Poems; and, in consequence of its undiminished
popularity, it was enlarged by two additional vo-
lumes in 1758.1 To the sixth volume Akenside
contributed a "Hymn to the Naiads ;
" "Ode to
the Earl of Huntingdon ; " " Ode to the Bishop of
Winchester;""Inscription for a Grotto;" "For
a Statue of Chaucer at Woodstock;" one begin-
ning "Whoe'er thou art," &c.; "For a Statue of
Shakespeare;" "On William the Third;'
"For a
Column at Runnymede;" and an Ode, "If rightly
tuneful bards decide," &c. None of these pieces,
except the second in the list, had previously
appeared.

A publication of this year (1758), addressed to

1 Dodsley's Collection appeared first, in three volumes, in 1748; the fourth volume came out in 1755; the fifth and sixth volumes were published in 1758.

Gray's remarks on the "Pleasures of Imagination" have been already cited (see page 21, note, of this Memoir). In March, 1758, he writes thus to Dr. Wharton:-"Then here is the Miscellany (Mr. Dodsley has sent me the whole set gilt and lettered, I thank him). Why, the two last volumes are worse than the four first: particularly Dr. Akenside is in & deplorable way. What signifies Learning and the Ancients (Mason will say triumphantly), why should people read Greek to lose their imagination, their ear, and their mother-tongue? Memoirs of Gray by Mason, 261, ed. 1775.- Could such a scholar as Gray be insensible to the classic beauty of the Hymn to the Naiads," and the "Inscriptions" of Akenside?

Mr. Bucke, on the authority of Sir Grey Cooper, states that the Inscription, "Whoe'er thou art," &c., tells faithfully the melancholy fate of a young gentleman, named Weybridge, who came early into possession of a small property in the county of Northumberland. - Life of Akenside, 83.

It is the

our author, must not pass unnoticed. "Call of Aristippus," an Epistle in rhyme, by the ingenious John Gilbert Cooper, who, designating Akenside as the "Twofold Disciple of Apollo," assures him that in Elysium Plato and Virgil shall weave him a never-fading crown, while Lucretius, Pindar, and Horace shall willingly yield him precedence. The panegyric is rendered worthless by its extravagance.

In January, 1759, Akenside was appointed assistant Physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, and, two months after, principal Physician. In the same year he became assistant Physician to Christ's Hospital. Of his behaviour, in his official capacity, at the former institution, the following anecdotes are preserved. As they must tend to lower him in the estimation of the reader, I transcribe them with a feeling of reluctance; but I should not have thought myself justified in suppressing them, as Mr. Bucke has done, even if they had been derived from a less respectable source than the "Memoirs of Dr. Lettsom." I am willing, however, to believe that practice at an hospital may frequently present occurrences to disturb the temper of the mildest physician.

Lettsom, when a young man, says Mr. Petti

1 It was a sequel to three "Epistles to the Great, from Aristippus in Retirement," 4to. Cooper had previously mentioned Akenside with absurdly exaggerated commendation in "Letters concerning Taste:" see ed. 1755, p. 101.

grew, "entered [at St. Thomas's Hospital] as a
surgeon's dresser, under Benjamin Cowell, Esq.
The other surgeons were Mr. Baker and Mr.
Smith, men of no great eminence.
The phy
sicians were Akenside, Russell, and Grieve.
Lettsom was early fond of poetry, and had read
the 'Pleasures of Imagination' with admiration.
He anticipated great pleasure in coming under
the author's notice; for, by a small premium, a
surgeon's pupil is admitted to the practice of the
Physicians of the Hospital. Great, however, was
his disappointment in finding Dr. Akenside the
most supercilious and unfeeling physician that he
had hitherto known. If the poor affrighted pa-
tients did not return a direct answer to his queries,
he would often instantly discharge them from the
Hospital. He evinced a particular disgust to fe-
males, and generally treated them with harshness.
It was stated that this moroseness was occasioned
by disappointment in love; but hapless must have
been that female who should have been placed
under his tyranny. Lettsom was inexpressibly
shocked at an instance of Dr. Akenside's inhu-
manity, exercised towards a patient in Abraham's
Ward, to whom he had ordered bark in boluses;
who, in consequence of not being able to swallow
them, so irritated Akenside, as to order the sister
of the Ward to discharge him from the hospital;
adding, he shall not die under my care.' As the
sister was removing him, in obedience to the Doc

tor, the patient expired. One leg of Dr. Akenside was considerably shorter than the other, which was in some measure remedied by the aid of a

false heel. He had a pale strumous countenance, fule is but was always very neat and elegant in his dress. He wore a large white wig, and carried a long sword. Lettsom never knew him to spit, nor would he suffer any pupil to spit in his presence. One of them once accidentally did so, yet standing at some distance behind him. The Doctor instantly spun round on his artificial heel, and has tily demanded, who was the person that spit in his face? Sometimes he would order some of the patients, on his visiting days, to precede him with brooms to clear the way, and prevent the patients from too nearly approaching him. On one of these occasions, Richard Chester, one of the Governors, upbraided him for his cruel behaviour: Know,' said he, 'thou art a servant of this Charity.' On one occasion his anger was excited to a very high pitch, by the answer which Mr. Baker, the surgeon, gave to a question the Doctor put to him, respecting one of his sons, who was subject to epilepsy, which had somewhat impaired his understanding, To what study do you purpose to place him?' said Akenside to Baker. I find,' replied Baker, he is not capable of making a surgeon, so I have sent him to Edinburgh to make a physician of him.' Akenside turned round from Baker with impetuosity, and would

not speak to him for a considerable time afterwards. Dr. Russell was as condescending as Akenside was petulant. Akenside, however, would sometimes condescend to explain a case of disease to the pupils, which always appeared sagacious; and, notwithstanding his irritable temper, he was more followed than Russell by the pupils.” 1

In October, 1759, Akenside delivered the Harveian Oration before the College of Physicians, by whose order it was next year given to the press.

In June, 1761, Mr. Thomas Hollis (as his biographer informs us) "bought a bed which once belonged to John Milton, and on which he died. This bed he sent as a present to Dr. Akenside, with the following card: An English gentleman is desirous of having the honour to present a bed which once belonged to John Milton, and on which he died, to Dr. Akenside; and if the Doctor's genius, believing himself obliged, and having slept in that bed, should prompt him to write an ode to the memory of John Milton and the assertors of British liberty, that gentleman would

Pettigrew's Memoirs of Dr. Lettsom, i. 21.

2 "Oratio Anniversaria, quam ex Harveii instituto in theatro Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis Dle Octobris xviii A. MDCCLIX habuit Marcus Akenside, M. D. Coll. Med. et Reg. Societ. Socius." 1760, 4to, pp. 24. It is dedicated to Dr. Reeve, the President, and to the Fellows of the College of Phy sicians.