History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

228 LETTERS FROM DRS CULLEN AND GREGORY
dismiss the last of them without telling you that tho' it was a regard for you
that first engaged my attention, yet the good qualities I soon observed in the
young Gentlemen themselves would have effectually secured it, tho' they had
been otherwise unknown to me. I must say of both of them that they soon
discovered very excellent parts, and have always given so much application to
study, and shewn such correct and polite manners, that they have engaged
both my affection and that of all their other Preceptors. I am fond by this
testimony to do justice to the young men and to give you the pleasure which
I am confident you will receive from it. I congratulate you heartily on your
happiness in two such sons, and assure you I am with great affection theirs,
and with great respect and esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient servant.
Dr Gregory's letter, dated July 4, says :
" William Cullen."
" Sir,—As your son is now going to leave Edinburgh after three years
spent at our College, I cannot suffer him to depart without conveying to you
my assurance that his Behaviour here, both in respect of his private conduct
and his application to his studies, has been such as his best friends would have
wished. Of this, and of his proficiency in his studies, all the Professors are
perfectly satisfied, but I think myself better entitled than any other to assure
his father of it, as I have had more particular opportunities of being acquainted
with him than any of them could have, as I was not only frequently favoured
with his company in the domestic circle, but also had his assistance in the
capacity of my Clerk at my last course of chemical lectures, in which office
his attention and judgement were such as to give me the highest satisfaction.
So far as I can judge he has as good a title to success in his profession as
personal merit can give him. Your most obedient humble servant,
"J. Gregory."
Edward attended his grandmother's funeral at Annan, and visited that
part once more on his way home in 1779 to see his invalid uncle, John, who
lived sixteen years after the death of his mother broke up the family home.
It was a tribute to the skill and kindness of his brother, who placed him under
suitable care in Annan, that, as John approached seventy, the cloud over his
mental powers seemed to pass away, and he finally succumbed, a practically
sane man, to failure of the heart in 1792—a few months after Lord Annandale's
decease at Chiswick.
No grass grew under the feet of the young Galabanks, and within three
months of his admission to the Royal Medical Society in Edinburgh Edward
was appointed an honorary physician to the newly built General Hospital in
Birmingham, and his name appeared on a brass plate on a house in New Street,
then the fashionable residential quarter of the rising village,— for it was nothing
more. His colleague and senior was Dr Ash, but Johnstone admitted the first
patient, a fact of which he was rather proud in his later life. He was very
soon connected with the philanthropic associations in the town ; but he could