INTRODUCTION.

An ornamental drop cap 'T' with floral and foliate patterns appears in a square frame.THOMAS LINACRE, known to his contemporaries as one of the most learned scholars of an epoch when learning was highly prized, but in after times chiefly as the founder of the College of Physicians in London, was born at Canterbury, probably about the year 1460. Of his parentage and descent nothing certain is known, though some of his biographers have assumed, apparently without any evidence except the name, that he was connected with the family of Linacre in Derbyshire. It is clear from a passage in Linacre's will that he had a brother, sisters, and other relatives (the brother, strange to say, bearing the same baptismal name—Thomas) but further the family history cannot be traced.

This fact will appear less surprising if we remember that Linacre, like many scholars of his time, was never married, and lived for many years an almost monastic life, little influenced by family or social ties. More important than his descent was his education, and in this Linacre was unusually happy; for not a little of the success and eminence of his