"Riding is certainly the most manly, the most healthy, and the least laborious and expensive of Spirits of any[exercise]; shaking the whole Machine, promoting an universal Persiration and Secretion of all the Fluids...and thereby, twitching the nervous Fibres, to brace and contract them, as... new Scenes amuse the Mind."
"George Cheyne was a Newtonian physician and Behmenist, deeply immersed in mysticism".
He was born in 1672 in Methlick, near Aberdeen in
Scotland, he was baptized in Mains of Kelly, Methlick, Aberdeenshire, on 24
February 1673. Son of James Cheyne.
Margaret Middleton married George Cheyne, son of James Cheyne and Marie Maitland, in about 1705.
They had three surviving children, Francis, who was baptized on 23 August 1713 at St Michael's parish in Bath, Peggy (Margaret), and John, possibly born in 1717. John became vicar of Brigstock in Northamptonshire
His many famous clients included Alexander Pope, John Gay, Samuel
Richardson and the Goldsmith and Banker George Middlton who is also buried at Weston. (see my previous post)
"Cheyne did not believe that the present state of things is
"from all Eternity". Using the metaphor of "a Piece of
Clock-work",[5] he argues that when a thing depends upon another thing as
its cause, this implies that “the first thing exists that the second may
exist”. He adds: "remove the sun and there will be no fruit, take away the
moon and the seas would stagnate, destroy our Atmosphere and we should swell
like poison´d Rats". Therefore, it is absolutely impossible, according
to Cheyne, that “any of the Species of Animals or Vegetables should have
existed from all Eternity”.
Cheyne also wrote on fevers, nervous disorders, and hygiene.
In 1740 he wrote The Essay on Regimen and this work is often quoted by
vegetarians and animal rights activists, particularly the following passage:
"To see the convulsions, agonies and tortures of a poor
fellow-creature, whom they cannot restore nor recompense, dying to gratify
luxury and tickle callous and rank organs, must require a rocky heart, and a
great degree of cruelty and ferocity. I cannot find any great difference
between feeding on human flesh and feeding on animal flesh, except custom and
practice"
George Cheyne M.D. aged 59.
1732
from a painting by van Diest (died c. 1757)
Mezzotint John Faber. First State Sold at the Great Toy Shop in Bath?
Second State here sold by Overton at the White Hart without Newgate (London)
Johan van Diest was the son of London-based Dutch landscape painter Adriaen van Diest (1655-1704), and was probably a pupil of Sir Godfrey Kneller, whose work he copied.
He was a protégé of Ralph Allen
Army officer and road builder General George Wade (1673-1748) MP for Bath (1722 - 47)commissioned van Diest to paint several works, including ‘The Wise Men’s Offerings’ (c.1725; now destroyed), part of an elaborate altarpiece which Wade presented to Bath Abbey,
He painted portraits of 28 ? Bath Councillors (commissioned 1728; seven now in the Council Chamber of the Guildhall, Bath) and a full-length portrait of Wade (1731; Council Chamber of the Guildhall, Bath).
Ralph Allen (1693-1764) Mayor in 1742 (BATVG 1984.9)
Thomas Atwood senior (d.1732) Mayor in 1728 (BATVG 1984.10)
Thomas Atwood junior (1709-1770) Mayor in 1753, 1760 and 1769 (BATVG 1984.11)
James Atwood (d.1760) Mayor in 1734 and 1748 (BATVG
1984.12)
Unknown councillor (BATVG 1984.13)
Henry Atwood (d.1763) Mayor in 1741, 1750 and 1758 (BATVG
1984.14)
William Chapman (d.1729) Mayor in 1727 (BATVG 1984.15)
Despite numerous Bath commissions, van Diest remained London-based probably coming to Bath for the season and produced decorative work for the London home of poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
...................
Ralph Allen (1694 - 1764).
Johan van Diest (1695 - 1757).
117 x 95 cms.
Oil on Canvas.
A Gift to the Corporation of Bath by General George Wade in 1728.
on display in the Guildhall. Bath.
Image courtesy Art uk website
......................
George Cheyne MD and Bath.
In the spring of 1706 Cheyne travelled to Bath to continue his cure with a course of the waters. The waters worked only too well, for he found himself again slipping into his old bad habits of excess.
Exchanging Bath water for Bristol water helped, but on his next return to Bath in the spring of 1707 he heard of a "wonderful Cure" administered by another self medicating doctor, a Dr. Taylor of Croydon, who had cured himself in an Epileptick Case" by a milk diet. In the winter of 1707—8 he visited Taylor at Croydon and became a convert to his dietary therapy.
He ate abstemiously and exercised regularly, usually by riding. Cheyne's resolutions, however, were characteristically short-lived, and his health and weight for the next decade seesawed back and forth with depressing regularity"
Cheyne nonetheless found in Bath a place where he could remake himself and, at last, build a medical practice. He followed the increasingly popular migration to Bath in the summer and back to London in the winter for the next dozen years, finally settling in Bath in 1718.
Keith wrote of him in that year, "Dr. Ch. is indeed extreamly fat but yet has pretty good health. He writes that he has for ever bid an adieu to London." During this period, Cheyne wrote, "1 followed the Business of my Profession, with great Diligence and Attention," and he began to specialize in the "low and nervous Cases" with Which he had gained close familiarity from his own sufferings."
From 1705—6, Cheyne lived quietly for a decade, assiduously avoiding controversy.
He settled into family life with his marriage to Margaret Middleton, daughter of a nonjuring Scottish Episcopalian clergyman, Patrick Middleton (1662—1736).
Middleton was related to George Middleton (1645—1726), principal of King's College, Aberdeen, from 1684 to 1717, when he was removed for Jacobitism. The Aberdeen Middletons were also related to the Gardens, whose mother was Isobel Middleton; George Middleton was probably their first cousin.
Margaret Middleton migrated to England with her brother John, a physician who settled in Bristol.
Another brother, George, was a London goldsmith. The Cheynes had three surviving children: two daughters, Frances and Margaret (known as Peggy), and the youngest, a son, John, born about 1717."
Although Oliver was his usual physician at Bath, (Alexander) Pope consulted Cheyne in the 1730s and was an ardent admirer. Chronically poor health, Pope followed a Cheynean regimen of little wine, few suppers,and much mineral water. He recommended the doctor to others, writing of him, "there lives not an Honester Man, nor a Truer Philosopher."" He often asked his Bath friend Ralph Allen to convey his "Religious Respects" to Cheyne, describing him in 1739 as "yet so very a child in true Simplicity of Heart," comparing him to Don Quixote?'
1763 Beau Nash averse to the cabbage and carrot cure
It is well known, that Mr. Nash and Dr. Cheney had frequent Disputes about the non-Naturals and a vegetable Diet; in short, they often reasoned about Health till they made all the Company sick.
Nash was for curing all Complaints with the Bath Water, and Cheney with Cabbage and Carrots; and their disputes, which sometimes began with Temper and Joke, were frequently heightened to Clamour and quarrelling… However… I have known Nash in his cooler Moments do Cheney the Honour to say, That he was the most sensible Fool he ever knew in his Life;
and the Doctor with equal Justice observed, That Nash was less of a Blockhead than he used to be.
The Jests of Beau Nash (London, 1763). ***Richard (Beau) Nash – George Cheyne – see no.22.
From around 1728, although still a big man, he no longer suffered from extreme obesity or the depression that accompanied it. The 1730s were a time of health, happiness and prosperity for Cheyne. He and his family including son John and daughters Frances and Peggy, lived in a grand new house in Monmouth Street adjacent to the Globe Inn, a new street just outside Bath's old west gate.
In the 1730s Monmouth Street was an expensive address near John Wood's contemporary development in Queen's Square. The Churchwarden's Accounts Book of Walcot Parish, in Bath City Archive, records Cheyne as a parish resident in 1735 and at Monmouth Street from 1737 when he paid a rate of ten shillings; by 1738 it was two pounds and in 1742 one pound and twelve shillings.
see Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath: 1700-1830 (London: Faber and Faber, 1948), 33.
At the time this house, built by the Bristol architect John Strahan sometime after 1727, was in an expensive, salubrious location on the edge of the city.16 It no longer stands, but six months after Cheyne's death, when his executors advertised the property in a London newspaper as being 'For Lett for a Term of Years, or Sold', they described it as 'A Convenient and well-built House, late in the possession of Dr. Cheyne, deceas'd, three Rooms on a Floor, with a Coach-House, stabling for two Horses, and a Garden, situate without West-Gate.' Rival Bath architect John Wood, who designed nearby Queen's Square, denigrated Strahan's work, but his surviving houses, over four floors, are solid and well designed. Writing to Samuel Richardson, Cheyne refers to the garden - which backed onto the King's Mead — as his 'Paradise' where, weather permitting, he takes the therapeutic walks 'without which there is no Health,
see - Daily Advertiser, November and December 1743 (nos. 4010—23).
Presumably the house was on the South side of the street
Cheyne's house was demolished having been damaged or destroyed by bombing in World War Il.
In 1739 Pope wrote -The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, ed. G.Sherburn. 5v. (Oxford, 1956)), v.4, p.206, Pope to Hugh Bethel, Bath, 27 Nov 1739.
" I was forced hither & to Bristol on account of a Complaint I formerly mentiond to you. I believethe Bristol waters at the Hot Well would be serviceable, could I stay long enough, for they are apparently softer & as warm as New Milk, there, & known to be excellent in all Inflammatory Cases.
But the Rigor of the Season & the Want of all Conveniencies to guard against it, of Coaches, chairs,& even warm Lodging, is too great to bear without hazard of Colds &c., which would do me, ev’n in this Complaint, more harm than I could expect benefit. I have therfore after a Fortnights tryal returnd to Bath where Dr Oliver & Cheyne advise me to mix Bristol water with a small quantity of Bath at the Pump, & with some other Medicines, which Dr Mead prescribed me to add".
***Alexander Pope – see no.32. William Oliver, 1695-1764,
physician to Bath General Hospital 1740-61, wrote on gout and other cases –
see also nos.47, 56, 57, 64, 65, 72, 73, 75. George Cheyne – see no.22. Richard Mead – see no.28.
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Obesity and Depression in the Enlightenment : the Life and Times of George Cheyne by Anita Guerrini, University of Oklahoma Press. 2000.
Partially available on line at -
The Works of George Cheyne.
1. 'New Theory of Fevers,' 1st edition, Edinburgh (?), 1702;
2nd edition, London, 1702; 4th edition (with author's name), London, 1724, 8vo
(Latin by Vater, Wittemberg, 1711, 4to).
2. 'Philosophical Principles of Religion,' part i., London,
1705, 8vo; both parts, London. 1715, 1726; 4th edition, London, 1734; 6th
edition, 1753 (?).
3. 'Observations on the Gout,' London, 1720;
An essay of the true nature and due method of treating the gout ... : together with an account of the nature and quality of Bath-waters, the manner of using them, and the diseases in which thry are proper as also of the nature and cure of most chronical distempers, not published before / by Geo. Cheyne. 1723
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/frhy8hf2/items
4. 'Essay of Health and Long Life,' London, 1724; 7th
edition, 1726; 9th edition, 1754, 8vo; also London, 1823, 1827, 12mo. In Latin,
'Tractatus de Infirmorum sanitate tuendâ,' &c., London, 1726 (translated by
John Robertson, M.A.) In French, Brussels, 1726, 8vo. In German, Frankfort,
1744, 8vo (Haller).
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/agffke2z/items
5. 'De Natura Fibræ, ejusque laxæ sive resolutæ morbis
tractatus, nunc primum editus' (Latin by J. Robertson). London, 1725, 8vo;
Paris, 1742, 8vo (Haller).
6. 'The English Malady,' London, 1733, Pub Strahan, London and Leake, Bath 8vo, Dublin, 1733;
6th edition, London, 1739.
https://archive.org/details/englishmaladyort00cheyuoft/page/n5/mode/2up?q=Bath
7. 'Essay on Regimen,' London, 1740, 8vo; 3rd edition,
London, 1753. In Italian, Padua, 1765, 8vo (Haller).
8. 'The Natural Method of Cureing Diseases,' &c., in
three parts, London, 1742, 8vo; 5th edition, London, 1753. In French, Paris,
1749, 2 vols. 12mo. dedicated to Lord Chesterfield
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dnx8tduf/items?canvas=5
9. 'Historical Character of the Hon. George Baillie, Esq.,'
by G. C., M.D., F.R.S., in 'Gent. Mag.' viii. 467 (1738).
Dr. Cheyne's own account of himself and his writings /
faithfully extracted from his various works. 1743
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qgscfnyh/items?canvas=10
[Biog. Brit. (Kippis), iii. 494; Haller's Bibliotheca Med. Pract. 1778, iv. 436; Cheyne's Account of himself and his writings, extracted from his various works, London, 1743; Life of Dr. George Cheyne (by Dr. W. A. Greenhill), Oxford and London, 1846.]
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Correspondence with Samuel Richardson - Shuttleton and Dussinger Pub Cambridge 2013 truncated version on line
The Letters of Dr. George Cheyne to the Countess of
Huntingdon, ed. Charles F. Mullett
(San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940.
