Birthplace of Akenside.

THE old buildings before us are part of
the Butcher-bank, at Newcastle-upon-
Tyne; and the middle house is entitled
to special notice, as the birthplace of
Mark Akenside, the poet and physician.
Here he was born, Nov. 9, 1721. His
father, Mark, was, in the language of
his biographer, "a substantial butcher,"
of the Presbyterian sect; his mother's
name was Mary Lumsden. The place
is altogether un-imaginative, and its
associations not very propitious for
poetry or physic; yet, at the grammar-
school of the town young Akenside re-
ceived the first part of his education,
and was afterwards instructed by Mr.
Wilson, who kept a private academy.
He finished his studies at the universi-
ties of Edinburgh and Leyden, in the
latter of which he took his Doctor's
degree, in 1744.

In the same year appeared his most
distinguished poem, *The Pleasures of
the Imagination*, which at once raised
him to poetical eminence. Johnson says
of this poem—"I have heard Dodsley,
by whom it was published, relate, that
when the copy was offered him, the
price demanded for it, which was a

hundred and twenty pounds, being such
as he was not inclined to give precipi-
tately, he carried the work to Pope, who,
having looked into it, advised him not
to make a niggardly offer, for *this was
no every-day writer.*"*

Akenside was much more distinguished
as a poet than as a physician—the lat-
ter, Johnson thinks, in a great city, the
mere plaything of Fortune. Akenside,
however, wrote on medical subjects with
considerable ease and elegance; and by
court patronage, he became physician
to the queen. The Doctor was deemed
haughty and ostentatious by his bre-
thren of the faculty; for which Smollet
made him smart, by introducing him
in his *Peregrine Pickle*, as the giver of a
feast after the manner of the ancients.
He died of a putrid fever, in June, 1770,
in the 49th year of his age.

* "Lives of the Poets, vol. iv. In our time, Murray was equally cautious in consulting Gifford, on Lord Byron's *Childe Harold*. Doubtless every bookseller has his Pope, as every printer has his canon: but they do not always hit. Still Miltons spring up like mushrooms: however their Satans may remind us of Vulcan forging the bolts of Jove.

VOL. XV.

2 F

Birthplace of Akenside.

THE old buildings before us are part of the Butcher-bank, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and the middle house is entitled to special notice, as the birthplace of Mark Akenside, the poet and physician. Here he was born, Nov. 9, 1721. His father, Mark, was, in the language of his biographer, "a substantial butcher," of the Presbyterian sect; his mother's name was Mary Lumsden. The place is altogether un-imaginative, and its associations not very propitious for poetry or physic; yet, at the grammar-school of the town young Akenside received the first part of his education, and was afterwards instructed by Mr. Wilson, who kept a private academy. He finished his studies at the universities of Edinburgh and Leyden, in the latter of which he took his Doctor's degree, in 1744.

In the same year appeared his most distinguished poem, *The Pleasures of the Imagination*, which at once raised him to poetical eminence. Johnson says of this poem—"I have heard Dodsley, by whom it was published, relate, that when the copy was offered him, the price demanded for it, which was a VOL. XV. 2 F

hundred and twenty pounds, being such as he was not inclined to give precipitately, he carried the work to Pope, who, having looked into it, advised him not to make a niggardly offer, for this was *no every-day writer.*"*

Akenside was much more distinguished as a poet than as a physician—the latter, Johnson thinks, in a great city, the mere plaything of Fortune. Akenside, however, wrote on medical subjects with considerable ease and elegance; and by court patronage, he became physician to the queen. The Doctor was deemed haughty and ostentatious by his brethren of the faculty; for which Smollet made him smart, by introducing him in his *Peregrine Pickle*, as the giver of a feast after the manner of the ancients. He died of a putrid fever, in June, 1770, in the 49th year of his age.

* "Lives of the Poets, vol. iv. In our time, Murray was equally cautious in consulting Gifford, on Lord Byron's *Childe Harold*. Doubtless every bookseller has his Pope, as every printer has his canon: but they do not always hit. Still Miltons spring up like mushrooms: however their Satans may remind us of Vulcan forging the belts of Jove.

B1974.12.815 ba- obj- 24362 -0001

Yale Center for British Art, 2017