50 WILLIAM CUMING, M.D. 



very sensible here" (Cuming to Gough, INIay 17th, 1774). So 

 early as March ist, 1777, a new edition was contemplated 

 (Cuming to Gough) ; and in the following month Gould went 

 to town to discuss the project with John Nichols, the London 

 publisher (Cuming to Nichols). But on May 23rd, 1778, 

 Cuming informed Gough that "Mr. Gould's Scheme of a new 

 Edition of our Hislo/y has vanished into Air." No time was 

 lost in providing materials for the second edition, which 

 appeared in 1796. On June 29th, 1774, Cuming asked Gough 

 to notify errors observed that they might be amended in the 

 doctor's "interleaved Copy For the Bcjicfit of Posterity T On 

 April 4th, 1777, and November 7th, 1778, he writes that he 

 keeps his copy up to date in its list of sheriffs, &c., and has 

 corrected and augmented Mr. Frampton's pedigree. 



The latter year was marked by a temporary disturbance of 

 Cuming's normal habits. "I have been employd " (he tells 

 Gough on March 7th) "not in the most agreeable manner, in 

 changing my Habitation. The Widow Browne of Frampton 

 chuses to live in her own house in Dorchester, which has 

 obliged me to find another. I am just now gott into that 

 w^-'ii was the property of our friend Mr. Nath Templcman." 

 The close of 1780 brought sorrow for the death of an old 

 comrade, the learned and beneficent physician, John Fothergill. 

 Forty-seven years had elapsed since an acquaintance, which 

 ripened into aff"ection, began at Edinburgh, where Fothergill 

 went to study medicine. He settled in London about a year 

 after Cuming's choice of Dorchester. In 1781 (the year of 

 their establishment) the Scottish Society of Antiquaries made 

 Cuming, without his previous knowledge, an honorary member 

 of their fraternity. 



I have now related all the known events of Cuming's tranquil 

 life, but, happily, a clearer idea of the man than such scanty 

 annals convey is to be derived from various particulars which 

 have been preserved touching his friends, tastes, and opinions. 

 In his autobiographical letter he writes : " The surviving 

 companions of my youth are still the friends and correspondents 



