66 
MEMOIK OF JOHN HUNTER. 
to carry him into an excess whicii, however lautiable, 
in some points of view, was nevertheless attended 
with the usual penalties of imprudence, not less than 
more vulgar extravagance. We have already seen 
that his marriage was delayed for several years on 
account of the embarrassed state of his affairs ; and 
notwithstanding this sacrifice. Sir E. Home informs 
us, seven years afterwards, that his annual expendi- 
ture had always exceeded liis income. At a later 
period, again, when he purchased tlie leasehold in 
Leicester Square, he was enabled to defray the ex- 
pense only by means of mortgages, and for several 
additional years, he used to regret that all he could 
collect in fees went to carpenters and bricklayers. 
Mr Hunter was not the man «ho could be exposed 
to the annoyances arising from such a state of his 
affairs, wdthout feeling it most keenly, and we have 
accordingly seen that both his attacks of illness were 
connected with his embarrassments. For a consider- 
able time his professional income increased but 
slowly. During the first fourteen years after his 
settling in London, it did not average L. 1000 a 
year, but it subsequently improved greatly, amount- 
ing for several years previous to his death to L. 5000, 
and at the time of that event it had reached L.6000. 
But there was another source of distress of a still 
bitterer kind, arising from a revival of his unfortu- 
nate dissensions with his brother William, a subject 
which, though painful, is not without both interest 
and instruction. We have seen William’s kindness 
to his brother on bis first arrival in London ; and 
