Party-rage perhaps never run higher than about the latter end of Charles the IId’s reign; hereby this little domestic academy was dispersed in 1683. The king, or rather his ministers, were determined to be revenged on those, whom they could not prevail on to concur with their measures. Mr. Mead (the father) was accused of being concerned in some designs against the court; wherefore being conscious that even his being a presbyterian, rendered him obnoxious to those in power, he chose rather to consult his security by a retreat, then to rely upon his innocence; to this purpose he sought and found that repose in Holland, which was denied him in his own country; having first placed his son Richard at a school, under the tuition of an able master of his own principles: under whose care our young gentleman, by a ready genius, strong memory, and close application, made a great proficiency. At seventeen years of age he was sent to Utrecht, to be further instructed in liberal knowledge, by the celebrated Grævius, with whom he continued three years. Having determined to devote his attention to medicine, he removed from Utrecht to Leyden, where he attended Dr. Herman’s botanical lectures, and was initiated into the theory and practice of physick, by the truely eminent Dr. Pitcairn, who then held the professorial chair of this science in that university: here our young student’s assiduity and discernment, so effectually recommended him to the professor, who was not very communicative of his instructions out of the college, that he established a lasting correspondence with him, and received several observations from him, which he inserted in one of his subsequent productions. His academical studies being finished, Mr. Mead sought further accomplishments in Italy, whither he was accompanied by his elder brother,[1] Mr. Polhill, and Dr. Thomas Pellet, afterwards president of the college of physicians. [1] Mr. Nathaniel Mead, who was at first destined to the service of religion, and preach’d two or three times at the meeting house at Stepney, built by his father, after his ejection from the parish church: but taking a dislike to theological studies, he applied himself to the law, and made as great a figure at the bar, as his brother did in physick. In the course of this tour, Mr. Mead commenced doctor in philosophy and medicine at Padua, the twenty-sixth of August 1695, and afterwards spent some time at Naples and Rome: how advantageous to himself, as well as how useful to mankind he rendered his travels, his works bear ample testimony.