John Radcliffe, the humbug, "the physician without learning," was the son
of a Yorkshire yeoman. When he had risen to intimacy with the leading
nobility of London,--as he did by his "shrewdness, arrogant simplicity,
and immeasurable insolence,"--he laid claim to aristocratic origin. The
Earl of Derwenter recognized _Sir_ John as a kinsman; but the heralds
interfered with the little "corner" of the doctor and earl, after
Radcliffe's decease, by admonishing the University of Oxford not to erect
any escutcheon over his plebeian monument.
Of Radcliffe's success in getting patronage we have spoken in another
chapter. Doubtless he, Dr. Hannes, and Dr. Mead all resorted to the same
sharp tricks, of which they accused each other by turns, in order to gain
notoriety and practice.
DR. EDWARD HANNES was reputed a "_basket-maker_." At least, his father
followed that humble calling. Of the son's earlier life little is known.
About the year 168-, he burst upon the London aristocracy with a
magnificent equipage, consisting of coach and four, and handsome liveried
servants and coachmen.
These were _his_ advertisements, and he soon rode into a splendid
practice, notwithstanding Radcliffe's contrary prognostication.
Dr. Hannes and Dr. Blackmer, being called to attend upon the young Duke of
Gloucester, and the disease taking a fatal turn, Sir John Radcliffe was
also called to examine into the case. Radcliffe could not forego the
opportunity here offered to lash his rivals, and turning to them in the
presence of the royal household, he said,--
"It would have been happy for the nation had you, sir (to Hannes), been
bred a basket-maker, and you, sir (to Blackmer), remained a country
schoolmaster, rather than have ventured out of your reach in the practice
of an art to which you are an utter stranger, and for your blunders in
which you ought to be whipped with one of your own rods."
As the case was simply one of rash, none of them had much to boast of.