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

MISS PULTENEY 245
and a young student of Merton College who wished to see Worcester, Parr
writes : " I thank you for the instruction I have received from your writings,
and beg leave to assure you that I consider my friendship with Dr [Edward]
Johnstone of Birmingham as one of the happiest circumstances of my situation."
John says of his father : " His personal appearance, always dignified, was in
his last years visuque et auditu jtixta venerabilis. His mind was replete with
knowledge and inventive, and his character full of originality and fire. Dr
Parr has done justice to his accomplishments in every place where he could
express an opinion."
Johnstone speaks warmly in his diary of the Rev. Job Orton, who pub-
lished several books, and left Shrewsbury to live in Kidderminster, near his
friend. He suffered from nervous depression, for which Johnstone prescribed
regular occupation, and allowed him to assist in the education of his sons.
Dr Hugh Blair, minister of the High Church in Edinburgh, corresponded with
Johnstone and sent him all his sermons. His theological library was a very
large one, and, from the marginal notes, the books—most of them presentation
copies—were carefully read.
A letter from Miss Pulteney, afterwards Countess of Bath, asks Johnstone
to obtain admission to the Worcester Infirmary for a blind fiddler. The man
went back to Montgomeryshire, cured of an injured knee and with his sight
restored by an operation, as Johnstone at once saw that he suffered from an
old case of cataract. On this, Sir William asked him to receive a gamekeeper
of seventy who was becoming blind, and the man was cured. These were
followed by many more from Sir William's extensive estates, till Worcester
became quite famous for its oculists. After Johnstone's death his son, Edward,
admitted outlying cases sent by friends into the Birmingham hospital, which
soon rose to fame, although his colleague, Dr Withering, persisted in treating
consumption by bleeding and low diet, and Dr Ash's practice was so eccentric
that the elder Johnstone thought it only to be accounted for by his subsequent
insanity.