A BUCKINGHAMSHIRE HERMIT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 288, 9 November 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

A BUCKINGHAMSHIRE HERMIT.

The well-known epithet, “ As mad as a hatter,” might surely be applied to a vendor of this particular article of headgear named Roger Crab, who died on September 11. ibtiO, and whose tomb, with a quaint epitaph, may be seen in Stepney Church-yard, London. ■

'inis man served tor seven years in the Parliamentary army, and for sum. breach of discipline was sentenced to death by Cromwell, the punishment being subsequently commuted to two years’ imprisonment. After his release Boger Crab started business as u a haberdasher -of hats " at t’hcsham, in Buckinghamshire, where his abstracted mind suddenly became imbued with the idea that it was SINFUL TO FAT ANY KIND OF ANIMAL FOOD, or to drink anything stronger than w a t c r. With a resolution to follow literally the injunctions given in the Gospel, he disposed of his stock-in-trade, and, distributing the proceeds among the jroor, proceeded to take up his residence in a hut at Ickenham, where he lived for several years on the small sum of one penny’ per week. The hermit’s food consisted chiefly of bran, dock-leaves, mallows, and grass, and the privation and suffering lie inflicted upon himself caused him to be tlie butt of others, inasmuch that he was arrested on suspicion of being a wizard, and. in spite of the fact that he was sent from prison to prison, he still persisted in his strange course of life until released by Father Time.