Letter 2356

Charlett congratulates Sloane on becoming President of the Royal College of Physicians. He writes that he was supposed to meet Mrs Cadogan, but their plans changed and she is going to visit him in Oxford. He describes the ‘Festival at Redding’, which was attended by the Wardens of All Souls and St John’s Colleges. Members of Parliament were invited too. He visited Dr Hudson, who had dropsy, and the Bishop of Bristol. Charlett was elected Master of University College at Oxford in 1692 and held that post until his death in 1722. Charlett used the mastership to gain influence, especially through persistent letter-writing to numerous correspondents, sharing the latest literary, political, and scholarly gossip (R. H. Darwall-Smith, Charlett, Arthur (16551722), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5158, accessed 1 June 2011]).