Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/12

 was another of his patrons, and for him he made several cornelian intaglios. Reisen received commissions from Denmark, Germany, and France, as well as from Englishmen. Walpole calls him ‘a great artist,’ but King (Antique Gems and Rings, p. 445) is of opinion that his intaglios are deficient in finish, owing to the rapidity of his mode of execution. Among Reisen's intaglios—he did not attempt cameos—were specimens bearing the heads of Faustina the Elder, Faustina the Younger, Lucilla, Charles I of England, and Charles XII of Sweden. Claus (d. 1739), Smart, and Seaton are named as his pupils.

Vertue describes Reisen as a jovial and humorous man who, being illiterate, had, by conversing with men of various countries, ‘composed a dialect so droll and diverting that it grew into a kind of use among his acquaintance, and he threatened to publish a dictionary of it.’ Reisen was usually known in England as ‘Christian,’ and ‘Christian's mazzard’ was a joke among his friends. Sir James Thornhill drew an extempore profile of him, and Matthew Prior added the distich:

A portrait of Reisen was painted by Vanderbank, and is engraved by Freeman in Walpole's ‘Anecdotes’ (ed. Wornum, ii. 697). Other engravings by Bretherton and G. White are mentioned by Bromley.

Reisen died of gout on 15 Dec. 1725 in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, London, where he had chiefly lived, though he had also (about 1720) a house at Putney, nicknamed ‘Bearsdenhall.’ He was buried in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, ‘on the north side next to the steps.’ He appointed his friend, Sir James Thornhill, one of his executors, and, dying a bachelor, left the bulk of his fortune to a maiden sister who had lived with him, and a portion to his brother John.



RELHAN, ANTHONY, M.D. (1715–1776), physician, was born in Ireland in 1715, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he became a scholar in 1734, and B.A. in 1735. On 15 Oct. 1740 he began to study medicine at Leyden, and on 12 July 1743 graduated M.D. at Dublin. He became a fellow of the King and Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland in October 1747, and was elected president of the college in 1755. Three years later he left Dublin in consequence of disagreements with other fellows of the college as to the propriety of his prescribing the powder called after, M.D. [q. v.], a remedy of which the composition was kept secret by the proprietor. He settled as a physician at Brighton in 1759, and in 1761 published ‘A Short History of Brighthelmstone’ (London, 8vo), then a town of about two thousand inhabitants, of which the main purpose is to give an account of climate, mineral spring, and other advantages of the place as a residence for invalids. In 1763, having been incorporated M.D. at Cambridge, he became a candidate or member of the College of Physicians of London, and was elected a fellow on 25 June 1764. In the same year he published ‘Refutation of the Reflections [by D. Rust and others] against Inoculation.’ He delivered at the College of Physicians the Gulstonian lectures in 1765, and the Harveian oration on 18 Oct. 1770. The oration, which is altogether occupied with the praise of Linacre and the other benefactors of the college, dwells at some length on the friendship of Erasmus and Linacre. Relhan used to reside and practise at Brighton during the bathing season. He was twice married, and by his first wife had one son, [q. v.], who is separately noticed, and a daughter. He died in October 1776, and was buried in the Marylebone graveyard in Paddington Street, London.



RELHAN, RICHARD (1754–1823), botanist and editor of Tacitus, son of Dr. [q. v.], was born at Dublin in 1754. He was elected a king's scholar at Westminster School in 1767, and was admitted a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 7 May 1773. He graduated B.A. in 1776 and M.A. in 1779, and, having taken holy orders, was chosen in 1781 fellow and conduct (or chaplain) of King's College, Cambridge. In 1783 Professor (1735–1825) [q. v.] gave Relhan all the manuscript notes he had made on Cambridge plants since the publication of his ‘Plantæ Cantabrigienses’ in 1763 (cf., Memoirs of John and Thomas Martyn, pp. 124–5). With this assistance Relhan published his chief work, the ‘Flora Cantabrigiensis,’ in 1785, describing several new plants and including seven plates engraved by James Sowerby. It appears from his letters that he proposed to issue a ‘Flora Anglica,’ but did not meet with sufficient encouragement. He published supplements to the ‘Flora Cantabrigiensis’ in 1787, 1788, and 1793, and second and third editions of the whole in 1802 and 1820 (Cambridge, 8vo), the last edition being