#6 MEMOIR OF JOHN HUNTER. 



to carry him into an excess which, however laudable, 

 in some points of view, was nevertheless attended 

 with the usual penalties of imprudence, not less than 

 more vulgar extravagance. We have already seen 

 that his marriage was delayed for several years on 

 account of the embarrassed state of his affairs ; and 

 notwithstanding this sacrifice, Sir E. Home informs 

 us, seven years afterwards, that his annual expendk 

 ture had always exceeded his income. At a later 

 period, again, when he purchased the leasehold in 

 Leicester Square, he was enabled to defray the ex- 

 pense only by means of mortgages, and for several 

 additional years, he used to regret that all he could 

 collect in fees went to carpenters and bricklayers. 

 Mr Hunter was not the man who could be exposed 

 to the annoyances arising from such a state of hie 

 affairs, without feeling it most keenly, and we have 

 accordingly seen that both his attacks of illness were 

 connected with his embarrassments. For a consider- 

 able time his professional income increased but 

 slowly. During the first fourteen years after his 

 settling in London, it did not average L. 1000 a 

 year, but it subsequently improved greatly, amount- 

 ing for several years previous to his death to L. 5000, 

 and at the time of that event it had reached L. 6000. 

 But there was another source of distress of a still 

 bitterer kind, arising from a revival of his unfortu- 

 nate dissensions with his brother William, a subject 

 which, though painful, is not without both interest 

 and instruction. We have seen William's kindness 

 to his brother on his first arrival jn London ; aii<i 



