minister of Hitterdale, in Iceland, respecting the natural history and geography, &c. of that island, and the diseases to which its inhabitants were liable. Several very agreeable letters were sent in reply by his reverend friend, who has therein placed himself in a most amiable point of view. From these materials Browne drew up, for the Royal Society, a few years after, his sketch of that singular and then almost unknown spot.

Another of Browne's correspondents, and one of his personal friends in the county, was Sir Hamon L'Estrange, of Hunstanton, a man of real love for natural history, and most zealous in its pursuit. From him Browne received, in Jan. 1653, a letter, enclosing a most substantial proof of the estimation in which his works were held-a MS. of eighty-five pages of Observations on the Pseudodoxia: some of them highly interesting. This MS. is preserved in No. 1830 of the MS. Sloan. I have given some extracts. About the same time he appears to have rendered some assistance to a botanist of considerable note (or as Wood calls him), a noted herbalist of his day- Mr. William How, commonly called Dr. How; who, after having served as a captain in King Charles the First's cavalry, took up his residence in London, first in Lawrence Lane, then in Milk Street, as a physician, though he does not seem to have qualified by taking a degree. How was distinguished among the earlier English botanists for his love of the science, and for his published contributions to it. Some local catalogues, enumerating the plants of certain districts in England, had already been published by Dr. Johnson, the learned editor of Gerard's Herbal; but How was the first who brought out a general list of the plants of Great Britain, as distinguished from those of foreign countries: under the title of Phytologia Britannica, natales exhibens indigenarum stirpium sponte emergentium, 12mo. London, 1650. In 1655 he edited a portion, which had fallen into his hands, of Lobel's MSS. for his projected large work, entitled, “Illustrationes Plantarum:" of which Parkinson had used another portion in his Theatrum Botanicum. From a letter, which he addressed to Dr. Browne in that year, it would appear, that he contemplated, and had made considerable preparation for, another botanical work; but his death, which took place a year afterwards, prevented its completion. The said letter must be admitted abundantly to justify the character given of this writer by Dr. Richard Pulteney: it is, indeed, written "in a flowery and bombast stile," and in terms so affectedly figurative, that it seems not at all clear, whether he is speaking of a botanical work

P In his Sketches of the Progress of Botany in England, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1790, vol. i. p. 173.

which he was writing, or of a botanical garden which he was engaged in superintending. Perhaps it was a catalogue raisonné either of his own garden or of some other in which he was concerned.

Browne's learning and science, however, soon added to his acquaintance two of the most distinguished men of his dayEvelyn and Sir Wm. Dugdale. In 1657, through the intervention of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Robert Paston, created Earl of Yarmouth in 1673, a correspondence commenced between Browne and Evelyn. The latter being much interested with his favourite pursuit of gardening, and just then busily occupied in preparing for the press a work to be entitled Elysium Britannicum, sought the assistance of our author, as a man well known for his extensive acquaintance with natural history; and we have sufficient evidence that Browne's contributions were considerable:-The tract, Of Garlands, &c., and probably the Observations on Grafting, were written for the use of Evelyn. It is, however, very much to be regretted, that so little of their correspondence has descended to us; for we must suppose that it was kept up for many years. Evelyn's Silva contains an extract from a communication received in 1664, which I shall insert here, though somewhat out of the order of date.

"But whilst I am on this period, see what a Tilia that most learned and obliging person Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich, describes to me in a letter just now received.

"An extraordinary large and stately Tilia, Linden, or Limetree, there groweth at Depeham in Norfolk, ten miles from Norwich, whose measure is this :-The compass, in the least part of the trunk or body, about two yards from the ground, is at least eight yards and a half; about the root, near the earth, sixteen yards; about half a yard above that, near twelve yards in circuit; the height, to the uppermost boughs, about thirty yards. This surmounts the famous Tilia of Zurich, in Switzerland; and uncertain it is, whether in any Tilicetum, or Limewalk, abroad, it be considerably exceeded: yet was the first motive I had to view it, not so much the largeness of the tree, as the general opinion that no man could ever name it; but I found it to be a Tilia fæmina; and (if the distinction of Bauhinus be admitted, from the greater and lesser leaf) a Tilia platyphyllos or latifolia; some leaves being three inches broad; but, to distinguish it from others in the country, I called it Tilia colossaa Depehamensis."

¶ Hunter's Evelyn, vol. ii. p. 196. This celebrated Linden-tree stood upon the property of Mr. Amias; it was cut down nearly a century ago,

I think it very probable, that Browne derived from his distinguished correspondent some hints which availed him in his Garden of Cyrus, which he published in the year 1658, with Hydriotaphia. In this latter work he announced his discovery of the singular substance, called by the French chemists adipocire, and which M. Du Petit Thouars, the writer of the article Browne, in the Biographie Universelle, thus mentions :-On y trouve, entre autres, la première observation sur la substance singulière provenant de la décomposition des cadavres, retrouvée depuis, par Fourcroy, dans le cimetière des Innocents, à Paris, et connue maintenant sous le nom d'adipocire.”—See vol. vi. 62.

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Towards the close of the same year, 1658, Sir William Dugdale applied to Dr. Browne for critical as well as historical and scientific contributions to his work, On Embanking and Draining, then in progress. And several of their letters are preserved. Sir William has acknowledged his obligations to his learned and zealous friend, in the following passage, at p. 175 of his work :Touching which kind of urne buriall see further in that excellent discourse of the learned Dr. Thomas Browne, of Norwich (printed at London in An. 1658), from whom I acknowledge to have received much direction for my better guidance in this present work." And to show that this was not a mere compliment, it will be sufficient to compare Browne's critical remarks, in reply to Sir William Dugdale's enquiries respecting the meaning of the term paludibus emuniendis, used by Tacitus in speaking of the labour to which the Britons were compelled by their Roman conquerors, with Dugdale's remarks thereon, at p. 17 of his work.

But it is time to take up the thread of his domestic history. As years passed on, there arose other claims, which not even his professional avocations, added to the pursuits of literature, the wide and increasing range of his acquaintance, and the conduct of a correspondence whose limits were daily extending, could enable him to evade or resist. His family was large, and rapidly coming into life; and they must have more and more engrossed his thoughts and his care. We have, it must be lamented, but scanty means of judging what was his system of management and education; though it is probable, that if he erred, it was not in the exercise of too great austerity. His ambition was, their accomplishment; and there is sufficient evidence that he spared neither expense nor trouble, neither admonition, example, nor encouragement, to attain it. One remarkable feature in his plan is, however, very evident, that he did not keep them at home; but endeavoured to form them to habits of independence, and to give them, in a wide sense, a knowledge of the world, by sending them abroad. Some of his daughters visited France,

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though, in all probability, they were accompanied by himself. We have a single and imperfect allusion to a visit which he paid to Holland, on which occasion, I suspect that one or more of his daughters accompanied him, going probably or returning through France. But he certainly must be considered to have put his system in practice at rather an early age, and in a most perilous manner, when he sent his second son, Thomas, to France in 1660, at the age of fourteen, and sent him thither alone. We are not told that he had any particular plan of education in view for the boy in so doing, nor have we the intimation of any special motive which led to it. He exhorted him, in his letters, to learn all he could, to take notice of every thing remarkable, "to cast off pudor rusticus," to put on a commendable boldness," and to "have a good handsome garb of his body." It is, moreover, to be especially observed, how earnestly he enjoins him to "hold firm to the Protestant religion, and be diligent in going to church :" "be constant," he adds, "not negligent in your daily private prayers, and habituate your heart in your tender days unto the fear and reverence of God." Excellent as is the advice, it must be apprehended that he did not place his boy in circumstances the most favourable to its adoption, when he sent him, so young, and unattended, amidst such scenes as he would be sure to meet with. Probably he contemplated, if he had not resolved on, the profession into which his son afterwards entered, and deemed it essential to his excelling therein, that he should early learn to "shift for himself." If so, the event justified the plan, for it seems that his boy did not fail to acquire that laudable boldness and freedom of carriage which his father was anxious to see in him, and which he told him, "he that learneth not in France travelleth in vain." He was a spirited and talented young man, and would, in all probability, have risen to eminence, had he lived. He was remarkable, withal, for kindness and frankness of disposition. His "Tour in Derbyshire," for there is internal evidence that he wrote that journal), sufficiently shows that he had acquired some taste for adventure, and was ready enough to play his part. The greater part of the following year he passed at college, and at the close of 1664, entered the navy.

With his eldest son, whom he destined for his own profession, Browne somewhat modified his plan, though it was substantially similar. He sent him abroad, but not at so early an age; choosing, probably, to keep his education in his own hands, or, at least, within reach of his own control. With this view, after passing through the Free School at Norwich, Edward was sent to Cambridge, where he entered at Trinity College, Oct. 27, 1657, and took the degree of bachelor in physic in the middle of 1663. With his brother Edward, towards the close of the year 1662.

In the autumn of 1663 he returned to Norwich, and probably commenced his professional studies with his father, who seems to have infused into him some portion of his own spirit, if we may judge from the diligence with which Edward devoted himself to the study of his profession, and to the collateral pursuits of comparative anatomy and natural history. He spent the winter of 1663-4 in Norwich; and his journal, describing the amusements of the city at that period, is interesting. Mr. Henry Howard, afterwards sixth Duke of Norfolk (grandson of the celebrated Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who made those splendid collections which have immortalized him), then resided there; and his munificence and urbanity are evinced by the frequency of the parties given at the Duke's palace, as well as by the freedom of access which young Browne obtained to them. But the public spirit of Mr. Howard vied with the splendour of his entertainments. He purchased, and devoted to the amusement of the public, the gardens in King Street, which were long afterwards (and, as I am assured by Dr. Sutton, of Norwich, even within his recollection) designated "My Lord's Gardens.”

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In the spring of 1664, Mr. Edward Browne commenced his foreign travels, first spending a short time among his relations and friends in London. And here he seems to have formed his first acquaintance with the family of Dr. Terne, whose daughter he afterwards married. He took up his residence, while in London, at the house of his relation, Mr. Barker, in Clerkenwell, where his sister Ann was then living. Here he met "Madam Fairfax," probably the mother of Mr. Henry Fairfax, whom his sister Ann afterwards married, and who was the grandson of Thomas, Lord Viscount Fairfax. He also mentions his "dear sister Cottrell as being of the party; and says that he afterwards "waited upon Madam Cottrell home to her house in St. James his Park, &c." Hence I concluded, perhaps too hastily, that Sir Charles Cottrell married a daughter of Sir Thomas Browne. More probably it was a son of Sir Charles's; but I cannot give the slightest authority for the conjecture beyond the present passage. From London he proceeded to Paris, and

s Henry Fairfax, Esq., of Burlington, in the county of York, second son of Thomas, Lord Viscount Fairfax, of Emely, in Ireland, married Frances, the only daughter of Henry Barker, of Hurst, Esq.; and died in 1656, leaving his widow (this Madam Fairfax, as I suppose), who was buried at Hurst, March 25, 1668-9. They had three children, Henry (who married Ann Browne), John (mentioned by Dr. Edward Browne), and Frances. Thus is the relationship of the Fairfax and Barker families made out; but how Mr. Barker became the cousin of Edward Browne, before his sister's marriage to Mr. Fairfax, does not appear.