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few men had more pleasantry and ready wit. In 1686, the princess Anne of Denmark made him her physician. In 1687, wealth flowing in upon him very plentifully, he had a mind to testify his gratitude to University college, where he had received the best part of his education; and, with this intent, caused the East window, over the altar, to be put up at his own expence. It is esteemed a beautiful piece, representing the nativity of our Saviour, painted upon glass; and appears to be his gift, by the following inscription under it: "D.D. JOAN. RADCLIFFE, M. D. hujus Collegii quondam Socius, A. D. M.DCLXXXVII." He is called "Socius;" not that he was really a fellow, but, being senior scholar, had the same privileges, though not an equal revenue, with the fellows. In 1688, when prince George of Denmark joined the prince of Orange; and the princess, his consort, retired to Nottingham, the doctor was pressed, by bishop Compton, to attend her in quality of his office, she being also pregnant of the duke of Gloucester; but, not choosing to declare himself in that critical state of public affairs, nor favouring the measures then in agitation, he excused himself on account of the multiplicity of his patients.

After the Revolution, he was often sent for to king William, and the great persons about his court; and this he must have owed entirely to his reputation, for it does not appear that he ever inclined to be a courtier. In 1692 he ventured 5000l. in an interloper, which was bound for the East Indies, with the prospect of a large return; but lost it, the ship being taken by the French. When the news. was brought him, he said that "he had nothing to do, but go up so many pair of stairs to make himself whole again." In 1693, he entered upon a treaty of marriage with the only daughter of a wealthy citizen, and was near bringing the affair to a conclusion, when it was discovered that the young lady had an intrigue with her father's book-keeper. This disappointment in his first love would not suffer him ever after to think of the sex in that light: he even acquired a degree of insensibility, if not aversion for them; and often declared, that "he wished for an act of parliament, whereby nurses only should be entitled to prescribe to them." In 1694, queen Mary caught the small-pox and died. "The physician's part," says bishop Burnet, "was universally condemned; and her death was imputed to the negligence or unskilfulness of Dr. Radcliffe. He

was called for; and it appeared, but too evidently, that his opinion was chiefly considered, and most depended on. Other physicians were afterwards called, but not till it was too late."

Soon after, he lost the favour of the princess Aune, by neglecting to obey her call, from his too great attachment to the bottle, and another physician was elected into his place. In 1699, king William returning from Holland, and being indisposed, sent for Radcliffe; and, shewing him his swoln ancles, while the rest of his body was emaciated and skeleton-like, said, "What think you of these?" "Why truly," replied the physician, "I would not have your majesty's two legs for your three kingdoms:" which freedom lost the king's favour, and no intercessions could ever recover it. When queen Anne came to the throne, the earl of Godolphin used all his endeavours to reinstate him in his former post of chief physician; but she would not be prevailed upon, alledging, that Radcliffe would send her word again, "that her ailments were nothing but the vapours." Still he was consulted in all cases of emergency and critical conjuncture; and though not admitted as the queen's domestic physician, he received large sums for his prescriptions.

In 1703, Radcliffe was himself taken ill (on Wednesday, March 24), with something like a pleurisy; neglected it; drank a bottle of wine at sir Justinian Isham's on Thursday, took to his bed on Friday; and on the 30th was so ill, that it was thought he could not live till the next day. Dr. Stanhope, dean of Canterbury; and Mr. Whitfield (then queen's chaplain, and rector of St. Martin, Ludgate, afterwards vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate), were sent for by him, and he desired them to assist him. By a will, made the 28th, he disposed of the greatest part of his estate to charity; and several thousand pounds, in particular, for the relief of sick seamen set ashore. Mr. Bernard, the serjeant-surgeon, took from him 100 ounces of blood; and on the 31st he took a strange resolution of being removed to Kensington, notwithstanding his weakness, from which the most pressing entreaties of his friends could not divert him. In the warmest time of the day he rose, and was carried by four men in a chair to Kensington, whither he got with difficulty, having fainted away in his chair. "Being put to bed," says Dr. Atterbury, on whose authority we relate these particulars, " he fell asleep immediately, and

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it is concluded now (April 1) that he may do well; so that the town-physicians, who expected to share his practice, begin now to think themselves disappointed." Two days after, the same writer adds, "Dr. Radcliffe is past all danger: his escape is next to miraculous. It hath made him not only very serious, but very devout. The person who hath read prayers to him often (and particularly this day) tells me, he never saw a man more in earnest. queen asked Mr. Bernard how he did; and when he told her that he was ungovernable, and would observe no rules, she answered, that then nobody had reason to take any thing ill from him, since it was plain he used other people no worse than he used himself."

The

He continued, however, in full business, increasing in wealth and eccentric temper, to the end of his days; always carrying on, as we have before observed, war with his brethren the physicians, who never considered him in any other light than that of an active, ingenious, adventuring empiric, whom constant practice brought at length to some skill in his profession. One of the projects of "Martin Scriblerus" was, by a stamp upon blistering-plasters and melilot by the yard, to raise money for the government, and give it to Radcliffe and others to farm. In Martin's "Map of Diseases," which was "thicker set with towns than any Flanders map," Radcliffe was painted at the corner, contending for the universal empire of this world, and the rest of the physicians opposing his ambitious designs, with a project of a treaty of partition to settle peace.

In 1713 he was elected into parliament for the town of Buckingham. In the last illness of queen Anne, he was sent for to Carshalton, about noon, by order of the council. He said, "he had taken physic, and could not come." Mr. Ford, from whose letter to Dr. Swift this anecdote is taken, observes, "In all probability he had saved her life; for I am told the late lord Gower had been often in the same condition, wtth the gout in his head." In the account that is given of Dr. Radcliffe in the "Biographia Britannica," it is said, that the queen was struck with death the twenty-eighth of July: that Dr. Radcliffe's name was not once mentioned, either by the queen or "any lord of the council;" only that lady Masham sent to him, without their knowledge, two hours before the queen's death. In this letter from Mr. Ford to dean Swift, which is dated the thirty-first of July, it is said, that the queen's disorder began

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between eight and nine the morning before, which was the thirtieth; and that about noon, the same day, Radcliffe was sent for by an order of council. These accounts being contradictory, the reader will probably want some assistance to determine what were the facts. As to the time when the queen was taken ill, Mr. Ford's account is most likely to be true, as he was upon the spot, and in a situation which insured him the best intelligence. As to the time when the doctor was sent for, the account in the Biog: Brit. is manifestly wrong: for if the doctor had been sent for only two hours before the queen's death, which happened incontestably on the first of August, Mr. Ford could not have mentioned the fact on the 31st of July, when his letter was dated. Whether Radcliffe was sent for by lady Masham, or by order of council, is therefore the only point to be determined. That he was generally reported to have been sent for by order of council is certain; but a letter is printed in the " Biographia," said to have been written by the doctor to one of his friends, which, supposing it to be genuine, will prove, that the doctor maintained the contrary. On the 5th of August, four days after the queen's death, a member of the House of Commons, a friend of the doctor's, who was also a member, and one who always voted on the same side, moved, that he might be summoned to attend in his place, in order to be censured for not attending on her majesty. Upon this occasion the doctor is said to have written the following letter to another of his friends:

"Dear Sir,

Carshalton, Aug. 7, 1714.

"I could not have thought that so old an acquaintance and so good a friend, as sir Jn always professed himself, would have made such a motion against me. God knows my will to do her majesty any service has ever got the start of my ability; and I have nothing that gives me greater anxiety and trouble than the death of that great and glorious princess. I must do that justice to the physicians that attended her in her illness, from a sight of the method that was taken for her preservation by Dr. Mead, as to declare nothing was omitted for her preservation; but the people about her (the plagues of Egypt fall on them!) put it out of the power of physic to be of any benefit to her. I know the nature of attending crowned heads in their last moments too well to be fond of waiting upon them, without being sent for by a proper authority. You have heard of

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pardons being signed for physicians, before a sovereign's demise: however, ill as I was, I would have went to the queen in a horse-litter, had either her majesty, or those in commission next to her, commanded me so to do. You may tell sir Jn as much, and assure him from me, that his zeal for her majesty will not excuse his ill usage of a friend, who has drank many a hundred bottles with him, and cannot, even after this breach of a good understanding that ever was preserved between us, but have a very good esteem for him. I must also desire you to thank Tom Chapman for his speech in my behalf, since I hear it is the first he ever made, which is taken more kindly; and to acquaint him, that I should be glad to see him at Carshalton, since I fear (for so the gout tells me) that we shall never more sit in the House of Commons together. I am, &c.

"JOHN RADCLIFFE."

But, whatever credit may now be paid to this letter, or however it may now be thought to justify the doctor's refusal to attend her majesty, he became at that time so much the object of popular resentment, that he was apprehensive of being assassinated; as appears by the following letter, directed to Dr. Mead, at Child's coffee-house, in St. Paul's church-yard:

"Dear Sir,

Carshalton, Aug. 3, 1714.

" I give you, and your brother, many thanks, for the favour you intend me to-morrow; and if there is any other friend that will be agreeable to you, he shall meet with a hearty welcome from me. Dinner shall be on the table by two, when you may be sure to find me ready to wait upon you. Nor shall I be at any other time from home, because I have received several letters, which threaten me with being pulled to pieces, if ever I come to London. After such menaces as these, it is easy to imagine, that the conversation of two such very good friends is not only extremely desirable, but the enjoyment of it will be a great happiness and satisfaction to him, who is, &c.

"JOHN RADCLIFFE."

Radcliffe died on the first of November the same year, having survived the queen just three months; and it is said, that the dread he had of the populace, and the want of company in the country village, which he did not dare to leave, shortened his life, when just sixty-four years old.

VOL. XXV.

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