DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE. 171
observation (p. 9) :—"Dogs that [did] eat of a hog dying mad-
dyed mad m our parish." Then there are entries relating to1
"The Philosopher's Stone" (p. 112), and "Remarks on Divine
Things" (pp. 199-206); while nearly fifty pages (278-326) near the
end are filled with notes (apparently copied from books, and of
no special interest), entitled "Phrases, Thoughts, and Vivid
Expressions," "Gentele and Sensible Phrases from the Spectator,"
"A Remedy against Distraction leading to Suicide," "Of the
Wind," "Of Logic," and so on ; while they include also extracts
from the Philosophical Transactions and from Esop's Fables, as well
as Notes on Farming.
After about the year 1727, Allen appears to have retired from
active practice ; for few of his notes on cases and his observations
on natural occurrences bear a later date than this. Nevertheless,
he continued to make occasional entries in his Common-Place
Book up to within a few months of his death in 1738. Thus, we
have an entry (p. 196) of a recipe to kill bugs, said to be copied
from the Gentleman's Magazine for 17361. The latest entry I
have been able to discover (p. 167) is dated November 1737,
three months only before his death.2 
In all probability, Allen was in bad health during the last two
years of his life. This surmise is supported by the fact that
his will, noticed hereafter, was made in January 1736-7. He
died thirteen months later.
When Mr. Fitch wrote in 1890, neither the date of Allen's
death nor the place of his burial was known. For our knowledge
of these, we are indebted to the keen eye-sight of the Rev. J. W.
Kenworthy. One day, some years ago, after attending a
funeral at Black Notley, Mr. Kenworthy was standing in the
church-yard when he caught sight of the name Benjamin
Allen on the top-slab of a fine altar-tomb standing close to the
church-porch. The inscription of which the name formed part
was much obscured by a growth of lichen and moss ; but, after
some trouble, Mr. Kenworthy succeeded in deciphering sufficient
of it to learn that it recorded the death of Dr. Benjamin Allen, of
Braintree, on the 28th February 1737-8, at the age of seventy-
five years. A reference to the Parish Registers showed that he
had been buried on the 6 March—just a week after his
1 I cannot trace this recipe by the reference given, which is clearly erroneous.
2 An entry (p. 148) apparently dated 1748 must be either a slip of the pen or made by
another hand, unless it was meant for 1718.