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

MEMBERS OF THE LITERARY SOCIETY 233
had overshadowed it and fresh symptoms of rioting in the county which had
brought out the Worcester Militia—among them two of the Johnstones. There
was very good society in the city and county. Charles, the elder brother of
the more celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and an M.P. in Ireland, came
to live in the Foregate Street not long before Johnstone's death, and was introduced
by him to a literary circle founded by Mr Dunster, a poet and author,
who was Rector of Oddingley and Naunton Beauchamp in 1775. The other
members between that date and 1802 were Sir Edward Winnington, James
Johnstone, the Rev. Reginald Pyndar of Hadzor, Mr Dandridge of Malvern,
Colonel Barry, Dr Russell, Rev. J. Carver, Prebendary of Worcester, Mr
Coombe, author of Dr Syntax, Dean Swift, a relative of the author of Gulliver,
and his relation Theophilus, Mr Ingram of the White Ladies, Worcester, Mr
Berkeley of Spetchley and his chaplain, Mr Philips, the author of the Life of
Cardinal Pole (both Romanists), Edmund Lechmere, Dr Goodinge, Master of
the College School, Holland Cooksey, and Captain Clements, R.N. They met
periodically at each other's houses, and are called by Chambers "a bright con-
stellation of men of genius and talent who were the boast of this city and its
environs in the last half of the eighteenth century." Mr Burney, uncle to the
author of Evelina, also lived close by, and gave dancing lessons.
In Johnstone's diary he speaks of the "agony" he had experienced in the
death of four lovely infants, but this—his eldest son—was a loss of a more
serious kind, and " it was aggravated by the discovery of the embarrassment of
my second son and by the difference which arose about this time between my
niece and her husband."
There was quite a panic in London as to the sanitary condition of
Worcester, and the Judge, Sir F. Buller, writing to condole with Johnstone,
asked him to give a candid opinion as to the safety of holding the Lent Assize
there or taking it to Bromsgrove. Johnstone reassured him, and stated that
numbers whom his son had attended in the jail had recovered, and that no
serious illness remained except one or two cases of fever at Droitwich. " The
Judge gave a strong charge to the Grand Jury to reform their jail, and did
not fail to mention with due concern and deserved honour the character and
death of my son."
By Johnstone's advice the County Hall was fumigated during the whole
of the Assize, as well as the jail, and the prisoners again supplied with new
clothes. Alterations were also made in the jail, but " on too narrow and parsimonious
a plan."
The account of Droitwich and its springs, in Nash's History of Worcester-
shire, was by young James, and that of Kidderminster and the character of
Baxter by his father.