LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1910.

CONTENTS.-No. 33.

Vestments at

openly-avowed penchant to Unitarianism.' This preceptor put translations of the works of Helvetius and Rousseau into the youth's hands, which inspired him with NOTES:-Richard Gem, 121-King's 'Classical Quotations,' the desire of reading them in their original 123-Horses' Names, 124-George II. to George V.-New language, and he learnt French. This introcastle-under-Lyme Charter Hestored- Verulamium Snails as Food, 125-Motorists as Fairies-St. Swithin's duction to the philosophical literature of Tribute-Peter Gordon, Explorer-"Chemineau"-Vestris France coloured the rest of his life. Family-Early Printing in Europe, 126. On 12 June, 1735, when aged 19, Gem was QUERIES:-Col. Condon: Capt. MellishSoissons Cathedral-Sark Bibliography, 127-Viscount admitted pensioner at St. John's College, Courtenay-Speaker's Chair of the Old House of Commons Cambridge, when Dr. Williams became -Carter Family-Archdeacons of Hereford-"Staple" in his tutor and surety ('Admissions to St. Place-Names, 128-'Oliver Twist' on the Stage-H. A. Major-Smollett's History of England'-Rev. T. Clarke John's,' Pt. III., 1903, ed. Scott, p. 80); of Chesham Bois-Horses stabled in Churches in 1745-6 but he seems to have left without taking his Magazine Story of a Deserter-Authors Wanted Royal degree. We shall probably not Shield of Scotland - Hawkes Family, 129 err in Verger v. Sacristan -"King" in Place-Names-H.M.S. drawing the inference that he was not in Avenger-Moke Family of Flanders, 130. REPLIES:-Parish Armour, 130-"Storm in a teacup"sympathy with the system of instruction Myddelton: "Dref": "Plas," 181-American Words- which was then imposed on youth at the "Tilleul "-Ben Jonson-Sir W. Godbold, 182-Names University. His fond parent 22 had terrible to Children-Ansgar, Master of the HorseYon"-J. Faber-Sir M. Philip, 133-Reverberations pointed out the study of the law as the most -Christopher Moore S. Joseph, Sculptor-E. I. C.'s profitable for him, but he put the suggestion Marine Service, 134-Licence to Eat Flesh-Sleepless Arch-Authors Wanted-Col. Skelton-George L. Statues, on one side, and studied French and physic 135-Pitt's Statue-Francis Peck-Windsor Station together. master-Clergy at the Dinner Table, 186-Door-Knocker Etiquette-Boys in Petticoats-Priors of Holy Trinity, Aldgate-Fourth Estate-R. Sare, 187-Thames Water Company-"Portygne"-South African Slang-Tennyson's 'Margaret'-"Seersucker," 189. NOTES ON BOOKS: F. W. Maitland'-Reviews and Magazines-Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notes.

RICHARD GEM.

Minster:

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RICHARD GEM, the only son of Richard Gem, gentleman of Worcestershire, was born at Barnsley Hall in the parish of Bromsgrove, but there is no entry of his baptism in the parish register. Nash in his History of Worcestershire' (i. 154) says that Mr. Gem of Birmingham is now lord of the Manor of Dodford [in Bromsgrove], where he has an estate of 1607. per ann. ." The son was bred in the house of William Philips, clerk, in the city of Worcester. Philips took the degree of B.A. of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1704; was Rector of All Saints,' Worcester, from 1710 to 1715; Vicar of St. Peter's, Worcester, from the latter year until 1741; and Rector of Bromsgrove from 1741 to 1754.

A contributor to The Monthly Magazine for 1821 (vol. li. pp. 138-9) supplies some interesting reminiscences of Gem under the title of Dr. Gom, but in the index the name is correctly given. He was not fond of the ordinary system of education, but sought the instruction of a neighbouring gentleman characterized as a freethinker, who had in fact been obliged to leave the University of Cambridge (where he had graduated) for his

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In 1741 there was published in London a little tract of 54 pages bearing the title of An Account of the Remedy for the Stone lately published in England....extracted from the examinations of this remedy, given into the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, by M. Morand and M. Geoffroy. By Richard Gem of the University of Cambridge." This description shows that he was not at that time, when he was 25 years old, possessed of any medical degree, and I am not acquainted with the nature of his subsequent qualification. Probably it was from a foreign, if any, university. His name does not appear in Dr. Munk's volumes on the members of the London College of Physicians, nor does it occur, says Mr. Victor G. Plarr, librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons, college books between the years 1745-83." Mr. Plarr therefore concludes that he was not a member of the old Corporation of Surgeons.

' in our

It is stated in The Monthly Magazine that Gem was known to and noticed by the Earl of Hertford, who gave him permission to visit Paris and to enjoy the advantages of connexion with the embassy. Unless this were a temporary visit only the statement conflicts with that recorded by the first Earl of Malmesbury in his diary (November, 1796), after a call from Gem, that "he came to Paris in 1751 with Lord Albemarle." Monthly Magazine anecdotist chronicles that Gem obtained through the favour of Lord Stormont the practice of the sick English at Paris. His professional income was large, his prescriptions were simple. The patient could even tell from them the nature of the

The

T

disease from which he was suffering. Gem
became physician to the embassy at Paris in
1762 on the appointment of the Duke of
Bedford as ambassador to France.

statesman was Gem's favourite niece. She died in 1774 (when William was in his fifth year) leaving four sons. The father married again, when Gem expressed the desire that the two elder sons, one of whom was William, should be assigned to his keeping, and in 1783 they were allowed to return to Paris with him; but their acquaintance with England was maintained by an annual visit which he and the two boys paid to their native land. To his watchful care and constant encouragement in study were due the successful training of Huskisson's abilities and the strain of enlightened thought which was conspicuous in his political politician was intended for the medical profession, and that he actually began the study of medicine. But through the influence of Warner, then chaplain to the English embassy, he was introduced to Lord Gower, and thus secured an opening into the highest circles of political life, which resulted in a lasting alliance with Canning, and a leading place in that statesman's Cabinet. (See my Eight Friends of the Great,' where the name is incorrectly printed Robert Gem.)

For the rest of his days Gem was domiciled in that country. His was a striking personality, for he was six feet and two or three inches in height, of an athletic build, and when over 70 as upright as a dart. When he was 82 he was very stout. He was admitted into the most brilliant society of Paris, becoming very intimate with the Encyclopædists and with many of the leading Englishmen who were admitted to its salons. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were his intimate friends. Acareer. It is generally said that the future letter from the latter dated New York, 4 April, 1790, is in [J. Wright's] Biog, Memoir of Huskisson, pp. 8-9, and a second letter to him is in 'Jefferson's Memoir and Correspondence' (ed. T. J. Randolph), iii. 32. Sterne in 1766 wrote to Dr. Jemm of Paris introducing [John] Symonds to him, and giving details of his winter in Italy. Mr. W. L. Cross in his Life of Sterne hesitatingly suggests this to be Dr. A. A. Jamme of Toulouse, who sometimes resided at Paris. I am inclined to think that it was Dr. Gem. Horace Walpole refers to him in the letters which he wrote from Paris in 1765 and 1766, and George Selwyn received a letter from him in the former year in which he intimated that he was coming with Baron D'Olbach to dine with Selwyn, and looked forward with pride to the honour of meeting Lord March." He was devoted to Selwyn, and figures constantly in Dr. Warner's letters to his patron, being playfully dubbed by him as Roger." Warner sometimes expresses his anxiety lest he should be suspected by Gem of a desire to supplant him in Selwyn's good graces.

2

Gem was a staunch republican, and was in complete sympathy with the French Revolution. Even the brilliant victories of Bonaparte did not shake his faith in republican principles. He was doubtless the 'Ghym anglais " who in 1792 presented 1,000 francs to the Patriotic Fund; but this did not prevent his arrest in 1793 as a hostage for Toulon, when his name appears in the police records as Gesme." For nine days he was detained at the Luxembourg, and was then transferred to the Scotch College. After a short release, probably under the decree of 3 November, 1793, exempting, on account of the scarcity of. doctors, foreign practitioners from imprisonThe allusions to Gem by Warner show ment, he was rearrested by the authorities that he took things seriously. In fact, of Versailles and imprisoned in the Recollets. he said to Walpole in 1765: Sir, I am Here he found himself in the same room serious, I am of a very serious turn." He with Grace Dalrymple Elliott ("Dolly the was a rigid disciplinarian and parsimonious, tall"), who says that he was conscious and it was noted as a trait in his character "that he ran no risk of being murdered, for that he allowed no eating between breakfast he was a philosopher, and I am sorry to say and dinner in the evening. His parsimony, an atheist.' Still, the restraint repressed however, did not restrain him from acts of his spirits, and Mrs. Elliott in November, kindness and generosity. Walpole, when 1796, repeated to Harris that "he cried writing to him in April, 1776, describes him as the whole time, was terrified to death." no less esteemed for his professional know- This clever woman, however, was inconledge than for his kind attention to the poor sistent in her recollections. She told Lord who applied to him for medical assistance." Malmesbury that "no candles were allowed Ten years later (1786) Gem was exerting them, or fire, after it was dark"; but her himself in getting books for Walpole. journal records that Gem used to get up at The mother of William Huskisson the four o'clock and "uncover the wood fire and

Richard Rotton "children of my nephew
Samuel Rotton, deceased," 1,000%. each.

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Gem died suddenly in Paris early in the spring of 1800, at the age of 83, undisturbed by any of the infirmities which so generally embitter the last years of protracted life." His will was proved on 6 May, 1800, and the estate was sworn at 10,000%. W. P. COURTNEY.

light a candle, and read Locke and Helvetius
till seven o'clock." She did many kind
offices for the doctor, endeavouring to drive
away his gloom, and by her representations
to the deputy that her fellow-prisoner was a
sincere republican obtained his release after a
detention of three or four months. They
wept at parting in the expectation that they
would never see one another again; but her
freedom came also in time. Gem had rooms
for years in the Rue St. Sépulcre at Paris,
even down to 1796; but his home seems KING'S
to have been at Meudon, and when Grace
Elliott came out of prison he used every day
to walk a mile to see her. She was in his
company the day before he died.

When James Harris, the first Earl of

'CLASSICAL AND FOREIGN QUOTATIONS.'

vii. 24;

(See 10 S. ii. 231, 351; iii. 447;
ix. 107, 284, 333; x. 126, 507; xi. 247;
xii. 127; 11 S. i. 463.)

Malmesbury, went to Paris in October, No. 361, "Conticuisse nocet nunquam, 1796, to negotiate terms of peace, he called on nocet esse locutum."-King takes this from Gem, and next day (9 November) the doctor Joseph Lang's (or Lange's) Polyanthea repaid the call, when Harris summed up Nova,' 1612, p. 673, where it is the first of somewhat harshly his character: Atheist, eight lines quoted from the 'Anthologia systême de la nature, economist, &c.-the Sacra of Jacobus Billius (Jacques Billy de cold apathetic scoundrel described by Prunay). It is evidently modelled on a line

Burke.

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Gem breakfasted with him on in Cato's 'Disticha,' I. xii. 2,

15 November, and when one of the secretaries, Nam nulli tacuisse nocet, nocet esse locutum. Leveson, afterwards Earl Granville, four days later became ill, his assistance was called for. No. 796,"Fiat justitia, ruat cælum.". For his services on this occasion he refused King, after giving Bartlett's statement to take any fees. He breakfasted with the (Familiar Quotations) that these words ambassador on 2 December, always harp-are to be found in [Nathaniel] Ward's ing on his philosophy"; and on 20 December dined there with Henry Swinburne, who swells the chorus of his praise as good physician" (Swinburne, Courts of Europe,' 1841, ii. 132, 158, 184, 209).

that

a very

Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (1647), published under the pseudonym of Theodore de la Guard, adds the variations, (2) Ruat cælum, fiat Voluntas Tua," quoted by Sir T. Browne, 'Religio Medici,' Pt. II. sect 11, and (3), from Büchmann, the saying attributed to the Emperor Fer66 Fiat dinand I. (1556-64), justitia, et 'Loci pereat mundus " (Joh. Manlius, Communes,' 1563, vol. ii. p. 290).

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It is said in The Monthly Magazine that Gem was so upset by Huskisson's change of political opinions as to disinherit him, but under Malmesbury's influence he altered his will and restored his nephew to his favour. Certain it is that his will was made This article can be improved in more than at this date, and under Malmesbury's one respect. With regard to (3), the Stancognizance, for it is dated 9 October, 1796, ford Dictionary quotes Fiat justicia ruat and witnessed by Malmesbury, Granville mundus" from the 'Egerton Papers' (1550), Leveson Gower (Lord Granville), and George p. 27, Camd. Soc.; while with regard to Ellis of The Rolliad ' and other works. He (1), "Fiat justitia, ruat cælum," the same appointed William Huskisson son of my dictionary gives from W. Watson's 'Quodniece Elizabeth Huskisson, deceased," his libets of Religion and State' (1602), p. 338, "all executor, giving him and his heirs my 'You goe against that Generall maxime real estate in Bromsgrove," and making him in the lawes, which is that fiat iustitia & the residuary legatee (which included a ruant cœli." I have noted a still closer mortgage on Hayley's estate of Eartham in approximation to (1) in Manningham's Sussex), but subject to the following 'Diary' (Camd. Soc.), p. 169, under the legacies:date 11 April, 1603: When I was men. tioning howe dangerous and difficult a thing it would be to restore appropriacions, he [="Mr. Thomas Overbury": he was not knighted till 1608] said Fiat justicia et cœlum ruat,"

1. "To Marie Cleine, now in my service at Paris, 50l. a year for life."

2. To Samuel Huskisson, brother of the aforesaid William, 1,500%.

3. To Sarah, Elizabeth, Jane, Marie, and

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