covered the site of Waterloo Station. Obradović says that next door to him lived a merchant named Jackson. We know to-day that this said merchant, John Jackson, lived at No. 31, Clement's Lane, Lombard Street. Later on, Obradović moved to the East End. Describing his migration, he says: 'My friend and I walked past the Tower, and then we walked on and on, God knows whither, until in the end we reached the part of London called Hermitage, and arrived at a house called China Hall; our walk lasted more than a full hour.'

The Hermitage' mentioned by Obradović was indeed a peculiar part of London now merged in Wapping; it lies directly east of St Katherine's Hospital, which in 1825 made way for the docks. The name is preserved in 'Great Hermitage Street' and 'Hermitage Basin.' This quarter was probably at one time more fashionable than it is now. At all events, Lieut. Tom Bowling, the well-known character in Smollett's Roderick Random,' lived at the Sign of the Union Flag, near Hermitage.' As for China Hall, this old and once much-frequented place of entertainment was known to Pepys; and there is a modern description of it in Sir Walter Besant's classical work on London. It stood opposite the Hermitage, across the Thames, in Rotherhithe, at the junction of the Hawkstone and Deptford Lower Roads. To-day it has disappeared. Rotherhithe was then a mere village, numbering about 1500 houses, with a new church, which was just then being completed. Obradović lived in the immediate neighbourhood of China House, the residence of John Levie, who was a porcelain merchant; hence the name of his house, which Obradović seems to have confused with China Hall.

Our Serbian scholar began to study English upon his arrival in London. He had not done so before. He had read English authors, but only in French translations. He had mixed with English people in Chios-and indeed he could scarcely have travelled so much in the Near East without meeting a few-but he had no opportunity of learning the language. Now he found a certain Mr Layard, recommended to him by an Irish friend, who gave him English lessons and full board besides, for three guineas a month.' As he already spoke both French and German, Obradović expected to find no

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difficulty in learning English. He was used to learning languages; he had a special gift for them, and also the necessary perseverance. He was told that the pronunciation was exceedingly difficult, but that did not daunt his courage. I will surely master the pronunciation,' he says, 'even if it be a seventy-headed Hydra!'

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Poor Obradović! he had no idea how many difficulties beset the pronunciation of this otherwise easy, rich and flexible language! We foreigners have cause to know it; and the English are to be congratulated on being so fortunate as to be born English, and thus to know English as their mother-tongue. Obradović was not slow to discover this. When I was first taught the pronunciation,' he says, 'it fairly gave me the gooseflesh and made my hair stand on end.' But in the end he made considerable progress, and within six months he knew enough to read and to translate, and even to speak a little and to understand what was said. His teacher, Mr Layard, was only anxious to help his Serbian pupil, and so was the whole family. My teacher's old mother,' says Obradović, 'his wife, sister, brother, sister-in-law-all of them were my dear and kind teachers, and I heartily pray God may grant them long and prosperous lives!'

But Mr Layard and his family were not the only kind friends Obradović found in London. There were a Mr and Mrs John Levie, who were his first friends and neighbours in the East End and are likewise remembered with deep gratitude by him. Some of his friends, moreover, were men of letters and learning. The winemerchant already referred to, John Jackson, is also known as an author. Just about the time when Obradović stayed in London, some Roman antiquities with inscriptions were discovered in the immediate neighbourhood of Jackson's house, in Lombard Street and Birchin Lane; and Jackson published a monograph upon these excavations in 1786. He subsequently travelled in the East, and his Journey from India towards Europe' was published in 1799. On that occasion, Jackson travelled through Bulgaria and Roumania. He mentions that he 'wished much to come through Serbia and Belgrade,' but was unable to manage it. But he saw Temesvar in the Banat, the place where Obradović had served as an apprentice, and doubtless remembered his Serbian friend

at least at this stage of his journey. The British Museum contains to this day a very interesting relic of Obradović's connexion with his English friend. I mentioned that Obradović had published three books of his own before he came to England. Copies of all three, in their first editions, are to be found in the British Museum-doubtless the very copies which Obradović himself brought to London. One of them bears the following dedication: 'This book is presented to the British Museum by Dositheus Obradović, the author, as the first book ever printed in the Serbian dialect. Signed: John Jackson, Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, 1st of March, 1785.'

Another author whom Obradović met in London was Saviour Lusignan, a Greek of Cyprus who had lived in London for many years.' He was a descendant-or pretended to be of the ancient family of Lusignan which at one time reigned in that island.' He was a scholar and the author of several books. His most interesting work is a book of travels in the East, which was published under the pseudonym of S. L. Kosmopolitis in 1788 with the title of 'A Series of Letters addressed to Sir William Fordyce.'*

Sir William Fordyce was the third and most distinguished among Obradovic's friends.† The Fordyces belonged to the well-known Aberdonian family. Old George Fordyce was a rich merchant and at one time Lord Provost of Aberdeen. He had a family of twenty, several of whom attained distinction in after life. Here

I am not alluding to Alexander, the youngest, who achieved a melancholy celebrity by his unfortunate speculations as a banker. David was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen. James was a very popular preacher, much admired for his eloquence in the pulpit. Sir William, Obradović's friend, was perhaps the most distinguished among the brothers,

*This book was translated into German in 1789.

Cf. the Dictionary of National Biography'; Chalmers' 'Biogr. Dictionary'; John Nichols, 'Illustrations of the Literary History of the 18th Century,' London, 1822, IV, 827; Gentleman's Magazine,' vol. 62, 1218; Munk, Roll of the Royal Physicians,' II, 359; John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century,' London, 1812-15, vol. III, 260; Lusignan, op. cit.; August Hirsch, 'Biogr. Lexicon der hervorragenden Aerzte,' II, Vienna and Leipzig, 1885; besides Fordyce's own works.

being greatly esteemed as a most skilful physician. He published many learned treatises on medicine, and is said to have spoken the best Latin in Great Britain. Having made a considerable fortune by his large practice, he helped his brothers, and people in general; indeed, his generosity and hospitality are said to have been very great.

Obradović was introduced to him by Mr Levie; and Sir William, then sixty years of age, took a very keen interest in the Serbian scholar, who was so much his junior. He soon made a friend of him and received him most cordially every Friday evening at his house in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. He certainly appreciated the good Latin scholarship of his Serbian friend, with whom he both conversed and corresponded in Latin. He also enjoyed talking to him about Vienna and Italy, where he had himself been. But most of all he appreciated the talent, the perseverance and the character of the self-taught Serbian. On the day of his departure, Obradović was presented by Sir William Fordyce with a handsome copy of his 'Fragmenta Chirurgica et Medica,' which had just come out. (The Preface is dated: prid. Id. Dec. 1784.) The dedication, written in the book by Fordyce and signed also by Mr Livie, is worded as follows: To Dositheus Obradović, Serbian, versed in various languages, a man of perfect morality, who earned the heartiest sympathies of the English with whom he spent six months, these 'Fragments' are most cordially offered as a small token of the most sincere love and friendship.'

On the other hand, Obradović was filled with sympathy and admiration for the English. He was the first Serbian Anglophil and a great admirer of England. Nor did he admire only English literature and science; his admiration went out equally to the ordinary, typical English man and woman. It is worth while to recall his impressions on meeting a typical English lady. He called upon Mrs Levie, in company with Mr Lusignan.

*Dositheo Obradović, Serbiano, viro linguis variis erudito, sanctissimis moribus morato, Anglis, apud quos sex menses diversatus est, perquam dilecto, Fragmenta haec, parvulum quidem at amoris sincerissimi et amicitiæ pignus, libentissime merito obtulerunt, Londini, VIII Kal. Jun. MDCC LXXXV Gulielmus Fordyce, Joannes Levie.'

I do not know what had been Obradović's opinion of women before that date, but he certainly did not expect to find Mrs Levie anything besides a good housewife. It was a time when some of the greatest changes that ever agitated the kingdom were being ushered in by the advent of Pitt's Government, the dissolution of Parliament, the Reform Bill, etc. The affairs of the East India Company were very much to the fore when Pitt introduced his East India Bill. Vessels arrived frequently from India, and Warren Hastings's ship was just about due. Trade was going on as usual, and the proposed tax on retail shops was being hotly discussed. Many important books had just come out, e.g. Mitford's History of Greece,' Charlotte Smith's 'Sonnets,' Cowper's 'Task,' besides many reprints. These were the topics of the day, and Obradović did not expect them to figure in the conversation of the lady of the house, whom he saw sitting with a piece of fine linen in her hands and sewing. Great was his amazement when he heard her discussing these and other kindred subjects.

'She began,' he says, 'a long conversation with Mr Lusignan about the Parliamentary debates, about the East India Company, about the vessels that had just arrived from India, about commerce, and finally about recent publications-what they were, who were their authors, and the contents of the books.' And she talked without leaving her sewing and stitching. Obradović was transported with amazement and delight. How came she to be so well-informed on all these topics, so as to chat about them-as he puts it-so simply, so easily, so lucidly'? At one moment he was inclined to believe that she was reading it off from a book, so clever was her conversation. He listened for two hours, and they seemed to him like two quarters of an hour. He would gladly have stayed all day and missed his dinner -it was just dinner-time-only to listen to her as she talked. When Mr Lusignan-I am still quoting Obradović's words-began to speak, he (Obradović) frequently hoped that his friend would finish quickly and be silent, so that she might speak again.

Obradović had a very high opinion of the beauty of English women. 'I gaze on the women and girls (says he); they are such beautiful creatures that there is Vol. 232.—No. 461,

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