x HIS MODE OF LIFE 109 



Like Fothergill, Lettsom saw many patients without 

 fee, and took nothing from necessitous authors and 

 clergymen. His lavish habits made a large income a 

 necessity to him, and kept him labouring without cease to 

 secure it. Quick and methodical, he seldom wasted a 

 moment ; he rose early and sat up late ; whilst visiting 

 his patients in the morning he would walk for a couple 

 of hours or so, and then take up his carriage, sometimes 

 using three pairs of horses during the day. " I dine with 

 my wife," he says, " once a week." He mentions in a 

 letter in 1795 that he has attended 82,000 patients ; but 

 he enjoys his work. " I love my profession, and it loves 

 me." His friend Cuming often reasoned with him on the 

 incessant hurry in which he lived, as he did also on his 

 lavish benefactions ; Lettsom should apply for an Act 

 of Parliament to extend the day to forty-eight hours. He 

 kept up a very large correspondence, answering every 

 letter he received, and generally at once ; often writing 

 currente calamo in his carriage. His letters are lively 

 and interesting ; and he paid much attention in his set 

 papers to literary style. His memoir of Fothergill shows 

 this at its best ; each topic is elegantly introduced in 

 balanced phrases, with frequent classical quotations well 

 displayed, and Englished in a footnote. This essay is a 

 typical specimen of the polished literature of the period. 

 A few sentences may be quoted introducing Fothergill's 

 labours on the subject of education. 



But the most effectual barrier against corruption of manners 

 and the influence of vicious example, is an early and guarded 

 education. As the sun is to the external, so is learning to the 

 intellectual eye ; it enables the mind to distinguish truth 

 from error, endows it with stability and strength to combat 

 vicious propensities, and renders it susceptible of enjoying 

 the felicities of life, without adopting its follies, or entailing 

 its miseries. To promote this useful education, Dr. Fothergill 

 was a liberal advocate. 



Lettsom 's large acquaintance included many of the 

 literati of his time. Of Dr. Johnson he writes : " He was 

 sometimes jocular, but you felt as if you were playing 



