70 STEPHEN HALES 



Vigani, an Italian chemist, who had taught unofficially in the 

 University for some years and became the first Professor of 

 Chemistry at Cambridge in 1703. 



Judging from his book, Medulla Chymiae, 1682, Vigani was 

 an eminently practical person who cared greatly about the proper 

 make of a furnace and the form of a retort, but was not cum- 

 bered with theories. 



Hales vacated his fellowship and became minister or perpetual 

 curate of Teddington 1 in 1708 9 and there he lived until his 

 death, fifty-two years afterwards. He was married (? 1719) and 

 his wife died without issue in 1721. 



He attracted the attention of Royalty, and received plants 

 from the King's garden at Hampton Court. Frederick Prince 

 of Wales, the father of George III, is said to have been fond of 

 surprising him in his laboratory at Teddington. This must 

 surely be a unique habit in a prince, but we may remember 

 that, in the words of the Prince's mock epitaph, " since it is 

 only Fred there's no more to be said." He became Clerk of the 

 Closet to the Dowager Princess and this " mother of the best of 

 Kings" as she calls herself put up his monument in Westminster 

 Abbey. Hales had the honour of receiving the Copley Medal 

 from the Royal Society in 1739, and Oxford made him a D.D. 

 in 1733. 



Some years ago I* made a pilgrimage to Teddington and 

 found, in the parish registers, many interesting entries by his 

 hand ; the last in a tremulous writing is on November 4th, 

 1760, two months before he died. He was clearly an active 

 parish priest. He made his female parishioners do public 

 penance when he thought they deserved it : he did much for 

 the fabric of the church. "In I754 2 he helped the parish to 

 a decent water supply and characteristically records, in the 

 parish register, that the outflow was such as to fill a two-quart 

 vessel in ' three swings of a pendulum beating seconds, which 

 pendulum was 39 + 3% inches long from the suspending nail to 

 the middle of the plumbet or bob '." Under the tower he helped 



1 He also held the living of Farringdon in Hampshire where he occasionally 

 resided. 



Diet. Nat. Biog. 



