The life of a deaf-mute, with an image of a manual alphabet, 1855

The story of John Lashford, a deaf-mute who died tragically young.

It narrates the story of John William Lashford, a pupil of the Brighton and Sussex Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, who died in 1848 at the age of 17. Written by the headmaster of the institute, the primary aim of the publication seems to have been to raise money for the Institute.

"In a style epitomizing Victorian sentimentality, he [John] was depicted as a child who had achieved piety through adversity. [...] By portraying a 'good death' of the sort promoted by the Evangelical Revival and captured by the Romantic Movement, the Brighton Institution converted John Lashford into a marketable product whose appeal to the spiritual anxieties of less challenged believers generated valuable funds" (Borsay).