TURNER'S HERBAL 79 



was reinstated in the deanery of Wells. 1 His diocesan seems to 

 have found him troublesome, for in 1559 the Bishop of Bath 

 and Wells wrote : 



" I am much encombred with mr. Doctor Turner Deane of 

 Welles for his indiscreete behavior in the pulpit where he medleth 

 w th all matters. ... I have advertised him by wrytynges and 

 have admonished secretly by his owne frendes : notwithstanding 

 he persisteth still in his follie : he conteneth all Bishopps and 

 calleth the white coats, typpett gentleme, with other wordes of 

 reproche [mujche more unsemlie and asketh ' who gave them 

 autoritie more ouer me then I ouer them ' ? 



/'GILBERT BATH AND WELLS." 



January 24, 

 1559-60. 



There is a story told that Turner trained his dog at a given 

 sign to snatch the bishop's square cap off his head when the 

 prelate was dining with him. If this is true, possibly it accounts 

 for the fact that he was subsequently suspended for Noncon- 

 formity, after which, being precluded from clerical duties, he left 

 Wells and returned to London. He lived in Crutched Friars and, 

 like the two other Elizabethan herbalists, had a famous garden. 

 He was in failing health when he completed his herbal, and 

 there is extant a pathetic letter (the greater part of it written 

 by an amanuensis) to his staunch patron Lord Burleigh, which 

 is signed " Your old and seikly client 



wllm turner doctor of physic." 



Turner died in 1568, and was buried in S. Olave's, Crutched 

 Friars, where the tablet to his memory can still be seen. 



1 It has been asserted in some accounts of Turner that he was a Canon 

 of Windsor, but this is a mistake. The Canon of Windsor was Richard Turner, 

 also a Protestant, and, like the herbalist, exiled during Mary's reign. 



