MEMOIR OF DRURY. 67 



death. During many of the latter years of his life, 

 he was much afflicted with stone in the bladder, 

 and was obliged to have recourse to the frequent 

 use of laudanum as an anodyne. * Other disorders 

 also began to assail him, indicating that the powers 

 of his constitution were beginning to decay. He 

 still, however, continued to make frequent visits to 

 London, and even to take part occasionally in mat- 

 ters of a public nature. Thus we find the following 

 notice in his memorandum book : u Attended Mr. 

 Rawlins, upholsterer, and Mr. Cox, goldsmith, being 

 the sheriffs elect, to the London Tavern, where 

 the company breakfasted and proceeded to Guild- 

 hall, where they gave bond to serve the office, and 

 returned to the Tavern to an elegant entertainment. 

 On Wednesday I attended them again to Gold- 

 smiths' Hall, where we breakfasted, and proceeded 

 in the goldsmiths' barge to Westminster, where 

 they were sworn into their office before one of the 

 Barons of Exchequer, and afterwards returned in 

 the barge to dinner at Goldsmiths' Hall." The very 

 last entries in his pocket book, written in such an 

 unsteady hand as to be scarcely legible, chiefly refer 

 to what may truly be called his ruling passion, con- 

 sisting of the names of vessels by which he expected 

 consignments of what he was in the habit of call- 

 ing Naturalia, of individuals to whom he had sent 



* After his death his body was opened, and three flattish 

 oval stones taken out of the bladder, weighing upwards of six 

 ounces, each of them being about two inches long, by one and 

 three-quarters wide, and an inch thick. 





