Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/19

. viii. JULY 6, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

11

NEWBERY THE BOOKSELLER, JAMES'S POWDERS, AND OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

BKOWSING around the "no man's land "of mv library, I have found a curious document which should, I think, be deposited in the British Museum or in the library of some biblio- phile who makes a speciality of the Newbery publications or of Goldsmith, but which should first be noted in the encyclopaedic pages of ' N. & Q.' I seem to have acquired it from some bookseller, whose catalogue description of it runs as follows :

"The Original (Autograph MS.) Account-Book of F. Newbery, Bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, as Agent for the sale of Dr. R. James's Fever Powders and Pills, from Feb., 1768, to July, 1798, original MSS. with the signatures of R. and F. Newbery to the various accounts. Wood out of John Newbery receiving Goldsmith on the Intro- duction of Dr. Johnson, and cuttings inserted, cr. 8vo."

The first page is occupied by a florid auto- graph of " Francis Newbery, Jun r "; the third by the woodcut above mentioned, printed on card ; and the fourth by two advertisements, cut from contemporary newspapers, of " Dr. James's Powder for Fevers, the Small Pox, Measles, Pleurisies, Quincies [sic], Acute Rheumatisms, Colds, and all Inflammatory Disorders," with full descriptions of the qualities of this celebrated nostrum. The first of these is dated (in MS.) 1751, and the second (in print) 14 June, 1763.

The first entry records the receipt by "Rob* Newbery," on 19 February, 1768, of "Twelve Gross Powder," of the value of 12. The sale appears to have been enormous, the first page recording the delivery to Newbery, between February and October, of ninety- nine gross of powders. The receipts are signed by Robert and Francis Newbery and various of their clerks, and on 17 March, 1772, the account is u Settled and Ballanced in full to Janry, 1772," and signed by Dr. James and " Francis Newbery Junior." These "settlements" appear in 1773 and 1774, and at this point two sheets of paper are inserted bearing the following observations in the handwriting of Dr. James :

Death of Oliver Goldsmith, April 4th, 1774.

On the afternoon of Friday the 25th of March he took to his bed, and at eleven o'clock at night a burgeon Apothecary named Hawes, whom Gold- smith was in the habit of consulting, was sent for. He found Goldsmith complaining of voilent [sic] pains, extending over all the forepart of his head : his tongue moist, his pulse at ninety, and his mina made up that he should be cured by Jame's [sic] fever-powders. He had derived such benefit from this fashionable medicine in previous attacks, that it seems to have left him with an [ate] obstinate a

sense of its universal efficacy, as Horace Walpole had, who swore he should take it if the house was on fire. Mr. Hawes saw at once that such a remedy would be dangerous, and he implored him not to think of it.

For more than half an hour he sat by the bed-side urging the probable danger : but unable to prevail him [sic] to promise that he would not resort to it. Hawes after great difficulty got his permission to send for Dr. Fordyce, who, arriving soon after Hawes had left, seems to have given Goldsmith a warning against the fever-medicine as strong, but as unavailing. Hawes sent medicine and leeches, and in the nope that Fordyce would succeed, did not send the fever-powders. The leeches were applied, the medicine reiected, and the lad who brought them was sent back for a packet of the powders.

Such is the narrative of Hawes : which there is no ground for disputing. Other facts appeared in formal statements subsequently published by Francis Newbery, to vindicate the fame of the medicine.

As soon as Goldsmith took the powder sent him from the surgery of Hawes, he protested it was the wrong powder, was very angry with Hawes, and. threatened to pay his bill next day, and dis- patched Eyles (his servant) for a fresh packet from Newbery's. In the afternoon and night of Saturday, two of the fresh powders were adminis- tered. The nurse was sent for another apothecary, who came, but declined to act as matters stood.

Such is the substance of the evidence of the servants.

The statement breaks off here, and the powder accounts continue. I have not the ' D.N.B.' at hand, but this relation curiously amplifies that given in the ' Encyclopaedia Bri- tannica,' which merely records that by prescrib- ing for himself Goldsmith aggravated his malady, and died on 3 April, 1774. Chambers ascribes his death mainly to his insistence upon taking James's powders. The 'Life' prefixed to the Aldine edition of his poems gives an outline of the above story, referring for further details to the Monthly Review^ 1774, vol. i. p. 404, and a pamphlet by Mr. Hawes purporting to set forth the facts. A more detailed account appears in the intro- duction to Routledge's 'Complete Works of Oliver Goldsmith ' (London, 1890), but it is extremely interesting to have Dr. James's autograph account of the matter. Mr. Charles Welsh gives a very interesting ac- count of the relations existing between the Newberys and Dr. James in his ' Bookseller of the Last Century ' (London, 1885), and of the death of Goldsmith under the circum- stances recorded ; and Mr. Welsh speaks ex cathedrd as a member of the firm of " Grif- fith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, successors to Newbery & Harris," and consequently in command of such documents as may exist bearing upon this matter.

The account-book continues in the same