ABSTRACT
The children referred to in Davy’s letter were the children of Mr Lambton, a wealthy, philanthropic coalowner, who had been Dr Beddoes’ patient and who had died in Italy. Davy was used to children and liked their company; he talked with the Lambton boys as Penzance men had talked with him; both brothers said in later life how much they had unconsciously picked up from Davy’s talk. Perception of suffering had made of Dr Beddoes a man determined to find new ways of relieving pain and of removing ignorance, especially among ‘the sick and drooping poor’. He was concerned both to combat the evils arising from drunkenness and the effects of hell-fire methods of conversion from it among hysterical patients. As a physician and disseminator of ideas Dr Beddoes had a considerable following among the young poets, the unorthodox in medical opinion, and extreme democrats in politics.
