A true and delightful tale from All Things Georgian.
Courtesy of Lewis Walpole Library
To Gormandize – to eat (food) voraciously and greedily.
Edward Dando (not John Dando as he seems to be everywhere else recorded), born in Southwark on the 11th February 1803 to John and Frances Dando, grew up to be a ‘celebrated gormandizer.’
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He was also known by the appellation of the ‘celebrated oyster eater.’ For Dando, although not a thief (by his own reckoning) did not see why he should not have plenty of everything, even though he had no money to pay for it, when his betters relied constantly on credit to fund their lifestyles. He was determined to live as they did.
Trained as a hatter, Edward Dando, when in his early twenties, embarked on his career as an oyster eater, devouring up to thirty dozen large oysters in a sitting, with bread and butter, washed down with quantities…
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First Night History 
I am partial to a very occasional oyster, especially when visiting Whitstable, once the major source of London’s oysters. But thirty dozen in one sitting, 360 oysters! How did he possibly manage that? I am more surprised that food poisoning didn’t get him, long before he succumbed to cholera.
A joyous tale, of a Victorian vagabond.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Irresistible, isn’t it.
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