Daniel Lambert
Template:Short description {{#invoke:Other people|otherPeople}} Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person
Daniel Lambert (Template:Nowrap 1770 – Template:Nowrap 1809) was an English gaol keeperTemplate:Refn and animal breeder from Leicester, famous for his unusually large size. After serving four years as an apprentice at an engraving and die casting works in Birmingham, he returned to Leicester around 1788 and succeeded his father as keeper of Leicester's gaol. He was a keen sportsman and extremely strong; on one occasion he fought a bear in the streets of Leicester. He was an expert in sporting animals, widely respected for his expertise with dogs, horses and fighting cocks.
At the time of Lambert's return to Leicester, his weight began to increase steadily, even though he was athletically active and, by his own account, abstained from drinking alcohol and did not eat unusual amounts of food. In 1805, Lambert's gaol closed. By this time, he weighed Template:Convert, and had become the heaviest authenticated person up to that point in recorded history. Unemployable and sensitive about his size, Lambert became a recluse.
In 1806, poverty forced Lambert to put himself on exhibition to raise money. In Template:Nowrap, he took up residence in London, charging spectators to enter his apartments to meet him. Visitors were impressed by his intelligence and personality, and visiting him became highly fashionable. After some months on public display, Lambert grew tired of exhibiting himself, and in Template:Nowrap, he returned, wealthy, to Leicester, where he bred sporting dogs and regularly attended sporting events. Between 1806 and 1809, he made a further series of short fundraising tours.
In June 1809, he died suddenly in Stamford, Lincolnshire. At the time of his death, he weighed Template:Convert, and his coffin required Template:Convert of wood. Despite the coffin being built with wheels to allow easy transport, and a sloping approach being dug to the grave, it took 20 men almost half an hour to drag his casket into the trench, in a newly opened burial ground to the rear of St Martin's Church. While others have since overtaken Daniel Lambert's record as the heaviest person in history, he remains a popular character in Leicester, and in 2009 was described by the Leicester Mercury as "one of the city's most cherished icons".
BiographyEdit
Early lifeEdit
Daniel Lambert was born at his parents' house in Blue Boar Lane, Leicester, on 13 March 1770.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn His father, also named Daniel Lambert, had been the huntsman to Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford,<ref name="DNB">Template:Cite ODNB (subscription or UK public library membership Template:Webarchive required)</ref> and at the time of his son's birth was the keeper of Leicester's gaol.Template:Sfn The eldest of four children, Daniel Lambert had two sisters, and a brother who died young.Template:Sfn
At the age of eight he was a keen swimmer,Template:Sfn and for much of his life he taught local children to swim.Template:Sfn Lambert's paternal uncle—like his father—also worked with animals, but as a professional gamekeeper; his maternal grandfather was a breeder of champion fighting cocks.Template:Sfn Lambert grew up with a strong interest in field sports,Template:Sfn and was particularly fond of otter hunting, fishing, shooting and horse racing.Template:Sfn From his early teens, Lambert was a keen sportsmanTemplate:Sfn and by his late teens he was considered an expert in the breeding of hunting dogs.Template:Sfn
In 1784, he was apprenticed to Messrs Taylor & Co, an engraving and die casting works in Birmingham owned by a Mr Benjamin Patrick.<ref name="DNB" /> The engraved buckles and buttons in which Patrick's factory specialised became unfashionable, however, and the business went into decline.Template:Sfn In 1788, Lambert returned to Leicester, to serve as his father's assistant at the gaol<ref name="DNB" /> (some sources date Lambert's return to Leicester to 1791, following the destruction of the building housing Messrs Taylor & Co in the Priestley Riots of Template:Nowrap).Template:Sfn His father retired soon afterwards and Lambert succeeded him as gaol keeper.Template:Sfn The younger Daniel Lambert was a much-respected gaoler; he befriended many of the prisoners, and made every effort to help them when they went to trial.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn
WeightEdit
Although by his own account Lambert did not eat unusually large amounts of food, at about the time of his return to Leicester his weight began to increase steadily, and by 1793, he weighed Template:Convert.<ref name="DNB" /> Concerned for his fitness, in his spare time he devoted himself to exercise, building his strength to the point where he was able to easily carry Template:Convert.Template:Sfn On one occasion, while he was watching a dancing bear on display in Blue Boar Lane, his dog slipped loose and bit it. The bear knocked the dog to the ground, and Lambert asked its keeper to restrain it so he could retrieve his wounded animal, but the keeper removed the bear's muzzle so it could attack the dog.Template:Sfn Lambert reportedly struck the bear with a pole and with his left hand, punched its head, knocking it to the ground to allow the dog to escape.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn
Despite his increasingly large girth, Lambert remained fit and active, once walking Template:Convert from Woolwich to the City of London "with much less apparent fatigue than several middle-sized men who were of the party".Template:Sfn Although not particularly agile, he was not significantly restricted by the size of his body, and was able to stand on one leg and kick the other to a height of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn He continued to teach swimming in Leicester, and was able to stay afloat with two grown men sitting on his back.Template:Sfn He disliked changing his clothes, and each morning habitually wore the clothes he had worn the day before, regardless of whether they were still wet;Template:Sfn by Lambert's own account he suffered no colds or other ill effects from this behaviour.Template:Sfn
By 1801, Lambert's weight had increased to about Template:Convert, and, as his bulk meant neither he nor his horse were able to keep up with the hunt, he was forced to give up hunting.Template:Sfn He continued to maintain an interest in field sports, keeping a pack of 30 terriers.Template:Sfn By this time, although he retained his solid reputation as a gaoler, serious concerns were being raised about his fitness for the post.Template:Sfn Traditional gaols were falling out of favour and being replaced with forced labour institutions, and in 1805, the old Bridewell gaol was closed.Template:Sfn Lambert was left without a job, but was granted an annuity of £50 (about £Template:Inflation as of Template:Inflation-year) a year by the Leicester magistrates, in recognition of his excellent service as gaol keeper.Template:SfnTemplate:Inflation-fn
UnemploymentEdit
Lambert's girth was then enormous; six men of normal size could fit together inside his waistcoat,Template:Sfn and each of his stockings was the size of a sack.Template:Sfn His £50 annuity did not adequately cover his living costs, and his size prevented him from working.Template:Sfn He became a virtual recluse.Template:Sfn Stories of his bulk had by then begun to spread, and travellers visiting Leicester would use various pretexts to visit his home. One such visitor asked Lambert's servant to allow him entry as he wished to ask Lambert's advice about fighting cocks; Lambert leaned out of the window and told the servant to "tell the gentleman that I am a shy cock".Template:Sfn On another occasion, he admitted into his house a Nottingham man who sought his advice about a mare's pedigree; on realising the man was visiting only to look at him, Lambert told him that the horse in question was "by Impertinence out of Curiosity".Template:Sfn
Sensitive about his weight, Daniel Lambert refused to allow himself to be weighed, but sometime around 1805, some friends persuaded him to come with them to a cock fight in Loughborough. Once he had squeezed his way into their carriage, the rest of the party drove the carriage onto a large scale and jumped out. After deducting the weight of the (previously weighed) empty carriage, they calculated that Lambert's weight was now Template:Convert, and that he had thus overtaken Edward Bright, the Template:Convert "Fat Man of Maldon",Template:Sfn as the heaviest authenticated person in recorded history.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
LondonEdit
Template:Quote box Despite his shyness, Lambert badly needed to earn money, and saw no alternative to putting himself on display, and charging his spectators.Template:Sfn On 4 April 1806, he boarded a specially built carriage and travelled from LeicesterTemplate:Sfn to his new home at 53 Piccadilly, then near the western edge of London.Template:Sfn For five hours each day, he welcomed visitors into his home, charging each a shilling (about £Template:Inflation as of Template:Inflation-year).Template:Inflation-fn<ref name="1806 Times ad">Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref>
Lambert shared his interests and knowledge of sports, dogs and animal husbandry with London's middle and upper classes,Template:Sfn and it soon became highly fashionable to visit him, or become his friend.Template:Sfn Many called repeatedly; one banker made 20 visits, paying the admission fee on each occasion.Template:Sfn During this period of English history no real stigma was attached to obesity, and Lambert was generally considered a wonder to be marvelled at, rather than a freak to be gawped or sneered at.Template:Sfn His business venture was immediately successful, drawing around 400 paying visitors per day.Template:Sfn His home was described as having the air of a fashionable resort, rather than that of an exhibition, and he was pleased to find that his customers generally treated him with courtesy, and not simply as a spectacle.Template:Sfn He insisted on maintaining amongst his visitors an atmosphere of civility and all men entering his rooms were obliged to remove their hats.Template:Sfn One visitor refused to remove his "even if the King were present" but Lambert replied that "Then by G——, Sir, you must instantly quit this room, as I do not consider it a mark of respect due to myself, but to the ladies and gentlemen who honor me with their company."Template:Sfn
Lambert's popularity inspired an imitator in "Master Wybrants, Mr. Lambert in miniature", exhibited a short distance away in Sackville Street.Template:Sfn A handbill described Wybrants as "Master Wybrants the Modern Hercules, who at the age of 4 Months weighed 39 pounds, measured 2 feet round the Body 15 Inches round the thigh and 8 Inches round the Arm, to be seen at the corner of Sackville Street Piccadilly".Template:Sfn
People would travel long distances to see him (on one occasion, a party of 14 travelled to London from Guernsey),Template:Refn and many would spend hours speaking with him on animal breeding.Template:Sfn A life-sized waxwork of Lambert was displayed in London, where it became extremely popular.Template:Sfn Daniel Lambert soon became a popular subject with cartoonists, who often depicted him as John Bull.Template:Sfn He mixed well with the upper classes, and on one occasion met King George III.Template:Sfn The King's and Lambert's reactions to this meeting are not recorded.Template:Sfn
Medical examinationEdit
Lambert soon came to the attention of the medical profession, and shortly after his arrival in London, the Medical and Physical Journal published an article about him.Template:Sfn They confirmed that he weighed Template:Convert, and measured his height as Template:Convert.Template:Sfn A thorough medical examination found that his bodily functions worked correctly, and that he breathed freely.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Lambert was described as active and mentally alert,Template:Sfn well-read, and with an excellent memory.Template:Sfn He was fond of singing,Template:Sfn and had a normal speaking voice which showed no signs of pressure on the lungs.Template:Sfn Doctors found tumefaction of his feet, legs and thighs, and accumulation of fat within the abdomen,Template:Sfn but other than scaly and thickened skin on his legs caused by previous attacks of erysipelas, he had no health problems. Lambert told the doctors that he ate normal quantities of ordinary food.Template:Sfn He claimed that since about 1795 he had drunk nothing but water,Template:Sfn and that even while young, and a regular party-goer, he did not join his fellow revellers in drinking.Template:Sfn Lambert claimed that he was able to walk about a quarter of a mile (400 m) without difficulty.Template:Sfn He slept regularly for no more than eight hours per night, always with his window open, and was never heard to snore;Template:Sfn on waking he was always fully alert within five minutes,Template:Sfn and he never napped during the day.Template:Sfn
Possible causesEdit
It is impossible to be certain about what caused Daniel Lambert's extreme weight, but it is considered unlikely to have been caused by an endocrine (glandular) or genetic disorder.Template:Sfn Other than his weight gain, he showed no symptoms of a thyroid disorder,Template:Sfn and none of his many portraits show the moon face of a patient with Cushing's syndrome.Template:Sfn Patients with Bardet–Biedl syndrome and Prader–Willi syndrome, genetic syndromes which can lead to obesity in patients, also have learning disabilities and muscular weakness, but all those who knew Lambert agreed that he was highly intelligent, was extremely strong physically, and, except for erysipelas and venous insufficiency (varicose veins) in his legs, did not have any health problems.Template:Sfn One contemporary commentator remarked that "Mr. Lambert scarcely knows what it is to be ailing or indisposed".Template:Sfn Lambert's only recorded psychological problem was an occasional "depression of the spirits", during his time in London.Template:Sfn Although he had an aunt and uncle who were overweight, his parents and surviving siblings remained of normal build throughout their lives.Template:Sfn
Consequently, it is likely that Lambert's weight gain was caused not by a physical disorder but by a combination of overeating and a lack of exercise.Template:Sfn Although heavily built in his teens, he began to gain weight only when he took up the relatively sedentary job of prison keeper.Template:Sfn A biography of Lambert published during his lifetime recounted that "it was within a year of this appointment that his bulk received the greatest and most rapid encrease".Template:Sfn Although he claimed to eat little, and to abstain from alcohol, it is likely that a man with his lifestyle and position in society would have eaten large amounts of meat, and drunk beer at social events.Template:Sfn
Józef BoruwłaskiEdit
After some months in London, Lambert was visited by Józef Boruwłaski, a Template:Convert dwarf then in his seventies.Template:Sfn Born in 1739 to a poor family in rural Pokuttya,Template:Sfn Boruwłaski was generally considered to be the last of Europe's court dwarfs.Template:Sfn He was introduced to the Empress Maria Theresa in 1754,Template:Sfn and after a short time residing with deposed Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński,Template:Sfn he exhibited himself around Europe, thus becoming a wealthy man.Template:Sfn At age 60, he retired to Durham,Template:Sfn where he became such a popular figure that the City of Durham paid him to live thereTemplate:Sfn and he became one of its most prominent citizens.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Boruwłaski had a superb memory, and recalled that Lambert, while still employed by Patrick's die casting works and before he grew fat, had paid to see him in Birmingham. Boruwłaski remarked "I have seen this face twenty years before at Birmingham, but certainly it be another body".Template:Sfn He had been told that Lambert's bulk was a hoax, and he therefore felt his leg to prove to himself that it was not. The two men compared their respective outfits, and calculated that one of Lambert's sleeves would provide enough cloth to make an entire coat for Boruwłaski.Template:Sfn Lambert enquired after Boruwłaski's wife, Isalina Barbutan,Template:Sfn whereupon the latter replied "No, she is dead, and I am not very sorry, for when I affront her, she put me on the mantle-shelf for punishment."Template:Sfn
The meeting of Lambert and Boruwłaski, the largest and smallest men in the country,Template:Sfn was the subject of enormous public interest; one newspaper reported that "It was Sir John Falstaff and Tom Thumb, which must have afforded a double treat to the curious".Template:Sfn Boruwłaski lived to see his 98th year, despite the prediction of the money-lender who sold him his annuity that his small stature would make him prone to illness.Template:Sfn
DisillusionmentEdit
Template:Quote box Although generally respected by London society, the longer Lambert remained there, the more irritable he became. Shy and self-conscious,Template:Sfn he was annoyed at repeatedly being asked about the size of his clothes.Template:Sfn In answer to one request, to a woman who enquired as to the cost of his coat, he replied "I cannot pretend to charge my memory with the price, but I can put you into a method of obtaining the information you want. If you think proper to make me a present of a new coat, you will then know exactly what it costs".Template:Sfn Another interested spectator claimed that since his entrance fee was paying for Lambert's clothing, he had the right to know about it; Lambert replied "Sir, if I knew what part of my next coat your shilling would pay for, I can assure you I would cut out the piece".Template:Sfn Lambert calculated in 1806 that a full suit of clothes cost him £20,Template:Sfn about £Template:Inflation as of Template:Inflation-year.Template:Inflation-fn
Return to LeicesterEdit
Lambert had the acumen to refuse the management offers of various impresarios and agents,Template:Sfn and by Template:Nowrap, he had returned to Leicester as a wealthy man.Template:Sfn He returned to his favourite pastimes, breeding sporting dogs and fighting cocks.Template:Sfn A terrier bitch, for which he was offered 100 guineas (about £Template:Inflation as of Template:Inflation-year),Template:Inflation-fn was said to be the finest in England. He refused to sell the dog, which became his lifetime companion.Template:Sfn He began again to attend sporting events,Template:Sfn as a report on the Leicester Races of September 1806 noted that "Among the distinguished characters upon the turf we were glad to see our old friend, Mr. Daniel Lambert, in apparent high health and spirits".<ref>Template:Citation, quoted Template:Harvnb</ref> Although too heavy to follow hunts on horseback, he used a portion of the money earned in London to build up a pack of greyhounds, watching from his carriage as they coursed hares in the Leicestershire countryside.Template:Sfn
In December 1806, Lambert went on a brief fundraising tour, and exhibited himself in Birmingham and Coventry. Early the next year he returned to London, and stayed in the fashionable Leicester Square.Template:Sfn There he fell ill; his physician Dr Heaviside felt that his illness might have been caused by the polluted London air, and Lambert returned to Leicester.Template:Sfn He recovered, and later in 1807, made a series of tours of England.Template:Sfn
Template:Quote box In summer 1808, Lambert briefly returned to the capital, where he sold a pair of spaniels for 75 guineas (about £Template:Inflation as of Template:Inflation-year) at Tattersalls.Template:Inflation-fnTemplate:Sfn Later that year, he exhibited himself in York.Template:Sfn In Template:Nowrap, he set off on another tour of East Anglia, to conclude in Stamford during the Stamford Races.Template:Sfn One account suggests that this tour was intended to be his last, as he was then sufficiently wealthy to retire.Template:Sfn While on the tour, Lambert was weighed in Ipswich; his weight was Template:Convert.Template:Sfn No longer able to use stairs, he took lodgings on the ground floor of the Waggon & Horses inn at 47 High Street, Stamford on 20 June.<ref name="DNB" />Template:Sfn
DeathEdit
Following his arrival at Stamford, Lambert sent a message to the Stamford Mercury, ordering advertisements and handbills.Template:Sfn Stating that "as the mountain could not wait upon Mahomet, Mahomet would go to the mountain", he asked the printer to visit him at the Waggon & Horses, to discuss his printing requirements.Template:Sfn That evening, Lambert was in bed and admitted to feeling tired, but nonetheless he was able to discuss his requirements with the printer, and was anxious that the handbills be delivered on time.Template:Sfn
On the morning of 21 June, Lambert woke at his usual time and appeared in good health.Template:Sfn As he began to shave, he complained of breathing difficulties.Template:Sfn Ten minutes later, he collapsed and died.Template:Sfn
There was no autopsy, and the cause of Lambert's death is unknown.Template:Sfn While many sources say that he died of a fatty degeneration of the heart or of stress on his heart caused by his size and weight, his behaviour in the period leading to his death does not match that of someone with cardiac insufficiency; witnesses agree that on the morning of his death he appeared well, before he became short of breath and collapsed.Template:Sfn Bondeson (2006) speculates that the most consistent explanation of his death, given his symptoms and medical history, is that he had a sudden pulmonary embolism.Template:Sfn
BurialEdit
Lambert's corpse rapidly began to putrefy. There was no question of his body being returned to Leicester, and so on 22 June, it was placed inside an elm coffin, 6 feet 4 inches long, 4 feet 4 inches wide and 2 feet 4 inches deep (193 cm × 132 cm × 71 cm), built on wheels to allow it to be moved.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The coffin was so large that to wheel it out of the inn and to the newly opened burial ground at the rear of St Martin's Church, the window and wall of his apartment were demolished.<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> A suitably sized grave had been dug, with a sloping approach to avoid the need to lower the coffin from above, but on 23 June, it nonetheless took almost half an hour for twenty men to pull Lambert's enormous coffin into the grave.Template:Sfn
Lambert's friends paid for a large gravestone, inscribed:<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
In Remembrance of that Prodigy in Nature.
DANIEL LAMBERT.
a Native of Leicester:
who was possessed of an exalted and convivial Mind
and in personal Greatness had no Competitor
He measured three Feet one Inch round the Leg
nine Feet four Inches round the Body
and weighed
Fifty two Stone eleven Pounds!
He departed this Life on the 21st of Template:Nowrap
Aged 39 years
As a Testimony of Respect this Stone is erected by his Friends in Leicester{{#if:|{{#if:|}}— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
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After deathEdit
In late 1809, John Drakard released The life of that wonderful and extraordinary heavy man, the late Danl. Lambert, from his birth to the moment of his dissolution, with an account of men noted for their corpulency, and other interesting matter, the first full biography of Lambert to be released after his death.Template:Sfn Lambert's position as the heaviest person in recorded history was soon overtaken by the American Mills Darden (1799–1857), but Lambert had by now become a cult figure, and virtually every item connected with him was preserved for posterity.Template:Sfn His clothes and possessions were sold at auction to collectors, and many of them are preserved in museums today.Template:Sfn
Across England, many public houses and inns were renamed after Daniel Lambert, particularly in Leicester and Stamford. The Daniel Lambert public house at 12 Ludgate Hill,<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> near the entrance to St Paul's Cathedral in London,<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> was well known, and had a large portrait of Daniel Lambert and Lambert's walking stick on display in the lobby.Template:Sfn James Dixon, owner of the Ram Jam Inn in Stamford, bought the suit of clothes Lambert had been wearing when he died and put it on display, renaming the inn the Daniel Lambert.Template:Sfn
The term "Daniel Lambert" entered common use in English speech and writing, to refer to any fat man.Template:Sfn His name continued in this use long after the details of his life had been largely forgotten; in 1852, Charles Dickens remarked that "Lambert's name is known better than his history".Template:Sfn Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby compares the obese George IV to Lambert,Template:Sfn and William Makepeace Thackeray used the term in Vanity Fair to refer to the obese Joseph Sedley,Template:SfnTemplate:Refn and in The Luck of Barry Lyndon to refer to the fat servant Tim.Template:Sfn As time progressed, "Daniel Lambert" came to mean anything exceptionally large; Herbert Spencer's The Study of Sociology used the phrase "a Daniel Lambert of learning",<ref name="Spencer">Template:Citation</ref>Template:Refn while Thomas Carlyle referred sarcastically to Oliver Cromwell as "this big swollen Gambler and gluttonous hapless 'spiritual Daniel Lambert'".Template:Sfn In 1874, The Times, in reviewing the newly translated French comedy La Fiammina by Mario Uchard in which a character is named "Daniel Lambert", noted that the name is "always associated in the English mind with the notion of obesity",<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> and in 1907, almost 100 years after Lambert's death, the Château de Chambord was referred to as "the Daniel Lambert among châteaux".<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> Nellie Lambert Ensall, at the time the heaviest woman in Britain, claimed in 1910 to be Daniel Lambert's great-granddaughter, but her claim is likely to be untrue; Lambert was unmarried and is unlikely to have had any children.Template:Sfn
In 1838, the English Annual published a series of poems, purportedly written by Lambert and found amongst his papers at the Waggon and Horses after his death. No source published during Lambert's lifetime mentions his having any interest in poetry or in any reading matter other than periodicals on field sports, and it is unclear why his papers should have been with him in Stamford at his death, rather than at his home in Leicester. The discoverer of the poems is credited only as "Omega".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> It is likely that the poems are a hoax.
P. T. Barnum and General Tom ThumbEdit
P. T. Barnum and the Template:Convert tall General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton) visited Stamford in 1846 and donated one of Thumb's costumes to Dixon to be displayed alongside Lambert's.Template:Sfn General Tom Thumb visited Stamford again in 1859 and was tied up inside one of Lambert's stockings.Template:Sfn In 1866, General Tom Thumb, with his equally short wife Lavinia Warren (Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump), her sister Minnie Warren (Huldah Pierce Warren Bump) and Barnum's other celebrated dwarf Commodore Nutt (George Washington Morrison Nutt) visited Stamford.Template:Sfn All four were able to pass through the knee of Lambert's breeches together.Template:Sfn In 1866, Lambert's and Tom Thumb's clothes were sold to the Old London Tavern in Stamford;Template:Sfn they were later in the possession of Stamford Museum.<ref name="Stamford Museum">Template:Citation</ref> (In Template:Nowrap, it was announced that the Stamford Museum would close in Template:Nowrap, with its collection transferred to Stamford Library.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>)
The 1806 waxwork of Lambert was exported to the United States and was on show in New Haven, Connecticut, by 1813.Template:Sfn By 1828, the effigy was displayed in the Boston Vauxhall Gardens dressed in a complete set of Lambert's clothes.Template:Sfn It was later bought by P. T. Barnum and displayed at Barnum's American Museum in New York, but the museum was destroyed by fire in 1865 and, although workmen endeavoured to save the waxwork, it melted in the heat and was destroyed.Template:Sfn
In popular memoryEdit
Lambert is still a popular character in Leicester, described in 2009 by the Leicester Mercury as "one of the city's most cherished icons";<ref>Template:Citation</ref> several local public houses and businesses are named after him.Template:Sfn Sue Townsend's play The Ghost of Daniel Lambert featuring Leicester actor Perry Cree, tells the story of how Lambert's ghost watches disapprovingly over the 1960s demolition and redevelopment of Leicester's historic town centre, premiered at Leicester's Haymarket Theatre in 1981.<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> Lambert is also a popular figure in Stamford, and local football team Stamford A.F.C. are nicknamed "The Daniels", after him.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A set of Lambert's clothes, together with his armchair, walking stick, riding crop and prayer book, are on permanent display at the Newarke Houses Museum in Leicester.Template:Sfn Stamford Museum exhibited a tailor's dummy, dressed with Daniel Lambert's clothes as if they are being made up for him, plus his hat and a portrait.<ref name="Stamford Museum" /><ref>Template:Citation</ref> The Daniel Lambert pub in Ludgate Hill no longer exists, and the memorabilia formerly displayed there are now on permanent display at the George Hotel in Stamford.Template:Sfn The Daniel Lambert pub in Stamford has also closed.
In 2009, on the 200th anniversary of his death, Leicester celebrated Daniel Lambert Day, and over 800 people attended an event in his name at Newarke Houses Museum.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
See alsoEdit
Notes and referencesEdit
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
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External linksEdit
- Newarke Houses Museum
- Stamford Museum
- The Life of that wonderful and extraordinarily heavy man, Daniel Lambert: from his birth to the moment of his dissolution, (New York, 1818). From the Digital Collections of the National Library of Medicine.