XIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 47 



house, the Doctor, after waiting some time, was 

 told that the stranger patient was then taking 

 rest, and could not conveniently be disturbed. 

 And so he was dismissed, and never heard 

 afterwards either of the patient or his friends. 



He gave it in charge to his two curates, in 

 their course of visiting the sick, nevei^ to take 

 gratuities from ordinary tradesmen, or any of 

 the inferior sort of people ; and that they might 

 be the less tempted to complain of this injunc- 

 tion, he not only set off to them for their allow- 

 ance, such fees of his parish, (as raised their 

 stipend in some years to six score pounds each), 

 but he declined, as much as he could, the per- 

 forming, in his own person, all those offices 

 where extraordinary perquisites or presents 

 were to be of course expected, that his curates 

 might receive the benefit of his people's gene- 

 rosity. 



Amidst the variety of business that he went 

 through, and frequent avocations from home 

 while he lived upon his cure, he took no kind 

 of diversion, unless the study of coins and me- 

 dals may be called so *. For of these he was 



* Coins and medals were his amusement and delight for 

 several j^ears after he was Archbishop. When he so improved 

 and enlarged his collection, that at length it was inferior to 

 few in England, especially in regard of the Saxon and 

 English coins. He likewise wrote and left a large MS. 



II 



