No . 133 The Trusty Servant
1660 – Samuel Pepys begins his diary .
1662 – Last confirmed sighting of a dodo .
1665 – Monarchy is restored and Charles II takes the throne . 1665 – Great plague kills 25 million in Europe and 100,000 people in London in 18 months . 1665 – Micrographia published by Robert Hooke . 1666 – Great Fire of London . 1670 – Newton ’ s important work on optics . 1680 – Last British wolf killed in Scotland . 1682 – Thomas Browne dies aged 77 . Thomas was the son of a London silk merchant who tragically died when Thomas was eight years old . His mother unwisely married Thomas Dutton , an alleged compulsive gambler . This left the family in financial trouble , but provision had been made for Thomas ’ s education and he was accepted to Winchester College aged 11 in 1616 , first as a commoner , but then elected to College the following year .
Winchester was basically a seminary for clerics at that time , under Headmaster Hugh Robinson ( a Classicist and Art Historian ). There were very high standards of Latin grammar and analysis of Scripture , with Scholars ordered to converse only in Latin around College , and
they were taught strict Puritan principles . Robinson told the young men that they had three choices at College : Learn ( enter the church ), Leave ( a career in the military or law ) or Be whipped !
Little is known of Browne ’ s Winchester career , but it is known that he developed strong interests in natural philosophy ( botany , ornithology , astronomy and geology ). In 1618 he wrote about the vivid comet known as ‘ the angry star ’ which was visible at night that year . In the same year the College was visited by Prince Charles , the future King Charles I . At College Browne spent much time collecting botanical and zoological specimens in the water meadows and chalk hills , amassing a large collection of death-watch beetles ( Xestobium rufovillosum ) from the college woodwork . He also developed a fascination for archaeology and Egyptology , in particular the scarab beetle and pictorial hieroglyphs . He had an affinity for languages and cryptology which spanned his life . Consequently , he was sometimes described by his dons as being distracted by trivial influences ( as many polymaths are ).
In the 1620s the usual route beyond school for Wykehamists was New College , Oxford to read Classics or Theology but Browne failed to get in ; we are not quite sure why . Instead , he went to Broadgates College , Oxford
Statue of Browne beside Norwich Cathedral
( later Pembroke ) in 1623 to study Medicine and gained his DM in 1629 . Thomas ’ s medical specialism took him to Europe to Padua , Montpellier and Leiden to learn his profession from the best physicians of that time . He then took a brief tour of Ireland with his wayward stepfather , Thomas Dutton . In 1633 Browne returned to England and began practising Medicine in Shipden Dale near Halifax in Yorkshire . In 1635 Dutton was killed in a drunken brawl in London and Browne left Yorkshire and chose to settle and practise medicine in Norwich until his death in 1682 . ‘ The Sage of Norwich ’ was held in high regard in the Norfolk city . He was knighted by Charles II in 1672 and many memorials , statues and a local Thomas Browne Day ( October 19 th ) are in evidence around the town in his honour . While in Norwich , Browne also pursued his interests in ornithology and botany and was a prodigious writer .
Thomas Browne Marble in 2nd Chamber
Thomas married Dorothy Mileham in 1641 . Prior to marriage he had written that he found the idea of reproducing distasteful , ‘ I could be content that
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