Identifier: oldnewlondonnarr05thor (find matches)
Title: Old and new London : a narrative of its history, its people, and its places
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Thornbury, Walter, 1828-1876
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Cassell, Petter, & Galpin
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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n Faulkners History ofChelsea, is very characteristic of the doctors turnof temper, and is said to be well attested :— Helived so long in his ofiice of Physician to ChelseaHospital, that, during many changes of adminis- and I will assure you that they are both verypleasant and very convenient. But I must tell youone circumstance : you are the fifth man that hashad the reversion of the place, and I have buriedthem all. And what is more, continued he, look-ing very scientifically at him, there is somethingin yourface that tells me I shall bury you too.The event justified the prediction, for the gentle-man died some years after; and what is moreextraordinary, at the time of the doctors deaththere was not a person who seems to have evensolicited the promise of the reversion. Dr. Monseys death is recorded as having taken()lace in December, 178S, at his apartments inChelsea College, at the great age of ninety-five.Johnson, though he admired his intellect, disliked Chelsea.) DR. MONSEY. 73
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CHELSEA HOSPITAL. 199 74 OLD AND NEW LONDON. (Chelsea. his private character; and Boswell quotes him,saying of old Dr. Monsey, of Chelsea College, thathe was a fellow who swore and talked indecently.Here, as Taylor tells us in his Recollections,the Doctor had a large box in his chamber, full ofair-holes, for the purpose of carrying his body toliis friend, Mr. Forster, in case he should be in atrance when supposed to be dead. It was pro-vided with poles, like a sedan-chair. In hiswill, which is to be seen in the GentlemansMagazine (vol. 50), he gave instructions that hisbody should not be buried with any funeral cere-mony, but be dissected, and then thrown into theThames, or wherever the surgeon who operatedmight-please. It is surprising, observes JohnWilson Croker, that this coarse and crazy hu-mourist should have been an intimate friend andfavourite of the elegant and pious Mrs. Montagu.In all probability, however, he knew how to conducthimself in the presence of ladies and bishops,

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