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 the wealthy and influential. Before railways were in operation he succeeded in becoming one of the largest coach-proprietors in the kingdom, possessing sixty-four stage coaches, worked by fifteen hundred horses, and returning yearly more than half a million sterling. This capital he gradually removed into railways in England, France, and Holland; particularly into the London and South Western Railway, of which he became a director and Chairman. In 1845 he was Sheriff of London, and in 1847 was elected M.P. for Salisbury, for which he continued to sit till 1857. He died April 24th, 1859.

[See "Men of the Time," ed. 1856.]

THOMAS CHARNOCK,

ALCHEMIST,

Was born, according to his own statement, in the Isle of Thanet in the year 1524. He speaks of himself ("truly enough," as Fuller somewhat spitefully remarks) as the "unlettered scholar." Like many other "philosophers" of the time, he devoted himself to the vain task of the discovery of the "philosopher's stone" He published the result of his researches in a work entitled "The Breviary of Natural Philosophy," which is included in the "Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum " of Elias Ashmole, published in 1651. He died in 1581.

[See "Fuller's Worthies."]

RICHARD CHAWRY,

LORD MAYOR OF LONDON,

Was born at Westerham. He belonged to the Salters'