Abstract
CONSIDER for a moment the unenviable position J of John Hunter's two executors in the year 1793—his nephew Dr. Matthew Baillie and his young brother-in-law, Mr. (later Sir) Everard Home. Hunter's sudden death on Oct. 16, 1793, in his sixty-sixth year, left on their hands a huge establishment running from Leicester Square to Charing Cross Road—just to the south of the site now occupied by the Alhambra Music Hall. The income of the establishment had suddenly ceased; a sum of more than £10,000 a year was needed to keep it going. A brief search showed them that the place was in debt; bills had to be met. Hunter's carriage ‘blood-horses’ and coach had to go; Mrs. Hunter, brilliant and fashion able, had also to part with her coachman, her carriage, her horses, and sedan chair. Pictures, books, furniture had to be sold to provide Mrs. Hunter and her daughter with a modest shelter in Brighton. The weekly wage bill had to be reduced; the staff, numbering more than a score, was reduced at a stroke to one—Mr. Hunter's young museum assistant, William Clift.
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KEITH, A. The Bicentenary of John Hunter. Nature 121, 210–212 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/121210a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/121210a0