time every day. In 1737 he took his degree of M. D. and probably about this period, the Colemans retiring from business, settled at Brent Ely Hall, in the county of Suffolk, near enough to admit of Dr. Battie's accepting a general invitation to their house, of which he was encouraged to make use whenever the nature of his business allowed him the leisure. This he did with no small inconvenience to himself, without the least prospect of advantage, not to mention the wide disproportion between their political principles, the Colemans being genuine city Tories, and the doctor a staunch Whig; though both parties afterwards reversed their opinions; yet Dr. Battie was one whom no consideration of advantage in the most trying exigencies of life could ever prevail on to swerve from what he conscientiously believed to be truth.

A fair opening for a physician happening at Uxbridge, induced Dr. Battie to settle in that town. At his first coming there, Dr. Godolphin, provost of Eton, sent his coach and four for him, as his patient; but the doctor sitting to write a prescription, the provost, raising himself up, said, "You need not trouble yourself to write; I only sent for you to give you credit in the neighbourhood." His medical skill here being attended with success, he was quickly enabled to accumulate 500l. with which in his pocket, he again paid a visit to his relations in Suffolk, requesting their advice how to dispose of his wealth to the best advantage; and they were so pleased with his industry and discretion, that from that hour they behaved towards him with the firmest friendship. He then removed to London, where the established emoluments of his practice produced him 1000l. a year. In 1738 or 1739, he fulfilled by marriage a long attachment he had preserved for a daughter of Barnham Goode, the under-master of Eton school of the year 1691, against whom, at all times, the Colemans expressed the most inveterate political antipathy. They, however, behaved to the wife with the utmost civility, and when they died, they left Dr. Battie 30,000l.

In 1746 he published an Harveian oration, and in 1749, being then F.R. S. published his complete edition of Isocrates, 2 vols. Svo, a work of which the learned and critical Harles does not speak in the highest terms of commendation, and seems to insinuate that the editor was deficient in judgment and talents. In the dispute which the college of physicians had with Dr. Schomberg, about the year 1750, Dr. Battie was one of the censors, and took a

very active part against that gentleman, in consequence of which he was thus severely, but not altogether unjustly ridiculed, in a poem called "The Battiad," said to be written by Moses Mendez, Paul Whitehead, and Dr. Schomberg, and since reprinted in Dilly's "Repository," 1776. The lines are these:

"First Battus came, deep read in worldly art,

Whose tongue ne'er knew the secrets of his heart :
In mischief mighty, though but mean of size,
And, like the tempter, ever in disguise.
See him, with aspect grave, and gentle tread,
By slow degrees approach the sickly bed.
Then at his club behold him alter'd soon,
"The solemn doctor turns a low buffoon:
And he, who lately in a learned freak
Poach'd every lexicon, and published Greek,
Still madly emulous of vulgar praise,

From Punch's forehead wrings the dirty bays."

These last lines allude to a fact; and by successfully mimicking that low character, Dr. Battie is said to have once saved a young patient's life. He was sent for to a gentleman who was alive in 1782, but at that time only fourteen or fifteen years old, who was in extreme misery from a swelling in his throat; when the doctor understood what the complaint was, he opened the curtains, turned his wig, and acted Punch with so much humour and success, that the young man, thrown almost into convulsions from laughing, was so agitated, as to occasion the tumour to break, and a complete çure was the immediate consequence.

In 1751, he published "De principiis animalibus exercitationes in Coll. Reg. Medicorum," in three parts; which were followed the year after, by a fourth. These were his Lumleian lectures, delivered at the college of physicians. In 1757, being then physician to St. Luke's hospital, and master of a private mad-house near Wood's close, in the road to Islington, he published in 4to, "A treatise on Madness;" in which, having thrown out some censures on the medicinal practice formerly used in Bethlem hospital, he was replied to, and severely animadverted on, by Dr. John Monro, whose father had been lightly spoken of in the forementioned treatise. Monro having humorously enough taken Horace's O major tandem parcas insane minori, for the motto of his Remarks on Battie's Treatise, the wits gave him the name of major Battie, in◄

stead of doctor. In 1762 he published "Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis nonnullis ad principia animalia accommodati." Feb. 1763, he was examined before a committee of the house of commons on the state of the private mad-houses in this kingdom, and received in their printed report a testimony very honourable to his abilities.

In April 1764, he resigned the office of physician to St. Luke's hospital. In 1767, when disputes ran very high between the college of physicians and the licentiates, Dr. Battie wrote several letters in the public papers, in vindication of the college. In 1776, he was seized with a paralytic stroke, which proved fatal, June 13, in his 72d year. The night he expired, conversing with his servant, a lad who attended on him as a nurse, he said to him, "Young man, you have heard, no doubt, how great are the terrors of death. This night will probably afford you some experience; but may you learn, and may you profit by the example, that a conscientious endeavour to perform his duty through life, will ever close a Christian's eyes with comfort and tranquillity." He soon after departed, without a struggle or a groan, and was buried by his own direction, at Kingston-upon-Thames, "as near as possible to his wife, without any monument or memorial whatever." He left three daughters, Anne, Catherine, and Philadelphia, of whom the eldest was married to sir George Young (a gallant English admiral who died in 1810.) This lady sold her father's house and estate at Marlow, called Court garden, to Mr. Davenport, an eminent surgeon of London. The second was married to Jonathan Rashleigh, esq. and the third to John, afterwards sir John Call, bart. in the hon. East India company's service. Dr. Battie gave by his will 100%. to St. Luke's hospital; 100l. to the corporation for the relief of widows and children of clergymen, and twenty guineas to earl Camden, as a token of regard for his many public and private virtues. His books and papers, whether published or not, he gave to his daughter Anne. Among these was a tract on the meaning of 1 Cor. xv. 22, and some others which were printed before his death, but not published, nor have we seen a copy.

Dr. Battie, it may already be surmised, was of that class called humourists, and he had also a turn for speculations a little out of the way of his profession. His house at Marlow was built under his own direction, but he for

got the stair-case, and all the offices below were constantly under water. A favourite scheme of his, for having the barges drawn up the river by horses instead of men, rendered him unpopular among the bargemen, and at one time he narrowly escaped being thrown over the bridge by them, but he pacified them by acting Punch. In this scheme he is said to have lost 1500l. and for fear of future insults, he always carried pocket-pistols about him. He affected in the country to be his own day-labourer, and to dress like one, and was, on one occasion, refused admittance to a gentleman's house, where he was intimate, the servants not knowing him in this disguise, but he forced himself in by main force. Upon the whole, however, he was a man of learning, benevolence, and skill.1

BATTIFERA, LAURA. See AMMINATI, BARTHOLOMEW.

BATTISHILL (JONATHAN), an English musician and composer, was born in London, 1738. Discovering at a very early age an uncommon genius for music, and having an excellent voice, he was, in 1747, placed in the choir of St. Paul's, under the tuition of Mr. Savage, then master of the young gentlemen of that cathedral. He was soon qualified to sing at sight, and before he had been in the choir two years, his performances discovered uncommon taste and judgment. On his voice changing at the usual period of life, he became an articled pupil of Mr. Savage, and at the expiration of his engagement, came forth one of the first extempore performers in this country. He had now just arrived at manhood, and having a pleasing, though not powerful voice, a tasteful and masterly style of execution on the harpsichord, a fund of entertaining information acquired by extensive reading, a pleasing manner, and a gay and lively disposition, he possessed, in an eminent degree, the power of rendering himself agreeable in every company; and his society and instruction were courted by persons of the highest ranks. Every encouragement was offered to excite his future efforts, and promote his professional success; and no prospects could be fairer or more flattering than those which he had now before him. Of these advantages, however, he does not appear to have availed himself in the fullest extent. After leaving

1 Nichols's Life of Bowyer, 8vo.-Harwood's Alumni Etonenses.

Mr. Savage, we find him composing songs for Sadler's Wells, and afterwards performing on the harpsichord at Covent-garden theatre, where he married Miss Davies, a singer, but did not permit her any more to appear in public. Soon after this marriage, he obtained the place of organist to the churches of St. Clement, East-cheap, and of Christ-church, Newgate-street, and about this time published a series of songs, highly creditable to his talents, and his reputation was yet more promoted by composing part of the opera of Alcmena, in conjunction with Mr. Michael Arne. But these and similar compositions did not divert his mind from cathedral music, in which style he composed some excellent anthems, since republished in Mr. Page's Harmonia Sacra. He also, at the express desire of the Rev. Charles Wesley, father of the present Messrs. Charles and Samuel Wesley, set to music a collection of hymns, written by that gentleman, the melodies of which are peculiarly elegant, yet chaste and appropriate. In the catch and glee style, he also gave convincing proofs of the diversity of his taste and genius, and in 1770 obtained the gold medal given by the noblemen's catch-club, for his well-known glee "Underneath this myrtle shade." With such talents, and the approbation which followed the exertion of them, he appears to have relaxed into indifference, and in his latter years seldom came forward as a composer. Except two excellent collections of three and four part songs, and a few airs composed for a collection published by Harrison of Paternoster-row, nothing appeared from his pen for the last thirty years of his life. His time was spent in his library, where he had accumulated a very large collection of valuable books, or in attending his pupils, or in what was, perhaps, as frequent and less wise, in convivial parties. He was blest with an uncommonly strong constitution: but the excesses in which he too frequently indulged, together with his insuperable grief for the loss of his friend colonel Morris, lately killed in Flanders, visibly preyed upon his health; and he became so ill during his last autumn, as to be confined to his chamber. He was advised to try sea-bathing, and the air of Margate, but these rendered him no service. He returned from that place rather worse than when he left town; and, agreeably to the advice of his physicians, took apartments at Islington, where his general debility still continued to increase, and where he expired on Thursday, the