THIS Gentleman is the son of the celebrated Bonnell Thornton, who was accounted the greatest wit and the beft claffical scholar of the age. There are a few anecdotes not inferted in the life of the father, which we take this opportunity to give. Bonnell Thornton was fon to an eminent and rich apothecary in Bedford-ftreet, CoventGarden, who bringing him up to phyfic, with a liberal univerfity education, he was fhocked to hear the reputation his fon had gained, as conjoint author of the Connoiffeur with Colman, and tranflator of Plautus, which had at length reached his ears; for instead of rejoicing he had "fuch a fon," the old man looked forward to one who not only would gain, but keep, the pounds, thillings, and pence; and authors he knew were not of this defcription. As much as others commended he difpraised, and grew at last fo irafcible, that he determined to dif. inherit his fon, only leaving him a bare fubfiftence; and confiding this to a mutual friend, this perfon communicated the melancholy tidings to Bonnell Thornton, who hit upon the following expedient to counteract the intention. He appointed all the lame and blind, in thort half the beggars of London, to come on certain days, and for each was prefcribed a glafs of gin

after audience, and a fixpence; and the mutual friend procured the old Gentle man to go to a neighbouring house, and witnefs the anxious concern the fon had to procure experience, and add to his reputation as a great phyfician. So pleafed was he at the unexpected fight, that he went back, altered his will, and brought a two hundred pound bank-note to the rival of Hippocrates, whom he found in his robe-de-chambre, and up to his chin in ancient and modern books of phyfic.

As foon as the old Gentleman died, Bonnell Thornton changed the folemn fuit for a laced coat, which occafioned much furprife among his friends, and the poet Churchill to address to him in private the following fatyrical queries, not knowing the circumstances which led to the former disguise:

Mock DOCTOR! fay, why haft thou turn'd a prig,

Shook off thy two-tail'd, or thy threetail'd wig?

Why in lac'd clothes affect to shine a beau, So unphyfician-like from top to toe? Expofe thy frizzled pate to cold and raw, A bag thy enfign, and no more bashaw? Time was when thou, in gravity of drefs, The types of thy profeffion didit exprefs.

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Thy ditto-colour'd fuit of folemn brown, Trimm'd all the way with gilded buttons down;

Buttons, in shape like holus, did proclaim, That thou would'it be another Mead in fame :

Thy stick was ftain'd like cane, its head was gilt ;

No knot adorn'd thy fword with filver hilt;

So white, fo large, thy peruke, and fo thick,

Its very fight gave comfort to the fick. The grave accoutrements why would't thou drop,

Forego the Doctor, and commence the Fop?

Courted by a numerous circle of acquaintances, whom he enlivened by his fallies of unrivalled wit, Bonnell Thornton died in 1768, at the early age of forty-four. Conscious of his approaching end, he fummoned his family together, and filing in the expectation of immortality, he evinced, that innocent mirth and becoming fatire carry with them no things to the grave, and with his hand on his pulfe, counting their decline, and fpeaking of another world without terror, he placidly funk into the arms of death. He had mentioned, that he had fettled all things of a temporal nature, and named the bureau in which his will was placed; but what was remarkable, the lock had been forced, and the drawer in which the will was faid to be was found open. He, therefore, was esteemed to have died without a will.

The education of his two fons and daughter fell to the lot of his widow, a lady of fingular piety and fenfe, and young Thornton and his elder brother were fent to a public fchool, from which they were afterwards removed to have their education finished at a private feminary, where there were only eight scholars. As in youth we often notice peculiar tuins, fo did young Thornton then difplay that inclination which has fince rendered him fo confpicuous in the theatre of public life. Instead of devoting his play-hours and holidays to juvenile recreations, he was either in the fields collecting wild plants for his garden, or laying gins for birds. He kept a large affortment of different pigeons, befides having every fpecies of the English hawk. His manner of catch

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ing thefe was curious, and different from what might have been expected at his age. The Moor-Buzzard, which is nearly the fize of an eagle, and the Kite, he used to enfiare by means of trap, whofe teeth he filed away, and covered with lift; and this was baited with a dead bird, and covered over with mould and grafs, and proved very fuccefsful. The other hawks were caught in the following manner: He made a net of a fingle thread of green filk, and this was extended in the air from tree to tree, and by poles, and birds confined by the leg were placed. under it, and the hawks not perceiving the thread, were entangled in the methes, and fo caught; and if young, hood-winked, and inftructed for the chafe. He would often entreat his mafter to let him go a bat-fowling, which is accomplished in this way: A boy goes with a dark lanthern, and another with a net hung upon two ticks, and a third beats the bushes, when the light is expofed, and the affrighted birds flying towards the light are instantly caught in the foldings of the net. His grandmother often used to fay, that the difliked young Thornton, as he was always catching of infects or butterflies in her garden, instead of minding his books. Hence all his weekly allowance went to maintain his garden and menagerie.

At this period an accident had nearly blafted every expectation of rifing hope. During the vacation, being at home with his mother, who for feveral months had been confined to her bed, and was attended by Sir Richard Jebb, having a cold, he was ordered a white emulfion draught; and that being by the fervant confufed with a phial of eau-de-luce, employed to revive his mother in her faintings, he in mistake took up this identical bottle, and drank it off immediately, to the amount of two ounces. Feeling the fiery ingre dient within him, he fcreamed aloud, "he was burning alive!" burit out of the room, and rushing into the kitchen for water, which he found boiling on the fire, he then feized upon the butter on the fhelf, first knocking down the fervants who attempted to hold him from leaping up, thinking he was mad, and he almoft inftantly devoured a roll of it. His dying mother, roused by the mournful cry, "I am poifoned! I am poitoned !" got out of bed, and

coming down ftairs, found her fon now faint, and weltering in the blood which he vomited up in torrents; and not confcious of her own ills, tried to foothe thofe of her fon; loft fight of every complaint; and though for years before the had laboured in the most dreadful manner under afthma, and a nervous affection, the no longer felt either; and from that time, for upwards of two years, the remained in perfect health. He was bled at first night and morning, took nothing by way of food, for three weeks, but linfeed oil, being fupported wholly by glyfters; and by dint of a fine conftitution and a natural cheerfulnefs of mind, he miraculously efcaped, but reduced to a mere thadow.

Having completely recovered this accident, at fixteen he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, and was deftined for the Church. Although his allowance at the University was fmall, by rigid economy he contrived to follow up his favourite purfuits. With the money he had faved, he attended Profeffor Harwood's Lectures on Anatomy, Dr. Milner's Lectures on Chemistry, Profeffor Martyn's Lectures on Botany and Natural History, and even contrived to have the Rev. Mr. Hartley, now Rector of Bingley, and Mafter of the Grammar-School there, for his private tutor, with whom he diligently studied the Greek and Latin claffics.

The proficiency he made in anatomy was hewn, to the no fmall amufement of his fellow-ftudents, at one of the Lectures on Optics. The public tutor, the Rev. Mr. Jones, asked Mr. Thornton for an account of the anatomy of the eye. Not confidering that the terms of that science were not familiar to the reft, he introduced, in the account he gave of the optic nerve, its investment from the membranes of the dura and pia mater of the cerebrum, and fet the whole clafs to biting their lips to fupprefs laughter; whilft the tutor

was

crying out, "That will do, Sir! That will do, Sir!" and his fellow-ftudents, after lecture, affured him, he never would be asked again for any more anatomical defcriptions.

His fifter died foon after her father; and his elder brother, who had been brought up at the University, where he evinced many traits of genius in feveral poetical compofitions, after having made the tour of Europe, re.

turned home in declining health, and expired at the Hot Wells, Bristol, of a lingering decline. Mr. Thornton now becoming poffelfed of a very confiderable fortune, which was bequeathed him by his brother's will, in gratitude, had his corpfe removed from the HotWells, and brought to London, to be buried in the Cloisters of WestminsterAbbey, by the fide of his father, and cauled a beautiful monument to be erected to his memory, with the following elegant infcription on it: Oh, worth! in early youth by all approv'd;

Oh, happy genius! ripen'd in thy bloom:

To thee, for every focial virtue lov'd, Thy friend, thy brother, confecrates this tomb.

Now placed in independent circum ftances, Mr. Thornton, although offered to be patronifed, if in the Church, by Dr. Hinchliffe, the Bishop of Peterborough, Maiter of Trinity College, who had been very intimate with his father and the family, and wrote exprefsly to his mother to this effect, adding, "he was fure he would become a popular preacher, for that having lately heard his English declamation, it was compofed in a ftyle, and delivered in a manner, that would have done honour even to the Senate," and though urged to confent by his mother, yet was he refolute in declaring his determination of not going into the Church, but following the profeffion of phyfic; he, therefore, fixed his ftation at Guy's Hospital, instead of ftudying at Edinburgh, to be near his affectionate parent; and there, inftead of fquandering his money in pleasures, as other young men who are independent are too apt to do, he engaged, befides attending the public Lectures of Mr. Cline, as a private inftructor in anatomy, Dr. Haighton, the prefent eminent Lecturer on Phyfiology, at Guy's Hofpital; and his acquifitions in chemistry, under the famous Dr. Babington, were evinced; for when called upon for a thefis, in order to take his Batchelor's degree in phyfic at Cambridge, he propofed for the lubject, contrary to the opinions of philofophers then prevailing, a difcovery he had himfelf made, "That the animal heat arofe from the oxygene air imbibed by the blood flowing through

the