S36 Biography : — JDr. Withering. 



Art. IX. Biographi/. 



Dr. Withering, the celebrated author of the Botanical Arra7igemcnt of 

 British Plants, was born at Wellington, in the year 1741. The family from 

 which he descended was respectable, and had resided, during many gene- 

 rations, on a small patrimony in Shropshire. His father was a physician ; 

 his mother a relation of the celebrated Ilurd, Bishop of Worcester. 



Nothing strikingly remarkable is recorded of Dr. Withering's early years. 

 He seems to have received a good classical education, and to have had his 

 mind imbued, by his excellent parents, with the principles of morality and 

 religion; and was more distinguished for steady sense and correct judgment, 

 than for the flights of fancy, or the eccentricities of genius. In the autumn 

 of 1762, he was matriculated at the university of Edinburgh, where he 

 seems to have distinguished himself, by pursuing his studies with the greatest 

 diligence and attention. In the year 1766, Dr. Withering completed his 

 academical studies with great credit to himself, and obtained the degree of 

 Doctor of Physic. Upon his quitting the university, he made an excursion 

 to France; and, upon his return to England, he first settled at Stafford; 

 and here he attended, as a physician, the accomplished lady who became 

 the partner of his future life ; and it is not improbable that this attachment 

 greatly increased, if it did not produce, that botanical turn which has since 

 rendered his name so conspicuous in this department of science. She drew 

 beautifully, and he appears to have gathered wild plants as subjects for her 

 pencil. This soon became a favourite pursuit. Possessing, at this time, a 

 good deal of leisure, he collected specimens for that herbarium which he 

 afterwards rendered so complete. His predilection, however, for this 

 study was, in the former years of his life, by no means of that description 

 which might have been imagined; for, while he was residing as a student at 

 Edinburgh, he thus expresses himself in a letter to his parents : " The Bo- 

 tanical Professor gives, annually, a gold medal to such of his pupils as are 

 most industrious in that branch of science. An incitement of this kind is 

 often productive of the greatest emulation in young minds, though, I con- 

 fess, it will hardly have charms enough to banish the disagreeable ideas I 

 have formed of the study of botany," So little was he aware, at this period, 

 that it would become at length one of his most distinguished pursuits. He 

 remained at Stafford eight years, much beloved by all classes of people; but 

 the arduous duties of his profession were too much for his health. Yet, 

 notwithstanding his invalid state, he persevered in his botanical arrange- 

 ments, and, during this period, presented the public with the first edition of 

 his English Botany. His philosophical attention, however, was by no means 

 confined to botany ; chemistry, mineralogy, and every branch of natural 

 philosophy connected with his profession, occupied him in succession. By 

 the death of Dr. Ash, who practised in Birmingham, he entered upon a 

 circuit of practice, which, for extent and emolument, has scarcelj' ever been 

 surpassed, if indeed equalled, out of London. 



Dr. Withering's health, always delicate and precarious, obliged him to 

 remove, in the year 1786, from Birmingham to Edgbaston Hall^ where, in 

 the year 1791, in the month of July, he and his family suffered much alarm, 

 and some injurj^, in the riot at Birmingham. In the following year, 1792, 

 his health became so much impaired, that he was induced to try the milder 

 climate of Portugal ; but the advantage derived was so transient, that he 

 preferred ever after passing the winter in England, and securing himself 

 from the injury of the climate by a regulated atmosphere in his own apart- 

 ment. He now found every succeeding winter a season of confinement, of 

 privation, and of suffering. In the year 1767, the position of writing be- 

 came at times so oppressive, that it was almost insupportable, and his power 

 of conversing was also very limited. In the year 1799, he determined to 

 leave his favourite Edgbaston, and he took possession of his new house, the 



