Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/200

546 the success with which Gregory studied under Mr Gordon, can leave no doubt of its existence in him. In 1741, Gregory lost his elder brother George, a young man concerning whom there was entertained the highest expectation; and the year following, John and his mother removed from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. He studied three years at Edinburgh, under Monro, Sinclair, and Rutherford; and on his first coming to Edinburgh, he became a member of the medical society there, which was the cause of an intimacy between him and Mark Akenside, author of "The Pleasures of Imagination."

The university of Leyden was at this time in very high reputation, and Gregory repaired thither, after having studied at Edinburgh for three years. Here he had as his preceptors, three of the most eminent men of the age Goubius, Royen, and Albinus; he also cultivated the acquaintance of some fellow students who afterwards became eminent in the literary and political world; amongst whom the most eminent were John Wilkes, esq., and the honourable Charles Townshend. While prosecuting his studies at Leyden, John Gregory was honoured with an unsolicited degree of doctor of medicine, from King's college, Aberdeen; and after two years' residence on the continent, he returned to his native country, and was immediately called to fill the chair of philosophy in that seminary Avhere he had first been nurtured, and which, lately, had conferred on him so great a mark of her regard. He lectured for three years at Aberdeen on the mathematics, and moral and natural philosophy; when, in 1749, from a desire to devote himself to the practice of medicine, he resigned, and took a few weeks' tour on the continent, of which the chief object seems to have been amusement. Three years after the resignation of his professorship, Dr Gregory married Miss Elizabeth Forbes, daughter of lord Forbes, a lady of extraordinary wit, beauty, and intellectual endowment.

The field of medical practice in Aberdeen was already almost entirely preoccupied by men of the first eminence in their profession, and the share which fell to Dr Gregory was not sufficient to occupy his active mind. He went to London in 1754, and his fame as a physician and as a literary man being already far extended, he had no difficulty in being introduced to the first society. Here it was that the foundation was first laid of that friendship which existed between him and lord Lyttleton. It was at this period, also, that he became acquainted with lady Wortley Montague and her husband. This lady kept assemblies, or conversaziones, where the first characters of the kingdom resorted. By this lady he was introduced to all the most eminent men in the kingdom for taste or genius ; yet he is indebted to her for a favour of a far higher order the continuance of that friendship she had ever shown towards him, to his posterity. About this period Dr Gregory was chosen fellow of the Royal Society of London, and his practice was daily increasing. Dr James Gregory, professor of medicine in King's college, Aberdeen, to whose care Gregory owed so much, died in 1755, which created a vacancy in that chair. Dr John Gregory was elected in his own absence, and being a situation which suited his inclination he accepted it. There were many circumstances which would render a return to his native country agreeable. He was to be restored to the bosom of the friends of his infancy, he was to be engaged in the duties of a profession in which he felt the highest interest, and to the enjoyment of the society of Reid, Beattie, Campbell, and Gerard. He entered on the duties of his new office in the beginning of 1756.

A literary club met weekly in a tavern in Aberdeen, which was originally projected by Drs Reid and Gregory. It was called the Wise Club, and its members consisted of the professors of both Marischal and King's college, besides the literary and scientific gentlemen about Aberdeen, An essay was read each