ose
pursuits were in every respect congenial with Dr. Mead's,
presented the College of Physicians with a marble bust of
him, beautifully executed by Roubilliac, and for which he
paid the sculptor 100_l._ A whimsical anecdote is connected
with the execution of this bust. Roubilliac agreed with Dr.
Askew for 50_l._: the doctor found it so highly finished
that he paid him for it 100_l._ The sculptor said this was
not enough, and brought in a bill for 108_l._ 2_s._ Dr.
Askew paid this demand, even to the odd shillings, and then
enclosed the receipt to Mr. Hogarth, to produce at the next
meeting of artists. Nichols's _Anec. of Bowyer_, p. 580. "I
cannot help," says Mr. Edwards, the late ornithologist,
"informing succeeding generations that they may see the
_real features_ of Dr. Mead in this bust: for I, who was as
well acquainted with his face as any man living, do
pronounce this bust of him to be so like that, as often as I
see it, my mind is filled with the strongest idea of the
original." Hearne speaks of the MEADEAN FAMILY with proper
respect, in his _Alured de Beverly_, p. XLV.; and in _Walter
Hemingford_, vol. i., XXXV. In his _Gulielmus Nubrigensis_,
vol. iii., p. 744 (note), he says of our illustrious
bibliomaniac:--"that most excellent physician, and truly
great man, Dr. Richard Mead, to whom I am eternally
obliged." There is an idle story somewhere told of Dr.
Mead's declining the acceptance of a challenge to fight with
swords--alleging his want of skill in the art of fencing:
but this seems to be totally void of authority. Thus far,
concerning Dr. Mead, from the first edition of this work,
and the paper entitled "The Director." The following
particulars, which I have recently learnt of the MEAD
FAMILY, from John Nicholl, Esq., my neighbour at Kensington,
and the maternal grandson of the Doctor, may be thought well
worth subjoining. MATTHEW MEAD, his father, was a clergyman.
He gave up his living at Stepney in 1662; which was
afterwards divided into the four fine livings now in the
gift of Brazen-Nose College, Oxford. His parishioners built
him a chapel; but he retired to a farm in the country, and
had the reputation of handling a bullock as well as any
butcher in the county. He went abroad in the reign of James
II