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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. i. MAR. 26 , 1910.
ANDREW BAIN, M.D., SHERIDAN'S
PHYSICIAN.
MB. WALTER SICHEL'S life of Sheridan has revived the recollection of his physician and friend Dr. Bain, and encouraged me in compiling a short notice of the doctor's life. In this task I have been aided by his descend- ants Miss Fyler, of Heffleton, near Wareham, and Mr. W. S. Fyler, of 121, Coleherne Court, South Kensington, the latter of whom supplied Mr. Percy Fitzgerald with the information embodied in his ' Lives of the Sheridans,' i. 388, ii. 262.
Andrew Bain was born near Edinburgh, and educated at its university. / His father, a Highland laird, went out with Prince Charlie in 1745. He was for several months in hiding, and had many hairbreadth escapes, but was eventually pardoned on payment of a heavy fine. This rendered necessary the sale of his estate and his living in quiet- ness at Edinburgh. When he died his funeral was attended by the principal members among the Jacobites. The son graduated as M.D. on 24 June, 1780, his thesis being ' De Causis Febrium iisdemque Praecidendis,' which was printed (pp. 41) at that city in the same year, with a dedication to Archibald Cockburn of Cockpen. Three copies of it are in the library of the College of Physicians, but it is wanting from the library of the British Museum.
Dr. Bain's constitution did not permit him to continue in practice in his native city. He came South, and settled at Bath, where he followed his profession for several years with much success. When the first Mrs. Sheridan came to Bristol Hot Wells in 1792 he was her physician, and he communicated to Tom Moore some details about her last illness and death. This information and the letter which the widower sent to him after her death are printed in Moore's ' Life of Sheridan,' 1825, pp. 495-6. The sum of 100Z. which Sheridan gave him for his services to the suffering lady was considered a very handsome fee.
From 1802 to 1808 Bain practised at 13, Bruton Street, London, and from that year to 1819 he lived at 10, Curzon Street. He became a licentiate of the College of Phy- sicians on 12 April, 1802, and a fellow speciali gratia, on 25 June, 1813. On 23 Oct., 1809, he was appointed physician extra- ordinary to the Prince Regent. He retired from practice in 1820 with the reputation of being " one of the most eminent practitioners in London." Endowed with a handsome figure and pleasing manners, he was a
favourite doctor with the ladies ; his patients
of that sex were said by the wits of the day to
suffer from " Bain-fever. n
Sheridan remained throughout life his intimate personal friend. A letter from Sheridan to Bain on the latter' s caution against too close an association with a consumptive person is printed by Moore (ib., pp. 689-90). When Sheridan was lying on his death-bed, the letter from John Taylor Vaughan proffering pecuniary assist- ance from the Prince Regent was addressed to Bain ; and when the sheriff's officer contemplated carrying the dying man to the sponging-house, it was Bain who averted the disgrace by pointing out the danger that he would incur, should death seize his victim during the removal. At Sheridan's funeral, in the train of a phalanx of titled persons, walked "humbly, side by side, n his two- best friends, Bain and Samuel Rogers. Bain communicated to Moore details of Sheridan's last hours (ib., pp. 695-8).
In 1796 Bain purchased the estate of Hethfelton, or Heffleton, in the parish of East Stoke, Dorset, and about five miles from Wareham ; and he was High Sheriff of the county in 1822. He also acquired some neighbouring properties, and built the existing house of Heffleton, a view of which is in the third edition of the history of Dorset by Hutchins. He greatly beautified the estate by planting between 1798 and 1807, in a semicircle, from the north side of the Wareham-to-Wool road and on adjoining heathland, some woods, which include fine specimens of the cedar of Lebanon, the ilex, the beech, and the oak. For this improve- ment he received in 1808 the gold medal of the Society of Arts ' ' for plantations of forest trees." His communication on this subject is included in the Transactions of the Society, vol. xxvi. pp. 41-4. He claimed to have planted " 800,000 trees in 400 acres of ground,' 2 but many of them, especially the larch, had not lived. Both Sheridan and Moore stayed with him at Heffleton, and there is a tradition in the family that the latter composed his sonnet of ' The Young May Moon J while on a visit there. Three letters from Moore to Bain are in Lord John Russell's ' Memoirs of Thomas Moore, 1 viii. 263-7. From the last of them, dated 8 July, 1826, it appears that Moore and his brother-poet the Rev. W. L. Bowles, were on the point of paying a visit to Heffleton.
Dr. Bain married at Bath, on 15 March, 1793, Elizabeth, daughter and coheir (with her sister Sarah, wife of Sir Eyre Coote> of John Rodbard of West Coker, Somerset,
