The death of her father, the late Earl, was sudden if not singular having been taken ill while on horseback, not on a journey, but while enjoying a ride, and carried to the house of H. Peters, Esq., of Betchworth Castle, where he expired February 10th, 1817.

As a legislator, the Earl of Rothes was not prominent; he, however, in his character of one of the sixteen peers of Scotland, seconded the dutiful and respectful address which was moved at the opening of the present parliament, and acquitted himself with a considerable share of ability, on that occasion. His demise is supposed to have arisen from the bursting of a blood vessel.

No. XVI.

CHARLES COMBE, M. D. F. R. S. AND A. S.

THIS gentleman was a native of London, having been born in that great city on the 23d of September 1743. His father, an eminent and wealthy apothecary in Southampton Street, Bloomsbury, determined to give him a good education, and doubtless had the profession of medicine in his view, from the very first. He was accordingly sent to Harrow school, of which Dr. Thackeray was then head master. There his contemporaries were of no vulgar kind; for besides several others of some note, he reckoned among his friends and playfellows, the present Dr. Parr, who afterwards became one of the instructors in that seminary, of which he has been always considered both as the ornament and the pride. With the late

Sir William Jones, who went to India in the obscure situation of a puisne Judge, a post utterly unworthy of his great talents and acquirements, he was particularly intimate; he admired his rare and singular merits; he cultivated his valuable and lasting friendship; he was privy to all his plans, and he preserved a continued and uninterrupted intercourse with him, until his departure for Bengal, where he expired, a prey to one of the many diseases of that climate.

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Meanwhile, on leaving Harrow, Mr. Combe returned to his father's house, and under the paternal roof, applied himself both to the study and practice of the healing art. His knowledge of the learned languages furnished a key to the theory; the lectures of professional men, conveyed an idea of the present state of medicine; while the hospitals afforded an insight into new and uncommon cases. In 1768, when he was only twenty-five years of age, in consequence of the demise

of his father, John, he succeeded to his practice, and confined himself for a considerable time, exactly to the same line.

In the course of the next year, he married Miss Taylor, by whom he has two surviving children, out of four, who were born in consequence of this union, which lasted during the long period of thirty years; that lady died in 1799.

As Mr. Combe was known to be a man, who to an excellent education superadded considerable talents, and an unblemished character, his company and conversation were greatly courted. Nor was he averse to such distinctions as men of learning usually aspire to; for so early as 1771, he became a member of the Society of Antiquaries; and in the course of five years more, was nominated a fellow of the Royal Society.

It was not until the year 1783, however, that he attained to any professional eminence. As he had not been educated at an English University, he could not obtain a degree either at Oxford or Cambridge; his friends therefore applied in his name to Glasgow; and his certificate was so respectably signed, and his respectability so well established, that no difficulty whatsoever was found in conferring the title of M. D. As this, however, did not entitle him to practise either in London, or seven miles around the metropolis, he applied to the College of Physicians, offered to submit to an examination, and was accordingly nominated a "licentiate," without any obstacle. His habits and practice pointed at the lucrative and respectable station of an accoucheur, which had procured such an immense accession of opulence to his friend, the late Dr. William Hunter. This gentleman like himself, had advanced from the very bottom of the profession, and obtained the doctorate at the University of Glasgow, after he had arrived at a mature age. The career of the former, however, although less brilliant, was respectable; and he became, first, Physician in Ordinary, and then Physician Extraordinary to the British Lying-in-Hospital, in Brownlow Street. His private practice was also both considerable, and advantageous; and had it not been for his literary, and scientific pursuits, which we are now

about to enumerate, there can be no doubt, but he would have obtained, perhaps the very first eminence in midwifery.

While at Harrow, Dr. Coombe had exhibited a marked attachment for classical attainments, and classical investigation: indeed, it was impossible for the school-fellow of a Jones, and a Parr, to remain devoid of a taste of this kind. The French, with less learning, perhaps, have cultivated medallic history, more than the English, and the fine bronzes struck during the reign of Louis XVI., notwithstanding the poverty of the subjects which they celebrate, and the bombastic nature of their inscriptions, have not a little contributed to form, or at least, to encourage this pursuit, which is connected in no small degree with their national glory.

Dr. Charles Combe, possessed a similar taste, but it was of a far more chaste and classical description. The study of ancient medals, as connected with ancient manners, and ancient history, was a career then open, and indeed, new to the modern antiquary in this country. His early essays proved successful to a certain degree, for they in the first place tended not a little to diffuse his reputation, and in the next, introduced him to the notice of the late Dr. William Hunter, with whom he was connected by the ties of an uninterrupted friendship, during the long space of twenty-five years; and which was at last only dissolved by the death of one of the parties.

This great anatomist, and man-midwife, without being, perhaps, a very learned man, in the strict sense of that term, possessed a noble passion for at once distinguishing himself, and creating an unrivalled museum for the service of posterity. As he had not any children, and possessed an immense

annual revenue, the Dr. first formed a splendid anatomical collection, at his house in Windmill Street, which was commenced, perhaps with a view to the accommodation of the numerous students from all countries, who crowded to his lectures, His views' were next extended to natural history, including the finest specimens of shells, minerals, crystals, corals, &c. As his fortune encreased, so did his plans enlarge; for his apartments were soon after lined with a magnificent display of

books, which actually formed a literary desideratum, as they contained a treasure of Greek and Roman learning. But his assemblage of Greek and Roman coins, in the acquisition of which, both at home and abroad, no expence was spared, soon bid defiance to competition in this island; and at length rivalled the best cabinets of certain continental sovereigns, the entire revenues of whose subjects, are at their sole disposal. So princely a collection of medals, had never before been purchased by any single collector, however rich or ambitious, as by this one English physician, during a period of about twenty-six years; and his cabinet eminently excelled in its rare series of the coins of the Grecian Kings.

It was in this cabinet, that Dr. Combe immured himself, almost daily, during many hours; but it was towards the Roman history, in which he was doubtless a considerable proficient, that he now directed his views. The Cæsars in particular, designated on large brass, had long attracted his attention, and he was ambitious to write dissertations on all these medals; but his labours, which commenced with the usurper Julius, extended no further than the tyrant Domitian. The title of this work, as well as its date, will be found in the subjoined catalogue; it was dedicated to the Marquis of Rockingham, then in the height of his reputation: num, et venerabile nomen gentibus."

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After an interval of eight or nine years, Dr. Combe published the medallic history of the free cities of Greece; and so rare and so rich was the collection whence he derived his materials, that on this occasion, there appeared no fewer than sixty-five plates of inedited coins.

These two works served merely as specimens of this celebrated cabinet; and foreigners now, for the first time, began to turn their eyes to Britain, as a country peculiarly favoured in respect to numismatic riches. Eckhel, who then super ́intended the fine cabinet of medals at Vienna, collected during a series of years by such fortunate members of the House of Austria, as had attained to the imperial purple, paid many well merited compliments to the subject of this memoir on the