WILLIAM CUMING, M.D. 47 



for publishing the result of thirty years' toil " met not with the 

 reception they merited." During the next four years Cuming's 

 leisure was devoted to the county history, and, when the book 

 came out, Hutchins's preface to the edition of 1774 was found to 

 contain this acknowledgment of the doctor's services : " With- 

 out his friendly assistance my papers might yet have remained 

 undelivered to the press ; or, if they had been communicated to 

 the publick, would have wanted several advantages and embel- 

 lishments with which they now appear." 



The perusal of a thick folio correspondence between Cuming 

 and Gough increases one's gratitude to them for the con- 

 scientious care which they bestowed upon Hutchins's great 

 work. All honour is due to Gough, but he must " divide 

 the crown " with Cuming, to whose erudition, zeal, and 

 laboriousness were added a local knowledge and influence 

 which made his services invaluable to a colleague living so far 

 away. The doctor's professional opportunities even were not 

 neglected. Thus, on March 5th, 1771, he tells Gough that a 

 patient — Mr. Bankes, of Kingston Hall — "ought properly" to 

 give a plate of Corfe Castle. "I shall visit him to-morrow" 

 (remarks Cuming), " & I will certainly mention it to him, & to 

 his Brother the Commissioner who is now in the Country." To 

 Cuming was entrusted the duty of furnishing accurate plans, 

 drawings, and descriptions of antiquities. " The Letters between 

 the Cerne Giants Leggs shall be carefully copied," he assures 

 Gough in a letter dated December 8th, 1770. Writing on 

 January 29th, 1772, he says: "As soon as the Weather 

 becomes a little Milder, I shall have the Amphitheatre accurately 

 measured and compared with Dr. Stukeleys Plans and Descrip- 

 tions, after which the Drawing shall be sent to you." On 

 April 5th, 1773, he reports some business done at Minterne 

 Magna : " Last Friday (April 2) our friend Mr. J. Templeman 

 my Amanuensis accompanied me to Grange or Middlemarsh 

 Hall, and dictated from my Blazoning the Arms painted on the 

 windows in that house." A passage in a letter to Gough (dated 

 September nth, 1773), relates to the font at Winterborne 



