When the Queen died, the doctor was censured most severely for his refusal to attend her, and so violent was party resentment against him on this account, that he was threatened with assassination. The menaces which he received from anonymous correspondents, filled him with such apprehensions, that he could not venture to remove from his country seat; and this, with the want of his old companions produced a melancholy that hastened his end, about two months after the death of the queen, November 1, 1714.* His body * The following letters shew the ground and the extent of the doctor's apprehensions. The first affords a very affecting, and a most instructive lesson to those who have thoughtlessly contracted pernicious habits, and wasted their time in plea sure and intemperance. "This being the last time that, in all probability, I shall ever put pen to paper, I thought it my duty to employ it in writing to you; since I am now going to a place from whence I can administer no advice to you, and whither you, and all the rest who survive me, are obliged to come sooner or later. "Your Lordship is too well acquainted with my temper, to imagine that I could bear the reproaches of my friends, and threats of my enemies, without laying them deeply at heart; especially since there are no grounds for the one, nor foundation for the other; and you will give me credit when I say that these considerations alone have shortened my days. "I dare persuade myself that the reports which have been raised of me, relating to my non-attendance on the Queen, in her last moments, are received by you; as by others of my constant 23 body was removed to Oxford, and there solemnly interred the third of December following, in St. Mary's church. He constant and assured friends, with an air of contempt, and disbelief; and could wish that they made as little an impression upon me. But I find them to be insupportable, and have experienced, that though there are repellent medicines for diseases of the body, those of the mind are too strong and impetuous for the feeble resistance of the most powerful artist. "In a word, the decays of nature tell me that I cannot live long; and the menacing letter enclosed will tell you from what quarter my death comes. Give me leave, therefore, to be in earnest once for all with my very good Lord, and to use my endeavours to prolong your life, that cannot add a span's length to my own. "Your Lordship knows how far an air of jollity has obtained amongst you and your acquaintance, and how many of them, in a few years, have died martyrs to excess; let me conjure you, therefore, for the good of your own soul, the preservation of your health, and the benefit of the public, to deny yourself the destructive liberties you have hitherto taken, and which, I must confess, with a heart full of sorrow, I have been too great a partaker of in your company, "You are to consider, (Oh! that I myself had done so !) that men, especially those of your exalted rank are born to nobler purposes than those of eating and drinking; and that by how much the more eminent your station is, by so much the more accountable will you be for the discharge of it. Nor will your duty to God, your country, or yourself permit you to anger the first in robbing the second of a patriot and defender, by not taking a due care of the third; which will be accounted He was a most liberal benefactor to that Unversity, and left the greatest part of his fortune to it accounted downright murder, in the eyes of that incensed Deity that will most assuredly avenge it. "The pain that afflicts my nerves interrupts me from making any other request to you, than that your Lordship would give credit to the words of a dying man, who is fearful that he has been in a great measure an abettor and encourager of your intemperance; and would therefore, in these his last moments, when he is most to be credited, dehort you from the pursuit of it; and that in these, the days of your youthfor you have many years yet to live, if you do not hasten your own death-you would give ear to the voice of the Preacher, whom you and I, with the rest of your company, have, in the midst of our riotous debauches, made light of for saying, "Rejoice, Oh young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: But, know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment." On which day, when the hearts of all men shall be laid open, may you and I, and all that sincerely repent of acting contrary to the revealed will in this life, reap the fruits of our sorrows for our misdeeds, in a blessed resurrection; which is the hearty prayer of, "My very good Lord, "Your Lordship's most obedient, The letter enclosed was as follows: "DOCTOR, Though I am no friend of yours, but, on the contrary, one that could wish your destruction in a legal way, for not it at his death. He was never married, owing to a remarkable disappointment which he experienced in 1693. He was upon the point of being united to a merchant's daughter in the city, when he discovered that the young lady was with child by preventing the death of our most excellent Queen when you had it in your power to save her; yet I have such an aversion to the taking away men's lives unfairly, as to acquaint you that if you attempt to go to meet the gentlemen you have appointed to dine with at the Greyhound, in Croydon, on Thursday next, you will be most certainly murdered. I am one of the persons engaged in the conspiracy, with twelve more, who are resolved to sacrifice you to the ghost of her late majesty, that cries aloud for your blood; therefore, neither stir out of doors on that day, nor any other, nor think of exchanging your present place of abode for your house at Hammersmith, since there and every where else, we shall be in quest of you. I am touched with remorse, and give you this notice: but take care of yourself lest I repent of it, and give proof of so doing, by having it in my power to destroy you, who am "Your sworn enemy, "For Dr. Radcliffe, "N. G." at his house in Carshalton, Surrey." It is more than probable that this letter was only intended to frighten the doctor, by some who owed him no good will. The intention however was sufficiently answered, for the menaces which he received, preyed upon his spirits and hurried him to his grave. by her father's book-keeper, on which Radcliffe wrote the following letter to the old gentleman: "SIR, "The honour of being allied to so good and wealthy a person as Mr. S. has pushed me upon a discovery that may be fatal to your quiet and your daughter's reputation, if not timely prevented. Mrs. Mary is a very deserving gentlewoman, but you must pardon me if I think her by no means fit to be my wife, since she is another man's already, or ought to be. In a word she is no better, and no worse than actually quick with child; which makes it necessary that she be disposed of to him, that has the best claim to her affections. No doubt but you have power enough over her, to bring her to confession, which is by no means the part of a physician. As for my part, I shall wish you much joy of a new son-in-law, when known; since I am by no means qualified to be so near of kin. Hanging and marrying, I find, go by destiny; and I might have been guilty of the first, had I not so narrowly escaped the last. My best services to your daughter whom I can be of little use to as a physician, and of much less in the quality of a suitor. Her best way is to advise with a midwife for her safe delivery, and the person who has conversed with her after the manner of women, for an humble servant. The daughter of so wealthy a gentleman as Mr. S. can never want a husband; therefore the sooner you bestow her the better, that the young hans-en kelder may be born in lawful wedlock, and have the right of inheritance to so large a patrimony. You will excuse me for being so free with you; for though I cannot have the honour of being your son-in-law, I shall ever take a pride in being in the number of your friends. "Who am, Sir, "Your most obedient Servant, "JOHN RADCLIFFE." The |