother, and barricaded his house of Elmwood, in the kitchen of which he took up his abode. He excluded furniture, abjured washing, slept on a bed of cinders, and clothed himself in a loose blanket. His skin grew ingrained with dirt, and his dark hair long and matted. His dietary, besides bread and penny buns, consisted of cheese, eggs, red herrings, and gin, and he protected his victuals from the rats by hanging them in a basket from the roof.

Lucas enjoyed the society of tramps, always putting to them a series of questions, and rewarding satisfactory answers with coppers and a glass of gin. He thus attracted all the vagabonds in the kingdom, and had to protect himself by retaining two armed watchmen, who lived in a hut opposite the formidable iron grille at which he received visitors. These included Lord Lytton, Sir Arthur Helps, John Forster, and Charles Dickens. Dickens, in the Christmas number of 'All the Year Round' for 1861, described the hermit, under the pseudonym of 'Mr. Mopes,' as an 'obscene nuisance.' The 