Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/125

 will in 1773, and soon afterwards caused a quarrel, which apparently lasted for some months, by censuring Langton for introducing religious questions in a mixed company. Langton became a captain, and ultimately major, in the Lincolnshire militia. Johnson visited him in camp at Warley Common in 1778, and in 1783 at Rochester, where Langton was quartered for some time. Johnson once requested Langton to tell him in what his life was faulty, and was a good deal vexed when Langton brought him some texts enjoining mildness of speech. His permanent feeling, however, was expressed in the words, 'Sit anima mea cum Langtono' (, iv. 280). During Johnson's last illness Langton came to attend his friend; Johnson left him a book, and Langton undertook to pay an annuity to Barber, Johnson's black servant, in consideration of a sum of 750/. left in his hands. Langton was famous for his Greek scholarship, but wrote nothing except some anecdotes about Johnson, published in 'Boswell under the year 1780.' Johnson and Boswell frequently discussed his incapacity for properly managing his estates. He was too indolent, it appears, to keep accounts, in spite of exhortations from his mentor. His gentle and amiable nature made him universally popular. He was a favourite at the 'blue-stocking' meetings, where, according to Burke, the ladies gathered round him like maids round a maypole (ib. v. 32, n. 3). He was very tall and thin, and is compared by Best to the stork on one leg in Raphael's cartoon of the miraculous draught of fishes. He was appointed in April 1788 to succeed Johnson as professor ot ancient literature at the Royal Academy. He died at Southampton 18 Dec. 1801. A portrait by Reynolds was in 1867 the property of J. H. Holloway, esq.

On 24 May 1770 (Annual Register, p. 180) he married Mary, widow of John, eighth earl of Rothes, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. According to Johnson, he rather spoilt them (, Diary, i. 73). His eldest son, George, succeeded him in his estate; Peregrine, the second, married Miss Massingberd of Gunby, and took her name. His second daughter, Jane (, iii. 210), was Johnson's goddaughter. Johnson wrote her a letter in May 1784, which she showed to Croker in 1847. She died 12 Aug. 1854, in her seventy-ninth year, having always worn a 'beautiful miniature' of Johnson (Gent. Mag. 1854, ii. 403).

 LANGTON, CHRISTOPHER, M.D. (1521–1578), physician, born in 1521 at Riccall in Yorkshire, was educated on the foundation at Eton, and went as a scholar 23 Aug. 1538 to King's College, Cambridge. He was admitted a fellow of King's College a week later than all the other scholars of his year, 2 Sept. 1541, and graduated B.A. 1542. He received his last quarterage as a fellow at Cambridge at Christmas 1544, and in 1547 he describes himself as 'a lerner and as yet a yong student of physicke' (Dedication of Brefe Treatise), and in 1549 he was studying 'Galen de Usu partium.' His copy of the Paris edition of 1528, with his name, the date, and notes in his handwriting on several pages, is in the Cambridge University Library. He published, 10 April 1547, in London, 'A very Brefe Treatise, orderly declaring the Principal Partes of Plysick, that is to say, thynges natural, thynges not naturall, thynges agaynst nature,' with a dedication to Edward, duke of Somerset. He describes the ancient sects in physic, and then treats of anatomy, pathology, and therapeutics according to the method of his age. He commends Pliny, quotes Hippocrates, Ætius, Paulus Ægineta, Celsus and Galen, but of mediaeval writers only Avicenna. His English style is simple, and resembles that of More, being as full of idiomatic expressions, but much easier and more refined than that of the English treatises of the surgeons of his time. He shows a fair knowledge of Greek, and wrote a good Greek hand, as his copy of Galen proves. In 1550 published, through the same printer, 'Edward Whitchurch, of Flete Street, An Introduction into Phisycke, wyth an Universal Dyct.' It is dedicated to Sir Arthur Darcye, of whose favours he speaks, and begins with an address supposed to be spoken by Physic in person. Parts of it are mere alterations of his former treatise, and the additional matter is not important. He was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians of London on 30 Sept. 1552, having taken his M.D. degree at Cambridge, but was expelled for breach of the statutes and profligate conduct 17 July 1558, Dr. Caius being then president. On 16 June 1563, having been detected in an intrigue with two girls, he was punished by being carted to the Guildhall and through the city. Machyn (Diary, Camden Soc.), who saw him, describes his appearance in the cart. His professional ability must have been considerable, for in