316 



ill the reparation and regulation of the highways in his neighbour- 

 hood, and from his stature he received the appellation of the 

 Colossus of Roads. 



The great dissimilarity of the many subjects on which Townsend 

 wrote has been a subject of remark by many, and in connection 

 with this the note on his method of working, as given by Mr. 

 Warner, p. 102, is worth introducing. In reply to a question 

 which Mr. Warner put to Townsend about some plate-glass 

 manufactory in some town in Spain on which he had written — 



" Townsend replied that he had lost the recollection, both of the manu- 

 factory and of its products, hut he might be assured of the accuracy of every 

 detail in his book, as ho had noted the particulars of each account on the spot, 

 and had carefully superintended the printing of the volumes, and had then 

 dismissed their contents from his mind." 



The following is an illustration of his method of learning a 

 language : — 



" He was an excellent Hebrew scholar, but he had not possessed himself of 

 the roots of this venerable language by solitary fagging ; he literally carried 

 them at his finger'' s ends; marked a certain number of them (as he has himself 

 assured me) on the broad nails of his large hands every morning ; conned and 

 silently repeated these tri-literals at every vacant moment of his busy hours 

 during the day ; and, when they were firmly fixed in his mind, obliterated 

 them from his manual horn-'hoo'ks, which were thus prepared to receive a new 

 series of roots on the succeeding morning." 



Mr. Broderip, of Oriel College, Oxford, was a great friend of 

 Townsend, and gathered much information from him, and Broderip 

 and Prof. Buckland were then the great geological collectors at 

 Oxford, and belonged to the clique of early Oxford geologists of • 

 which both the Duncans were members. 



His Works. — Every True Christian a New Creature ; 1765 ; 

 12mo. Observations : plans for the Eemoval of the Poor ; 1788; 

 Svo. Journey through Spain ; 1790 ; 3 vol. ; 8vo. Free Thoughts 

 on Despotic and Free Governments; 1791 ; 8vo. The Physician's 

 Made Vecum ; 1794 ; 10th edition ; 1807. A Guide to Health ; 

 1795 ; 2 vols. ; Svo. Dissei-tation on the Poor Laws ; 1796 ; Svo. 

 Sermons on various subjects ; 1805 ; Svo. The Character of 

 Moses established, 1812 to 1815; 2 vol.; 4to. Townsend also 

 communicated articles to various journals, magazines, &c., the 



