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JOHN HILL (c. 1716-1775)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 465 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:HILL (c. 1716-1775)  , called from his See also:Swedish honours, " See also:Sir " See also:John See also:Hill, See also:English author, son of the Rev . See also:Theophilus Hill, is said to have been See also:born in See also:Peterborough in 1.2a6 l He was apprenticed to an See also:apothecary and on the completion of his See also:apprenticeship he set up in a small See also:shop in St See also:Martin's See also:Lane, See also:Westminster . He also travelled over the See also:country in See also:search of rare herbs, with a view to See also:publishing a hortus siccus, but the See also:plan failed . His first publication was a See also:translation of See also:Theophrastus's See also:History of Stones (1746) . From this See also:time forward he was an indefatigable writer . He edited the See also:British See also:Magazine (1746–1750), and for two years (175–1753) he wrote a daily See also:letter, " The Inspector," for the See also:London Advertiser and See also:Literary See also:Gazette . He also produced novels, plays and scientific See also:works; and was a- large contributor to the supplement of Ephraim_ See also:Chambers's Cyciopaedia . His See also:personal and scurrilous writings involved him in many quarrels . See also:Henry See also:Fielding attacked him in the Covent See also:Garden See also:Journal, See also:Christopher See also:Smart wrote a See also:mock-epic, The Hilliad, against him, and See also:David See also:Garrick replied to his strictures against him by two epigrams, one of which runs: " For physics and farces, his equal there scarce is; His farces are physic, his physic a See also:farce is." He had other literary passages-at-arms with John See also:Rich, who accused him of plagiarizing his See also:Orpheus, also with See also:Samuel See also:Foote and Henry See also:Woodward . From 1759 to 1775 he was engaged on a huge botanical See also:work—The See also:Vegetable See also:System (26 vols. fol.)—adorned by 1600 copperplate engravings . Hill's botanical labours were underaken at the See also:request of his See also:patron, See also:Lord See also:Bute, and he was rewarded by the See also:order of See also:Vasa from the See also:king of See also:Sweden in 1974 . He had a medical degree from See also:Edinburgh, and he now practised as a See also:quack See also:doctor, making considerable sums by the preparation of vegetable medicines .

He died in London on the 21st of See also:

November 1775 . Of the seventy-six See also:separate works with which he is credited in the See also:Dictionary of See also:National See also:Biography, the most valuable are those that See also:deal with See also:botany . He is said to have been the author of the second See also:part of The Oeconomy of Human See also:Life (1751), the first part of which is by Lord See also:Chesterfield, and Hannah Glasse's famous See also:manual of See also:cookery was generally ascribed to him (see See also:Boswell, ed . Hill, iii . 285) . Dr See also:Johnson said of him that he was " an ingenious See also:man, but had no veracity." See a See also:Short See also:Account of the Life, Writings and See also:Character of the See also:late Sir John Hill (1779), which is chiefly occupied with a descriptive See also:catalogue of his works; also See also:Temple See also:Bar (1872, See also:xxxv . 261-266) .

End of Article: JOHN HILL (c. 1716-1775)
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