1791 ANECDOTES OF DK. HALES 231 



I think, the juice of onions; — are a few, among many, of 

 those benevolent and useful pursuits on which his mind was 

 constantly bent. Though a man of a Baronet's family, and 

 of one of the best houses in Kent, yet was his humility 

 so prevalent, that he did not disdain the lowest offices, pro- 

 vided they tended to the good of his fellow creatures. The 

 last act of benevolence in which I saw him employed was, 

 at his rectory of Faringdon, the next parish to this, where 

 I found him in the street with his paint-pot before him, and 

 much busied in painting white, with his own hands, the tops 

 of the foot-path posts, that his neighbours might not be 

 injured by running against them in the dark. His whole 

 mind seemed replete with experiment, which of course gave 

 a tincture, and turn to his conversation, often somewhat 

 peculiar, but always interesting. He used to lament to my 

 Father, how tedious a task it was to convince men, that 

 sweet air was better than foul, alluding to his ventilators : 

 and once told him, with some degree of emotion, that the 

 first time he went on board a ship in harbour at Portsmouth, 

 the officers were rude to him ; and that he verily believed he 

 should never have prevailed to have seen his ventilators in use 

 in the royal navy, had not Lord Sandwich, then first Lord of 

 the Admiralty, abetted his pursuits in a liberal manner, and 

 sent him down to the Commissioners of the dock with 

 letters of recommendation. It should not be forgotten that 

 our friend, under the patronage of Sir Joseph Jekyll, was 

 instrumental in procuring the Gin-act, and stopping that 

 profusion of spirituous liquors which threatened to ruin the 

 morals and constitutions of our common people at once. 

 He used to say, that the hogs of distillers were more brutal 

 than the hogs of other men; and that, when drunk, they 

 used to bite pieces out of each other's backs and sides! 

 With due respects I remain 



Your most humble servant, 



Gil. White. 



