Corrie, Jane Anne (2017) William Cullen's exemplary retirement: the art of ageing in Enlightenment Scotland. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/30883/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] William Cullen’s Exemplary Retirement: The Art of Ageing in Enlightenment Scotland Jane Anne Corrie Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow 2017 Cover image: John Kay (1742—1826), ‘William Cullen, 1710–1790. Chemist and physician.’, etching on paper, 1838, copyright: National Galleries of Scotland. 3 Abstract This thesis looks at the subject of old age and retirement in the later years of the Scottish Enlightenment. These subjects are examined in relation to the final years of the physician and natural philosopher, Professor William Cullen (1710–1790). The Cullen Consultation Correspondence digital database (http://cullenproject.ac.uk/) is used to examine letters between the doctor and some of his elderly patients and a study of the botanical materia medica prescribed for this patient group is made. There follows an examination of Cullen’s personal retirement project, his improved farm and designed landscape at Ormiston Hill in West Lothian. The thesis examines the double meaning of the word ‘retirement’, both in its eighteenth-century sense as a retirement from active life, and its modern sense as the concern of old age. Even if Cullen’s notion of old age and retirement represented the concerns of an elite, it carried with it a broader social and moral responsibility. I show how Cullen and his peers sought to develop a programme of improvement which included how to live ‘a good life’. 5 Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………..……………..11 Author’s Declaration………………………………………………………………………………………………….....15 Glossary ………………………..…………………………………………………….…………………………………………17 Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………..19 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..21 1. William Cullen towards the end of his life: some impressions of ‘Old Spasm’…22 2. William Cullen’s fame.........................................................................................25 3. Old age and retirement in an historical and contemporary perspective...........28 4. The historical evidence relating to Cullen’s situation.........................................33 5. Why these topics of investigation – and why now?...........................................35 6. A plan for research: chapter by chapter.............................................................39 7. A review of the Cullen-related literature............................................................42 8. Conclusion 47 Chapter One: Old Age.………………………………………….…………………………………….………….………55 1. Mapping old age in Enlightenment Scotland......................................................55 2. 1789: William Cullen’s final days and his final letter to a patient......................57 6 3. Old age discussed in Cullen’s published work: his views expressed in First Lines on the Practice of Physic..........................................................................................63 4. Hypochondria, valetudinarianism, the non-naturals, regimen, hygiene and nerves......................................................................................................................66 5. Old age as it figures in three of Cullen’s unpublished manuscripts....................71 6. Advice literature and ‘wonder literature’...........................................................79 7. Three case histories of patients of an older age group detailed in the Cullen Consultation Correspondence.................................................................................82 8. The contribution from Sir John Sinclair............................................................104 9. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………...……109 Chapter Two: Medical Gardening....................................................................................111 1. Cullen’s materia medica: his publications, teaching and practice....................111 2. Other aspects of Cullen’s grounding in the study of plants..............................118 3. Preparation for a study of Cullen’s use of plant-based materia medica..........120 4. The use of plant-based medicines in Cullen’s care of his elderly patients.......123 5. The special case of Dr Samuel Johnson............................................................140 6. Samuel Johnson: On the Death of Dr Levet......................................................148 Chapter Three: A Neo-classical Retirement.....................................................................155 1. Introduction......................................................................................................155 7 2. The circumstances of William Cullen’s ‘semi-retirement’................................155 3. Cullen’s letter to William Hunter 1778.............................................................159 4. Cullen’s villa at Ormiston Hill............................................................................163 5. Cullen’s actual home at Ormiston Hill..............................................................166 6. Exploring Cullen’s modest project further........................................................168 7. James Craig, William Cullen and neo-classical Edinburgh................................171 8. Pattern books and System 178 9. Connections with William Shenstone and his garden ‘the Leasowes’..............180 10 Conclusion: the frustrations of retirement......................................................196 Chapter Four: Ormiston Hill…………………………………………………………………………………………203 1. Introduction......................................................................................................203 2. Cullen’s account and my own account.............................................................203 3. Visitors’ impressions in verse and in prose......................................................211 4. Thomson’s Account, and the Statistical Accounts for Kirknewton of 1793 and 1845.......................................................................................................................217 5. The Horatian dimension to Cullen’s retreat.....................................................226 6. Allan Ramsay and the ‘Georgic’ dimension to Cullen’s retreat........................234 7. Conclusion: other projects...............................................................................239 8 Conclusion........................................................................................................................247 1. William Cullen’s exemplary retirement: life, teaching, medical practice, and the art of ageing in Enlightenment Scotland...............................................................247 2. Cullen’s consultation correspondence and other potential areas for future research.................................................................................................................252 3. The failure of Cullen’s cherished project..........................................................253 4. Final reflections................................................................................................255 5. Les envois.........................................................................................................258 Appendices..……………………………………………………………………………………….……………………….261 APPENDIX 1: The two inscribed stone tablets placed by William Cullen on his estate at Ormiston Hill..........................................................................................262 APPENDIX 2: The Horace inscriptions at Arniston.................................................263 APPENDIX 3: Passages from the two Statistical Accounts, not quoted in Thomson et al........................................................................................................................264 APPENDIX 4: The other four poems composed in celebration of the life of William Cullen.....................................................................................................................267 Bibliography......................................................................................................................273 Primary texts.........................................................................................................273 Secondary texts.....................................................................................................278 9 Manuscript sources…………………………………………………………………………………………..291 Internet references …………………………………………………………………………………………..293 11 Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank my three supervisors at the University of Glasgow: David Shuttleton, Stuart Gillespie and Nigel Leask. The encouragement and scholarly inspiration they have given me has been