‘Perhaps we are allowing our imaginings too much freedom, sir,’ Adam said. ‘I own that I felt the inquest was conducted in a superficial manner. I was also annoyed that my curiosity on certain matters was so brusquely dismissed. Still, I have never attended a coroner’s hearing before and may well be expecting what would not be usual.’
‘No, sir,’ Capt. Mimms said. ‘I have attended more than one such – old men have time on their hands. Many say I have also more curiosity about what goes on around me than is perhaps becoming. I tell you it was rigged…rigged most firmly. By why – and by whom – I can scarce even guess.’
‘Nor I,’ Adam said, but his host continued as if he had not spoken.
‘Now, my friend, set your mind at rest. George Mimms is not to be trifled with in this way. He is not a fool, even if some think it so. They see only an old man and do not consider what it took to rise from cabin boy to captain, then a ship-owner and finally a successful merchant. I shall find the truth. Like you, I am filled with curiosity about this event. I will not rest easy until I have answers in place of questions.’ He paused and grinned at Adam. ‘Henry Harmsworthy, J.P. might have warned you off, sir, but nothing has been said to me on that score. Ah, here is food. Eat, my friend, eat, for you have a weary journey ahead. Do not let your mind be troubled, for I shall have my answers – and you shall know them too. Return to your surgery and your practice and leave all to me. Only, I pray you, be so good in return to apprise me of anything else that may come to your ears. For I hope to see you in my house again, sir, and that I may count you a friend, as you may indeed count me.’
‘A friend indeed,’ Adam said, ‘and one much in your debt for both food and company. You have restored my spirits most wonderfully. You have my promise that I will keep you abreast of whatever further information comes my way. Besides, I will certainly visit you again, when it is convenient to us both.’
With that, they went to an excellent table, to which they both did ample justice. Thus it was that when Adam set out on his way home, he found he had eaten far more than was comfortable for a man on horseback.
6
Peter Lassimer, Apothecary
Thursday, 20 April 1792, Aylsham, Norfolk
Adam had spent the past few days catching up with the demands of his practice. He had few patients at present. Nor would he ever have more unless he seized every opportunity to place his name before any who might become patients in due course.
Aylsham already had one physician, a Dr. Pennycoats. His established practice should have been a formidable block to Adam’s progress. Fortunately for him, if not for the little town, Pennycoats was both an indolent man and much given to good living. When Adam first placed his shingle outside his modest house, he had visited the man, expecting to meet firm opposition. Instead, he had found the doctor still in his bed past ten o’clock in the morning. He was recovering, his manservant said, from a good dinner taken at the local lodge of freemasons the evening before.
Since then, Dr. Pennycoats had taken every opportunity to send patients Adam’s way rather than keep them from him. The man, it seemed, had a substantial private income. Most of his limited attention was spent on compiling a book on the chemical composition of different types of rocks. At least, he said he was writing such a work, for not a single page had ever reached a printer’s hands.
Given their doctor’s peculiar attitude to his profession, it was no surprise that most people of the town sought medical advice from the apothecary. The wealthier folk and the gentry turned to doctors living elsewhere.
Today's apothecary was expected to have medical knowledge beyond the mixing and dispensing of prescriptions. Still, most still sold a range of nostrums, spices and teas as well as more potent herbal brews. In London, the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries controlled the profession. Here, far to the north, there was less regulation over who might set themselves up in that business. Nevertheless, the law of the land was at last bearing down on the worst quacks and charlatans.
Now, hearing that Aylsham's old apothecary had decided to retire and sell his business to a successor from elsewhere Adam felt some trepidation. He therefore determined to visit the shop in the High Street to take the measure of the new apothecary in person.
Above the window was a painted shop board: ‘Edward Gerstone, Apothecary and Herbalist’. In the window stood the typical range of bottles of coloured water and labelled china herb jars. Neither gave him any enlightenment. He would rely on this man to mix medicines to his prescription, yet must also regard him as something of a competitor too. Good relations might greatly assist his business. An adversarial turn of events would promise many barriers to progress. Yet as he entered the shop, he encountered the greatest surprise imaginable. For the voice which came to him from the dispensing room, hidden behind the counter, was instantly recognisable.
‘Lassimer? Lassimer?’ he said. ‘Can it be you?’
The reply was a loud burst of laughter. ‘Dr. Bascom, I believe. I had expected you before this. You are come to sniff around and steal my patients, I warrant.’
The words might sound harsh, but the voice that spoke them was filled with amusement.
‘Had I known whom I should find, I would have been here on your first morning,’ Adam said. He was delighted to see the apothecary emerge into the shop and recognise the smiling face of Peter Lassimer.
‘My dear friend. I thought you must be a grave physician by now, filling your patients with awe at your magisterial manner. But wait…above the door is the name of a Mr. Gerstone.’’
‘Mr. Gerstone is my master in the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries,’ Lassimer replied. ‘He is also the principal owner of this business, until I obtain freedom of the Company and can buy him out. You find me a humble journeyman apothecary, treating the good people of this town with foul brews and rank potions.’
‘Lassimer, my old friend. While I should be disapproving of your levity towards the materia medica, you know I would not have you change for an instant. I wager you are still casting a lecherous eye over every serving maid whose mistress is fool enough to send her here. But were you not well on your way to a doctor’s qualifications when I left Glasgow?’
The apothecary stepped quickly around the counter and closed the door to the shop, pulling down the blind. Then he advanced upon Adam and grasped him in an embrace that would have done justice to any bear.
‘There,’ he said. ‘I have closed my shop and we may retire to my parlour to talk properly. I want to know all about your adventures in the United Provinces. As for my own story, it will prove familiar enough. Still, I own that what once seemed the worst of fortunes has proved to be nothing of the kind.’
The two men were soon seated in a comfortable parlour, each holding a glass of punch, which had been served by a well-dressed and attentive maidservant.
‘You are not married, Lassimer, I think,’ Adam said, after tasting the punch and nodding his head in pleasure. ‘The looks that passed between you and your maid would have quickly drawn the ire of any wife.’
‘Married?’ Lassimer said. ‘Nay, sir, that is a yoke to which I will long be loathe to bend my neck. For who would settle for a single wine when he might taste of as many of those that are on offer as his stomach – and his fortune – may bear. Unless, of course, he spurns the native beauties of his own land to seek out exotic beauties from over the seas.’
‘I am not sure that I would allow any exotic beauty to make your acquaintance, sir,’ Adam said. ‘Not only would you turn her head with outrageous flattery, but would soon win her away from a dull dog like me.’
‘You may rest easy, my friend,’ Lassimer said. ‘You are no dull dog. But are you not wed?’
‘Indeed not. I am too poor, my friend. Besides, like you, I value my freedom to do as I wish, though perhaps not in quite the same way.’
‘Yet I am sure you do not lack female company, Bascom. At Glasgow, as I recall, you had your pleasure of many a Scottish lass. Indeed, t
here was sometimes quite a queue.'
‘Do not mock me, old friend. You make me sound a veritable terror to the fair sex.’
‘As you were. I speak only the truth.’
‘Nay,’ Adam said. ‘Not even then and certainly not now. Am I not a grave physician, devoted only to my books and patients?’
‘I pray that is not so,’ Lassimer said, laughing. ‘But if you do lack for suitable diversions, I will be happy to supply you with the names of several lusty widows of my acquaintance. One man alone can do only so much. I would welcome assistance to lessen the demands placed upon me.’
‘Lassimer,!’ Adam said. ‘You are as given to boasting of your exploits now as you ever were. I can find all the ladies I need by my own efforts, thank you.’
If that was not strictly true, it would suffice. He did not doubt Lassimer would arouse a fury of speculation and gossip if he did as he promised. What husband would then trust Adam to attend on his wife? What father would trust him to treat his sick daughter? ‘Enough of such nonsense, sir. I never expected to find you an apothecary, and in Norfolk too. Still, I am in no doubt that you are an excellent practitioner of your art, and much valued by your customers.’
‘Yet are you not well upon your way to fame and fortune as a physician of note,’ Lassimer said, ‘while I will languish in this small town for the rest of my days?’
‘Fame I care about little. Fortune would be enough. But now, sir. You promised me an answer to my question on how you came to be here. You say you met misfortune. Yet here you are, frightening the grave virgins of this county and in possession of what I see to be a fine house and shop.’
‘My tale is soon related,’ Lassimer said, his levity gone for the moment. ‘I was set upon my way to obtaining my degree at the university. I proceeded more slowly than yourself, for I lack both your fine brain and the education you had at Cambridge, but well enough. Then, on a sudden, such a storm engulfed my father’s business as drew away all his money, so that I might no longer pay my way. Indeed, in the end it took his life.’
‘That is ill news indeed,’ Adam said. ‘I am sorry such a heavy fate fell upon you, who deserved none of it. It seems yet more proof that Divine Providence is naught more than mankind whistling to keep up his spirits.’
‘My father had always been most liberal in extending credit, as you know, Bascom,’ Lassimer said. ‘Especially to the gentry and merchants of Shrewsbury. That liberality ruined him. Two young blades, both of noble parentage, patronised his tailoring business to fit them for the fashionable life each believed he deserved. Both were profligate, idle and licentious, as is too often the way of the sons of the gentry. Now each proved that he was as poor a player at the gaming tables as the veriest country bumpkin. They gambled away their allowances. Then they fell into the hands of money lenders. Soon they learned also that gentlemen of that sort were unwilling to wait for the settling of debts.’
‘But your father was a prosperous man,’ Adam said, ‘in good standing in that city. Could the debts of two such men cause him to fail?’
‘By themselves, no,’ Lassimer said. ‘He saw that he would never recover what each owed him. They denied not just the debt, but ever having patronised his shop. Worse was to come. Their fathers were eager to limit what they must pay to save their offspring from the debtor’s prison and chose to believe them. Then came the worst blow of all. His chief clerk had, it seems, grown tired of his wife of twenty years and taken up with the young wife of his neighbour. The two of them were in bed together, when they thought the husband safely gone for the night to stay with his brother. It was not so. The woman's husband suspected her of adultery. Now he sprang his trap and drove them out into the night, inflicting some severe wounds on the man who had cuckolded him. The two lovers were forced to flee. Well aware that he would find it hard to find well-paid work elsewhere, the wretched man emptied the safe of the money my father had placed there ready to pay his own creditors.’
‘What depravity,’ Adam said. ‘Was the thief apprehended?’
‘Alas, no, for none knew which way the two might have gone from the town. My father was ruined. He sold his business and managed to pay all his creditors from the proceeds. Only just enough remained to pay for me to take up an apprenticeship with an apothecary in Leicester. My father insisted I move as far away as I could. He knew that the disaster would forever be attached to the name of Lassimer, should I stay in Shrewsbury.
‘When I finished my apprenticeship early, thanks to my medical studies, here I came. The arrangement suits both Mr. Gerstone and myself. No sooner had he purchased this business than his own health failed. He cannot now make the calls necessary to sustain a country practice. Though I am still a journeyman, we have agreed I shall buy him out by stages and become his successor. He now lives in a fine house on the edge of the town, where he hopes to end his days in quiet retirement.’
‘When will that be?’ Adam asked.
‘I must serve another two years at my present level, under the professional – but very occasional – supervision of Mr. Gerstone. Then I may seek to be entered a Freeman of the Company.’
‘And your father?’ Adam said, fearing what he suspected must come.
‘My mother died some years ago, as you know, and I have neither brother nor sister. I pleaded with my father to let me stay at his side, but he would have none of it. Though my heart demanded I set all else aside to support him as best I could, my head told me that he was right. Had I stayed, I would always have been “that man whose father lost his fortune through his own trusting and foolish actions”. My future would be blighted by such words and my father could not bear that. So, in the end, I gave in, believing I could make my fortune, then return to help him reclaim his. It was not to be. He died within six months.’
‘Some of our vaunted authorities claim mind and body are quite separate,’ Adam said. ‘Yet both my studies of the most up-to-date natural philosophers, and my own experience, such as it is, tell me they are wrong. We are a unity: a thinking animal, using our brains to reason as we use our legs to walk or our gut to digest our food. Many a sickness of the mind has its causes in some bodily malfunction or imbalance. Grief and loneliness are as swift to end life as the smallpox or any fever.’
‘Enough of gloom,’ Lassimer said. ‘The past is past and cannot be changed. I have found happiness and good fortune in my new profession. I will not allow dark musings to take them from me. Does your practice show promise, Bascom? You may be very sure I shall send all my most difficult cases to you. Thus I will win a fine reputation as a healer by restricting myself to simple maladies. You meanwhile will struggle with the most intractable diseases.’
7
Gossip and Punch
Monday, 30 April 1792, Aylsham, Norfolk
Much cheered by finding this unexpected friend and ally in the town, Adam now gave all his attention to his practice. He was pleased to discover several new patients had sent in their requests to consult him. Had they heard good reports of his skill? Or were they eager to have someone visit them who might be persuaded to pass on information about the archdeacon’s death? He neither knew nor cared. A patient was a patient. Without them, he would sink into penury.
Even routine business was not to be spurned. Adam arranged several visits to the better class of people in the neighbourhood to inoculate them and their households against the scourge of smallpox. Even in his short period so far as a country doctor, Adam had every cause to bless the name of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Finding the procedure used by the Ottoman Turks with signal success, she had not only had her own daughter inoculated, but interested others. Amongst these were the King’s doctor, and soon the practice was introduced into the Royal Family. It was then but a small step for the gentry to follow suit. Although it was not yet itself free from risk, the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.
Many of the older physicians in the county were unwilling to learn the technique. Some were so set in their ways as to deny its efficacy
altogether. As a result, inoculation was too often open to quacks and half-trained practitioners. Fearing such people, the gentry were eager to find a better alternative. As the only doctor in this part of the county willing and able to provide this service, Adam had a near monopoly of their business and could charge handsomely. He was, however, humble enough – and wise enough in the ways of business – to realise that others would soon come to challenge him. He therefore offered handsome reductions in his fees to any who would have their whole household, including servants, inoculated in a single visit.
It was more than a week before he could visit Peter Lassimer again. As he expected, he was greeted with great delight by the young apothecary and they sat in the compounding room where they could talk at leisure. Peter Lassimer was an able and hard-working man, whose heart was as large as his smile. While some of the stricter sort might frown on his delight in pretty women, few of them seemed to complain. Lassimer might be faithless and have an eye that wandered far and wide, but he made no secret of this to anyone. Nor did he ever used false vows or declarations to smooth his path into a lady’s bedchamber. He neither gave nor demanded exclusivity in his affections. His much-admired prowess in the amatory arts, gained from a mass of experience, ensured a steady stream of female customers.
Lassimer did have one vice. He loved gossip. About his love affairs he maintained the strictest discretion. No lady likes to find her matters of the heart spread around the town. For the rest, he was most assiduous in collecting information. Many in the town had found some reason to buy remedies, herbs or spices during the past week, so that they might glean some information about the mysterious death of Dr. Ross. Lassimer’s supplies of fresh gossip were now diminishing and he looked eagerly to Adam for ways to refresh them.
An Unlamented Death: A Mystery Set in Georgian England (Mysteries of Georgian Norfolk Book 1) Page 4