owledge, coupled with his great experience, gaining for
him the reputation of being "a most infallible doctress." He also went
in for astrology, and made a considerable sum of money, but was so
extravagant that when he died his worldly goods were not valued at
half-a-sovereign. About a year before his death he returned to his
native parish, his great age bringing him into much notoriety; but his
death was very sudden, and great was the surprise on all sides when it
became known that he was a man. In life this strange character was a
general favourite, and Mr. Thrale was wont to have him in his kitchen
at Streatham Park, while Dr. Johnson, who considered him a shrewd
person, held long conversations with him. To prevent the discovery of
his sex he used to wear a cloth tied under his chin, and a large pair
of nippers, found in his pocket after death, are supposed to have been
the instruments with which he was in the habit of removing the
tell-tale hairs from his face.[46]
In some instances, as in times of political intrigue and commotion,
disguise has been resorted to as a means of escape and concealment of
personal identity, one of the most romantic and remarkable cases on
record being that of Lord Clifford, popularly known as the "shepherd
lad." It appears that Lady Clifford, apprehensive lest the life of her
son, seven years of age, might be sacrificed in vengeance for the
blood of the youthful Earl of Rutland, whom Lord Clifford had murdered
in cold blood at the termination of the battle of Sandal, placed him
in the keeping of a shepherd who had married one of her inferior
servants--an attendant on the boy's nurse. His name and parentage laid
aside, the young boy was brought up among the moors and hills as one
of the shepherd's own children. On reaching the age of fourteen, a
rumour somehow spread to the Court that the son of "the black-faced
Clifford," as his father had been called, was living in concealment in
Yorkshire. His mother, naturally alarmed, had the boy immediately
removed to the vicinity of the village of Threlkeld, amidst the
Cumberland hills, where she had sometimes the opportunity of seeing
him.
But, strange to say it is doubtful whether Lady Clifford made known
her relationship to him, or whether, indeed, the "shepherd lord" had
any distinct idea of his lofty lineage. It is generally supposed,
however, that there was a complete separation between mother and
child--a tradition which was accepted by
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