THE NATURALISTS OF LAKELAND XIX 



He was only in his twenty-sixth year when he commenced to 

 practise in Carlisle, having been born at Lancaster on November 

 22, 1753. Notwithstanding his comparative youth, Dr. Hey- 

 sham at once gained a position of some weight in the little city, 

 which then included a population of only 6000 inhabitants. 

 His first year of residence was signalised by his taking a pro- 

 minent part in establishing a public subscription library. Four 

 years later he achieved a notable success in establishing the 

 Carlisle dispensary, in which meritorious venture Heysham 

 derived much assistance from his friend, Dr. Percy, then Dean 

 of Carlisle. The zeal with which Heysham entered upon duties 

 of a public character was more than justified by his actual per- 

 formances ; but though always a devoted servant of the public, 

 labouring in every way to advance the health and to secure the 

 increased happiness of his fellow-townsmen, it was only in 1808 

 that he became a magistrate, being then in his fifty-fifth year. 

 Thenceforward he found a congenial occupation for his declining 

 years, sitting in court at the Globe Inn with a brother magis- 

 trate, to adjudicate upon conjugal amenities, as well as to hush 

 the altercations of rival washerwomen. The unflinching deter- 

 mination with which Dr. Heysham and his colleague invariably 

 mulcted one side, and frequently both sides, in costs (which had 

 to be paid forthwith), was scarcely calculated to increase the 

 popularity of the bench ; but the chief grievance which rankled 

 in the minds of the offenders seems to have had its origin in the 

 fact that the sitting magistrates themselves appropriated the fines 

 inflicted. There can be no doubt that the sort of rough-and- 

 ready justice meted out at the Globe Inn was well adapted to 

 advance the morality of those whose misdeeds came within its 

 cognisance . At all events the active mind of the venerable doctor 

 found a satisfaction in the performance of these judicial duties 

 up to the very end of his career. 1 There are still some living 

 who can recall Dr. Heysham attending St. Cuthbert's Church, 



1 A summons for small tithes, kindly lent by Mr. Tom Duckworth, 

 cites Richard Bell, of Old Grapes Lane, in the parish of St. Cuthbert's, 

 Carlisle, to appear before the Justices of the Peace at the Globe Inn. It 

 bears the names of Thos. Lowry and John Heysham, and is dated the 

 twenty-first day of May, in the sixth year of the reign of His Majesty 

 King George the Fourth. 



