papers to the Regent, and from that time was his friend, exercising a considerable influence over him. I do not pretend to unravel the mysteries of a court, but of this I feel assured, that however much the production of the papers might have contributed to it in the first instance, he was indebted for the long continuance of the Regent's favour more to his engaging manners, his knowledge of the world, his habits of business, and his usefulness, than to anything else. When Sir Benjamin Bloomfield (who after M'Mahon was Keeper of the Privy Purse) was made a peer, and became our minister at Stockholm, Knighton was appointed to succeed him, and he retained his office until the death of his master in 1830.

Knighton was a man of considerable natural powers.

He had great sagacity, a very clear head, and an excellent judgment, seeing at once the main points of the question before him, divested of those which were of no real importance. He was one of that very limited class of persons who have great influence over the minds of others. This may be attributed in part to

his engaging manners, but more to the circumstance that he entered, or 'seemed to enter, into the views and interests of those for whom he entertained a regard as cordially as if they were his own. Having been originally imperfectly educated, he was deficient in some of the qualities which would have fitted him for general society, but these defects were more than compensated by his ready insight into the characters of other men, and his knowledge of the world and of what goes on in the world. In his profession, with much practical knowledge, he had no scientific attainments. He pursued it in the first instance with no other object than that of obtaining a livelihood, and afterwards with a too great anxiety to amass a fortune. This was his principal failing, and in the latter part of his life he acknowledged to me that he was conscious that it had been so. The existence of it in his case, as in that of many others, is to be explained by the circumstance of his having passed his early years in poverty, contending with difficulties, but with very ambitious aspirations.

When the Regent first proposed to him that he should belong to his household, Lady Knighton very much objected to his doing so. At first, and for several years after his master succeeded to the crown, everything went on smoothly. He was very useful, and the King's private affairs were managed in a way in which they had never been managed previously. His situation became very disagreeable, and, as he informed me, he wished to resign his office. But Lady Knighton showed him that, having once undertaken it, he could not with propriety do so, especially as he still retained the King's confidence, as was shown by his relying on his advice, and by his leaving him his executor, in conjunction with the Duke of Wellington. On the whole, I am satisfied that he would have been a happier person if he had never entered on this new career. It is worthy of notice that he studiously avoided leading his family to follow his example. I do not believe that either Lady Knighton, or his son, or daughters, were ever presented at Court. After the death of the King he mixed little with the world, leading a

very retired life at his residence in Hampshire. He survived the King only six years, and Sir Steven Hammick, Dr. Chambers, myself, and one other friend, were the only persons, besides his son, who attended his funeral at the cemetery at Kensal Green.

In the year 1818 I experienced the loss of a very good friend by the death of Sir Richard Croft. He had married my first cousin, one of the daughters of Dr. Denman, and was from an early period of his life in large practice as an accoucheur among the aristocratic classes of society. Unfortunately he was engaged to attend the Princess Charlotte of Wales in her confinement. The child was born dead, and the princess herself expired soon after her delivery. This disastrous result affected him deeply. Sir Richard was a man of acute feelings, a thorough gentleman, having a high sense of honour, and of a kind and liberal disposition. In the early part of my career he did me much service by recommending me to his patients for those smaller services for which they might reasonably apply to a young practitioner. He was the younger

son of an old family whose fortune had evaporated. On the death of his elder brother, Sir Herbert Croft, he succeeded to one of the oldest baronetcies, and to nothing else.

During the first two or three years after our marriage we continued to reside in the small house in Sackville Street, in which I had resided previously. In the beginning of the year 1819, however, I took a house of greater pretensions in Savile Row, and we remained in it until we removed to a larger one in the same street, which we still inhabit. As my income had been steadily increasing, I felt myself to be guilty of no imprudence in making this change, and the event justified me in doing so, as my income in 1819 exceeded that of the previous year by more than 1,000l. This increase may be in part attributed to the publication of the first edition of my work on 'Diseases of the Joints,' which had taken place in the previous year. Other circumstances, however, contributed to it. Although I was no more than thirty-six years of age, my name had been for several years before the public. Sir Astley Cooper, who had succeeded to the