The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-27 00:00:00

ANECDOTES OF THE LATE SIR
ASTLEY COOPER.

Sir Astley entertained a supreme respect for the
Duke of Wellington, on whom he looked with a sort of
super-human reverence. Not long ago, while visiting
his Grace at Stratbfieldsaye, he chanced to be invited to
accompany him to church, and afterwards to join in a
walk through the pleasure-grounds. To this important
event Sir Astley was wont to refer with great satisfaction
us the proudest day of his life ; and when the Duke,
who is notoriously punctual in answering notes and re-
turning visits, called to inquire for him during his last
illness, he was positively enraptured. The imperturb-
natienee with which the Duke listened to the par-
son'stdrow:v homily—equalled only by the resignation
Lord Aberdeen's more balmy ba-
be displays
rangue:, had struck ,q_ir
.Asiley (who yawned himself)
with equal admiration ann
stnnishment. "Ah !" said
th: expiring surgeon, whose tlao,,:hts were beginning to
extraordinary de-
wander, " he sat out that sermon wit,
vaion—he has the finest kitchen-garden I. fiver witnessed
in my life !"

Sir Astley, indeed, had an overweening affection for
rank, even when unaccompanied by any true nobility.
When summoned, in 1822, to Windsor Castle, to ex-
tirpate a tumour from the back of George the Fourth's
head, he exhibited considerable trepidation on being
ushered into the presence of royalty. • The Earl of
Liverpool, who witnessed his nervousness, took him into
a side room, and counselled firmness ; but Cooper, per-
haps unwilling in his agitated state to use the knife, ad-
vised that the excrescence should be removed by liga-
ture. " Your plan is too tedious," said the Premier;
6' the thing is an eyesore, and must be instantly re-
moved. Courage, Cooper! Cavarent vehis et fortunas
you are going to cut a tumour from the head of
George the Fourth." Sir Astley, under this ininres-
five adjuration, quickly recovered self possession, and
perforiC.ed the operation with his wonted skill ; though
he was straogely puzzled, and used afterwards heartily
to laugh, at the Earl's magniloquence and curious idea
of an " cyesorei* Sir Benjamin Brodie was the King's
future surgical attendant.
And yet, though thus inordinately devoted to rank,
Sir Astley was not unapproachable to those of humbler
birth. A dentist of some repute in the City, and now,
we believe, attached to the hospital with which Sir
Astley was so long connected, is chiefly indebted to the
Lae Baronet for his fortune. Desirous of giving some
4Pruonstrations in tooth-drawing at Guy's Ho-pital, he
- Sir Astley, who was astonished by the sim
"-,tion, inasmuch as the applicant
' -'ther, uncle, first cousin,
'tie institution.
^" •,sked

applied tu
plicity of the app..,._
had " neither father, moth-er, u.

nor any other relation" connected with
" Do you know no old woman about the place
Cooper, " No," replied the other ; my mother's

We have boon informed that the tumour was not on
the posterior of the Royal scalp, but on that of' the most
bulky portion of the Prince's bulky person, and that it
wss removed at the de=ire of the Mlref•t)r oz.? of
becAns4., it produced ro trifling tuber: the
,4 first gprocrfiun in Europe," s:Lt ch;v;;I upon the thronr, ~r
gunk ilifo a cornini)n Loid Live:lliol:i'o ludicrous
expression don " eye- sore" in such a locality was of course
thus xendeted infinitely more