It is probably the best known “Christmas Story” of the world: Charles Dickens’ tale of the hard-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge, to whom three ghosts appear on the night before Christmas and show him quite drastically the consequences of his heartless life.
What is less well known: There was a real role model for Scrooge: the London businessman and millionaire John Elwes (1714-1789).
Charles Dickens (1812-1817) published his famous “Christmas Carol” in 1843
He was famous (and notorious) for skimping on everything! His houses were in ruins because he never had anything repaired. It was raining through the roof, the wind whistled through the broken windows. At best, a fire burned in the kitchen, usually just a piece of wood.
There were only leftovers to eat, some weeks old. Once he is said to have snatched the carcass of a drowned grouse from a rat. Even his rich mother had starved to death – because she was too stingy to buy food!
The millionaire wore rags and found his wig in a hedge. Many a passer-by took him for a beggar and gave the millionaire charity.
When he traveled, he tried to travel on grass as much as possible so that the horseshoes would not wear out. In between he took a break and let his horse – already emaciated – graze in order to save on the straw at home. On longer journeys he slept under hedges, he saved an inn.
Even in the pouring rain, the few pennies for a carriage were too much for him. He walked and then went to bed with his clothes soaking wet – without changing them or making a fire to dry them.
Elwes had to travel frequently, especially when he later became a Member of Parliament. Then he lived in one of his London houses, which was currently empty. In one case, this almost ended in his downfall. After failing to meet his nephew, he went all over town looking for him. Eventually he found Elwes in one of his houses, gravely ill and in bed with a fever. A doctor was just able to save him. But not his longtime housekeeper. She was found dead in the house days later.
Legendary: When the curmudgeon injured both his legs, he only let the doctor treat one — to save half the doctor’s bills!
On his deathbed, by the firelight, the notary had to write his last will because Elwes was too stingy for the candle. His doctor said he could have lived at least ten more years if his stinginess hadn’t ruined his health.
Dickens’ fictional character Scrooge was quirky, but the real thing was even weirder!
Unlike Scrooge, he never managed to break free from his stinginess. Elwes had one good trait, though: if he lent someone money, he never asked for it back!
John Elwes left his two illegitimate sons and his nephew a gigantic fortune of 800,000 pounds (according to today’s purchasing power 135 million euros), and throughout his life he managed to survive on 50 pounds (today around 8500 euros) a year.