Life

Bayley, called in Latin Bailæus and in English books also Baley and Baily, was born at Portesham

Portesham

Portesham is a village in the English county of Dorset, situated close to the south coast, between the towns of Weymouth and Dorchester. The village has a population of 708...

, Dorset, in which county his father was a squire. He was educated at Winchester School, and became a fellow of New College

New College, Oxford

New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

 in 1550. He graduated M.B. 1557, and M.D. 1563. He was already in holy orders, and was a canon of Wells until 1579. In 1561 he had been appointed regius professor of physic at Oxford University.

Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

 made him one of her physicians, he entered the service of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...

, and was elected fellow of the College of Physicians

Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

 in 1581. He enjoyed large practice, and died in 1592–3. He is buried in the Chapel of New College, and his son William put up a tablet to his memory.

Works

In 1587 he published ‘A Brief Discours of certain Bathes … in the Countie of Warwicke neere … Newnam Regis,’ but ‘A Brief Treatise of the Preservation of the Eyesight’ is the best known of Dr. Bayley's works. It appeared in 1586, and was reprinted in 1616 at Oxford. The book contains but one observation of his own, recording how one Hoorde preserved his sight till over eighty-four years of age: ‘hee told me that about the age of forty years, finding his sight to decay, he did use eye-bright in ale for his drinke, and did also eate the powder thereof in an egge three daies in a weeke, being so taught of his father, who by the like order continued his sight in good integrity to a very long age.’ Of general history the only fact to be learned from the book is that a new method of brewing had come in in Queen Elizabeth's

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

reign, and that some still preferred ale ‘made with grout according to the old order of brewing.’ For the rest the little treatise is merely an exposition in English of the opinions on its subject of Rhases, Avicenna, Arnaldus de Villa Nova, and other mediæval authorities.