tentively studying the Articles of the Church of England. He proceeded A.B. 1710; A.M. 1714; and having obtained a licence ad practicandum from the university, settled about the year 1716 at Lynn, in Norfolk, under the patronage of the Turner family. It was about this time that our physician wrote the wellknown epigram on George the First's handsome present to the university of Cambridge. The circumstances were as follow. Dr. John Moore, successively bishop of Norwich and Ely, one of the most learned men of his time, had collected one of the best and most ample collections of all sorts of good books in England. It comprised, according to Noble, 28,965 printed books and 1,790 manuscripts. The bishop died 31st July, 1714; shortly after which the king purchased his library for 6,000l., and presented it to the university of Cambridge. By a curious coincidence, a regiment of cavalry was despatched to Oxford at the very time that the library was removed to Cambridge. The event was commemorated by Dr. Trapp in the following lines:

The king, observing with judicious eyes,

The state of both his universities,
To one he sent a regiment, for why?
That learned body wanted loyalty:

To th' other he sent books, as well discerning
How much that loyal body wanted learning.

Browne, stung by the reflection on his own Alma Mater, replied thus:

The king to Oxford sent a troop of horse,
For Tories own no argument but force;
With equal skill to Cambridge books he sent,
For Whigs admit no force but argument.

He took the degree of doctor of medicine at Cambridge in 1721, and shortly afterwards, according to his own statement, got incorporated at Oxford. On the 1st March, 1738-9, he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society. He practised at Lynn for more than thirty years, and acquired by his profession a competent fortune, though even then he evinced no small

amount of eccentricity. Upon one occasion, a pamphlet having been written against him, he nailed it to his own house-door. In 1748, through the influence of the duke of Montague, he was knighted by king George II. A respectable bookseller at Lynn used to relate, that the first time he had to make out his bill after the doctor had been dubbed a knight, he wrote, "Sir William Browne, debtor to Thomas Hollingbury;" when he delivered it into the knight's hand, he looked at it a short time, and then turning to him said, “Mr. Hollingbury, you might have said 'the honourable Sir William Browne.'" "I beg your pardon, Sir William," replied the bookseller, "but upon my word I did not know it was customary to prefix to the name of a knight the word honourable.' "As to that," rejoined the knight, "if it be not customary, it would yet have been pleasing." About the same period he distinguished himself as a champion of the fair sex at Lynn, but under what circumstances, and in what manner, are now unknown. The incident led to the following epigram, the product, it has always been thought, of his own pen:

Domino Wilhelmo Browne, militi.
Sit, Miles, terror, castigatorque Gigantis,
Victima cui Virgo nocte dieque cadit.
Herculeo monstris purgata est Lerna labore,
Monstris purgetur Lenna labore tuo.

Be thou, O knight, the giant's scourge and dread,
Who night and day preys on the victim maid.
Herculean labour Lerna's monsters slew,

Oh! may thy labours those of Lynn subdue.

From an early period of his professional career, Sir William Browne had contemplated an eventual removal to the metropolis; and with the view of securing his due position, whenever that should be feasible, he presented himself before the College of Physicians for examination, and was admitted a Candidate 30th September, 1725, and a Fellow 30th September, 1726. În 1749 Sir William removed to London. He was named VOL. II.

H

one of the Elects of the College 9th April, 1750, and delivered the Harveian oration in 1751. He served the office of Censor in 1750, 1751, 1752, 1753, 1771; was elected Treasurer 3rd December, 1751, in place of Dr. Horseman deceased; was Consiliarius in 1752, 1755, 1762; and President in 1765 and 1766. This was a period of great excitement in the College. The dispute with the Licentiates was then at its height; and Sir William Browne, a man of strong feelings, extraordinary garrulity, and utterly void of discretion, was wholly unfit at such a crisis to occupy the presidential chair. He was an energetic defender of the exclusive privileges of the English universities; and, in the contest between the College and Dr. Schomberg, had unfortunately printed a pamphlet as ill-judged as it must have been offensive to the Licentiates. These circumstances brought him under the lash of Foote, in his "Devil on Two Sticks." Foote gave an inimitable representation of the Esculapian knight on the stage, with the precise counterpart of his wig and coat aud odd figure, and glass stiffly applied to his eye. Sir William sent Foote a card, complimenting him having so happily represented him, but, as he had forgotten the muff, he sent him his own. Whilst he filled the office of President, the Licentiates in a body forced their way into the College, and even into the room where the Comitia was being held. Sir William maintained his composure, and at once dissolved the Comitia; but the affair left an abiding impression on him, and, dreading a defeat or some indignity, he determined to resign his office, not choosing as he was wont to say, to stay to be beaten by the Licentiates. As another opportunity may not occur, I may here state that a second attempt was made the following year (1767) to break into the College, but the precaution had been taken of closing the iron gates which guarded the entrance from Warwick-lane. The assembled Licentiates offered a smith ten guineas and an indemnification of three hundred pounds to force the gate, but he refused.

upon

At this time the following lines vindicating Sir William against the abuse and anger of the Licentiates became public. They were represented as having been sent to him by an anonymous correspondent, but were more probably written by himself:—

AD FUSCUM, EQUITEM, PRÆSIDEM.
HORACE, ODE XXII, BOOK 1.

Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus,-
Non timet Scoti obloquium neque iram,
Nec venenatis gravidam sagittis,
FUSCE, pharetram.

Pone te Scotis ubi nulla campis,

Arbor æstivâ recreatur aurâ,

Dulce ridentem comites te habebunt
Dulce loquentem.

TO BROWNE, KNIGHT, PRESIDENT.

He whose just life due honour bears,
Nor Scot's abuse nor anger fears,

Nor his full loaded quiver:

Browne! let him try his treach'rous arts
To wound thee with his poison'd darts,
Thou shalt retort them ever.

Place thee in Edin's foulest air,
Which neither tree, nor nose can bear,
Nor lungs with pleasure take in;
Ev'n there, such spirits flow in thee,
Thee sweetly laughing all shall see,
All hear thee sweetly speaking.

On quitting the chair, Sir William Browne delivered an oration in Latin, in which he delineates his own. character and history, and reviews the prominent events of his presidency. This valedictory address was forthwith published in Latin and in English: from the latter I extract the following

"The manly age and inclination with conformable studies I diligently applied to the practice of physic in the country, where, as that age adviseth, I sought riches and friendships; but, afterwards, being satiated

with friends, whom truth, not flattery, had procured; satiated with riches which Galen, not fortune, had presented, I resorted immediately to this College, where, in further obedience to the same adviser, I might totally addict myself to the service of honour. Conducted by your favour instead of my own merit, I have been advanced through various degrees of honour-a most delightful climax indeed-even to the very highest of all which the whole profession of physic hath to confer. In this chair, therefore, twice received from the Elects (shewing their favour to himself, he confesses, much more than to the College), your President

Acknowledges, that he has happy been,

And, now, content with acting this sweet scene,
Chuses to make his exit, like a guest,
Retiring pamper'd from a plenteous feast,

in order to attach himself and the remainder of his life
no longer, as before, solely to the College, but by turns
also to the medicinal springs of his own country, al-
though as a physician never unmindful of his duty, yet,
after his own manner, with hilarity rather than gravity,
to enjoy liberty more valuable than silver or gold, as
in his own right, because that of mankind-not without
pride, which ever ought to be its inseparable com-
panion,

Now the free foot shall dance its favourite round.

Behold an instance of human ambition not to be satiated but by the conquest of three, as it were, medical worlds; lucre in the country, honour in the College; pleasure at medicinal springs! I would, if it were possible, be delightful and useful to all: to myself even totally and equal; to old age, though old, diametrically opposite; not a censor and chastiser, but a com mender and encourager of youth. I would have mine, such as in the satire

Crispus's hoary entertaining age,

Whose wit and manners mild alike engage.