descendant of Stanislaus Augustus. Sir Robert Peel urged that as the two
claims were practically irreconcilable and were both made by the same
claimant, the House of Commons might consider itself relieved from the
necessity of appointing a Committee of Inquiry, and the House accepted
his advice. Still, it is almost needless to say that many persons were
found quite willing to believe in the genuineness of the Princess
Olivia's claim, and even in the genuineness of both her claims, and she
had indeed, for a time, a party of faithful and credulous followers as
strong as that which backed up the pretensions of the adventurer from
Wapping who proclaimed himself to be Sir Roger Tichborne. The later
years of the self-created Princess Olivia were spent in poverty, and she
died within the rules of the {288} King's Bench. Even in much later
days, however, her name was not wholly forgotten.

A few lines may be spared to describe the career of a man who died not
long after the death of the Princess Olivia, and who belonged to that
class which used to be described as wonderful characters. This was a man
named James Norris, who came of a family of good position having property
near Devizes. Norris received a good education, and at one time promised
to make a name for himself as a student of natural history. He is
described as "handsome in person and elegant in manners," and we are told
that "he possessed a highly cultivated mind which seemed to promise in
early life eminence in society, and that he would rise to be an ornament
to the age in which he lived." At a comparatively early age he had
outlived all his family, and thus became the owner of large landed
property. He suddenly became a prey to strange, overmastering habits of
indolence, apathy, and shyness, which gradually estranged him from all
society. He neglected his property, allowed his rents to remain for
years and years in the hands of his steward, without troubling himself
about them, and allowed his dividends to grow up in the hands of his
bankers without concerning himself as to their amount, or even opening
any letters which might be addressed to him on the subject. He gave up
shaving and allowed his hair and board to grow as they would; he never
changed his clothing or his linen until they became worn to rags; he lay
in bed for the greater part of the day, took his principal meal about
midnight, then had a lonely ramble, and returned to bed as the morning