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Dr. John Armstrong, Littérateur, and Associate of Smollett, Thomson, Wilkes, and Other Celebrities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Lewis M. Knapp
Lewis M. Knapp*
Affiliation:
Colorado College, Colo.
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Extract

Two hundred years ago, in April, 1744, there was printed in London a long didactic poem in blank verse, The Art of Preserving Health, which brought its author, Dr. John Armstrong, considerable literary reputation during the following century in England, Italy, and America. In this work there are occasional passages of very pleasing poetry, but the goddess Hygeia, whom Armstrong invoked with all due fervor, failed to inspire him to create an enduring masterpiece on such themes as air, diet, and exercise. Consequently, during the last century there has been little interest in his poems and essays, or in his life, personality, and friendships. There is, of course, A. H. Bullen's short article in the Dictionary of National Biography, which added little, however, to Robert Anderson's memoir, or to Robert Chambers' account, and more recently Mr. Iolo A. Williams paid tribute to The Art of Preserving Health and published a bibliography of Armstrong's works. But there is no likelihood that Armstrong's writings will be much read or discussed in the future except by literary antiquarians and special students of the eighteenth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 59 , Issue 4-Part1 , December 1944 , pp. 1019 - 1058
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1944

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References

1 The Art of Preserving Health was many times reprinted in England. In 1745 Benjamin Franklin printed it in Philadelphia. It was issued in Boston in 1757 and subsequently; it was translated into Italian by Thomas J. Mathias and published at Naples in 1825. Hazlitt included the whole poem in his Select British Poets (London, 1824).

2 The Works of the British Poets, ed. Robert Anderson, M.D., x (London, 1795), [963]–966.

3 Robert Chambers, A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (Glasgow, 1835), i, 58–64.

4 See Iolo A. Williams, By-Ways Round Helicon (London, 1922), pp. 8–14; and his Seven XVIIIth Century Bibliographies (London, 1924), pp. 17–38.

5 Op. cit., p. 58

6 For Andrew Lumisden, see D.N.B, and Robert Warnock, “Boswell and Andrew Lumisden,” in M.L.Q., ii (1941), 601–607. Lumisden called Armstrong “my cousin” in a letter written to Sir Alexander Dick from Paris in 1770.

7 These “Imitations” together with Armstrong's introduction were first published in his Miscellanies (1770), i, [145] ff.

8 Armstrong's dedicatory letter in Latin to Sloane is preserved in the British Museum, MS. Sloane 4052, f. 62. For its text see the memoir of Armstrong in Lives of Scottish Poets with Portraits and Vignettes, 3 vols. (London, 1822), ii, 115–134. The subject of Armstrong's thesis was De Tabe purulenta.

9 For some account of its contents, see Iolo A. Williams, Seven XVIIIth Century Bibliographies (London, 1924), pp. 18–19. There is a reprint of it in The Repository: a select collection of fugitive pieces of wit and humour … 4 vols. (London, 1790–1793), iii, [121]–162.

10 See the C.B.E.L. for the numerous editions of this poem, including one in Italian in 1755. I have not compared the alleged revision in 1768 with the earlier versions. My copy, dated 1747, is not included in the list in the C.B.E.L. This edition contains forty-three pages, the same number as in the first edition, according to Williams' bibliography. The poem itself offers practical advice to the young man of 1736 as to how to behave in the art of love.

11 Charles Bucke, On the Life, Writings, and Genius of Akenside (London, 1832), p. 30.

12 Chambers, op. cit., p. 59.

13 C. H. Timperley, Dictionary of Printers and Printing (London, 1839), p. 719.

14 The first edition of The Oeconomy of Love was, according to Williams, printed for T. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-Noster-Row. I have seen editions of 1747 and 1749, both printed for M. Cooper at the same address. The Public Advertiser (August 28, 1753) listed another edition also printed for M. Cooper.

15 Armstrong's Medical Essays (London, 1773), pp. 37–41.

16 Printed for A. Millar.

17 Quoted Notes and Queries, 2 Ser., i (No. 7, Feb. 16, 1856), 131. This note sent in by W. D. Macray of New College was reprinted by Léon Morel in his James Thomson Sa Vie et Ses Œuvres (Paris, 1895), p. 123 n. See also Stanley V. Makower, Richard Savage a Mystery in Biography (London, 1909), pp. 253–254.

18 See John Nichols, Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer, F.S.A. (London, 1782), p. 583. See also Bullen's account of Armstrong in D.N.B.

19 For Rawthmell's Coffee-House in Covent Garden, see P. H. Ditchfield, Memorials of Old London (London, 1908), ii, 138.

20 Printed from Er. Mus. MS. Sloane, 4300, f. 90.

21 For the Rev. Thomas Birch (1705–1766), see D.N.B. To that account it should be added that Birch was on the Committee of Managers of the Society for the Encouragement of Learning in 1736, along with Dr. Mead, the poet Thomson, and the latter's friend, George Lewis Scott, the mathematician. Birch seems to have had boundless kindness and energy. For a lively account of his walking around London city in one day see the Political Magazine, xii (1787), 324.

22 Presumably the Rev. Joseph Spence.

23 From Br. Mus. MS. Sloane 4300, f. 90. This letter and that of July 20, 1741, are side by side in the MSS.

24 This poem in quarto appeared about April 12, 1744, according to the Daily Advertiser for that date. The printer was William Strahan, and thanks to Messrs. Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co., Ltd., London, I am able to furnish the following entry from Strahan's ledger (fol. 39a):

Andrew Millar Dr.

April 1744 Armstrong's Art of Preserving Health 17 Sheets Double Pica 4to No. 1250

Coarse and 50 Fine @ 21s p Sheet ………….17/17/0

25 Murdoch was the biographer of the poet Thomson.

26 Mr. Mitchell was Sir Andrew Mitchell, F.R.S. in 1735, close friend of Thomson, and related to Smollett. He was later envoy to Berlin.

27 Quoted from the complete letter in More Culloden Papers ed. Duncan Warrand (Inverness, 1927), iii, 233 ff.

28 In The Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green (Edinburgh, 1858), xxiin, the editor, the Rev. George Gilfillan, printed a note on one of the poet's brothers who succeeded his father as parish clergyman and who according to local tradition was a “flaming Anti-Jacobite.” This brother, William Armstrong, was minister of Castleton from 1733 to 1751. See A. W. Somerville “Dr. John Armstrong, Poet and Physician,” Border Magazine (London, 1926), xxxi, [49]–51.

29 John Nichols' Literary Anecdotes (London, 1812–15), iii, 144.

30 Pringle had been physician to the Earl of Stair in the Dettingen campaign. In 1746 he accompanied the Duke of Cumberland to Culloden. In 1747 and 1748 he was abroad again with the army. The standard accounts of Pringle do not refer to this appointment to the hospital for incapacitated soldiers.

31 See The Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle, ed. John Hill Burton (London and Edinburgh, 1910), p. 204.

32 This Dickson referred to was Thomas Dickson, M.D. and F.R.S., (ca. 1727–1784). In Leyden Dickson was a student with Charles Townshend and John Wilkes. In 1758 he married Carlyle's eldest sister, Margaret, in London. For the best account of Dickson, see his obituary, Gent. Mag., liv (June, 1784), 476. See also R. W. Innes Smith, English-Speaking Students of Medicine at the University of Leyden (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 67, where it is stated that Dickson obtained his M.D. on April 8, 1746.

33 Carlyle, op. cit., pp. 205–206.

34 See the Rev. Joseph Spence, Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, of Books and Men (London, 1858), pp. 316–317.

35 See The Poetical Works of James Thomson, Aldine Edition (London, n.d. [c. 1860]), i, cxii.

36 Ibid., i, cxi.

37 Oliver Elton in his Survey of English Literature, 1730–1780 (London, 1928), i, 364, cited a variant of this line as Armstrong's contribution. See Castle of Indolence, Canto i, stanza 68.

38 Quoted Armstrong's Miscellanies (1770), i, 164–166.

39 I have not checked Armstrong's stanzas with the first edition of Thomson's The Castle of Indolence, published in May, 1748. It is possible that Thomson made additional revisions before his death in August of that year.

40 Printed in Culloden Papers (London, 1815), p. 315.

41 Culloden Papers, pp. 307 ff.

42 The description in Mathews' Catalogue, No. 52, 1933, runs: “The Muncher's and Guzler's Diary. The Wit's, the Critic's, the Conundrumist's, the Farmer's, the Petit-Maître's Pocket Companion … in a Word, the Universal Almanack. By Noureddin Alraschin formerly of Damascus, now of Datchet-Bridge, Esq. Printed for R. Baldwin, 1749. First Edition, Sewn, 8vo.” Incidentally, the title page, as printed by Armstrong in his Miscellanies, is slightly different from that above.

43 There are numerous letters and notes from Armstrong to Wilkes in the British Museum. They have been utilized effectively by Horace Bleacklèy in his excellent Life of John Wilkes (London, 1917). I do not deal with all of them in this essay.

44 Dr. Maghie was Dr. William Magie (or Macgie), a physician at Guy's Hospital. See the list of subscribers to the Rev. John Blair's The Chronology and History of the World (London, 1754). He is referred to in a letter of 1754 from Dr. William Hunter to Dr. William Cullen (in Dr. John Thomson's An Account of… William Cullen, M.D., 2 vols. [Edinburgh and London, 1859], i, 661) as among Scotch physicians of eminence in London. See also Sir John Hawkins' biography of Dr. Johnson for illuminating material on Dr. Maghie.

45 L-Kenmure was probably the Hon. John Gordon of Kenmure (1713–69). But for the forfeiture of the title in 1715 he would have been a lord.

46 B.M. Add. MS. 30, 875, f. 13.

47 Of Benevolence, ll. 3–15.

48 Armstrong evidently referred to Vincent Voiture's Works published in London in 1736.

49 Taste, ll. 26–33.

50 Ibid., ll. 111–112.

51 Ibid., ll. 125–128.

52 Ibid., ll. 151–152.

53 Ibid., ll. 178–179.

54 Ibid., 11. 231–245.

55 Slaughter's Coffee-house.

56 From B.M. Add. MS. 30867, f. 82.

57 Quoted from Armstrong's letter, B.M. Add. MS. 30867, f. 80.

58 Perhaps Dr. Theobald is to be identified as John Theobald, M.D., author of minor medical publications.

59 See Nichols, Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer (London, 1782), p. 583.

60 B.M. Add. MS. 30867, f. 42.

61 See footnotes 27 and 146 for Armstrong's brothers.

62 For an account of Wilkes as a country gentleman, see Bleackley, op. cit., pp. 18 ff.

63 B.M. Add. MS. 30867, f. 64.

64 Cursitor Street was off Chancery Lane, opposite Lincolns Inn.

65 For Dr. Thomas Brewster, see Bleackley, op. cit., p. 23. From the Wilkes correspondence it is clear that Brewster had met Armstrong and liked him.

66 B.M. Add. MS. 30867, f. 109.

67 This must refer to some sort of common-place book in which Armstrong copied his minor writings and reflections.

68 I know not whether this was ever printed, nor can I identify Mr. Arnold.

69 B.M. Add. MS. 30867, ff. 112–112a.

70 B.M. Add. MS. 30875, f. 17.

71 Of Benevolence, published 1751.

72 D—n was possibly Sir William Duncan, physician in ordinary to George III, and one of Wilkes' physicians in 1763.

73 B.M. Add. MS. 30867, ff. 113–113a.

74 Quoted Smollett's letter to Dr. John Moore, written Aug. 3, 1756. See The Letters of Tobias Smollett, M.D., ed. Edward S. Noyes (Harvard University Press, 1926), p. 39.

75 Idem.

76 B.M. Add. MS. 30875, f. 30.

77 Mary Wilkes lived at a boarding school run by a Mrs. Aylesworth and a Madame Beete. On August 12 (no year stated) Armstrong wrote Wilkes: “Dr. Smollet told me that the School you directed me to enquire about was a very reputable one and that a great number of young Ladies of the first fashion in England were educated there.” (B.M. Add. MS. 30875, f. 28). Smollett would have known about this Chelsea school, where it is likely that his daughter Elizabeth, two years older than Mary Wilkes, was educated.

78 Quoted Armstrong's Miscellanies, ii, [3].

79 See The Letters of David Hume, ed. J. Y. T. Greig (Clarendon Press, 1932), ii, 218.

80 It is perhaps significant that Hume's first epistolary reference to Armstrong is found in his correspondence for the year 1754, shortly after he missed seeing Wilkes, who called on him in the fall of that year. Hume wrote October 16, 1754 (in his second letter to Wilkes): “if you see Dr Armstrong let him know, that I am ambitious of retaining a Part in his Memory.” From Hume's Letters, ed. Greig, i, 206.

81 For vague evidence on this point, see Iolo A. Williams, op. cit., p. 37.

82 Sketches was announced as published May 22, 1758, in The Public Advertiser of that date. The same newspaper for June 29, 1758, announced that a second edition corrected would be available the next day. Bibliographers and collectors of Armstrong will find of interest the following note in The Public Advertiser of June 16, 1758, appended to the notice of Sketches, printed for A. Millar: “A few Errors having escaped the Author's Notice in Correcting the Sheets, they are now rectified on a small Slip of Paper, which those who purchased this Pamphlet before the Errata were printed, may have on applying as above.”

83 Armstrong's Miscellanies, ii, 142.

84 Ibid., p. 153.

85 Ibid., p. 164.

86 Ibid., p. 170.

87 Carlyle went to London about the end of February, 1758, to assist at his sister Margaret's wedding. Her marriage to Dr. Thomas Dickson took place on March 6. (See The Public Advertiser, March 6, 1758.) The dinner described by Carlyle was given probably sometime in March or April, 1758.

88 Dr. William Robertson, known as Principal Robertson, the Scottish historian.

89 John Hume, author of Douglas.

90 Quoted Carlyle, op. cit., p. 363.

91 I do not know what unkind comment on Sketches appeared in the papers in 1758.

92 B.M. Add. MS. 30867, f. 148.

93 For Armstrong's essay, “Of the Modern Art of Spelling,” see his Miscellanies, ii, 145–147. Armstrong objected to omitting the “u” in words like favour, honour, labour.

94 For the historical work of Hume, then printing, see his Letters, ed. Greig, i, 283.

95 Letters of Hume, ed. Greig, i, 282.

96 The Critical Review, v (May, 1758), 380.

97 Ibid., p. 381.

98 Humphry Clinker, Letter of Bramble to Dr. Lewis, London, June 8.

99 Smollett's Letters, ed. Noyes, p. 61.

100 Humphry Clinker, Letter of Bramble to Dr. Lewis, London, June 8.

101 Quoted Hume's Letters, ed. Greig, i, 311.

102 Andrew Millar wrote to Sir Andrew Mitchell from London April 15, 1760: “Armstrong is appointed Physician to ye army and goes on Friday.” (From B.M. Add. MS. 6858, f. 28 [Marked in pencil, f. 29]).

103 From Armstrong's letter to Wilkes, May 13, 1760, in B.M. Add. MS. 30867, f. 154.

104 I have before me “A List of the Original Members of the Sublime Society at the Beef-Steakes Instituted 6.th December 1735 and their Successors,” copied from Add. MS. 30891, folios 1–11, in the British Museum. John Wilkes became a member January 19, 1754. The “List” carries the records down to the year 1780. On fol. 10 of the “List” is written the following regulation: “No Member can bring more than on [sic] Visitor on any day of Meeting.” If this regulation applied in 1754, Armstrong probably visited the society with Wilkes.

105 B.M.Add. MS. 30867, ff. 156 ff.

106 In the sale-catalogue of Wilkes' books sold May 3, 1764, in the British Museum, one finds Tristram Shandy, 1760, and Armstrong's Art of Preserving Health, editions of 1745 and 1754.

107 B.M.Add. MS. 30867, f. 158.

108 Quoted Bullen's essay in D.N.B.

109 From Armstrong's letter, Nov. 7, 1760, B.M.Add. MS. 30867, f. 161. Armstrong's revised phrases appear in Day.

110 From Armstrong's letter, May 2, 1761, B.M.Add. MS. 30867, f. 169.

111 A Day was announced in The Public Advertiser for January 14, 1761. It was printed for A. Millar. The date on the title-page was MDCLXI.

112 Quoted from Bullen's essay in D.N.B. I have seen the original letter dated October 29, 1762, in B.M.Add, MS, 30867, f. 195.

113 See Spence, op. cit., p. 365.

114 Letters of Hume, ed. Greig, i, 382–383.

115 Quoted here from B.M.Add. MS. 30867, f. 216. The manuscript which I saw is not in Armstrong's usual hand. Because Bullen printed this letter in his essay in D.N.B. as from Add. MS. 30867, p. [sic] 216, I assume that he quoted from the same sheet of manuscript.

116 “Gaping” refers to the gaps in Armstrong's Day, which Wilkes indicated by frequent asterisks.

117 See Poems by Churchill, 2 vols., quarto (London, 1763–1765). “The Journey” comprises 8 pages at the end of vol. ii.

118 See Robert Chambers' account of Armstrong, op. cit., p. 61.

119 This was printed in the Gent. Mag., lxii (Jan., 1792), 33–35; in The Correspondence of the late John Wilkes with his Friends, ed. John Almon, 5 vols. (London, 1805), i, 204–211, and again in Robert Chambers' memoir.

120 For Armstrong's relations with Fuseli, see John Knowles, The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Esq. M.A.R.A., 3 vols. (London, 1831), passim.

121 B.M.Add. MS. 6858, f. 30 (numbered in pencil, 31).

122 Presumably John Forbes the younger of Culloden. See Armstrong's letter to him in Culloden Papers, p. 307 and p. 315.

123 See Culloden Papers, p. 312.

124 See Spence, op. cit., p. 368.

125 Letters of Hume, ed. Greig, ii, 66.

126 Letters of James Boswell, ed. Chauncey Brewster Tinker, 2 vols. (Clarendon Press, 1924), p. 152.

127 Carlyle, op. cit., p. 542.

128 For Thomas Cadell see Henry Curwen, A History of Booksellers (London, 1873), p. 66.

129 His Miscellanies were advertised as forthcoming in October, 1769. See London Chronicle, 1769, ii, 407, October 24–26.

130 In Humphry Clinker (letter of J. Melford, Morpeth, July 13), Smollett utilized Armstrong's phrase, “the mind's elbow-room” from A Day and referred to its author as “an excellent writer.” For other echoes of Armstrong in Humphry Clinker, see Mr. Charles Lee's notes for this novel in the Everyman edition, with an Introduction by Howard Mumford Jones (London and New York [1943]), pp. 353, 359, and 369.

131 The Critical Review, v (1758), 386.

132 Prefixed to A Day is the following mysterious “Advertisement,” possibly concocted by A. Millar, the publisher, or perhaps penned by Wilkes: “The Editor laments that it is not in his Power to present The Public with a more perfect Copy of the following spirited Epistle. He ventures to publish this exactly as it came to his Hands, without the Knowledge or Consent of the Author, or of the Gentleman, to whom it is addressed. His sole Motive is to communicate to others the Pleasure he has received from a Work of Taste and Genius. He thinks himself secure of the Thanks of the Public, and hopes this farther Advantage will attend the present Publication, that it will soon be followed by a correct and compleat Edition from the Author's own Manuscript.”

133 The word “rough” in Armstrong's time could mean rude or unpolished, according to the N.E.D. Perhaps it had other connotations.

134 The Critical Review, xi (1761), 73.

135 The Critical Review, xiv (1762), 113.

136 In this letter, as printed by Smollett's biographer, Robert Anderson, in The Miscellaneous Works of Tobias Smollett, 6 vols. (Edinburgh, 1820), i, 187–189, the word professors is printed performers/ I print the correct reading from Armstrong's original manuscript at the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Dreer Collection. There is (or was in Pisa), we hope, some slight distinction to be drawn between the two terms. As for Anderson, it is charitable to say that he was plagued by more than his share of editorial, biographical, and typographical “gremlins.”

137 Quoted from the original manuscript, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Dreer Collection.

138 Bob (or Rob) Smith was the Robert Smith mentioned in Carlyle's Autobiography as an intimate friend of Smollett in 1746. John Hill Burton was wrong in suggesting that he was Dr. Robert Smith of Cambridge. Carlyle declared that he was afterwards called the Duke of Roxburgh's Smith. According to Carlyle he had been abroad with the young Laird of McLeod before the Rebellion, and was a gentleman of superior understanding. Later, in 1754, he was tutor to Lord Garlies. (See Smollett's Letters, ed. Noyes, p. 30). Subsequently he became tutor and traveling companion to John Ker, Third Duke of Roxburghe (1740–1804), the famous bibliophile. In a publication entitled The National Portrait Gallery of Illustrious and Eminent Personages of the Nineteenth Century; With Memoirs, by William Jerdan (vol. iv, London, 1833), there is more information about Smith. Jerdan states there in his memoir of the Duke of Roxburghe, accompanying the Duke's portrait (no pagination): “Mr. Smith was his tutor, and the companion of his travels; and the Duke's attachment to him continued with unabated warmth to the end of his life. He was accustomed to read to him, and often to take his meals in his apartment; and at last he died in the house of his friend and patron.”

139 Gov. Bell was Charles Bell of Craigfoodie, Fifeshire, governor at Cape Coast, and a close friend of Smollett. For Smollett's regard for him, see my article, “An Important Smollett Letter,” in R.E.S., xii (1936), 75–77. He was related to Andrew Lumisden, as was Armstrong. After wintering at Montpellier, he met Lumisden at Marseilles in May, 1769.—See James Dennistoun's Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange, Knt., Engraver, 2 vols. (London, 1855), ii, 121—Bell died at Cupar, Fifeshire, in 1785. His obituary is in Gent. Mag., lv (August, 1785), 667.

140 This letter is printed from the original manuscript at the Ridgway Library, Philadelphia, MSS. Rush, vol. 28, p. 52. It was addressed “A Monsieur, Monsr Smollett, Gentilhomme Anglois, Chez Möns' Renner, Négociant, a Livourne, en Toscane.”

141 This letter was printed by Anderson in his edition of Smollett's Miscellaneous Works, 6 vols. (1820), i, 189.

142 Printed from the original manuscript, Ridgway Library, Philadelphia.

143 For “Q Arms,” Anderson, following the Philadelphia Port Folio, printed “Two Arms,” which, I think, was incorrect.

144 See Knowles, op. cit., i, 46–47.

145 Quoted Smollett's Letters, ed. Noyes, p. 106.

146 Armstrong, in his communication to Smollett from Rome, June 2, 1770, reported: “I wrote to my brother from Genoa, and desired him to direct his answer to your care at Pisa.” Armstrong's brother, Dr. George Armstrong (see D.N.B.), may have been the person to whom Dr. John was writing. It was perhaps he, rather than the poet, who, according to Sir Walter Scott, “procured for Dr. and Mrs. Smollett a house at Monte Novo [sic].” See Scott's memoir of Smollett in his Lives of the Novelists (New York, 1872), pp. 146–147. Where Scott got his data I know not, and his assertion may be entirely without factual foundation.

147 See A Short Ramble Through Some Parts of France and Italy by Lancelot Temple Esq. (London, 1771), p. 51. The only copy of this very rare book which I have seen was in the British Museum.

148 Printed from the original manuscript, now at The Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. It was printed by Anderson, op. cit., i, 202.

149 See James Dennistoun's Memoirs of Sir Robert Strange, ii, 137.

150 See The Whitehall Evening-Post, May 2-May 4, 1771.

151 John Gray's letter to Smollett printed by Anderson, op. cit., i, 196.

152 See John Knowles, op. cit., i, 58–59.

153 Armstrong's will at Somerset House, London (Warburton, 364), shows that his trustees were Caleb Whitefoord and Joseph Martineau. Armstrong left his money to his relatives. His will was made on September 4, 1779.

154 See A. W. Somerville, op. cit., p. 51.

155 Smollett's Miscellaneous Works, ed. Anderson (Edinburgh, 1820), i, 195–196.

156 See James Boswell, Boswelliana (London, 1874), p. 255.

157 The Anecdotes and Egotisms of Henry Mackenzie, ed. Harold W. Thompson (Oxford University Press, 1927), p. 39.

158 See Leigh Hunt's Autobiography (London, 1891), p. 173.

159 Armstrong's Medical Essay, pp. 37–41. The three dot spacing in the above represents three short dash spacing the text of the Medical Essays.

160 See Isaac Disraeli, Curiosities of Literature (New York and Boston, 1863), i, 129–130.

161 Madame D'Arblay's Memoirs of Doctor Burney (London, 1832), i, 18. See also The Early Diary of Frances Burney … ed. Annie R. Ellis, 2 vols. (London, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913). (Bonn's Popular Library), passim.

162 See the Earl of Buchan's Essays on the Lives and Writings of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson (London, 1792), p. 232 n.

163 Quoted Dickson's obituary in Gent. Mag. liv (June, 1784), 476. It should be noted by students of Smollett that Robert Anderson, who apparently read this obituary, makes the curious error of stating that Armstrong drank to the memory of Smollett “with tears in his eyes.” See Anderson's memoir of Smollett in Smollett's Miscellaneous Works (Edinburgh, 1820), i, 113.

164 See E. H. Coleridge, The Life of Thomas Coutts, Banker (London, 1919), i, 72 and passim. Two letters of Armstrong to a Mrs. Coutts, presumably Mrs. Thomas Coutts, were offered for sale in 1936 by Dobell's Antiquarian Bookstore, Tunbridge Wells (Catalogue No. 15, 1936, Item 25). They were written in 1775. I have not seen them.

165 The photograph, which is 7 inches high and 5¾ inches wide, is No. 5 in a series. It appears to have been torn out of a bound pamphlet, sales' catalogue, or a book.

166 See Edward Hamilton, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds (London, 1874), p. 2. Hamilton stated that Armstrong's picture was painted in 1767, and that it was in the possession of the Marquess of Bute. For further information on Rey nold's painting, or paintings, of Armstrong see Art Prices Current, new series, vols. i, v, x, xvi, and xviii, covering the years 1921–22 to 1938–39.

167 I have an engraving by T. [J.?] Coocke. In Armstrong's Poetical Works (Edinburgh: Apollo Press, 1781), a volume in Bell's Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, there is an engraving “by Trotter from an Original Picture by Sr. J. Reynolds in the possession of Mr. Coutts.” This follows very faithfully my photograph of Reynolds' painting. The Catalogue of the Valuable and Extensive Collection of Prints, Books of Prints, Drawings & c of Caleb Whitefoord, Esq. F. R. S. & F. A. S. Deceased … sold Thürs. May 10, 1810 in Br. Mus. lists the following: “Item 645, p. 43, Dr Armstrong by Cook circle 8vo. Item 646, p. 43, Dr. Armstrong, by Fisher, with verses; the suffrage of the wise, etc.”

168 The obvious resemblances in interests and temper between Armstrong and Smollett, which have often been noted, led the Rev. Henry Francis, in his Lives of the English Poets, from Johnson to Kirke White (London, 1846), p. 126, to suggest that Smollett's dedication “To Dr. xxxxx”of Ferdinand Count Fathom was intended for Armstrong. Francis offers no external evidence to support his theory, and the internal evidence in the dedicatory portrait fits Smollett himself much better than it does Armstrong.