RADCLIFFE. 133 tive to the crown, was taken ill ; and notwithstand- ing the antipathy felt by his mother, the Princess of Denmark, to the personal attendance of Rad- clifFe, he was sent for : — he pronounced the case hopeless, and vented his abuse upon the two other physicians in no measured terms. He told them, " That it would have been happy for this nation, had the first been bred up a basket-maker, (which was his father's profession,) and the last continued making an havock of nouns and pro- nouns, in the quality of a country schoolmaster, rather than have ventured out of his reach, in the practice of an art which he was an utter stranger to, and for which he ought to have been whipped with one of his own rods." At the close of this year, the king, on his return from Holland, where he had not very strictly followed the prudent advice given by Radcliffe, being much out of order, sent for him again to the palace at Kensington. In reply to some questions put by the physician, the king, shewing his swollen ankles, which formed a striking contrast with the rest of his emaciated body, exclaimed, " Doctor, what think you of these?" " Why truly," said he, " I would not have your majesty's two legs for your three kingdoms." With this ill-timed jest, though it passed unno- ticed at the moment, the professional attendance of Radcliffe at court terminated, nor would the king ever suffer him to come again into his pre- sence, notwithstanding the Earl of Albemarle, who was then the chief favourite, used all his in- terest to reinstate him in favour. After the death of King William, which soon afterwards took place,
