“Four o’clock was his dinner hour. Before him was set a silver tankard of strongest ale, a bottle of port wine, and a quarter pint of brandy.
“The dinner was preluded by a dish of broiled fowl, or a few whitings. Having leisurely devoured this plate, the doctor took a glass of brandy, and ordered his steak, which was always a prime one, weighing one and a half pounds. Of course, vegetables, etc., accompanied the steak.
“When the man of science had devoured the whole of this, the bulk of which would have kept a boa constrictor happy a twelvemonth, he took the rest of his brandy, drank off the tankard of ale, and topped off by sipping down his bottle of port wine.
“Having thus brought his intellects, up or down, to the standard of his pupils, he rose, and walked down to Essex Street, and delivered his six o’clock lecture on chemistry.” (He lived to the age of sixty-six.)
Another glutton, in contrast with whom Fordyce was an abstinent, was Dr. Beauford. In 1745 he was summoned to appear before the privy council, to answer some questions relative to Lord B., with whom the doctor was intimate.
“Do you know Lord Barrymore?” asked one of the lords.
“Intimately, most intimately,” replied the doctor.
“You were often with him?”
“We dine together almost daily when his lordship is in town,” answered the doctor, with expressions of delight.
“What do you talk about?”