V.I
.
LETTERS OF SAMUEL JOHNSON
G. BIRKBECK HILL
VOL. I.
Ojforfc
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
LETTERS
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
COLLECTED AND EDITED
BY GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L,
PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
EDITOR OF BOSWELL S LIFE OF JOHNSON
IN TWO VOLUMES: VOL. I
Oct. 30, 1731 Dec. ai, 1776
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1892
AUG 3 1 1955
PREFACE
How extensive was Johnson s correspondence, and how much
of it has been preserved, is not perhaps generally known. He
wrote unwillingly. I know not how it happens, he told
Dr. Taylor in the year T 756, but I fancy that I write letters
with more difficulty than some other people who write nothing
but letters ; at least I find myself very unwilling to take up a
pen only to tell my friends that I am well ; and indeed I never
did exchange letters regularly but with dear Miss Boothby I .
Seven years later he wrote to Boswell : I love to see my friends,
to hear from them, to talk to them, and to talk of them ; but it
is not without a considerable effort of resolution that I prevail
upon myself to write 2 . In this he was like Goldsmith who,
apologising for his neglect in correspondence, said, No turnspit
dog gets up into his wheel with more reluctance than I sit down
to write 3 . I have seen in an Auction Catalogue an extract
from a letter by Grainger, the author of the Sugar Cane, in
which he says : When I taxed little Goldsmith for not writing
as he promised me, his answer was that he never wrote a letter
in his life ; and faith I believe him, unless to a bookseller for
money.
Nevertheless, however indolent a man may be with his
correspondence, if he lives to the age of seventy-five, and if
his letters are thought worth keeping, a great mass will be
preserved. Happily, there was one person to whom Johnson
wrote eagerly enough. His letters to Mrs. Thrale are more
than 300 in number. When he was away from Streatham,
1 Post, \. 64. 2 Life, i. 473.
3 Forster s Life of Goldsmith, ed. 1871, i. 433.
when
vi Preface.
when he was not. to use his own words to her, reposing at that
place which your kindness and Mr. Thrale s allows me to call
my home*] he longed for news. He once reproached Bosvvell
for indulging in an uneasy apprehension about his wife and
children who were 400 miles away in Edinburgh. Sir, said
he, consider how foolish you would think it in them to be
apprehensive that you are ill 2 . His trade might, as Baretti
said, be wisdom ; but there was never yet philosopher that
could bear the tooth-ache patiently, and Johnson was just as
foolish himself about My Master and My Mistress as
Boswell was about his wife and children. One June when he
was at Oxford, he was left a few days without any news from
Streatham. On the 5th he complains to his Mistress that
three days had gone by without a letter. On the 6th he
writes : If I have not a little something from you to-day, I
shall think something very calamitous has befallen us. On the
7th his apprehension is still rising. I grieve and wonder and
hope and fear about my dear friends at Streatham. But I may
have a letter this afternoon. Sure it will bring me no bad news.
If I have a letter to-day I will go away as soon as I can ; if I
have none, I will stay till this may be answered, if I do not come
back to town. On the afternoon of the same day he is comforted.
Your letter, which ought to have come on Tuesday, came not
till Wednesday. Well, now I know that there is no harm, I will
take a chaise and march away towards my own country 3 . He
delighted in the letters which Mrs. Thrale sent him. Never
imagine, he wrote, that they are long ; they are always too
short for my curiosity. I do not know that I was ever content
with a single perusal V Had he wished it he could have kept
up a correspondence with men famous in almost every path of
life, discussing those great questions that so long occupied
Rasselas and his friends, which they left with a conclusion in
which nothing is concluded. It was not that kind of letter-
writing that he loved. He neglected the members of his famous
1 Post, i. 129. 2 Life, iii. 4. 3 Post, i. 324-7. 4 Post, \. 216.
Club,
Preface. vii
Club, a set of men who, he maintained, were sufficient worthily
to fill all the chairs of a University \ So far as we know he did
not write a single letter to Edmund Burke ; he wrote more than
300 to the wife of a Southwark brewer. With such ardour did
he keep up the correspondence that in nine weeks of the summer
of 1775 he wrote to her thirty times. Let us for once be thank
ful for the old abuse of the franking system, by which these
letters were carried free of postage. Had he had to pay the
usual charge of fourpence on each he would, I fear, have
remembered, as he once bade Mrs. Thrale remember, that three
groats make a shilling 2 , and he would have written far less
frequently.
If we would judge of her share in the correspondence we must
not look so much to those of her letters which she has printed
as to the one which by some lucky chance came into Boswell s
possession. I shall present my readers/ he says, with one of
her original letters to Johnson, which will amuse them probably
more than those well-written but studied epistles which she has
inserted in her collection V The insinuation which he casts on
their genuineness can be shown to be well founded. There is no
doubt that some of them are fabrications, and clumsy fabrica
tions too 4 . She was far too inaccurate to make a successful
forger. It was not studied epistles that she sent to her old
friend, or he would have speedily cried out, Fiddle-de-dee, my
dear. What it was that delighted him in her letters we learn
from one of his answers, where he says : Such tattle as filled
your last sweet letter prevents one great inconvenience of
absence, that of returning home a stranger and an enquirer.
The variations of life consist of little things. Important innova
tions are soon heard, and easily understood. Men that meet to
talk of physicks or metaphysicks, or law or history, may be
immediately acquainted. We look at each other in silence, only
1 Life, v. 109. 2 Post, i. 161. 3 Life, iii. 421.
4 P or a curious instance see post, ii. 258, n. 3. For another apparent in
stance of her fabrication see ii. 210, n. i.
for
viii Preface.
for want of petty talk upon slight occurrences. Continue, there
fore, to write all that you would say V
Two other series of letters we owe to that strong feeling which
Johnson ever preserved for the friends of his youth a feeling
which grew stronger and stronger as life ebbed away. If he
ever took delight in anything, said Baretti, it was to converse
with some old acquaintance 2 . It was this feeling which more
than anything else attached him to Dr. Taylor, that heavy
pluralist whose thoughts were ever running on preferments,
whose size and figure and countenance and manner were that
of a hearty English Squire with the parson superinduced V It
was not, as some suspected, his hope of being Taylor s heir
which kept the friendship alive. He clung in the same kind of
way to his old schoolfellow, Henry Jackson, a low man, dull
and untaught, who wore a coarse grey coat, black waistcoat,
greasy leather breeches, and a yellow uncurled wig ; whose coun
tenance had the ruddiness which betokens one who is in no
haste to "leave his can." He gave him his guineas, and when
he died he wrote : His death was a loss, and a loss not to be
repaired, as he was one of the companions of my childhood V
Had this worthy been as ready with his pen as he was in
devising that new scheme of dressing leather by which he hoped
to mend his fortune, Johnson doubtless would have corresponded
with him too. To his old playfellow, Edmund Hector, the
Birmingham surgeon, he wrote : I am now grown very solicitous
about my old friends, with whom I passed the hours of youth
and cheerfulness, and am glad of any opportunity to revive the
memory of past pleasures. I therefore tear open a letter with
great eagerness when I know the hand in which it is super
scribed 5 . With him also he not unfrequently corresponded.
Taylor docketed the letters which he received. The last is
numbered 108. Of these Boswell had been allowed to publish
but four. In the present collection sixty-two additional letters
1 Post, ii. 19. - Post, i. 388, n. 2. 3 Life, ii. 474.
4 Life, ii. 463 ; iii. 131. 5 Post, i. 73.
are
Preface, ix
are given ; twenty-three of which, if I am not mistaken, have
never been in print before. Forty-two, therefore, remain unpub
lished ; some may have been lost, but most I suspect are hidden
away in the desks of collectors.
There are great and curious gaps in Johnson s general corre
spondence. Of the four years, 1745, 6, 7 and 8, not a single letter,
so far as I know, has been preserved. For 1755 we have as
many as 22, and for 1760 only two. He wrote most copiously
in the last few months of his life, when he was seeking relief
from his sufferings at Lichfield and Ashbourne. Deserted by
Mrs. Thrale and deprived by death of his domestic companions,
overwhelmed with disease and looking with horror on the grave
into which he was sinking, lonely and solitary, he sought on all
sides for encouragement, kindness and sympathy. Sixteen years
earlier, when distressed by illness, he had written : To roll the
weak eye of helpless anguish, and see nothing on any side but
cold indifference, will, I hope, happen to none whom I love or
value ; it may tend to withdraw the mind from life, but has no
tendency to kindle those affections which fit us for a purer and
a nobler state 1 . This cold indifference was what he seems at this
time to have been dreading. By the frequency of his letters he
strove to keep himself alive in the memory and the affections
of his friends.
In the present collection will not be found those of his letters
which were included by Boswell in the Life. In number they
are not far short of 340. For each of them I give in the proper
place the briefest notice of the person to whom it was addressed,
the date at which it was written, and the volume and page where
it will be found 2 . All the other letters which I have been able
to collect I am now publishing. I have not thought it right to
pass over any on account of their insignificance. Those which
were already in print I have found mainly in the two volumes
of Correspondence published by Mrs. Piozzi in 1788, in the
1 Post, \. 141. my edition of the Life, published by
2 The references are in all cases to the Clarendon Press.
editions
x Preface.
editions of the Life by Malone and Croker, in the Miscellanies of
the Philobiblon Society and in Notes and Queries. To the last of
these publications, a storehouse of curious and interesting matter,
I would once more express my obligations obligations shared
in by every student of the literature, history, and antiquities of
our country J . The letters in these various publications are
about 570 in number.
In addition to this, through the kindness of collectors of
autographs, and dealers, my collection is enriched with a large
number of hitherto unpublished letters. A few of them indeed
are already in print in costly private catalogues, such as Mr.
Alfred Morrison s noble volumes. These, however, are not within
the reach of the general reader. With the inclusion of these,
and of the fifteen letters which were first given in my edition of
the Life, the new letters, unless I am mistaken, amount to
between ninety and a hundred. If we add to them the large
number which are known only to the readers of Notes and
Queries and of the Miscellanies of the Philobiblon Society it will
be seen that the present Collection makes a great and important
addition to Johnsonian literature.
In my eager search after letters I have examined in the
Bodleian many hundreds of auctioneers catalogues. This part of
my task would have been greatly lightened had those catalogues
which contain descriptions of autographs been bound up sepa
rately. As it was, I found them scattered among long lists, not
only of books, but also of musical instruments, bins of wine, and
cigars. If librarians would keep apart the catalogues in which
autographs and manuscripts in general are described, students
of literature and history would have at their command a great
amount of curious material. Those of Johnson s letters of which
I found mention in these lists I have entered in their proper
places, giving moreover such abstracts of their contents as were
published by the auctioneers. Some future editor may perhaps
1 Many of these letters we owe to to Notes and Queries most careful
Professor John E. B. Mayor, who sent copies of the originals.
be
Preface. xi
be fortunate enough in many cases to get complete copies. One
series of letters I am greatly disappointed at not being able to
include in my collection. In Messrs. Sotheby and Co. s Cata
logue of Mr. F. Perkins s Library, which was sold in July, 1889,
lot 1134 is a series of twenty autograph letters of Johnson to
Mr. Perkins, Southwark, together with one from Boswell to
Perkins. They were sold for 81. It is possible that among
these twenty letters are found the five which Perkins allowed
Boswell to publish. Of none of them have I been able to get
a copy. This I the more regret as they would have thrown
light on a side of Johnson s character that is little known, and
would have let us see him engaged in what his biographer calls
the real business of life V Perkins, it will be remembered, was
the worthy superintendent of Thrale s Brewery 2 . On his
master s death he became the junior partner of the wealthy
Quakers who purchased the business. After the lapse of more
than a century, when the secret letters and papers of kings and
ministers have been given to the world, it might have been
thought that the private correspondence of a great scholar with a
superintendent of a brewery could with propriety be divulged.
Expectation must, however, be still kept waiting. Perhaps a
second hundred years must pass away before it shall be ascer
tained what was the part that Johnson took in founding the new
firm of Barclay and Perkins. Something however can even
now be known. One letter, it seems, had got separated from
the rest and this I am able to publish 3 . A passage too in one
of Johnson s letters to Mrs. Thrale 4 throws further light on the
secret transactions by which, in the year of grace 1781, Mr.
Perkins the man was changed into Mr. Perkins the master.
My chief labour has been spent on the two volumes of cor
respondence published by Mrs. Piozzi. In themselves they
required far more annotation than the other letters, for in
writing to her Johnson touched on a much greater variety
1 Life of Johnson, iv. 85. 2 Life, ii. 286, //. I. 3 Post, ii. 222.
4 Post, ii. 216.
Of
xii Preface.
of persons and subjects. He frequently introduced quotations
and literary allusions. She was a lady of some learning and
many pretensions, who had more wit and more literature, he
maintained, than even the great Mrs. Montagu ". In his
letters to his other friends these quotations and allusions are
as rare as in those to her they are abundant. I have traced
and explained them so far as I have been able, but some have
hitherto baffled my search. I have had besides to supply
the names which Mrs. Piozzi either left in blank or merely
indicated by the first letter. The frequent errors into which
she has fallen have caused me a great deal of trouble. Many
of these arose from that habit of inaccuracy of which Johnson
in vain tried to work a cure ; but some were clearly inten
tional. Of his letters not a few are carelessly inserted in the
wrong places, but of her own some, as I have already said,
are fabrications. In this part of my work I have made use
of the curious marginal notes which Baretti wrote in his copy
of the Correspondence 2 . In his conjectures, when he fills up
the blanks, he is not always right. Nevertheless, whenever he
was not under the influence of his feelings, his remarks are
often of service. The malignity which he exhibits towards
Mrs. Piozzi renders it needful to receive his general statements
with caution. He had no doubt cause for anger in the attacks
which she made on him through Johnson 3 , but the savageness
of his reply far exceeded the offence. Nevertheless in his
remarks there is often a good deal of truth. If they did
nothing else they would throw light on a man who was not
the least interesting of the little group which gathered round
the Thrales at Streatham.
I cannot but think that now that Johnson s letters are col
lected he will take a far higher rank among letter-writers than
he has as yet filled. Admirable as many of those are which
are published by Boswell, nevertheless in the Life they are
1 Post, ii. 153. 2 The book is in the British Museum.
3 Post, i. 350, 354-5.
overshadowed
Preface. xiii
overshadowed, as it were, by his superlative merit as a talker.
We hurry through them, or even skip over them, to arrive at
the passages where the larger type and the inverted commas
give signs that there we shall have good talk. His letters
may be good but his talk has no rival. But when we no
longer have it to tempt us, we shall not fail to recognise how
admirable he was in his correspondence. What a variety, more
over, does it exhibit ! We have those fine and weighty passages
in which he treated of the greatest of all arts the art of living,
and taught, as few philosophers have better taught, the manage
ment of the mind, whether it is troubled by cares or well-nigh
broken with grief. We have that strong common-sense set forth
in vigorous English, on which his friends could always draw in
their perplexities. We have, moreover, above all in his letters
to Mrs. Thrale, a playfulness and lightness of touch which will
surprise those who know him only by his formal writings. How
pleasantly, for instance, does he laugh at his friend Taylor
whose talk was of bullocks, who bred cattle almost as eagerly
as he hunted after preferments, and who was famous, it was said,
for having the largest bull in England and some of the best
sermons ". The sermons were Johnson s, and the bull Johnson
has almost made his own by the humorous way in which from
time to time he introduces him in his letters. I have seen the
great bull, he writes, and very great he is. I have seen like
wise his heir-apparent, who promises to enherit all the bulk and
all the virtues of his sire. I have seen the man who offered an
hundred guineas for the young bull, while he was yet little better
than a calf. A year later he writes : There has been a man here
to-day to take a farm. After some talk he went to see the bull,
and said that he had seen a bigger. Do you think he is likely
to get the farm ? Fifteen months later he returns to the sub
ject : Our bulls and cows are all well ; but we yet hate the man
that had seen a bigger bull 2 .
The gem of my collection is a letter from Johnson to his wife,
1 Life, Hi. 181, n. 3. s Post, i. 166, 178, 197.
which
xiv Preface.
which I owe to the liberality of Mr. William R. Smith, Barrister-
at-Law, of the Inner Temple, and of Greatham Moor, West
Liss, Hampshire, a descendant of the Rev. George Strahan, to
whose vicarage at Islington Johnson in the last years of his life
now and then went for the benefit of good air. In this letter,
full of tenderness, the fond and youthful husband addresses his
wife who was but four days short of fifty-one as my dear girl,
my charming love, and as the most amiable woman in the
world. Well ! she was twenty years older than Johnson, and
no doubt deserved some of the ridicule which Lord Macaulay
has so lavishly cast upon her. Nevertheless at the time of her
marriage she was of just the same age as was Barbara, Duchess
of Cleveland, when our great historian describes her as no longer
young, but still retaining some traces of that superb and volup
tuous loveliness which twenty years before overcame the hearts
of all men. For all we know, it was Mrs. Johnson s superb
and voluptuous loveliness which overcame the heart of the
lamented Mr. Porter, the Birmingham mercer, and it was the
traces of it which overcame young Samuel Johnson. She was
only a decent married woman ; had she been a royal harlot
Macaulay, instead of mocking her ceruse bloom, might him
self have laid on the colours with an ardour and a skill scarcely
surpassed by Sir Peter Lely.
Wherever I have been able to see the originals or to get exact
copies, I have retained Johnson s spelling. In these days of
examinations, when an excessive importance is attached to a
somewhat mean art, it may bring comfort to those who fail in it
to know that the man who by his Dictionary first set orthography
on a sure footing was not always careful to comply with his own
rulings. Thus in the following letters we find persuance/ I
cannot butt, council (those who plead a cause), happyest,
Fryday, solicite, l defense, pamflets, harrassed, do s
and dos (does), inventter, barels, cloaths (clothes), ac-
knowlegement, distresful, personale, Plimouth, imbecil-
lity, enervaiting, and devide. Johnson frequently omitted
the
Preface. xv
the sign of the genitive case, as, Bankers book, Doctors pre
scription. In writing proper names he often left out the
second final consonant, as Boswel V Cadel, Gastrel, Wraxal,
Dod, Pot. This perhaps he did by rule ; in like manner he
frequently wrote ilness. In his letters to John Nichols he
spells his correspondent s name Nichols, ; Nicols, Nichol, and
Nicol.
The information which I have given, in all cases where I could
obtain it, of the prices paid at public sales for Johnson s letters
will be of interest to collectors of autographs 2 .
I have now the pleasant task of expressing my acknowledg
ments for the help which I have received in my work. To the
owners of the original letters I have in each case done this in a
footnote. But there are two gentlemen among them, Mr. Alfred
Morrison and Mr. William R. Smith, to whom I would more
particularly express my gratitude for the liberality which has
led them to allow me to make the freest use of their large and
valuable collections of Johnsoniana. To Mr. Falconer Madan,
Fellow of Brasenose College and Assistant-Librarian of the
Bodleian, I am indebted not only for general assistance, but also
more particularly for the communication of two unpublished
anecdotes of Johnson, which he found among Dr. Philip Bliss s
notes 3 . Mr. J. L. G. Mowat, Fellow and Bursar of Pembroke
College, Oxford, I have to thank for the aid which he gave me
in deciphering, copying and collating a collection of Johnson s
letters which is kept in the Library of that Society. Mr. G.
K. Fortescue, the Superintendent of the Reading Room of the
British Museum, has once more laid me under obligation by the
kindness with which he has allowed me to draw on his wide
knowledge of books, and by the facilities which he has given me
in my visits to the Library. To Mrs. Raine Ellis I am indebted
both for the information contained in the accurate notes of her
admirable edition of the Early Diary of Frances Burney, and
1 I cannot recall a single instance in which he wrote Bos-well.
2 See in the Index, JOHNSON, autograph letters. 3 Post, ii. 438.
also
XVI
Preface.
also for the help which she has given me in clearing up difficulties
in the correspondence with Mrs. Thrale. It is greatly to be
wished that she should complete her task by publishing a new
edition of Madame D Arblay s Diary. She alone knows how
much Madame D Arblay altered what Miss Burney had written,
and how much after her death her editor contributed to this
work of mischievous and misleading revision . Mr. G. J. Camp
bell, Solicitor, of Inverness, I have to thank not only for a curious
fragment of an autograph letter of Johnson but also for the
trouble which he kindly took in gathering what information
there was still to be had about Johnson s route from Loch Ness
to Glenelg. To Mr. C. E. Doble, M.A., of the Clarendon Press,
I am once more deeply indebted for the care with which he has
read through my proof-sheets, and for the corrections and sug
gestions which he has made.
One acknowledgment comes alas too late. To a young dealer
in autographs, the late Mr. Samuel J. Davey, I owe not only
many unpublished letters, but also the original of a curious note
taken by Dr. Brocklesby of a conversation with Johnson and
Boswell on the evening of the day on which the famous physician,
1 To Mrs. Ellis I owe the following who was born at the end of last cen
tury and who died two years ago, a
sister of Dean Peacock, writing to her
said, I remember hearing a good deal
of a Mr. Harrison of Stub House,
near Kirby Hill, in Yorkshire. He
was a gentleman-farmer and country
squire, notorious for swearing and
overbearing conduct. He was said
to be a clever man and a relation of
Dr. Johnson. He had a son called
Cornelius. This man was most
likely a descendant of the Rev.
Cornelius Harrison, perpetual curate
of Darlington, who was, said John
son, the only one of my relations
who ever rose in fortune above penury
or in character above neglect t.
little incidents connected with John
son. I received them too late to insert
in their proper places in my notes.
In a pretty little book which she
published a few years ago under the
title of Sylvesira she recounts how
one day, in his lodgings at Oxford, he
was heard calling out : Wench, I
gave thee my shirt to be air d, and
thou hast brought me thy mistress s
smock (vol. i. p. 27). Mrs. Ellis
tells me that it was from her hus
band s great-uncle that the anecdote
comes. He was lodging in the same
house, and heard the cry. Kettel
Hall is most likely the scene of the
story, where Johnson had rooms in
1754*. One of her correspondents,
* Life, i. 270, n.
Post, i. 225.
William
Preface. xvii
William Hunter, died 1 . I know no man who carried on the
gentle craft of an autograph dealer with more generous ardour
than Mr. Davey. His manuscripts were not to him mere articles
of traffic. He prized them also as materials of literature, What
ever he had he was ready to place freely at the service of the
student. I can only record my deep regret that a career so full
of good promise was brought to so untimely an end.
I have done my best to make my work as accurate and as
complete as possible, but errors and omissions are sure to be
discovered. It will be shown, I fear, that in spite of all my
anxious care, letters which are in print have been left unnoticed,
and that others which I enter as new have been already pub
lished. I have been encouraged in my task by the kind, I might
even say the generous treatment which my edition of the Life
of Johnson received both from readers in general, and more
especially from men familiar with the literature and history of
the eighteenth century. I cannot but hope that this laborious
addition to Johnsonian lore and to literary history will meet with
the same friendly welcome. It is my wish to complete my task
by a new edition of the Lives of the Poets. For that, the third
and final part of my work, I have already laid the foundations.
To finish the whole building will require a long course of study
and work.
G. B. H.
February 8, 1892.
1 Post, ii. 436.
VOL. I.
ERRATA.
Vol. I. p. 92, date of letter, for 1781 read 1761.
p. 221, 1. 22, for talk reircfta.sk.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Letters published by me for the first time, whether in my edition of Boswell s
Life of Johnson or in this Collection, are marked * in the following Table.
Those now first collected from Magazines and from works printed for private circula
tion are marked f.
Those quoted in part or merely mentioned in Auctioneers Catalogues and elsewhere
are marked J.
Italics are used to show that the Letter is to be found not here but in the Life
of Johnson.
VOLUME I.
DATK LETTER
1731 ... 1 ... Oct. 30.
PAGE
~/ o-
I 734--
3
J"V i
... Nov. 25....
AW . AAUJJC5
To Ed-ward Cave.
1737...
4
...Jiily 12 ...
j>
1738...
5
... Undated ...
)!
6
,,
7
>; ;r
8
...
,, ,,
9
,,
10
,,
>
11
...
*
To Gregory Hickman. Apologises for not sending
some verses. Is yet unemployed . . . i
. Hopes for a post in Ashbourne School . 2
1 74... *12... Jan. 31
I74L.. 13. ..Jan. 31
1742-
14 ... March 31.
15 ... Undated .
16..
To Mrs. Johnson (his wife). Uneasy about a hurt
she had received. Hopes they shall never again
be separated. The best surgeon to be called in.
Garrick and Irene. Chetwood the Prompter. His
affection for her
. To Lewis Paul. Paul s spinning machine. Dr. James,
Warren, and Cave ......
. To Lewis Paul. Dr. James s proposal
. To Edward Cave.
b 2
6
8
XX
Table of Contents.
[Vol. i.
DATE
174 2 .
LETTER
. f!7... June 10
PAGE
1743
1753.
. 18... Sept. 29 ..
19. ..Dec. i ..
. *20...Jan. 3
*21... Undated .
*22... .
IS ...August .
. 24 ... April 20 .
25. ..July 12 .
26... Undated .
, yi... April^ .
28. ..May 12 .
29 ... Undated .
30... Sept. 25 .
. 31 ... March 9 .
32... April 18 .
38. ..July 29 .
34 ... Aug. 24 .
*35...Nov. i .
136 ...Dec. 10 .
*37... Undated .
*38... .
*89... .
*40... March 7 .
41 ... March 17.
42... 18.
*43...Nov. 4 .
*44 ... July ii .
, *45 ... Jan. 20 .
1Q... March S .
*47 ... March 22.
48 ...May 17 .
49 ...Sept. 26 .
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s treaty about a change of
livings. Lord Chesterfield. Charles of Sweden.
Duke of Devonshire. Cardinal Fleury. Peace be
tween Prussia and Hungary. Lord Carteret. Thur-
loe s State Papers ......
To Dr. Birch.
To John Levett.
. To John Levett. His wife s property. Perks an
attorney of Birmingham .....
. To [? John Levett]. Interest due to Levett
. To [? John Levett]. Very ill. Disappointed by two
to whom he had applied
. To Mr. Urban.
. To James Elphinston. Friendly feelings towards
Elphinston
. To Miss Porter. Mortgage on his house at Lichfield.
Fright caused by a black wafer. His wife s ill-health.
, To [? John Levett]. Rescued from the necessity of
borrowing ........
. To the Printer of the General Advertiser.
. To Dr. Birch.
. To James Elphinston.
j)
. To Samuel Richardson. New edition of Clarissa.
An index rerum should be added ....
. To John Newbery. Requests the loan of 2 .
. To John Newbery. Requests the loan of a guinea .
. To John Newbery. Requests the loan of a guinea .
. To William Strahan. A message from the Gentle
men Partners in the Dictionary ....
, To . Mrs. Lennox s book ....
. To William Strahan. The progress of the Dictionary
. To William Strahan. The payment to his amanuenses
. To William Strahan. The haste of his amanuenses.
Poor Stuart
, To Levett. Has sold a property to satisfy Levett
. To Dr. Taylor.
>>
. To Dr. Birch. Requests the loan of catalogues
. To Andrew Millar. Macbean and Hamilton s wager.
Requests the loan of some books ....
, To Dr. Birch. Requests the loan of Blount s Censura
. To Joseph War ton.
. To William Strahan. Dr. Bathurst s scheme .
. To Samuel Richardson. Sends a few notes on the
Dictionary. Richardson s new book
, To Samuel Richardson. Returns thanks for the first
volumes of Sir Charles Grandison* Asks for an index
10
15
16
20
21
22
23
2 3
25
26
27
27
28
28
3
30
32
32
33
34
1742-56.] Table of Contents. xxi
DATE LETTER
PAGE
I754- ..*50
...Jan.
To Dr. Birch. Requests the loan of Clarendon s
History ........
35
51
... March 8 ...
To Joseph Warton. The Adventurer. Collins the
poet. Johnson s love for Warton ....
36
*52
...[?July] ...
To William Strahan. Money to be advanced to Miss
Williams. His journey to Oxford
37
53
...July 1 6 ...
To Thomas Warton.
54
.. Nov. 21 ...
To Robert Chambers.
55
...Nov. 28 ...
To Tlioinas Warton.
56
. . . Dec. 21 ...
jj ;>
57
... Dec. 24 ...
To Joseph Warton. Collins the poet. Has been often
near his state .......
38
1755-. 58
. . . Feb. 4
To Thomas Warton.
59
...Feb.^ ...
j>
60
... Feb. 13 ...
V !!
61
...Feb. 1 ]
To the Earl of Chesterfield.
62
...Feb.
To Thomas Wartott.
63
... Feb. 26 ...
To the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford.
64
... March 20...
To Thomas Warton.
65
. . . March 2 5 ...
j? >
66
... March 29...
To Dr. Birch.
67
. . . April S
To Charles Burney.
*68
... April II ...
To Dr. Taylor. Dr. Wilson s claim. Has moved .
4
f69
...April 15 ...
To Edmund Hector. The evenings passed together
at Birmingham. Dictionary-making. Baskerville
4i
70
. . . May 6 ...
To Bcnnet Langton.
71
... May 13 ...
To Thomas Warton.
72
...June 10 ...
73
...June 24 ...
74
...July 19 ...
To [? Miss Cotterell]. Disappointed at missing her.
Baretti. Mrs. Porter the actress ....
43
75
...Aug.l ...
To Thomas Warton.
*76
...Nov. 8 ...
To Dr. Birch. Requests the loan of Wood s Athena
Oxonienses
44
77
... Dec. 23 ...
To Lewis Paul. Is very ill. Has been thrice bled .
45
78
... Dec. 30 ...
To Miss Boothby. Reduced to weakness and
misery. Resolutions of a better life. Report of
his death ........
45
79
... Dec. 31 ...
To Miss Boothby. Cannot receive his religion from
any human hand. Prescribes powdered orange-peel
for her .........
1756... 80
... Jan. i
To Miss Boothby. Her illness and his love for her .
5i
81
...Jan. 3 ...
To Miss Boothby. Dreads the news of her death
5i
82
...Jan. 3 ...
To Miss Boothby. His physicians. Three days fast
52
J83
... Jan. 6
To Lewis Paul. Is better
52
84
...Jan. 8
To Miss Boothby. Is in great trouble about her
52
85
...Jan. 9 ...
To Dr. Birch. Miss Williams s benefit .
53
86
...Jan. 13 ...
To Lewis Paul. Has by mistake opened a letter
meant for another. Mrs. Swynfen
54
XX11
Table of Contents.
[Vol. i.
DATE LETTER
1756... 87 ...Jan. 14 .
*88...Jan.
89 ...Jan.
90. ..Feb. 19 .
91... Undated .
92... March 12.
*9 3... March .
94 ... March 16.
*95 ... March 20.
96 ...April 15 .
*97 ...June 22 .
t98...July 3 i .
99 ...Sept. 25 .
100 ...Undated .
101... .
102... .
fl03...Oct. 7 .
104... Oct. 8
105... Undated
f!06... Nov. 1 8
1757 ... 107 . . . April 9 ,
f 108 ...April 1 6
109 ...June 21
110. ..June 28
..Oct. 27
1758
1759
111
112... Dec. 24
114... April 14
115 ...June i
116... Sept. 21
117. ..fan. 9
118... Jan. 13
119... Jan. 16
PAGE
, To Miss Carter. Miss Williams s benefit. Edward
Cave 55
. To John Ryland. Miss Williams s benefit . . 56
. To Cave. Tickets for the benefit . . -57
, To Samuel Richardson. Gives him a book. Inflam
mation in his eye . . . . . -57
. To Lewis Paul. Paul s goods seized for debt. Dr.
James s strange conduct ..... 58
To Lewis Paul. Will interpose with Paul s creditors 59
. To Dr. Hawkesworth. Greville s Maxims . . 60
To Samuel Richardson. Arrested for debt . . 61
To Dr. Birch. Gives him the Life of Sir Thomas
Browne ........ 62
To Joseph Warton. Warton s Essay on Pope; his
appointment at Winchester. Collins the poet . 62
. To Dr. Birch. His proposed edition of Shakespeare 64
, To Dr. Taylor. Unwillingness to write letters.
Country neighbours 64
To Lewis Paul. Paul s creditors at St. John s Gate 65
, To Lewis Paul. His boy is run away. Paul s
creditors ........ 66
. To Lewis Paul. Too ill to attend to Paul s affairs . 66
. To Lewis Paul. Paul s creditors .... 67
. To Edmund Hector. Interruption in their corre
spondence. Friendship. Subscription for his
Shakespeare. His melancholy indisposition . 67
, To Lewis Paul. Paul s creditors .... 69
. To Lewis Paul. Paul s creditors .... 70
. To Dr. Taylor. Those things most subject to delays
which we most desire to do. Their long friend
ship. Taylor s difference with his sister. Feels
a pang for the uneasiness he may have caused . 70
. To Charles O Connor.
. To Edmund Hector. The subscription to his Shake
speare. Friends of his youth . . . 7 2
. To Thomas Warton.
. To Bennet Langton.
. To Thomas Warton. Literary work for an inhabi
tant of Oxford 73
. To Charles Burney.
. To Thomas Warton.
> ??
. To Bennet Langton.
. To Mrs. Johnson (his mother). Her illness. Asks
for her forgiveness. Will pay her debts; sends
twelve guineas 75
. To Miss Porter. His mother s illness ... 76
1756-63.]
Table of Contents.
xxni
DATE
LETTER
PAGE
I759."
120
... Jan. 16 ...
To Mrs. Johnson. His affliction ....
77
121
...Jan. 18 ...
To Mrs. Johnson. His love for her
77
122
... Jan. 20 ...
To Miss Porter. Hopes to go to Lichfield
78
123
... Jan. 20 ...
To Mrs. Johnson. Her excellence. Begs for
giveness ........
78
*124
... Jan. 20 ...
To William Strahan. Bargains about Rasselas
79
125
...Jan. 23 ...
To Miss Porter. Sorrow for the loss of his mother .
Si
126
...Jan. 25 . .
To Miss Porter. Charles Howard. Will send 20
81
127
...Feb. 6 ...
To Miss Porter. Every heart must lean to some
body. Catherine Chambers. His mother s debts
82
128
...Feb. 15 ...
To Miss Porter. His mother s debts
85
129
. . . March i . . .
To Miss Porter. His mother s debts. Is very
desolate ........
86
130
... March 23...
To Miss Porter. Staple Inn. Rasselas .
86
131
... May 10 ...
To Miss Porter. Has sent copies of Rasselas to
Lichfield friends .......
37
132
... June 9
To Mrs. Montagu. Subscribers to Mrs. \Villiams s
Miscellanies .......
87
133
. . . Dec. 17 ...
To Mrs. Montagu. Asks her patronage of Mrs.
Ogle s concert
88
134
. . . Undated . . .
To Joseph Simpson.
1760...
135
... Oct. 18 ...
To Bennet Langton.
*136
... Nov. 29 ...
To Thomas Percy. Bargains with Millar about the
Reliques ........
89
I/6l ...
137
...Jan. 13 ...
To Miss Porter. His good wishes for her. Is dis
ordered by a cold ......
90
138
...June 10 ...
To Joseph Baretti.
*139
...Sept. 12 ...
To Thomas Percy. Declines Percy s invitation as
he wishes to see the Coronation ....
9 1
1762 ...
140
...June i
To Dr. Staunton.
141
...June 8 ...
To a Lady.
142
...July 20 ...
To Joseph Baretti.
143
...July 20 ...
To the Earl of Bute.
*144
...July 24 ...
To Miss Porter. His pension ....
92
145
. . . Nov. 3
To the Earl of Bute.
146
. . . Dec. 21 . . .
To Miss Reynolds. Mr. Mudge s request that he
should stand as godfather. Mr. Tolcher. His
friends at Torrington. Price of dried salmon. Is
going to Oxford ......
93
147
. . . Dec. 21 ...
To Joseph Baretti.
1763..
, 148
... Feb. 19 ...
To George Strahan. The benefit of confidence.
The study of Latin
95
149
... March 26...
To George Strahan. Latin composition .
95
150
... April 12 ...
To Miss Porter. Captain Porter s death
96
151
... April 16 ...
To George Strahan. Latin composition. Reading
for loose hours. English versification .
97
152
...July 2 ...
To George Grenville. His quarter s pension .
98
153
...Julys ...
To Miss Porter. The fortune bequeathed to her by
her brother. Hopes to visit Lichfield .
98
XXIV
Table of Contents.
[Vol. i.
DATE LETTER
1763... 154... July 12
155 ... July 14
|-156... Aug. 13
f!57 ... Aug. 1 8
*158...Aug. 25
fl59...Sept. 3
160... Sept. 20
fl61...Sept. 29
162. ..Oct. 27
163... Dec. 8
1764... 164 ... Jan. 10
f!65 ... May 22
166. ..Aug. 19
*167...Oct. 24
1765... 168... May 18
*169... Undated
170... May 25
f 171... July 1 5
172... Aug. 13
J173... Undated
*174 ... Aug. 17
fl75...0ct. 2
176... Oct. 9
177... Oct. 1 6
178. ..Oct. 17
fl79...Dec. 8
PAGE
. To Miss Porter. Catherine Chambers. House
building 99
. To George Strahan. Strahan s suspicion. Youth
rigorous in its expectations . . . .100
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s quarrel with his wife. The
chances of conjugal life ..... 101
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s fugitive wife. Charles
Howard. A melancholy mind a greater evil than
a disobedient wife . . . . . .103
. To Dr. Taylor. Advises Taylor to remove from
Ashbourne 105
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s correspondence with his
wife s friends; his indolence. The world has a
right to be regarded. Country towns the place
for gossip 1 06
. To George Strahan. Latin composition . . . 108
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s correspondence with his
wife s friends ; his perturbation of mind . .109
. To Miss Reynolds. Her projected voyage to the
Mediterranean. Ladies are timorous, yet not
cautious no
. To James Boswell.
, To Miss Porter. Sends her some presents . . 1 1 1
. To Dr. Taylor.- Taylor s agreement about his wife.
Management of the mind . . .. . . 112
. To Joshua Reynolds.
. To William Strahan. G. Strahan s entrance at
University College. W. Strahan s affair with the
University 113
. To David Garrick. Garrick s suffrage sought for his
Shakespeare . . . . . . .116
To David Garrick. Requests that places be reserved
at the Theatre . . . . .. . .117
. To George Strahan. Strahan s studies at Oxford . 118
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s neglect to write . .119
. To Mrs. Thrale. Hopes to visit her at Brighthelm- 1 1 9
stone 119
. To Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. Is angry at finding that
they had left Brighthelmstone . . . .120
. To Edward Lye. Lye s Anglo-Saxon and Gothic
Dictionary 121
. To Dr. Taylor. Shakespeare finished . . .122
. To Joseph Warton. Warton s subscription to Shake
speare 122
. To Charles Burney.
To Dr. Leland. Acknowledgments for his degree of
Doctor of Laws of Dublin . . . . .123
, To Edmund Hector. Receipts for his Shakespeare.
Inquires after Birmingham friends . . .124
1763-68.]
Table of Contents.
XXV
DATE LETTER
1766... 180... Jan. 14 .
181 ...Jan. 14 .
182... March 9 .
183 ...May 10 .
184 . . . Aug. 1 3 .
185 ... Aug. 21 .
186... Oct. 10 .
*187...Nov. 13 .
1767... 188. ..Feb. 14 .
189... April 21 .
190... July 20 .
191. ..Oct. 3 .
192. ..Oct. 10 .
193... Oct. 24 .
194 ...Nov. 17 .
1768... 195... March 3 .
196... March 3 .
197... March 14.
*198... March 17.
199... March 18.
200 ...March 23.
201... March 24.
202... April 18 .
203... April 19 .
204... April 28 .
205... May 23
206... May 28
207... May 28
208 ... June 17
209... June 18
210... Nov. ii
211... Dec. 2
. To Miss Porter. His house at Lichfield
. To James Bos-well.
. To Bennet Langton.
. To William Drummoml.
. To James Boszvell.
, To David Garrick. 100 of Garrick s in Tonson s
hands .........
. To Lucy Porter. His house at Lichfield
, To Mrs. Salusbury. Asks for news of Mrs. Thrale .
. To William Drtimmond.
To Mrs. Thrale. His home. Lucy Porter. Re
membrance of past years
To Mrs. Thrale. Longs to return to Streatham
To Bennet Langton.
, To William Drummond.
.To Mrs. (Miss) Aston. Walnut-trees. Solitude.
Death of Catherine Chambers ....
. To Mrs. Thrale. Southwark election
To Richard Pennick. Asks him to vote for Mr. Thrale
. To Mrs. Thrale. Southwark election. Thoughts on
death. Jack the Giant-killer ....
. To Apperley. Recommends Mr. Crosse for a
fellowship at Oriel College
To Mrs. Thrale. Southwark election
, To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Southwark and Oxford elections .
. To Miss Porter. Death of her aunt. The uncer
tainty of earthly comforts
To Mrs. Thrale. Has been very ill. Little Miss
Nanny Thrale
. To Mrs. Thrale. Kindness a great alleviation of
sickness. Solicitudes for others. Robert Cham
bers .........
. To Mrs. Thrale. The friendship of her house among
the felicities of life
. To F. A. Barnard. Advises about the purchase
abroad of rare books. Schoolmen and canonists.
Feudal and civil law. Editions curious, splendid,
and useful. Purchase of entire libraries. Topo
graphy. Wooden cuts. Maps. Famous printers.
Invention of printing. Early Bibles. Dangers of
infidelity and superstition .....
, To Francis Barber.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Grateful for her kindness .
. To Miss Porter. His health yet very weak. His
friends at Lichfield . . ....
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury s ill-health .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Apologises for not having written
127
127
128
129
130
132
134
35
136
136
138
140
141
142
142
148
148
149
149
XXVI
Table of Contents.
[Vol. i.
DATE LETTER
PAGE
1769... J212...
Jan. 17
...To David Garrick. A benefit for Mrs. Williams .
I 5
213...
March 31
...To Miss Flint (a letter in French). Apologises for
not having written. Miss Reynolds .
150
214...
May 1 8
,..To Mrs. Thrale. Writes that he may not be for-
151
215...
May 31
...To Thomas Warton.
216...
June 27
...To Mrs. Thrale. Anxious about her approaching
1*2
217...
June 29
...To Mrs. Thrale. Hesiod on the mixture of good
and evil. Birth of her daughter
152
218...
June 29
...To Henry Thrale. Honoured by being chosen as
53
219...
July 6
...To Mrs. Thrale. Alarming news of her health.
153
220...
Aug. 14
...To Mrs. Thrale. His journey to Lichfield. Finds
154
221...
Aug. 26
...To Mrs. Aston. A hand corn-mill
J55
222...
Sept. 9
... To James Bos we 11.
*223...
Oct. 5
...To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s demand of a living
156
*224...
Nov. 5
...To Thomas Percy. Solicits a sermon for the Ladies
i ^6
*^
225...
Nov. 9
... To James Bosivell.
1770. ..*226...
Jan. 9
... To Henry Bright. About a pupil for Bright s
157
227...
March 21
...To Dr. Farmer.
228...
May i
To Miss Porter. Suffers from rheumatism. His
cousin, Tom Johnson
i 5 8
229...
May 29
...To Miss Porter. Tom Johnson. Mr. Porter. Mr.
I *Q
230...
June 23
... To Thomas Warton.
f231...
July 2
...To Dr. Taylor. Offers to visit Taylor, who has
1 60
232...
July 7
. . . To Mrs. Thrale. Stow Hill and Borowcop Hill .
1 60
233...
July II
...To Mrs. Thrale. The Lichfield book of levies.
The revolutions of Sadler Street .
161
234...
July 14
. . . To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salisbury s house broken into
163
235...
Jiy
... To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Cobb s strawberries. An
163
236...
July 20
...To Mrs. Thrale. Needwood Forest. Dr. Taylor s
*)
house. Books of travels
164
237...
July 23
...To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Taylor s great bull
1 66
238...
Sept. 25
...To Francis Barber.
239...
Sept. 27
...To Dr. Warton.
240..,
Oct. 2
. . To Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. An application to Burke.
Sends a pamphlet
167
241..
. Dec. 7
... To Francis Barber.
1771 ...*242...
Jan. 25
... To Smith. Encloses bills and orders Irish cloth
167
*243..
, Feb. 2
...To John Rivington. The additions in the new
edition of his Shakespeare .
168
1769-72.]
Table of Contents.
xxvn
DATE LETTER
1771 ...*244... Feb. 18 .
245... March
246 ...March 20.
247... April 17 .
1772
248
249
... May 16 ..
...June 15 ..
250
251
252
253
...June 20 .
... June 20 .
. . . June 2 2 .
... June 25 .
254
...Julys
255
-July? .
256
257
258
...July? ..
...JulyS .,
... July 10 .
259
260
...July 15 .
...July 17 .,
261
262
263
264
...July 17 .
... July 20
... July 22
...July 24 .
265
...July 31 .
266
...Aug. 3 .
267
...Aug. 5 .,
268
269
... Aug. 29 .
. . . Dec. 1 2 .
J270
. . . Undated .
271
272
273
274
... Feb. 27 .
...Feb. 27 .
... March 14.
... March 15.
f275... April 17
276 ... Aug. 31
. To Dr. Farmer. Asks for assistance in the new
edition of his Shakespeare .....
. To Henry Thrale. Asks for a discharge for a
recruit ........
. . To Bennet Langton.
,. To Miss Langton. Replies to her censure of him
as deficient in friendship. Health the basis of all
social virtues .......
. To the Cotmtess de Boufflers.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Sends a pamphlet about a remedy
for Mrs. Salusbury ......
. . To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Has set out for Lichfield .
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Lichfield gossip
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Maltsters. Fifty pounds gained
by the rise upon stock .....
..To Mrs. Thrale. The Staffordshire Canal. The
great bull
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Frank and his master much im
proved ........
. To Mrs. Thrale. A matter of four wives
. To Mrs. Thrale. Invited to Hagley. Poor Ford .
, . To Mrs. Thrale. The man who had seen a bigger
bull. Malvern waters .....
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Practising chemistry .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Little to please him at Lich
field. Lucy Porter a philosopher
.. To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
.. To Mrs. Thrale. -Accused of frigidity .
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Persecuted by rheumatism
. . To Mrs. Thrale. The solitary swan and the great
bull. A laboratory at Streatham
. . To Henry Thrale. Watching for a vacant place in
a passing carriage
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Detained by Lucy Porter. Mrs.
Thrale s miscalculation
. To Mrs. Thrale. Dean Addenbroke. Green s
Museum ........
. . To Bennet Langton.
. . To David Garrick. Epitaph on Hogarth
.. To [? Thomas Cadell]. Order to bind two of his
pamphlets ........
. . To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
.. To Joseph Banks.
. . To Bennet Langton.
.. To James Boswell.
..To Dr. Taylor. Does not like to dine out on the
last day of Lent
. . To Jai/ics Boswell.
169
169
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
179
1 80
182
183
183
184
185
1 86
188
188
XXV111
Table of Contents.
[Vol. i.
DATE LETTER
PAGE
1772... f277...
Aug. 31 ..
. To Dr. Taylor. How to manage the mind. Has
no longer the same command of his attention as
of old
189
fi78...
Oct. 6 ..
. To Dr. Taylor. The fourth edition of the Dic
tionary ........
191
279...
Oct. 19 ..
.To Mrs. Thrale. Journey to Lichfield. Mr.
Thrale s money difficulties. General dearth
191
280...
Oct. 24 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. -Her application to her uncle for
assistance. Need of saving. Price of malt
193
281...
Oct. 29 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. Her application to her uncle
195
282...
Oct. 31 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. Thinking on his god-child.
Bustle in the brew-house. The man who had
seen a bigger bull ......
196
283...
Nov. 4 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. Writing when there is nothing to
107
284...
Nov. 7 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. Her sagacity in great matters.
y i
The waterfall at Ashbourne ....
197
285...
Nov. 9 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. The fury of housewifery. A tre
mendous year. Future profits ....
198
286...
Nov. 19 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. A year of straggle
199
287...
Nov. 23 ..
To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury s sufferings.
Flattery
200
288...
Nov. 27 .
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Chatsworth ....
20O
289...
Dec. 3
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Better times coming .
2OI
t 290...
Dec. 5
.. To Edmund Hector. Purposes to visit him .
2O2
f291...
Dec. 12 .
... To Edmund Hector.- Returns to London. A cure
for cancer ........
203
292...
Dec. 15 .
. . To James Granger. Mr. Farmer s pamphlet.
Arthur O Toole
203
1773... 293...
Jan. 26 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. The inequalities of human life
204
294...
Feb. 19 ..
. To Mrs. Thrale. The Southwells. Election dinners
205
295...
Feb. 24 ..
. To James Bos well.
*296...
Feb. 27 .
,.To Dr. Taylor. Has been very ill. A spelling-
book. Is no longer a match for wind and weather
2O7
00*7
71 T I,
7^i R
> t ...
ItiarCfl 4 .
298...
March 4 .
. . To the Rev. White.
299...
March 4 .
..To Dr. W. S. Johnson. The pleasure of being
remembered. A time of uncommon turbulence
expected. The state of literature. An expedition
to the Polar Ocean
2O9
300..,
March 9 .
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. James. Mrs. Salusbury s
illness ........
2IO
301..
March 1 1 .
, . To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury ....
211
302..,
, March 17.
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury. Grief a species
of idleness ........
212
303..,
, March 20.
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury. Jackson s
copper ........
213
304..
. March 25.
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury. Goldsmith and
Colman. Jennens s Hamlet ....
214
1772-73.]
Table of Contents.
XXIX
DATE LETTER
J 773 -.. 305 ...April 23
306... April 27
307. ..May 8
308. ..May 17
309... May 22
310... May 23
311. ..May 24
J312... June 23
313... >/j> 5
314... ^-. 3
315... ^w^-. 3
t316...Aug. 5
317 ... ^4z. ii
318... Aug. 12
319... Aug. 14
320... Aug. 17
321... Aug. 25
322... Aug. 28
323... Sept. 6
324... Sept. 14
325... Sept. 14
326... Sept. 21
. To Oliver Goldsmith. Proposes Boswell for the
Club 215
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury. Her change of
feeling towards Johnson . . . . .216
..To W. Bagshaw.
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Her letters never too long.
Vows. The rights of parents over children . 216
, .To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Lawrence. A runaway
match 219
, To Mrs, Thrale. Her flattery. Celsus . .220
To Mrs. Thrale. Suffers from inflammation in the
eye. Mrs. Salusbury. Praise and flattery . .220
To Dr. Taylor. The need of exercise . . .222
. To James BosweU.
. To Dr. Taylor. Starts to-morrow for Scotland . 222
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Newark. Doncaster. York.
Northallerton. Darlington. His relations. Dur
ham. Miss Fordyce. Wandering about the
world. Newcastle. Books of travels . . 223
. To James Bos^vell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Alnwick. Edinburgh. Dr.
Robertson. Boswell s rooms. Duchess of
Douglas. Dr. Blacklock 228
.To Mrs. Thrale. Inchkeith. St. Andrews. John
Knox. A gloomy mansion. The Library of St.
Mary s College. A cheap university. Aber-
brothick. Monboddo. Aberdeen. London pave
ment. Plaids, shoes, and cabbages. Libraries.
An old acquaintance ......
. To Mrs. Thrale. Receives the freedom of Aber
deen. No fees. Slains Castle. Dunbuys and
the Bullers of Buchan .....
To Mrs. Thrale. The verge of European life.
Want of trees. A Druid s temple. Elgin.
Macbeth. Fruit-trees. Barefoot people. Beg
gars. Nairn. Cawdor. Fort George. Sir Eyre
Coote. Inverness. Travelling on horseback.
Loch Ness. A length of shade. Inns. Fall
of Foyers. Fort Augustus. Mountain roads.
Anoch. Cocker s Arithmetic .... 238
. To Mrs. Thrale. The post in the Hebrides. Sky.
The Macdonalds and Macleods. Great estates.
Raasay 244
. To Lord Elibank.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Dunvegan. Offered an island.
Meets acquaintance. Rents raised. Anoch.
230
235
xxx Table of Contents. [Vol.
DATE LETTER I>AGI:
1773 Rest in a glen. A wild tribe. Snuff. \Vheaten
bread. His birthday. Uniformity of the High
lands. The inn at Glenelg. Sir A. Macdonald.
Isle of Sky. The use of travelling. Through
Sky on horseback. A tenant s house. Erse
songs. Prince Charles. Raasay . . . 245
327 ... Sept. 24 ...To Mrs. Thrale. Every island is a prison.
Raasay. Head-dresses. The chieftaincy of the
Macleods. Prince Charles. No foolish healths.
Dancing. Erse songs. A crowded house . . 256
328 ...Sept. 28 ...To Macleod of Macleod. Thanks him for his
kindness 260
329 ... Sept. 30 ... To Mrs. Thrale. Prisoners in Sky. Uneasy appre
hensions. The Laird of Macleod. The Highland
head-dress. Raasay. Huts and philosophers.
The old order changing. Emigration. Chapels
in ruins. Boats. Kingsburgh. Flora Mac
donald. Prince Charles s bed. Macleod s estates
and debts. Books. Laird of Muck. Highland
hospitality. Cave near Ulinish. Talisker. Minis
ters. Laird of Coll. Doge of Genoa. Pastoral
life. Cost of travelling. No custom-houses.
Meals. Knives. Silver. Bread. \Vhisky. Fuel.
Houses. Garb. Soil and climate. Animals . 261
330. ..Oct. 15 ... To Henry Thrale. Tempests. No letters . . 275
331 ... Oct. 15 ... To Mrs. Thrale. Driven by a storm to Coll. The
young Laird. Turnips. Mull .... 276
832... Oct. 23 ... To Mrs. Thrale. Travelling in Mull. Ulva. Inch
Kenneth. Sir Allan Maclean. Paradise opened
in the wild. Cave. A moonlight voyage,
lona 278
333... Oct. 23 ...To Henry Thrale. Riding through a storm to
Inverary. Ode 283
334... Oct. 26 ...To Henry Thrale. Inverary. More than two
months without a letter 284
335 ... Oct. 27 ... To the Duke of Argyle.
336... Oct. 28 ...To Mrs. Thrale. Duke of Argyle. Glen Croe.
Loch Lomond. Mr. Smollett. An honest keeper 285
337... Nov. 3 ...To Mrs. Thrale. Answers to her letters. Mrs.
Boswell. Dr. Beattie. Queeney s cabinet. Van-
sittart s envy. Sir T. Salusbury. Sir Sawney.
Boswell a good companion. The brewery. Glas
gow. Countesses of Loudoun and Eglintoune.
Auchinleck ....... 287
338... Nov. 12 ...To Mrs. Thrale. Her uncle s will. Management
of the mind. Return to Edinburgh . . .292
339... Nov. 1 8 ...To Mrs. Thrale. Birth of Ralph Thrale. Lucy
Thrale s death. Returning home . . . 294
340... A bz . 27 ... To James Bos-well.
1773-75.]
Table of Contents.
XXXI
DATE LETTER
PAGE
I774-. 341.
. Jan. ii
.To Mrs. Montagu. Apologises for his inad
vertency ........
295
*342.,
Jan. 15 .
. To Dr. Taylor. His tour to Scotland .
296
343..
.Jan. 29 .,
. To James Boswell.
344..
.Feb. 7 ..
345..
. Feb. 7
. . To George Steevens.
346..
. Feb. 21
) 5
347..
. March 5 .
?! )>
348..
. March 5 .
. To James Boswell.
J349..
. March 7 . .
. To [? William Strahan]. Literary copy-right
297
350..
. March 1 1 . .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Hopes to visit her soon
297
351..
. Undated . .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Has been bled ....
298
352..
. March 15..
. To James Boswell.
353..
. March 30..
. To Warren Hastings.
354..
. May 10
. To James Boswell.
*355..
. May 27
. To James Boswell. Introduces a lady .
299
356..
.June ii ..
. To James Boswell.
357..
July 4 ..
,, ,,
358..
Julys ..
. To Bennet Langton.
359..
. Atig. 1 6 ..
. To Robert Levett.
360..
. Oct. i
. To James Boswell.
361..
. Oct. 25 ..
. To Perkins.
362..
. Oct. 27 ..
. To James Boswell.
363..
. Nov. 26 ..
!* < ?
*364 ..
. Nov. 30
. To William Strahan. Cancels a page in the
Journey to the Western Islands ....
300
365..
. Dec. 6 . .
. To Hollyer. Money sent to Thomas Johnson .
302
366..
. Dec. 19 . .
. To John Hoole.
367..
. Dec. 20 ..
. To Warren Hastings.
*368..
. Dec. 22 . .
. To William Strahan. An apprentice to Strahan s
business. The Blue Coat School
3O -J
*36 .)..
. Dec. 22 . .
. To Dr. Taylor. The Blue Coat School. Charles
Congreve. John Wesley
-IOJ.
J77r... 370..
. Jan. 2
. To Henry Thrale. Ranelagh House. H. Heelv.
Election dinner .......
306
371..
.Jan. 14 ..
. To James Boswell.
J372..
Jan. 14 ...
. To Dr. Taylor. Journey to the Western Islands.
Charles Congreve
307
J373..
.Jan. 20 ..
. To James Macpherson (extract from the original) .
307
374..
.Jan. 2i
. To James Boaivell.
375..
.Jan. 28 ..
,,
376..
. Feb. 3
. To Mrs. Thrale. Taxation no Tyranny
308
377..
. Feb. 7 . .
. To Dr. Lawrence.
378..
. Feb. 7
. To James Boswell.
379..
. Feb.
. To Henry Thrale. Carter, the riding-school master
308
380..
. Feb. 25 ..
. To James Boswell.
*381..
. March i . .
. To WilHam Strahan. Taxation no 7yranny
309
*382..
March 3
To William Strahan. Oxford post. The Ministry.
Presentation copies of Taxation no Tyranny
310
XXX11
Table of Contents.
[Vol. i.
DATE LETTER
1775 ... 383 ...March 3 ..
J384 ... March 6 .
385 ... March 26.
386 ... April i
t387 ...April 8
388 ...April 17
38!) . . . May 6
390 ... May 12
J391...May
+392... May
393 ... May 20
394... May 21
395 ... May 22
J396...May 24
397... May 25
398... May 27
399... June i
400... June 5
401 ...June 6
402 ...June 7
403... June 7
404 ... June 10
405 . . . June 1 1
406 ...June 13
407... June 17
408... June 19
PAGE
3"
312
315
Peyton and Mac-
Denmark s death.
To Mrs. Thrale. Uneasy for want of news of the
Thrales. Mr. Carter. Oxford post .
. To William Strahan. .
. To Dr. Fothergill
.To Mrs. Thrale. Bruce the traveller. Proposed
riding-school at Oxford. Clarendon trustees. Is
madeD.C.L. Flattery . .3"
.To Dr. Taylor. Strahan s apprentice. Pelted by
the patriots. Charles Congreve . 3 X 4
..To Bennet Langton.
..To the Laird of Raasay.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Her suspicions. Twiss s
Travels. Mrs. Abington. Boswell enters at
the Temple. Paoli. Wales. Gray s Letters.
Raasay offended ....
.To Dr. Leland
To George Faulkner
..To Mrs. Thrale. Sends money
bean starving. Queen of
Toleration ....
..To Bennet Langton.
..To Mrs. Thrale. Boswell s fees and journal. Mr.
Carter. Mourning-clothes. Chandler, Twiss,
Wraxall and Adair. Dr. Beattie
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Asks for his mourning-clothes .
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Has suffered from faintness. Mr.
Thrale s direction about his clothes
..To James Bos-well*
..To Mrs. Thrale. University College. Mrs. Salus-
bury s epitaph. The Clarendon trustees. Chapel
at six in the morning. Mr. Smollett .
..To Mrs. Thrale (written in French). Mrs. Salus-
bury s epitaph. W T eary of Oxford
..To Mrs. Thrale. Coulson quarrels with him.
Oxford post. Waiting for a vacancy in a coach.
Baretti and Queeney .
... To Mrs. Thrale. The riding-school. Anxious for
news . ....
... To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Salusbury s epitaph .
To Mrs. Thrale. Birmingham and Lichfield .
..To Mrs. Thrale. Friends at Lichfield. Unusual
compliments. Mrs. Salusbury s epitaph. Bos-
well s Journal . .
To Mrs. Thrale. Lichfield Amicable Society. Coll
and Boswell ..-
To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s improvements. Har
vest prospects. Sir Joshua Mawbey .
To Mrs. Thrale. Queeney s hens. Mrs. Salusbury s
epitaph. Lichfield conversation .
319
320
322
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
331
332
334
1775.]
Table of Contents.
xxxin
DATE LETTER
1775 ... 409 ... June 21
410 ... June 23
411 ... June 26
J412 ... June 29
413... July i
414... July
415... July 6
416... July [? 9]
417... July ii
418... July 12
419... July 13
420... July 15
421... July 17
422... July 20
423... July 21
424... July 24
425... July 26
426... July 29
427... Aug. i
428 ... Aug. 2
429... Aug. 5
430... Aug. 5
431 ... Aug. 27
432... Aug. 29
438... Sept. 9
J434...Sept. 9
VOL. I.
,..To Mrs. Thrale. Delights in her letters. The
Amicable Society. The Regatta. Enjoying the
world. Hoc age 335
.. To Mrs. Thrale. The Regatta. Loves the Thrales
and the Thralites 338
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Preconcerted pleasure. Queeney
at the Regatta 339
.. To Richard Green. Makes an appointment . . 340
. . To Mrs. Thrale. At Dr. Taylor s. Sir R. Chambers 340
. . To Mrs. Thrale. W T riting letters about nothing. Bad
harvests. The Regatta 341
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Boswell s Journal. Mrs. Thrale s
sons. Faction. The Ministry .... 343
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Her children .... 345
...To Mrs. Thrale. Bright and cloudy days. Mr.
Thrale s accession of fortune. Dr. Taylor s gar
dening. Taking a ramble in India . . . 345
...To Mrs. Thrale. Ashbonrne news. Mr. Langley
and Dr. Taylor at variance .... 347
. . . To Mrs. Thrale. Weak health of her children. The
riding-school. Poor Lizard .... 348
...To Mrs. Thrale. Baretti s rudeness. Her parental
resolution. Harry Thrale and an entail . . 350
,.. To Mrs. Thrale. No letter. News of Dr. Taylor.
Mr. Thrale s projects. Polish oats
...To Mrs. Thrale. Death of Ralph Thrale. The
harvest
353
354
356
357
358
...To Mrs. Thrale. Baretti. Enjoying the present.
Boswell s Journal. Mrs. Thrale s trustees .
...To Mrs. Thrale. Queeney s pretty letter. Leaving
Ashbourne ........
. . . To Mrs. Thrale. Lichfield. In the way of carriages.
No materials for his letters .....
. . . To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Cheyne ....
...To Mrs. Thrale. Lucy Porter s fit of tenderness.
News from America. Mr. Thrale s pool. Oxford
a sullen solitude ...... 359
...To Mrs. Thrale. Their correspondence. The his
tory of one s own inind. The mind at its stationary
point ......... 361
...To Mrs. Thrale. Will take a post-chaise. The
mind at its stationary point (continued). Sophy
Thrale 363
. . . To Mrs. Desmoulins. Garrick and Hawkesworth 365
... To James Boswell.
... To Mrs. Thrale. A paper mislaid. Her forgetful-
ness. Attack of gout 366
...To Mrs. Porter. Has sent her books by the carrier 367
... To Mrs. Aston and Mrs. Gastrell .... 368
XXXIV
Table of Contents.
[Vol. i.
DATE
1775
1776.
LETTER
. 435... Stpt. 14
436 ..Sept. 1 8
437
438
439
PAGE
... Oct. 22
... Nov. 16
... Nov. 16
.. Nov. 16
. . Nov. 1 6
442... Dec. 15
443. ..Dec. 17
444 ... Dec. 17
. Dec. 21
. Dec. 2 3
.Jan. 10
445
446
. 447
448
J449 ^
450... Feb.
451... Feb. 6
..Jan. 15
452... /% 9
453. ..Feb. 13
454... /V^. 15
f455...Feb. 17
456... Feb. 19
457... Feb. 24
458... March 5
*459...March6
t460... March 7
*461... March 7 ..
462... March 12.
463... March 12.
*464 ... March 23.
465... March 25.
466 ... March 30.
467... April i .
468. ..April 4 .
J469... April 4 .
470. ..April 9 .
To James BesivelL
. To Robert Levett.
5? )
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Porter.
To Dr. Taylor. Trip to France. Roving the world.
Their old friendship. The French
. To Edmund Hector. Paris. Marie Antoinette and
Queeney
. To Mrs. Montagu. Her illness ....
. To Mrs. Montagu. Replies to an invitation .
. To Mrs. Porter.
. To Mrs. Montagu. Replies to an invitation .
To James Boswell.
To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s law-suit ....
To James Boswell.
To John Wesley. Acknowledges the receipt of the
Commentary on the Bible. Wesley and the
American question
To James Boswell.
. To Archibald Hamilton. Dr. Calder and the Cyclo
pedia ........
. To James Boswell.
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s law-suit. Management
of the mind. Friends of one s youth .
. To Dr. Calder. The Proprietors of the Cyclopcedia
. To James Boswell.
! J)
. To Dr. Douglas. The riding-school
. To Edmund Hector. France compared with Eng
land. Charles Congreve. Valetudinarians. Mrs.
Careless. Brothers and sisters ....
To Dr. Taylor. Charles Congreve. Taylor s law
suit .........
. To James Boswell.
. To Dr. Wetherell.
. To Dr. Taylor. At Lichfield. Will start with Bos
well for Ashbourne ......
. To Mrs. Thrale. Harry Thrale s death .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Sorrow not to be indulged. A
whole system of hopes swept away
.To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale. Peyton s death.
The sufferings and fortitude of obscure life
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s behaviour
. To Dr. Taylor .......
, To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale gives up his tour to
Italy. Gratitude to the Thrales ....
368
369
37
37
37 2
372
374
375
376
} N- *
3//
377
379
380
38i
382
384
386
387
1775-76.]
Table of Contents.
XXXV
DATE LETTER
1776... 471... April II
472... April ii
*473... April 13
474 ... April 15
47 5... April
476. ..May 6
477 ... May 11
478... May 14
479... May 16
480... May 16
4&\...May 16
482... May 18
483. ..May 22
f 484 ... May 29
485 ... June 3
486... June 4
487... Junes
488... June 6
489... June 8
490 ...June 21
491 ...June 22
f 492... June 23
493... July 2
494.../w/j/ 6
495... July n
496 ...Aug. 3
f497...Aug. 3
*498...Sept. 21
*499...Oct 14
. To Miss Reynolds. Apologises for neglect. Mr. and
Mrs. Thrale much dejected ..... 389
. To the Earl of Hertford. Applies for an apartment
in Hampton Court 389
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s law-business. Mr. and
Mrs. Thrale ....... 390
. To Miss Reynolds. Explains why she was not re
ceived by Mrs. Thrale 391
. To James Bos-well.
. To Mrs. Thrale. His journey from Bath. Sees be
fore him to his third dinner. Political Tracts . 391
. To Mrs. Thrale. Has visited her two children.
Bennet Langton. Management of children . 393
. To Mrs. Thrale. Taylor s law-business. Boswell s
hopes. Mr. Welch ...... 394
. To Mrs. Thrale. Taylor s head full of preferments.
Dines with Wilkes. Mrs. Knowles. Steevens and
Chatterton ....... 396
. To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
. To Mrs. Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Perkins crows and triumphs. Bos-
well s return to Scotland. Mr. Twiss . . . 398
, . To Mrs. Thrale. Taylor s law- business. Sir Joshua
and the Bishop of St. Asaph. Chatterton. Mr.
Thrale takes up his restes. Danger of being
soothed into inactivity. Two Benedictines . . 400
.. To Dr. Adams. Introduces a Benedictine . . 402
, . To Henry Thrale. Suffers from the gout. Baretti.
Tyrwhitt and Chatterton ..... 403
..To Mrs. Thrale. Offers though ill to come and
see her 404
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Still suffering from the gout . 405
. . To Mrs. Thrale. The gout ..... 405
.. To Mrs. Thrale. The gout. The Benedictines . 406
.. To Miss Reynolds. Goldsmith s epitaph . . 407
. . To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
. . To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s law-business. Advises
him to persevere in drinking. Wilkes s poll as
City Chamberlain. The revolution in the Prince s
household 408
. . To James fioswell.
11
..To Francis Fowke. Joseph Fowke and Warren
Hastings ........ 409
.. To Sir Joshua Reynolds . . . . .411
,. To Miss Reynolds. Replies to a request . .411
,. To John Ryland. A play by Dr. Hawkesworth . 412
. . To William Strahan. Had sent some copy. Pro
fessor Watson. Dr. Robertson . . . ,412
XXXVI
Table of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
1776... 500... Oct. 21
*501...Nov. 14
502... Nov. 16
*503...Dec. i
*504...Dec. 2
21
. To Robert Levett.
. To John Ryland. Dr. Hawkesworth s \Yorks . 413
. To James Boswell.
. To Dr. Percy. Asks for an admission for T. Coxeter
to the Middlesex Hospital 414
To Dr. Percy. Sends information about T. Coxeter 414
To James Boswell.
APPENDICES.
A. Draft of a Letter to the Duke of Bedford in the name of Lewis Paul . 417
B. Letter to David Hume from Archibald Macdonald about the expenses &c.
of education at Oxford . . . . . . . . .418
C. Verses by David Garrick . . . . . . . . . 421
D. Letter to W. J. Mickle from James Boswell . . . . . .422
VOLUME II.
1777 ... 506... Jan. 15
507
508
509
510,
511
512,
513,
*514
515
*516
517,
518.
Feb. 1 8
. Feb. 25
. March 8 ,
March 1 1
, March 1 5
March 19,
April 9
April 1 2
, May 3
May 3
May 19 .
May 19
f519 ...May 19
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Respiration obstructed : undergoes
a course of bleeding. Dines out ... i
. . To James Boswell.
. . To George Steevens.
. . To Mrs. Aston. State of his and her health . . 2
. . To James Boswell.
..To Mrs. Aston. The management of the mind.
Gaiety a duty ....... 3
. . To Mrs. Thrale. A party at Sir Joshua s . . 4
. . To Henry Thrale. A letter of congratulation . 6
..To John Ryland. Dr. Hawkesworth s Works.
Youthful performances 7
.. To James Boswell.
. . To Dr. Taylor. H. Lucas s tragedy ... 9
. . To Charles O Connor.
..To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Taylor s influence with the
Duke of Devonshire. The knowledge of life . 10
. . To Dr. Taylor. An entertainment at Devonshire
House. Dr. Dodd sentenced . 10
1776-7.]
Table of Contents.
xxxvn
DATE LETTER
I AGE
1777... 520.
..Jtine 20
...To the Right Hon. Charles Jenkinson.
521.
..June 22
...To Dr. Dodd.
522 .
..June 24
...To James Boswell.
523.
..June 26
...To Dr. Dodd.
524.
..Jtine 28
...To James Boswell.
525.
..June 29
...To Bennet Langton.
526.
..July 7
...To IV. Sharp.
527.
. . July 9
...To Dr. Vyse.
528.
..July 22
...To James Boswell.
529.
..July 22
...To Mrs. Boswell.
530.
. . July 2 2
... To Dr. Farmer. The Lives of the Poets .
13
531.
. . July 22
... To Dr. Vyse. Grotius s nephew .
r 4
532.
J u ty 3 l
... To Henry Thrale. Oxford. The Lives
H
533.
..Aug. 4
To Mrs. Thrale. The Lives. Gwynn the architect.
Boswell s huge bustle
15
534.
..Attg. 4
...To James Boswell.
535.
..Aug. 7
... To Mrs. Thrale. Birmingham and Lichneld. Old
friends dead. Prologue for Kelly. Dr. Dodd .
i7
536.
..Aug. 9
... To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Dodd. Cook s Voyages
18
537.
..Aug. 13
...To Mrs. Thrale. Her pleasant tattle. Petty talk.
Scarcity of fruit. A workhouse in contemplation .
1 9
538.
..Aug. 23
... To Mrs. Thrale. Tries ipecacuanha. The great
year of a hundred thousand barrels. Mr. Brooke
of Town Mailing. Lichneld Races .
21
589.
.. Aug. 27
... To Mrs. Thrale. A new Dean. Race week. The
harvest ........
24
540.
..Aug. 30
. . . To James Boswell.
541.
Sept. i
542.
. . Sept. 6
... To Mrs. Thrale. Loitering through life. Thraliana.
543... Sept. 8
5^... Sept. ii
545 ... Sept. 13
.546... Sept. 13
547... Sept. 15
548... Sept. 1 8
549 ... Sept. 20
550... Sept. 22
551 ... Sept. 25
552... Sept. 27
Journal-keeping .... ..26
To Mrs. Thrale. -Ashbourne. Lady Lade , . 28
To James Boswell.
To Mrs. Thrale. Foolish fancies. Lady Lade. Bos
well and the Baltic expedition. Wales . . 29
To Mrs. Aston. Her illness ... -3
. To Mrs. Thrale. Arrival of Boswell at Ashbourne.
Langton s children. Great hopes for Mr. Thrale . 31
To Mrs. Thrale. His birth-day. Boswell s vivacity.
The family at Bolt Court. A memorial urn. Mr.
Thrale s ambition 33
. To Mrs. Thrale. Keddlestone and Derby. The
china-fancy. A loan to Boswell. Rattling phrases
together. Howell and the Spanish language . 34
. To Mrs. Thrale. Lord Harcourt and his dog. Ham.
The harvest 37
To Mrs. Thrale. Departure of Boswell. New
clothes. The Benedictines 39
, To Mrs. Thrale. Duke of Argyle. Mrs. Langton.
Remoteness of Brighthelmstone .... 40
XXXV111
Table of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
1777... 553. ..Sept. 29
554... Oct. 6
555. ..Oct. 13
556... Oct. 1 6
557... Oct. 22
558. ..Oct. 25
559. ..Oct. 27
560. ..Oct. 29
561... Nov. 3
562... Nov. 10
563... Nov. 20
564 ... Nov. 20
565 ... Nov. 25
. Dec. 27
. Dec. 27
PAGE
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Desmou-
lins compared. Winding. Dr. Taylor busy.
Mrs. Boswell. Boswell s Journal. Lilly lolly . 42
. To Mrs. Thrale. Always a Susy. Remoteness of
Brighthelmstone : Mr. Thrale s excavations. Dr.
Taylor s waterfall 44
. To Mrs. Thrale. Working at the Lives. Her kind
ness and Mr. Thrale s 46
. To Mrs. Thrale. Queeney s dancing. The last . 47
. To Mrs. Thrale. Lichfield. Dr. Taylor sells a cow.
Leek in the Morlands 48
. To Mrs. Thrale. Cholmondely s story. Playing
Agnes 50
, To Mrs. Thrale. Posterity the author s favourite.
Letter-writing 51
. To Mrs. Thrale. Academia Paracelsi. Mr. and
Mrs. Thrale s kindness 53
To Mrs. Thrale. Returning home. Foote s death.
The Lives ... .... 55
.To Mrs. Thrale. Summoned to Brighthelmstone.
Mr. Scrase. Mrs. Thrale s wig .... 56
To Mrs. Aston. Her health. Mrs. Gastrell . . 58
. To Mrs. Porter. Cast of his head by Nollekens . 59
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Gastrell. His health and Mrs. Aston s . 60
To James Boswell.
) !>
To Thomas Cadell. Printer to the Royal Academy.
Mr. Allen 61
. To . Gwynn the Architect . . . .61
, To Saunders Welch.
. To Mrs. Porter. His bust. Present of oysters . 62
. To Mrs. Montagu. Asks for a subscription for
Davies .... -63
574 ... March 6 ... To Mrs. Montagu. Acknowledges her subscrip
tion .... .64
To James Boswell.
To Mrs. Thrale. Nine days of engagements . . 65
To Mauritius Lowe. Application to Sir Joshua and
Garrick 66
To James Boswell.
To William Strahan.
To James Elphinston. The death of a wife . . 67
To John Nichols. The Lives .... 68
To John Nichols. Life of Dryden ... 68
To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Collier s epitaph. A print of
Mrs. Montagu. Dr. Burney robbed. Sir Joshua
painting him. Camps. Mr. Thrale s sorrow . 69
To Thomas Cadell. The Lives .... 71
566
567
1778... 568 ...Jan. 24
*569... Jan. 28
*570...Jan. 30
571... Feb. 3
572 ...Feb. 19
573 . . . March 5
575 ... April 23
576 . . . April 30
|577... May 15
578...>/j/3
579 ...July 27
580... July 27
581... July 27
582... August
583... Oct. 15
J584...Oct. 17
1777-79.]
Table of Contents.
xxxix
DATE LETTER
1778... 585. ..Oct. 24
586 ...Oct. 31
587 ... Oct. 31
588 ...Nov. 2
589 ... Nov. 2
590... Nov. 9
591... Nov. 14
592. ..Nov. 21
593. ..Nov. 21
59 4... Undated
595... Nov. 26
*596...Dec. 7
1779...
597...
Dec.
598...
Dec. 29
599...
600...
601...
Jan. 2
Jan. 2
Feb. 2
602...
Feb. 15
608
604
605
606
March i .
March 4 .
March 4 .
March 10.
607 ... March 13.
608... March 1 8.
*609... April 3 .
611. ...My/ 2
612. ..May 3
613. ..May 4
614... ^/oy 4
615 ... May 20
616... May 29
617 ... June 14
. To Mrs. Thrale. The Thrales on the springtide of
prosperity. Out-brewing Whitbread. To die is
dreadful 72
,.To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale and the black dog.
Downing. His portrait by Sir Joshua. Mrs.
Williams and Mrs. Desmoulins .... 73
. To Captain Langton.
. To Dr. Wheeler.
. To Dr. Edwards.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Honest Joseph. Levett, Williams
and Poll 75
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale and the black dog. No
love at Bolt Court. Dr. Burney at Oxford. Eve
lina. Queeney and Susy. Mr. Thrale s canal . 76
. To Mrs. Thrale. Wandering over the Steine. Ba-
retti s musical scheme. The lottery of love . 79
. To James Boswell.
. To John Nichols. The Index to the English Poets So
.. To John Nichols. The Index. Mr. Macbean . 81
..To Thomas Fitzmaurice. On the birth of a son.
Lady Shelburne 81
. To John Nichols.
. To John Hussey.
. To Mrs. Aston. Gives some account of the year past 82
. To Mrs. Porter. Sends good wishes for the new year 83
. To Mrs. Garrick. Garrick s death ... 84
. To Miss Reynolds. About some affair which he had
undertaken for her 84
. To John Nichols.
. To Mrs. Aston. Garrick s death .... 85
. To Mrs. Porter. Mr. Pearson. Mrs. Adey . . 86
.To Mrs. Thrale. Baretti s golden dream. Sends
the Lives to the king 87
. . To James Boswell.
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Vesey. Bleeding and fasting.
Islington ........ 88
.. To Thomas Cadell. Breda bookseller. Copies of
the Lives lent 89
... To James Boswell.
... To John Nichols.
... To John Wesley.
...To Mrs. Aston. Had sent her the Lives.
Museum 90
... To Mrs. Porter.
... To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Watson s papers . . 91
. .. To Mrs. Thrale. The journey to Lichfield. Tom
Johnson. Greenhill Bower. Does not forget
Streatham ....... 92
...To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s illness ... 93
Green s
xl
Table of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
1779... 618..- J un e 14
619 ...June 15
620... June 17
621 ... June 19
622... June 23
623 . . . June 24
624 ... June 27
625... July 13
626. ..July 13
t627...Aug. 3
628... Sept. 9
629 ...Oct. 4
630... Oct. 5
631... Oct. 8
632. ..Oct. ii
633... Oct. 16
634... Oct. 19
t635...Oct. 19
636... Oct. 21
637.. Oct. 25
638... Oct. 25
639 ... Oct. 27
640... Oct. 28
641... Nov. 2
642... Nov. 4
643... Nov. 5
644 ...Nov. 7
645 ...Nov. 8
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s illness his tem
perate life . 95
To Henry Thrale. His friendship for Thrale . 96
To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s illness ... 97
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s illness ... 98
. To Henry Thrale. Sends him 100. Rules of
health. Exercise denned ..... 98
. To Mrs. Thrale. Cost of posting. His affection
for the Thrales 99
. To Miss Reynolds. The difficulty of getting money 100
To Charles Dilly.
. To James Boswell.
. To Dr. Taylor. A long course of physic. Mr.
Thrale s illness. Rules of health . . . 101
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Anxious about Mr. Thrale.
Money not to be spared. Subscriptions to keep
out the French 102
. To Mrs. Thrale. Boswell s report of Mr. Thrale.
Bleeding recommended 103
. To Mrs. Thrale. The history of a toe . . .104
. To Mrs. Thrale. The Thrales at Brighthelmstone.
Kept at home by gout . . . . .105
. To Mrs. Thrale. Rules of health. Rival book
sellers at Brighthelmstone. Discord in Bolt
Court 106
. To Miss Reynolds. Wants prints of his friends . 107
. To Dr. Taylor. Hopes of a Deanery. Public
affairs. Threats of an invasion. Fruit . .108
. To Mrs. Thrale. Nurses and children. The delight
of tyranny. Lady Lucan. Cumberland. Miss
Burney and Dr. Delap no
. To Mrs. Thrale. The booksellers shares in the
Lives. Fasting. Mirth spoilt by prudence. Life
of Milton 112
. To Mrs. Aston. The nation full of distress . . 114
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s will. Mrs. Lennox.
Light and airy at seventy . . . . .115
. To Mrs. Thrale. Fire at London Bridge . . 117
, To Mrs. Thrale. Miss Burney s silly note. Mrs.
Thrale s inconsistency. Stark solitude . .118
. To Mrs. Aston. Her health and his. The Inva
sion. All trade is dead . . . . .119
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Byron. Catamaran. Dis
cord in Bolt Court 121
. To Mrs. Thrale. Rumours of great losses. Need
of a religious education. Feelers. Mr. Thrale s
health. Jamaica. An epidemic cold . . 123
1779-80.]
Table of Contents.
xli
DATE LETTER
1779 ... 646 ... Nov. 13
647... Nov. 16
648... Nov. 20
j649...Dec. 2
1780... 650, ..Jan. 20
651... Undated
652... Undated
653 ...Undated
654... April 6
655 ... April 8
656... April 8
657 ... April ii
658... April 15
659... April 18
f660... April 20
*661... Undated
662... April 25
663. ..May i
664... May 7
665. ..May 8
666... May 9
667 ... May 9
668... May 23
669... May 23
670... Undated
671... May 24
672... May 25
PAGE
. To James Boswell.
To Mrs. Thrale. Her trustees. Trade. Her de
spicable dread of living in the Borough. Practising
abstinence. The composition of a hero
To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s will. The Borough
To Miss Porter. Garrick s niece. Public affairs .
. To Dr. Lawrence.
, To John Nichols. Life of Prior ....
. To John Nichols. Collins s first piece. Dr. Swan
. To John Nichols. Life of Granville .
.To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Thrale at Bath. Mrs.
Montagu. The Lives. Mr. Thrale s diet .
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Porter. Mr. Thrale s health. The Lives.
Has abated much of his diet ....
. To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Lawrence. A party at Mrs.
Vesey s. Miss Burney. Bath-Easton. Life of
Addison. Mrs. Montagu and Shakespeare
. To Mrs. Thrale. Drinking the waters. Mrs.
Byron. Mrs. Thrale courted ....
. To Mrs. Thrale. Petticoat government. Richard
son and Miss Mulso. The Contractors Bill.
Alternate diet .......
. To Dr. Taylor. Bleeding. Management of the
mind ........
. To Dr. Burney. Mrs. Ord
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s Letter to the Elec
tors. Intervals of starving. Warm water at Bath
.To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s diet. Mutual
dislike where mutual approbation is expected.
Criticisms. Mr. Melmoth. Mrs. Montagu. Mrs.
Buller. The Exhibition
. To Mrs. Thrale. The Southwark election. Mr.
Fitzmaurice .......
To Mrs. Thrale. The Southwark election
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Thrale.
The Southwark election. The Lives. Queeney.
Oxford University election .....
. To Thomas Warton. Apologises for opening a letter
. To Dr. Warton. Lives of Fenlon and Broome.
Winchester .......
. To Mrs. Thrale. With Burke at a Bishop s. Dr.
Taylor s law-suit .......
. To John Nichols. Rowe s Poems
. To John Nichols. Lives of Hammond and Black-
more .........
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s health. Dr. Taylor
fierce and fell. Queeney s accomplishments. The
Southwark election
126
128
129
130
130
134
135
139
141
43
144
M5
H7
J 5i
152
i 5 6
157
158
159
159
xlii
Table of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
1780... 673 ...May 25
674 ... May 30
675... June 6
*676... June 6
677 ...June 9
678... June 10 ,
679 ... June 1 2 .
680... June 14
681 ...June 15
682... June 16
683... June 16
684... June 21
685... July 4
686... July 10
687... July 27
688... July 27
689... July 28
690... Aug. I
691... Aug. 8
692 ... Aug. 14
f693... Aug. 14
694 ...Undated
695... Undated
696... Undated
697... Undated
698... Aug. 16
699... Aug. 18
. To Dr. Farmer.
, To Henry Thrale. Advice either unwelcome or
impertinent. Diet. Kept in town by the Lives .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Taylor. Her fine company
at Bath. Alternate diet
. To Dr. Taylor. Prescribes for him
. To Mrs. Thrale. Gordon Riots : Mass-house burnt.
Mr. Strahan and Lord Mansfield. Newgate burnt:
with Dr. Scott at the burning ruins. The Fleet
and King s Bench burnt. The magistrates and
the King. Thrale s brewery ....
To Mrs. Thrale. Soldiers everywhere. Lord George
Gordon sent to the Tower. Wilkes .
. To Mrs. Thrale. The streets safe. Wilkes defends
the Bank. Riots at Bath. Miss Burney. Idle
alarms. The Thrales at Brighthelmstone .
. To Mrs. Thrale. The King. The martial citizens
of the Borough
. To Mrs. Thrale. Perkins s dexterity. Sir Richard
Hotham. Renny s conversatione
. To Miss Reynolds. Her portrait of him. Corrects
her rhymes .......
. To John Nichols. -Life of Ambrose Philips .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Kept in town by the Lives. Im
provement in his health. Boswell s brother
. To Mrs. Thrale. Treatment of children. At Dr.
Burney s
. To Mrs. Thrale. Diet. Following one s genius.
Kept in town by the Lives ....
. To Mrs. Thrale. Corresponding with Queeney.
Lightsome and airy. Mrs. Cholmondeley .
. To Lord Westcote. Life of Lyttelton .
. To Lord Westcote. Lives of Lyttelton and West .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s diet. Sends two
volumes of the Lives. Life of Young
. To Mrs. Thrale. Life of Granville. Sir John Lade
. To Mrs. Thrale. Stealing away to Italy. Sul-
picius and Saint Martin. Life at thirty-five.
Writing sentiment. Mr. Levett at fourscore
. To Mrs. Prowse. Her mother s allowance to
E. Herne. His cousin at Froome
. To John Nichols. Life of Fenton
. To John Nichols. Life of Fenton
. To John Nichols. Lives of Pope, Swift, and
Lyttelton
. To John Nichols. Proof-sheets of the Life of Pope
. To John Nichols. Life of Lyttelton
. To Mrs. Thrale. Her neglect in writing to him.
The Lives
PAGE
762
163
165
1 66
172
176
177
179
1 80
i So
182
184
185
187
189
190
191
193
195
196
197
197
197
1780-81.]
Table of Contents.
xliii
DATE LETTER
1780... lW>...Aug. 21
7Q\...Aug. 21
702 ... Aug. 24
703... Aug. 25
704... Aug. 30
705 ...Sept, 9
*706...Sept. 13
*707... Sept. 23
708... Oct. 17
709 ...Oct. 26
f710...Dec. 9
711... Dec. 30
1781 ... 712 ...Jan. 29
*7 13... March 5
PAGE
J714.
715.
716.
717.
718.
719.
. March 5 .
,. March, 14.
, . April 4 .
.Aprils
. April 7 .
, . April 9 .
720... April 10
721
722
723
724
. . April 1 1
. . April 12
, . April 1 2
, . April 14
725... April 1 6
726
727
728
f729
730
731
732
733
734
.. April 1 6
. . April 1 7
. . April 23
. . May 7
..Jime 2
, . June 10
..June 1 6
..June 23
..June 25
735... July 2
. To Dr. Seattie.
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s health. Pop-gun
batteries. Mr. Thrale s submission to a new
mind. Tour to Italy ......
To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s health. Her new
admirer. Left alone in town ....
. To a Young Clergyman.
. To Viscountess Southwell. Her husband s death.
Mauritius Lowe s pension
. To William Strahan. A new seat in Parliament for
Mr. Thrale
. To Samuel Hardy. Prophecy by action
, To James Boswell.
. To John Nichols. The Lives ....
To Mrs. Prowse. His cousin at Froome
. To Dr. Vyse. Recommends Mrs. Desmoulins as
Matron of the Charter-house ....
To Warren Hastings.
. To William Strahan. Money due to him for his
books ........
To Thomas Cadell. The Lives ....
. To James Boswell.
. To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s death his will
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Thrale s boundless kindness
. To Mrs. Thrale. Life not to be represented as
darker than it is. Driven into company
. To Dr. Vyse. Macbean s admittance to the Charter
house
. To Mrs. Thrale. Meeting of the executors .
. To Mrs. Thrale. No wisdom in useless sorrow
. To Mrs. Porter.
. To Mrs. Thrale. The world not so unjust as repre
sented ........
. To Mrs. Thrale. The executors. Talk about
partnership. She may sue and be sued
. To John Nichols. The octavo edition of the Lives
. To Mrs. Thrale. The will. The executors . .
. To Mrs. Strahan.
To Mrs. Prowse. Her mother s payment to E.Herne
. To Perkins.
To John Nichols. Copies of the Lives .
, To Bennet Langton.
To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
, To Miss Reynolds. Mrs. Thrale s custom for her
pictures
.To - - Perkins. The purchase of a share in the
brewery
198
200
202
203
204
205
206
20 7
207
208
209
211
212
213
213
214
215
216
218
218
219
2 2O
221
222
xliv
Table of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
PAGE
1781... 736...
July 9 ..
To Miss Burney. Sends a present of the Lives
222
737...
July 17 ...
To Thomas Astle.
738...
July 21 ...
To Miss Reynolds. Her writings ....
223
739...
Sept. 25 ...
To Dr. Patten. Wilson s Archaeological Dictionary.
One scholar dedicating to another
224
J740...
Oct. 15 ...
To Mauritius Lowe. Mr. Kearsley and Mr. Allen .
226
741...
Oct. 17 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Oxford. Mrs. Aston. Young
Burke. Dr. Adams
226
742...
Oct. 20 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Birmingham and Lichfield. Mrs.
Careless ........
228
743...
Oct. 23 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Her income. The advantages of
saving. The gravedo .....
229
744...
Oct. 27 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Garrick s legatees. Gloom at
Lichfield
230
745...
Oct. 31 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Her income. Susan Thrale. Miss
Porter. Goes to a ball .....
231
746...
Nov. 3 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Gasping for breath. Mrs. Porter s
illness
232
747...
Nov. 10 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Ashbourne. Evelina unknown at
Lichfield. Bishop Porteus and his father-in-law .
233
748...
Nov. 12 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Preaching and practising. Mrs.
234
749...
Nov. 14 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Taylor s milk-diet. The Bur-
t}^
neys. Consanguineous unanimity
236
750...
Nov. 24 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Piozzi. Frank s child .
2 3 8
751...
Nov. 26 ...
To Edmund Allen. His return to Bolt Court
239
752...
Dec. 3 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Captain Burney. Mr. Piozzi
240
753...
Dec. 8 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Asks her not to neglect him
2 4 I
754...
Dec. 26 ...
To John Nichols. Has had search made for a book
241
1782. ..J755...
Jan. i
To Mauritius Lowe
242
756 ...
Jan. 5 ...
To James Boswell.
757...
Jan. 17 ...
To Dr. Lawrence.
758...
Jan. 28 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Has been bled. Dreads a diminu
tion of her kindness
242
759...
Feb. 4
To Mrs. Strahan.
760...
Feb. 14 ...
To Richard Beatniffe. Mr. Levett s heir
243
761...
Feb. 16 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. His gratitude for her kindness
244
762...
Feb. 17 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Cheered by her letter .
245
763...
Feb. 21 ...
To Mrs. Thrale. Is growing better
245
764...
Feb. 27 ...
To Edmond Malone.
765...
March 2 ...
To Mrs. Porter.
766...
March 7 ...
To Edmond Malone.
767...
March 14...
To Mrs. Thrale. Bleeding .
246
768...
Marchif)...
To Mrs. Porter.
J769...
March 19...
To Mrs. Aston ... ...
247
770...
March 20...
To Captain Langton.
771...
March2i...
To Edmund Hector.
772...
Undated ...
"
J773...
March 22...
To Dr. Taylor. The silver coffee-pot .
247
1781-82.]
of Contents.
xlv
DATE LETTER
1782. ..+774. ..March 22.
775 ... March 28.
776... March 30.
777... April 8 .
778... April 24 .
779 ... April 30 .
780. ..May 8
781... May 15
782... May 20
J783...May 27
*784 ... May 28
785 . . . June 3
786... June 4
f787... June 4
788... June 8
789... June 11
790... June 12
791 ... June 13
792... June 17
t793... JulyS
794 ...fitly 22
t795... July 22
796... July 28
f797...Aug. 4
*798... Aug. 12
*799... Aug. 17
*800... Aug. 19
801.
802.
803,
804
805,
Aug. 24
, Atig. 26
. Sept. 7
. Sept. 7
. Undated
*806...Sept. 21
. To W. G. Hamilton. The Foedera . . .248
. To James Boswell.
, . To Mrs. Gastrell and Mrs. Aston. Bleeding. Change
of ministry. Mrs. Thrale s care of him . . 248
,.. To Miss Reynolds. A manuscript work of hers . 249
...To Mrs. Thrale. His dinner engagements. French
transports taken. Mr. Piozzi . . . .250
, .. To Mrs. Thrale. His engagements. Cumberland s
third night. Mrs. Sheridan. Garrick s funeral
expenses 251
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Holds phlebotomy in abhorrence 253
.. To the Rev. Mr. .
.. To George Kearsley.
. . To .A passage in the Beauties of Johnson to
be rectified 254
..To . Makes an appointment .... 254
. . To James Boswell.
. , . To Mrs. Thrale. Harassed by a cough. Sir Richard
Jebb. A sick man s dinner . . . .255
,.. To Mrs. Prowse. Acknowledges her letter . . 256
,.. To Mrs. Thrale. Her unfeeling irony . . . 256
..To Mrs. Thrale. Oxford. Dr. Edwards. Lodged
in Jesus College 257
,.. To Mrs. Thrale. Dinner engagements . . .258
.. To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Adams. Hannah More. A
cold June 259
. . To Mrs. Thrale. His terror dispelled. Dr. Edwards s
country living ....... 260
. . To Dr. Taylor. End of the Rockingham Ministry.
The silver coffee-pot . . . . . .261
. . To Miss Lawrence.
. . To Dr. Taylor. An exchange of livings. Burke out
of office. Sir Robert Chambers and Lord Shel-
burne ........ 262
,.. To Perkins.
,..To Dr. Taylor. England sinking. Ireland. Dr.
Lawrence ........ 264
,.. To Dr. Taylor. Management of the mind . . 265
...To Dr. Taylor. Management of the mind. A violent
session expected 266
, ..To George Strahan. Strahan s difference with his
father ........ 267
, . . To James Bosit/ell.
...To Miss Lawrence.
..To James Boswell.
... To Mrs. Boswell.
...To James Boswell.
...To Dr. Taylor. Health the basis of happiness.
Lord Shelburne. The Miss Colliers . . . 269
xlvi
r fable of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
PAGE
1782. ..fS07...
Oct. 4
...To Dr. Taylor. The Miss Colliers and Mr. Flint.
Has read the Bible through. Death of Boswell s
father
269
808...
Oct. 6
... To James Compton. Dr. Vyse ....
271
*809...
Oct. 10
...To George Strahan. Strahan s difference with his
father. Disputes made public ....
272
810...
Oct. 10
...To John Nichols. Anecdotes of Bowyer. Wood s
Athenae
273
811...
Oct. 22
...To Mauritius Lowe. Congratulates him on the re
ceipt of money
274
812...
Oct. 28
. . . To John Nichols. New edition of the Lives. John
Gay. Jortin, Markland, and Thirlby
275
813...
Nov. 14
...To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
*814...
Nov. 14
... To William Strahan. His health. A great take of
herrings
276
815...
Dec. 7
... To James Boswell.
f816...
Dec. 9
...To Dr. Taylor. Advice about health. The Miss
Colliers ........
277
*817 ...
Dec. ii
... To William Strahan. Strahan s difference with his
son .........
278
818...
Dec. 20
... To Mrs. Thrale. Her neglect of him
279
J819...
, Dec. 26
. . . To Sir Joshua Reynolds. Declines an invitation .
280
820...
Dec. 31
...To Thomas Wilson.
t821...
Dec. 31
...To Dr. Taylor. The Miss Colliers. A very sickly
year
280
1783... 822.,
, Jan. 10
... To John Nichols. The History ofHinckky. Samuel
Carte. Sick and solitary .....
281
f828...
, Jan. 16
... To Dr. Taylor. Need of comfort. Mr. Flint and
the Miss Colliers ......
282
*824...
, Jan. 1 6
... To George Strahan. Strahan s difference with his
father
283
*825..
. Undated
...To George Strahan. Strahan s difference with his
father
283
826..
. Jan. 20
... To Joseph Cradock. A missing volume
284
t827..
. Jan. 21
... To Dr. Taylor. Equal representation in Parliament.
Fears a civil war . , .
285
828..
. Feb. 4
. . . To Miss Lawrence.
829..
. Feb.. 19
... To Sir Joshua Reynolds. Mason s Epistle to Sir J.
Reynolds. Sends a copy of the Lives .
286
830..
. March 4
... To Sir Joshua Reynolds. Crabbe s poem
287
J831..
. March 4
... To Dr. Scott. Asks for employment for a young man
288
832..
. April 1 2
... To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
833..
. April 1 2
...To James Barry.
834..
. April 19
To Joseph Fowke. Nuncomar. Shocks to his health.
Applies better to books. Mrs. Williams
288
835..
. April 19
... To the Mercers Company. Testifies to Mr. Comp-
ton s merits .......
290
t836..
. April 25
... To the Earl of Dartmouth. Recommends Mr. Des-
moulins ........
291
1782-83.]
Table of Contents.
xlvii
DATE LETTER
1783... 837. ..May i
838... May 2
839. ..May 8
840 ... May 24
Ml... May 31
Ml... June 2
J843... June 2
844 ... June 4
845 . . . June 5
846... June 13
847
...June 17
848
. . . June 1 7
849
...June 1 8
850
... June 19
851
. . . June 20
852
. . . June 20
853
... June 21
854
...June 23
855
... June 24
856
... June 25
857
... June 28
858
... June 30
859
...July i
860... July 3
861 ...July 3
862 ... July 5
863... July 5
864... July 5
865... July 8
J866 ...July ii
J868...Julyi 5
869... July 23
870 ...July 24
f871... July 24
872... July 26
873 ...July 30
To Mrs. Thrale. Death of a daughter. Fortuitous
friendships. Paoli. The Exhibition. James Barry
To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
To Mrs. Thrale. A course of physic. The Exhibi
tion. Loss of neighbours. Discontent at home .
. To Mr. and Miss Wilkes. Declines an invitation .
. To William Windham.
. To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
. To . Orders a set of the
PAGE
291
294
295
, To Dr. Hamilton. Relief for a poor woman
To Mrs. Thrale. Her neglect of him. More peace
at home. A thief commits suicide
. To Mrs. Thrale. Sir R. Musgrave s present.
Spending time. Dr. Lawrence. Mrs. Dobson .
. To Edmund Allen.
. To Dr. Taylor.
. To Thomas Davies.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Her frigid indifference. Attacked
by palsy. His love for her ....
. To Mrs. Thrale. Diary of his illness .
. To Mauritius Lowe. Too ill to wait on Mr. Barry
. To Mrs. Thrale. Diary of his illness. A letter
from an unknown hand
To Mrs. Thrale. Diary of his illness .
. To Mrs. Thrale. Waters his garden. Her flattery
. To Mrs. Porter. Account of his illness
. To Mrs. Thrale. His solitude ....
. To Mrs. Thrale. The great burning-glass
To Mrs. Thrale. Dines with the Club. Mr. Cator
. To Mrs. Thrale. At the Club. Has given very
few reason to hate him
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Porter.
. To Mrs. Thrale. An offended physician. A parody
of his style. Queeney s silence ....
. To Susanna Thrale. Materials for a letter
To Mrs. Thrale. The first irruption of irregular
imaginations. Langton at Rochester. Wey-
mouth ........
To
l \J * * *
To William Strahan. Visit to Rochester
. To Mrs. Williams.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Journey from Rochester. A hot
summer ........
. To Sophia Thrale. Arithmetic. Wilkins s Real
Character. Noah s Ark
. To Dr. Taylor. Journey from Rochester
. To Susanna Thrale. Gluttony ....
. To W. C. Cruikshank.
296
296
298
300
34
35
35
306
37
308
39
310
3"
315
316
317
319
320
322
323
xlviii
Table of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
1783... 874..
875..
876 ... Aug. 20
877..
878..
880 ..
881
882
883,
*885.
886
887
888
889
890
891
*893
894
896,
897.
898.
*899.
900
. Aug. 26
. Aug. 29
. Sept. 3
, Sept. 9
Sept. 16
Sept. 20
Sept. 22
884 ...Sept. 22
*902.
*903.
PAGE
July and August ...To Dr. John Mudge.
Aug. 13 ...To Mrs. Thrale. Weymouth. Miss Buiney.
Common evils. The Archbishop of Tuam. No
familiar friendship left him . . . -324
To Mrs. Thrale. Mrs. Williams s sick chamber.
The world sinking round him. Johnson s grimly
ghost 326
To Mrs. Thrale. Seeks relief in change of scene . 328
To Dr. Brocklesby.
To Dr. Taylor. Opie s portrait of him . . 330
To Susanna Thrale. Description fallacious. The
survey of life dangerous. Sidney s painter. Death
of Mrs. Williams 331
To Francis Barber. A birthday dinner . .331
To Dr. Burney.
To Mrs. Thrale. Air-balloons. Meteors. Mrs.
Williams. Suffers from a sarcocele . . 332
To Mrs. Montagu. Announces the death of her
pensioner, Mrs. Williams ..... 336
To Dr. Taylor. His health 337
To Bennet Langton.
Sept. or Oct. ...To Bennet Langton.
Sept. 30 ...To James Bos-well.
. To Miss Reynolds. Sick and solitary . . . 337
. To Mr. Tomkeson. Recommends Mr. Lowe . 338
. To Mrs. Thrale. Reconciled to the gout. Mr.
Cmikshank. Peace with Mrs. Montagu. The
Stocks 338
. To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Burke. Stonehenge. Light
air . . 340
To Dr. Taylor. His health ..... 342
To Mrs. Thrale. Her instability of attention. Mrs.
Porter the tragedian ...... 343
, To Mrs. Thrale, Very solitary. Mrs. Siddons and
John Kemble. His health 344
. To Miss Reynolds. His health improved . . 346
. To Mrs. Thrale. The brewhouse robbed. Air-
balloons ........ 347
. To Mrs. Porter. Her brother s death. Mrs. Wil
liams ........ 348
. To Richard Jackson. Recommends Mr. Hooie for
the Readership of the Temple .... 349
. To Mrs. Thrale. Kinder letters from her. Old
friendships. The ostentatious waste of building.
Lord Kilmorey. The frequency of death . . 350
. To Susanna Thrale. Life chequered. The Tatler.
A generous friend . . . . . -351
. To Miss Burney. Mrs. Chapone .... 353
3.S4
Sept. 24
, Sept. 29
Oct. i
Oct. i
Oct. 6
892... Oct. 9
Oct. 20
Oct. 21
895. ..Oct. 27
. Oct. 27
. Nov. i
. Nov. 10
. Nov. 1 1
.. Nov. 13
901... Undated
. Nov. 19
. Undated . . . To Miss Burney. Cecilia
1783-84.]
Table of Contents.
xlix
DATE LETTER
1783. ..*904 ... Nov. 19
905 ... Nov. 19
906 ... Nov. 20
f907... Nov. 22
908... Nov. 22
909... Nov. 24
910... Nov. 27
911 ...Nov. 28
912 ...Nov. 29
*913 ... Nov. 29
914 ... Nov. 29
915... Dec. 3
917. ..Dec. 13
*918...Dec. -20
919... Dec. 23
920... Dec. 24
921... Dec. 27
922... Dec. 31
I784...*923... Jan. 3
924... Jan. 6
925... Jan. 12
926... Jan. 21
927 ...Jan. 21
*928... Jan. 24
929 ...Jan. 27
*930...Feb. 6
931 ...Feb. 9
932.
933.,
1-934.
935.
936.
937..
VOL I.
. Feb. 1 1
.Feb. n
. Feb. 17
. Feb. 23
. Feb. 27
. March 2
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s health. Need of regimen 355
To W. G. Hamilton.
To Mrs. Thrale. Sophy s illness. The need of
friendship ... . . 356
. To Dr. Taylor. Solitary. The East India Bill . 357
To Sir John Hawkins. Survivors of the Ivy Lane
Club 35 s
. To Mrs. Thrale. Sophy s illness. His convulsions
returning ...... - 359
To Mrs. Thrale. Sophy s illness . . 360
. To Mrs. Chapone.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Sophy better. The mind enlarged
by mere purposes. Arithmetic . . . .361
. To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s health. Fixed air. His
nights spasmodic ...... 362
To Mrs. Porter.
. To Sir John Hawkins. Dinner at the Queen s
Arms . 363
To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Sleepless nights. The survivors
of the Ivy Lane Club. Air-balloons . . 364
. To Dr. Taylor. Harassed by spasms . . . 365
. To Miss Reynolds. His Christmas Day dinner . 366
. To James Boswell.
. To Mrs. Thrale. The Essex Head Club. Opiates.
Want of familiar companions .... 367
. To Mrs. Thrale. W. G. Hamilton. Miss Bing-
ham. Pulsation. Attention shown him. The
Ministry . 3^8
To Dr. Taylor. His health. H. Heely . 370
. To Charles Dilly.
To Mrs. Thrale. His health. The talk of the sick.
Balloons and iron wings . . . . 37 1
. To Mrs. Thrale. Dr. Heberden s report. A sick
man s impatience. Mr. Cator. Her children . 373
. To Perkins.
. To Dr. Taylor. The tumult in government. All
the world for our enemies. Burke s Speech on
India ..... - 374
. To Richard Clark.
. To Dr. Heberben. Entreats his attendance . . 376
. To Mrs. Thrale. Opiates. The Rambler in Rus
sian .......
. To James Boswell.
. To Dr. Hamilton. Mrs. Pelle .
. To Mrs. Rogers. Admonished to make his will . 378
. To Mrs. Porter.
. To James Boswell.
Table of Contents.
[Vol. ii.
DATE LETTER
1784... 938... March 10
939... March 10
940 ... March n
941... March 16.
VL... March &.
943 ... March 20,
944 ... March 25,
945 ... March 27.
946 ...March 30.
947... April 5 .
W&... April % .
949 ...April 10 .
950... April 12 .
951 ...Aprils .
952 ... ^4/rz7 1 3 .
953 ...April 15 .
954 ... April 19 .
955 ... April 21
956... April 26
957.
958 .
959.,
960..
. April 26
, April 30
May 10
May 13
961... May 28
962 ... May 31
963 ... May 31
964 . . . June i
965 ... June 2
966 ...June 17
*967... June 19
*968 ... June 23
969... June 26
. . To Mrs. Thrale. Confidence with respect to futurity.
Relieved from the dropsy. Begs her not to reject
him from her thoughts ... .
. . To Mrs. Porter. His improved health . . .
..To Mrs. Gastrell and Mrs. Aston. His improved
health ... .
..To Mrs. Thrale. Opiates . .
.. 7"o James Bos-well.
..To Mrs. Thrale. Relieved from the dropsy.
Dying with a grace . ...
..To Susanna Thrale. Mr. Herschel. Need of
activity of attention . .
. To Bennet Langton.
. To James Boswell.
. To Ozias Humphry.
. To Bennet Langton.
. To Ozias Humphry.
. To John Nichols. J. S. Hawkins s edition of
Ignoramus ... -
. To Dr. Taylor.
. To Bennet Langton.
.To Mrs. Thrale. The
380
381
382
384
Ivy Lane Club. A
His inclination to luxury.
sick
Her
man s thoughts.
table ...
..To Mrs. Thrale. Essex Head and Ivy Lane
Clubs. Le Bas Bleu. Driving the night along.
Appetite ... 39
,.To Mrs. Thrale. Escapes from a confinement of
129 days .... 39 2
. To Mrs. Thrale. The Exhibition. The Prince of
Wales. John Howard . 393
, . To Mrs. Porter. His recovery . . 395
. To Miss Reynolds. Cost of printing her papers . 395
. To Miss Jane Langton.
. To Mrs. Thrale. No longer drives the world about.
Dr. Taylor s preferment . . 39^
. To Miss Reynolds. Negotiations with her brother 397
. To Ozias Humphry.
. To Mrs. Thrale. Going with Boswell to Oxford.
Boswell at the English Bar . 39 8
. To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
. To Dr. Hamilton. Mrs. Pelle . . 399
. To Mrs. Thrale. Visit to Oxford. Contenting a
sick man ........ 399
To Dr. Taylor. Taylor s health. Dr. Nichols s
lavish phlebotomy 401
To Dr. Taylor. Loves to travel with Boswell . 402
To Mrs. Thrale. Mr. Lysons. Death of Macbean.
Asks for words of comfort ..... 403
1784.] Table of Contents. H
DATE LETTER
PACK
1784... 970..
. July 2
... To Mrs. Thrale. Her second marriage .
405
971..
.July 6
... To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
972..
. July 8
... To Mrs. Thrale. Her second marriage. Her past
kindness. Queen Mary crossing the irremeable
stream ........
407
973..
.July ii
...To James Bo swell.
974..
. July 1 1
... To Dr. Adams. Collations of Xenophon and Oppian
409
975..
.July 12
. . . To the Rev. Mr. Bagshaw.
976..
.July 12
...To Bennet Langton.
f977..
. July i 2
... To John Ryland. His wife s grave-stone
411
978..
July
... To Sir John Hawkins. Mrs. Thrale s second mar
riage
412
979..
.July 20
. . . To Dr. Brocklesby.
980..
.July 21
...To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
981..
.July 26
... To James Boswell.
982..
.July 28
983..
.July i\
... To Dr. Brocklesby.
984..
. Aug. 2
...To Dr. Burney.
985..
Aug. 5
... To Dr. Brocklesby.
986..
Aug. 7
... To John Hoole.
987..
. Aug. 12
... To Dr. Brocklesby.
988..
. Aug. 12
...To Humphrey Heely.
989 ..
Aug. 13
...To John Hoole.
990..
. Aug. 14
...To Dr. Brocklesby.
991..
. Aug. 14
...To Thomas Davies.
992..
. Aug. 1 6
...To Dr. Brocklesby.
993...
Aug. 19
994..
. Aug. 19
. . . To George Nicol.
995..
. Aug. 19
...To Sir Joshtta Reynolds.
996...
Aug. 21
...To William Windham.
997...
Aug. 2 1
... To Dr. Brocklesby.
998 ...
Aug. 21
... To Francesco Sastres. His health. Forfeits at the
Club. Sastres s projected Dictionary .
414
999...
Aug. 25
...To Bennet Langton.
1000...
Aug. 26
...To Dr. Brocklesby.
1001...
Sept. 2
)> a
1002...
Sept. 2
...To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
1003...
Sept. 2
... To Francesco Sastres. Sastres s critic. Hopes to
read Petrarch. Virgil . .
4l6
1004...
5V//. 4
...To Dr. Burney.
1005...
5V?//. 4
...To W. C. Cruikshank.
1006...
5V?//. 4
. . . To John Hoole.
1007...
Sept. 9
...To Sir Joshtta Reynolds.
1008...
5e//. 9
...To Lord Chancellor Thurlow.
1009 ...
5V?//. 9
... To Dr. Brocklesby.
1010...
Sept. ii
1011... Sept. 16 ...
1012 ... Sept. 16 ... To Francesco Sastres. Death of his friends. Essex
Head Club
lii
Table of Contents.
DATE LETTER
1784. ..1013..
f!014..
1015..
fl016
.. Sept. 1 8
.. Sept. 1 8
, . Sept. 29
, . Sept. 29
.. To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
..To John Ryland. The Flying Man. Dismal
solitude ........
. . To Dr. Brocklesby.
..To John Ryland. A sick man s pleasure in the
recovery of his friends .....
.. To William Windham.
.. To Sir Joshua Reynolds.
..To Perkins.
. . To Dr. Brocklesby.
.. To John Ryland. Mr. Payne s illness. His mind
calmer ..... .
.. To Dr. Heberden. His health .
.. To George Strahan. His health . . . .
. . To W. G. Hamilton.
. . To John Paradise.
.. To John Nichols.
,. To Francesco Sastres. -Dictionaries
. . To Dr. Taylor. How is recovery in his power ? .
.. To Dr. Brocklesby.
. . To Dr. Burney.
.. To Francesco Sastres. Materials for a letter
.. To John Ryland. Friendship. His health failing.
His wife s grave- stone ....
, . To James Bosivell.
. To Sir John Hawkins. Hasting to town
. To Mrs. Aston and Mis. Gastrell. A farewell
letter . .
. To Dr. Burney.
. To Edmund Hector.
. To - . Orders books to be sent to Dr. Adams .
. To Dr. Vyse. Asks about a relation
. To Richard Green.
. To Mrs. Porter.
. To John Nichols. The writers of the Ancient
Universal History
J1043 ... Two undated letters .
JOHNSON S DEATH AND FUNERAL.
PAGE
419
1017 .
. . Oct. 2
1018 .
.. Oct. 2
1019.
.. Oct. 4
1020.
.. Oct. 6
flO-21 .
..Oct. 6
1022.
..Oct. 13
1023 .
.. Oct. 19
1024 .
.. Oct. 20
1025.
.. Oct. 20
1026.
,. Oft. 20
1027 .,
,. Oct. 20
t!028 .
.. Oct. 23
1029..
. Oct. 25
1030..
. Nov. i
1031..
. Nov. i
f!032.
, . Nov. 4
1033..
. Nov. 5
J1084..
. Nov. 7
*1035 ..
. Undated
1036..
. Nov. 1 6
1037..
. Nov. 1 7
J1088 ..
. [? Nov.]
1039..
. Nov. 29
1040 ..
. Dec. 2
1041..
. Dec. 2
1042..
. Dec. 6
422
425
4 2 5
426
427
428
429
429
430
430
43 *
433
APPENDICES.
A. Draft of a Petition for a poor woman
B. Dr. Brocklesby s record of a conversation with Dr. Johnson
C. Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, recorded by Dr. Bliss
D. Extract from the Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham
436
436
438
439
LETTERS OF DR. JOHNSON.
i.
To GREGORY HICKMAN .
Lichfield, Oct. 30, 1731.
I have so long neglected to return you thanks for the
favour and assistance received from you at Stourbridge, that
I am afraid you have now done expecting it. I can, indeed,
make no apology, but by assuring you, that this delay, what
ever was the cause of it, proceeded neither from forgetfulness,
disrespect, nor ingratitude. Time has not made the sense of
obligation less warm, nor the thanks I return less sincere. But
while I am acknowledging one favour, I must beg another
that you would excuse the composition of the verses you
desired. Be pleased to consider, that versifying against one s
inclination is the most disagreeable thing in the world ; and
that one s own disappointment is no inviting subject ; and that
though the desire of gratifying you might have prevailed over
1 First published in the Man- been a pupil of the school about the
Chester Herald (see Gentlemarfs years 1725-6. Life, i. 50. According
Magazine, 1813, p. 18). to a writer in Notes and Queries, 5th
Nichols (Literary Anecdotes, viii. S. i. 249, Hickman whose Chris-
416) says that this letter was written tian name was Gregory was by his
on the occasion of the writer s being mother s side connected with Johnson,
rejected on his application for the See post, Letter of July 8, 1771, for
situation of Usher to the Grammar Johnson s desire to revisit Stourbridge
School at Stourbridge. Johnson had and recall the images of sixteen.
VOL. I. B my
2 Letters to Edward Cave. [A.D. 1732-33.
my dislike of it, yet it proves, upon reflection, so barren, that to
attempt to write upon it, is to undertake to build without
materials. As I am yet unemployed, I hope you will, if
any thing should offer, remember and recommend,
Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
2.
To .
Lichfield, July 27, 1732. Malone states that he had seen a letter of
Johnson s to a friend dated as above, in which he says that he had
recently left Sir Wolstan Dixey s house. He then had hopes of suc
ceeding either as master or usher in the school of Ashbourne.
Boswell s Johnson, ed. 1824, i. 53, n. 2.
For Johnson s miserable life at this Leicestershire baronet s house,
see Life, i. 84.
3.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[Birmingham], November 25, 1734. Published in the Life, i. 91.
This Letter was sold by Messrs. Christie and Co. on June 5, 1888,
for 3 y.
4.
To EDWARD CAVE.
Greenwich, July 12, 1737. Published in the Life, i. 107.
This Letter was sold by Messrs. Christie and Co. on June 5, 1888,
for 4 15*.
5.
To EDWARD CAVE.
Castle Street, Wednesday Morning, , [1738]. Published in the
Life, i. 120.
6.
To EDWARD CAVE.
6 Castle Street, Monday, -, [1738]. Published in the Life, \.
121.
This Letter was sold by Messrs. Christie and Co. on June 5, 1888,
for 4 i$s.
To
Aetat. 22-29.] To Mrs. JohnSOH. 3
7.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[London, 1738]. Published in the Life, i. 122.
This Letter was sold by Messrs. Christie and Co. on June 5, 1888,
for 4 i os.
8.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[London, 1738]. Published in the Life, i. 123.
9.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[London], Wednesday, , [1738]. Published in the Life, i. 136.
10.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[London, 1738]. Published in the Life, i. 137.
This Letter was sold by Messrs. Christie and Co. on June 5, 1888,
for 46. This extraordinary price was due to one word only. Johnson
had signed himself Your s impransus? It is remarkable, writes
Boswell, that this letter concludes with a fair confession that he had
not a dinner.
11.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[London, 1738]. First published in the Life, i. 138.
12.
To JOHNSON S WIFE .
DEAREST TETTY 2 ,
After hearing that you are in so much danger, as I
apprehend from a hurt on a tendon, I shall be very uneasy
1 From the original in the pos- didate for the mastership of the
session of Mr. William R. Smith of school (ib. p. 132). His visit was
Greatham Moor, West Liss, Hants. prolonged for some months.
This Letter was probably written 2 Johnson used to name Mrs.
during Johnson s visit to Stafford- Johnson by the familiar appellation
shire and Derbyshire recorded in the of Tetly or Tetsey, which, like Betty
Life, i. 82. In August or September or Betsey, is provincially used as a
of 1739 he had, it seems, gone to contraction for Elizabeth, her Chris-
Appleby in Leicestershire, as a can- tian name. Ib. i. 98.
B 2 till
To Mrs. Johnson.
[A.D. 1739.
till I know that you are recovered, and beg that you will omit
nothing that can contribute to it, nor deny yourself any thing
that may make confinement less melancholy 1 . You have
already suffered more than I can bear to reflect upon, and
I hope more than either of us shall suffer again. One part
at least I have often flatterd myself we shall avoid for the
future, our troubles will surely never separate us more. If
M [ ] 2 does not easily succeed in his endeavours, let
him not [ ] to call in another Surgeon to consult with
him, Y [ ] have two or three visits from Ranby 3 or
Shipton, who is [ ] to be the best, for a guinea, which you
need not fear to part with on so pressing an occasion, for I can
send you twenty pouns 4 more on Monday, which I have received
this night ; I beg therefore that you will more regard my
happiness, than to expose yourself to any hazards. I still
promise myself many happy years from your tenderness and
affection, which I sometimes hope our misfortunes have not
yet deprived me of. David 5 wrote to me this day on the affair
of Irene, who is at last become a kind of Favourite among the
1 Mrs. Desmoulins told Boswell
that Mrs. Johnson indulged herself
in country air and nice living at an
unsuitable expense, while her husband
was drudging in the smoke of Lon
don. Life, i. 238.
The original is torn.
3 John Ranby, principal serjeant
surgeon to George II. Horace Wai-
pole, writing on June 29, 1743, about
the French at the battle of Dettingen,
says : I fancy their soldiery behaved
ill, by the gallantry of their officers ;
for Ranby, the King s private surgeon,
writes that he alone has 150 officers
of distinction desperately wounded
under his care. Letters, i. 255.
Ranby was surgeon also to Sir
Robert Walpole. Ib. p. 332.
4 I am not quite sure of this word.
It looks as if Johnson had written _^/
at first, and then inserted o, for
getting d.
5 David, no doubt, is David
Garrick. It was not till October 19,
1741, that he stirred up the London
world by his first appearance at
Goodman s Fields. Nevertheless, at
the date of Johnson s letter he was
intimate with the actors. He was
just dissolving partnership as a wine-
merchant with his eldest brother
Peter. Foote used to say, he re
membered Garrick living in Durham
Yard, with three quarts of vinegar in
the cellar, calling himself a wine-
merchant. It is certain, however,
adds Murphy, that he served all the
houses in the neighbourhood of the
two play-houses, and at those places
was a member of different clubs with
the actors of the time. Murphy s
Garrick, pp. 11-16. Chetwood in
his History of the Stage, p. 158,
says that Garrick s facetious good-
humour gained him entrance behind
the scenes two or three years before
he commenced actor.
Players,
Aetat. 30.]
Mrs. Johnson.
Players, Mr. Fletewood promises to give a promise in writing
that it shall be the first next season, if it cannot be introduced
now, and Chetwood the Prompter is desirous of bargaining for
the copy, and offers fifty Guineas for the right of printing after
it shall be played I . I hope it will at length reward me for my
perplexities.
Of the time which I have spent from thee, and of my dear
Lucy 2 and other affairs, my heart will be at ease on Monday
to give Thee a particular account, especially if a Letter should
inform me that thy 3 leg is better, for I hope you do not think so
unkindly of me as to imagine that I can be at rest while I be
lieve my dear Tetty in pain.
Be assured, my dear Girl 4 , that I have seen nobody in these
rambles upon which I have been forced, that has not contribute
\sic\ to confirm my esteem and affection for thee, though that
esteem and affection only contributed to encrease my unhappi-
ness when I reflected that the most amiable woman in the
1 Mr. Peter Garrick told me,
writes Boswell, that Johnson and
he went together to the Fountain
tavern, and read Irene over, and
that he afterwards solicited Mr.
Fleetwood, the patentee of Drury
Lane Theatre, to have it acted at
his house ; but Mr. Fleetwood would
not accept it, probably because it was
not patronised by some man of high
rank ; and it was not acted till 1749,
when his friend, David Garrick, was
manager of that theatre. Life, i. in.
For an account of Fleetwood, see
Davies s Life of Garrick, i. 66.
William Rufus Chetwood published
in 1749, A General History of the
Stage ; on the title-page he de
scribes himself as having been twenty
years prompter at Drury Lane. He
mentions (p. 46) that Voltaire, dur
ing his residence in England, came
frequently to the theatre. I fur
nished him every evening with the
play of the night, which he took
with him into the Orchestre, his
accustomed seat.
Johnson, in September, 1741, tried
to dispose of the copyright of his
play by the help of his friend,
Edward Cave, who wrote : I have
put Mr. Johnson s play into Mr.
Gray s [a bookseller] hands, in
order to sell it to him, if he is
inclined to buy it. . . He [Johnson]
and I are very unfit to deal with
theatrical persons. Fleetwood was
to have acted it last season, but
Johnson s diffidence or [there is a
blank in the original] prevented it.
Life, i. 153. In the end he did
better than he had hoped, for Dodsley
gave him ,100 for the copyright,
while he made ^195 by the repre
sentation. Ib. p. 198.
2 Mrs. Johnson s daughter by her
first husband. She was living either
with her relations in the country, or
else with Johnson s mother. Ib. i. no.
3 He had at first written your.
4 As Mrs. Johnson was born on
Feb. 4, 1688-9, she was only four
days short of fifty-one.
world
To Lewis Paul.
[A.D.1741.
world was exposed by my means to miseries which I could
not relieve.
I am
My charming Love
Yours
SAM: JOHNSON.
Jan. 3 ist, 1739-40 .
Lucy always sends her Duty and my Mother her Service.
To Mrs. Johnson at Mrs. Crow s in Castle Street near Cavendish Square,
London 2 .
13.
To LEWIS PAUL 3 .
St. John s Gate, January 3ist, 1740-41.
SIR,
Dr. James presses me with great warmth to remind you of
your promise, that you would exert your interest with Mr.
Warren to bring their affairs to a speedy conclusion ; this you
1 The new style was adopted in
England by 24 Geo. II (1751), which
enacted,(i) That the year 1752 should
begin on January I instead of March
25, which was then the legal com
mencement. (2) That the 3rd day of
September, 1752, should be called
the I4th. Accordingly the [legal} year
1751 had no January, February, nor
March up to the 24th inclusive, and
September wanted eleven complete
days. Penny Cyclo., first ed. xxiii. 178.
Johnson recorded in his Diary:
Jan. I, 1753, N.S. which I shall use
for the future. Jan. i had been
always popularly kept as the first
day of the year. Thus Swift wrote
to Stella on Jan. I, 1711-12: Now
I wish my dearest little MD many
happy new years. Swift s Works,
ed. 1803, xxii. 45.
2 Johnson had been lodging in
6 Castle Street since the spring of
1738. Life, i. 121. It is now called
Castle Street East.
First published in Croker s
Bo swell, p. 43.
This Letter was sold by Messrs.
Sotheby and Co. on May 10, 1875,
for /5 7-y. 6d.
In a paper by the late Robert
Cole, F.S.A., read before the British
Association at Leeds in September,
1858, quoted in Gilbert French s Life
of Samuel Crompton, 2nd ed. p. 244,
an interesting account is given of
Lewis Paul. Baines, in his History
of the Cotton Manufacture, ed. 1835,
p. 119, had stated that Arkwright
was generally believed to have in
vented the machine for spinning
cotton and wool by rollers, but that
the process had previously been
described in the specification of the
machine invented by John Wyatt.
Mr. Cole proves that to Paul alone
must be awarded the honour of the
invention. He was the son of a
Dr. Paul, and the ward of the third
Earl of Shaftesbury. Between 1729
and 1738 he invented a machine for
pinking crapes, &c. A daughter of
Johnson s godfather, Dr. Swinfen,
(afterwards Mrs. Desmoulins) learnt
know.
Aetat. 31.] To LeWlS Pdlll.
know, Sir, I have some right to insist upon, as Mr. Cave 1 was,
in some degree, diverted from attending to the arbitration by
my assiduity in expediting the agreement between you ; but I
do not imagine many arguments necessary to prevail upon Mr.
Warren to do what seems to be no less desired by him than the
Doctor. If he entertains any suspicion that I shall endeavour
to enforce the Doctor s arguments. I am willing, and more than
barely willing, to forbear all mention of the question. He that
desires only to do right, can oblige nobody by acting, and must
offend every man that expects favours. It is perhaps for this
reason that Mr. Cave seems very much inclined to resign the
office of umpire ; and since I know not whom to propose in his
place equally qualified and disinterested, and am yet desired to
propose somebody, I believe the most eligible method of deter
mining this vexatious affair will be, that each party should draw
up in a narrow compass his own state of the case, and his de
mand upon the other ; and each abate somewhat, of which him
self or his friends may think due to him by the laws of rigid
justice. This will seem a tedious method, but will, I hope, be
shortened by the desire, so often expressed on each side, of a
speedy determination. If either party can make use of me in
the art as his pupil. His first patent begin with ; 10,000 he must, or at
for spinning is dated June 24, 1738, least might, get more money in
and was for fourteen years. To twenty years than the City of London
meet the expenses he borrowed is worth. Paul, who was desirous
money from Warren, the Birming- of getting the machinery used in the
ham bookseller ; ,200 from Dr. Foundling Hospital, addressed to
Swinfen s daughter, and various the President, the Duke of Bedford,
sums from Dr. James, the inventor a letter, the draft of which is in
of the powder. He granted licenses Johnson s handwriting a . In the
to use his spindles ; thus in April, course of twenty years or so his
1740, he granted a license to Warren machine, he said, had gained him, as
for 50 spindles, in consideration of patentee, above ,20,000. He made
the debt owing to him amounting to considerable improvements in it, and
.1000 ; and to Cave a license for in 1758 obtained a new patent. He
250 spindles in consideration of a died the following year,
large sum. Dr. James wrote to [ Edward Cave was the printer of
Warren on July 17, 1740 : Yester- St. John s Gate, Clerkenwell, the
day we went to see Mr. Paul s proprietor of the Gentleman s Maga-
machine, which gave us entire satis- sine. Life, i. in.
faction. I am certain that if he could
See Appendix A.
this
8 To Lewis Paul.
[A.D. 1741.
this transaction, in which there is no opportunity for malevo
lence or prejudice to exert themselves, I shall be well satisfied
with the employment.
Mr. Cave, who knows to whom I am writing, desires me to
mention his interest, of which I need not remind you that it is
complicated with yours ; and therefore cannot be neglected by
you without opposition to motives, far stronger than the per
suasions of,
Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
14.
To LEWIS PAUL .
At the Black Boy, over against Durham Yard, Strand 2 ,
March 3151, 1741.
SIR,
The hurry of removing and some other hindrances, have
kept me from writing to you since you left us, nor should I
have allowed myself the pleasure of doing it now, but that
the Doctor 3 has pressed me to offer you a proposal, which I
1 First published in Croker s Bos- as is shown by an advertisement in
well, p. 44. This Letter was sold by Arts s Birmingham Gazette of Feb.
Messrs. Sotheby and Co. on May 10, 21, 1743, offering for sale by his
1875, for 6. assignees a license for working fifty
2 On Durham Yard about the of Paul s spindles. Two years after-
year 1772 the Adelphi was erected wards a second attempt was made to
by the Scotch architects, the brothers sell. (See the Gazette of April 29,
Adam. Life, ii. 325, n. 3. Johnson 1745.) The Life of Crompton, 2nd
twice lodged in the Strand. Ib. iii. ed.p. 293. See post, Letter of April 15,
405, n. 6. 1755) where Johnson writes to
3 Dr. James, the inventor of the Hector : What news of poor War-
famous powder. His skill in physic ren ? I have not lost all my kindness
Johnson celebrated in the Lives of for him. Dr. James and Warren
the Poets. Life, i. 81. They had appear to have contracted, James to
been schoolfellows, and saw a good supply pills and vulnerary balsam,
deal of each other in London. Ib. iii. 4. and Warren to publish in numbers
Thomas Warren was the Birming- The Rational Farmer, with an Her-
ham bookseller in whose house bal; and also the American Traveller,
Johnson lived for some months in of which book Dr. James would
the year 1733, and who in 1735 seem to have been the author.
published his translation of Lobo s Messrs. Puttick and Simpson s Auc-
Voyage to Abyssinia. Ib. i. 85-7. tion Catalogue for July 29, 1867;
In 1743 Warren became bankrupt, Lot 708 : Paul Papers.
know
Aetat. si.] To Lewis Paul. 9
know not why he does not rather make himself; but his re
quest, whatever be the reason of it, is too small to be denied.
He proposes, i. To pay you immediately, or give you satis
factory security for the speedy payment of ;ico. 2. To ex
change general releases with Mr. Warren. These proposals he
makes upon the conditions formerly offered, that the bargain
for spindles shall be vacated. The securities for Mr. Warren s
debts released, and the debt of .65 remitted, with the ad
dition of this new article, that Mr. Warren shall give him the
books bought for the carrying on of their joint undertaking.
What difference this new demand may make, I cannot tell,
nor do I intend to be understood in these proposals to ex
press any of my own sentiments, but merely to write after a
dictation. I believe I have expressed the Doctor s mean
ing, but being disappointed of an interview with him, cannot
shew him this, and he generally hints his intentions somewhat
obscurely.
He is very impatient for an answer, and desires me to im
portune you for one by the return of the post. I am not willing,
in this affair, to request anything on my own account ; for you
know already, that an agreement can only be made by a com
munication of your thoughts, and a speedy agreement only by
an expeditious communication.
I hope to write soon on some more agreeable subject ; for
though, perhaps, a man cannot easily find more pleasing em
ployment than of reconciling variances, he may certainly amuse
himself better by any other business, than of interposing in con
troversies which grow every day more distant from accommo
dation, which has been hitherto my fate ; but I hope my
endeavours will be, hereafter, more successful.
I am, Sir,
Yours, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Lewis Paul. In Birmingham.
15.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[London, 1742.] Published in the Life, i. 155.
To
IO
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1742.
16.
To EDWARD CAVE.
[London, 1742.] Published in the Life, i. 156.
17.
To the Reverend DR. TAYLOR .
DEAR SIR,
The Brevity of your last Letter gives me expectation of a
longer, and I hope you will not disappoint me, for I am always
pleased to hear of your proceedings. I cannot but somewhat
wonder that Seward 2 should give his Living for the prospects
or advantages which you can offer him, and should be glad to
know your treaty more particularly. I think it not improper
to mention that there is a slight report of an intention to make
Lord Chesterfield Lieutenant 3 , of which, if I hear more, I will
inform you farther.
1 Published in Notes and Queries,
6th S. v. 303, by Professor John
E. B. Mayor, with the following note
by Mr. M. M. Holloway : These
MSS. were purchased by Sir John
Simeon, Bart., in 1861, from a de
scendant of the Pierpoint family in
Devonshire ; three only appear to
have been known to Boswell \_Life,
i. 238 ; iv. 228, 270], and about
twelve have been privately printed
for the Philobiblon Society by Sir
John Simeon, from whom I bought
the collection, and sold this portion
to the Lord Overstone. In the
reprints in the Philobiblon Society
(vol. vi) I have discovered blunders,
and therefore I feel the more grate
ful to Professor Mayor for the trouble
he has taken to secure an accurate
reprint. I have been fortunate
enough to obtain copies of other let
ters of the same series ; but there
are many which I have not seen.
For Dr. Taylor see Life, ii. 473.
2 The Rev. Thomas Seward, Rec
tor of Eyam, Derbyshire, and of
Kingsley, near Cheadle in Stafford
shire, and Canon Residentiary of
Lichfield. Boswell describes him as
a genteel well-bred dignified clergy
man, who had travelled with Lord
Charles Fitzroy, who died when
abroad. Life, ii. 467. According
to Horace Walpole, when Lord
Charles fell ill, Seward, thinking that
his life was saved by the treatment
used, began a complimentary Ode
to his physician ; but was called
down before it was finished on his
pupil s relapse, who did die ; how
ever the bard was too much pleased
with the dtbtit of his poem to throw
it away, and so finished it. Letters,
viii. 415. He was the father of the
celebrated Anna Seward (Life, ii.
467), an affected, tiresome, spiteful
and mendacious creature, who wrote
bad verses, and disgraced Walter
Scott by being one of his corre
spondents. Nay, even he went so
far as to write a preface to what is
called her Poetical Works.
I have not ascertained the nature
of Seward s treaty with Taylor.
3 Sir Robert Walpole s Ministry
I propose
Aetat. 32.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor.
1 1
I propose to get Charles of Sweden 1 ready for this winter,
and shall therefore, as I imagine, be much engaged for some
months with the Dramatic Writers, into whom I have scarcely
looked for many years 2 . Keep Irene close, you may send it
back at your leisure.
You have never let me know what you do about Mr. Car s
affair or what the official has decided. Eld 3 is only neglected,
not forgotten.
had come to an end in February of
this year. On March 6, Lord Ches
terfield wrote to Dr. Chenevix :
The public has already assigned me
different employments, and among
others that which you mention ; but
I have been offered none, I have
asked for none, and I will accept of
none till I see a little clearer into
matters than I do at present. I have
opposed measures not men. Ches
terfield s Misc. Works, iv. 226. The
employment mentioned was the Lord-
Lieutenancy of Ireland. Ib. i. 195.
He did not receive the appointment
till 1745. Ib. p. 254. The phrase
measures not men is earlier by
23 years than any instance I have
seen quoted. Mr. E. J. Payne, in his
note on the cant of Not men but
measures 1 in Burke s Present Dis
contents (1770), quotes Dr. John
Brown s Thoughts on Civil Liberty
(1765), p. 124, and Goldsmith s Good-
Natured Man (1768), Act ii, where
Lofty says : Measures, not men,
have always been my mark. Payne s
Burke, i. 274.
1 This no doubt was a play. The
two and thirty lines in The Vanity of
Human Wishes in which Swedish
Charles is drawn, have lived till
now, and are likely to live for many
an age yet. The play, had it been
written, would be as much forgotten
as Irene.
2 In his edition of Shakespeare
(published in 1765), vol. vi. 159, he
says: I was many years ago so
shocked by Cordelia s death, that I
know not whether I ever endured to
read again the last scenes of the play
till I undertook to revise them as an
editor. According to a writer in the
Gentleman s Magazine, 1843, i. 482,
Steveens says: Dr. Johnson once
assured me that when he wrote
his Irene he had never read Othello ;
but meeting with it soon afterwards,
was surprised to find that he gave in
one of his characters a speech very
strongly resembling that in which
Cassio describes the effects produced
by Desdemona s beauty on such inani
mate objects as fat guttered rocks and
congregated sands [Act ii. sc. 1. 1. 69].
The Doctor added that on making the
discovery, for fear of imputed plag
iarism he struck out the accidental
coincidence from his own tragedy.
That Johnson, who was now but
thirty-two years old, should for
many years have scarcely looked into
the dramatic writers, is a clear proof
that his friend Gilbert Walmsley was
wrong in hoping that he would
turn out a fine tragedy-writer.
3 Eld perhaps was the man men
tioned in the following passage in the
Life, iii. 326 : BOSWELL. " I drank
chocolate, Sir, this morning with Mr.
Eld ; and, to my no small surprise,
found him to be a Staffordshire
Whig, a being which I did not be
lieve had existed." JOHNSON. " Sir,
there are rascals in all countries."
BOSWELL. " Eld said, a Tory was a
creature generated between a non-
12 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1742.
[If the time of the Duke s government should be near ex
piration, you must cling close and redouble your importunities,
though if any confidence can be placed in his Veracity, he may
be expected to serve you more effectually when he is only a
Courtier, than while he has so much power in another Kingdom 1 .]
I am well informed that a few days ago Cardinal Fleury sent
to an eminent Banker for Money, and receiving such a reply as
the present low state of France naturally produces, sent a party
of the Guards to examine his Books and search his House, such
is the felicity of absolute Governments, but they found the
Banker no better provided than he had represented himself,
and therefore broke part of his furniture and returned 2 .
It is reported that the peace between Prussia 3 and Hungary
was produced wholly by the address of Carteret, who having
procured a copy of Broglio s orders at the very time that they
were despatched, and finding them to contain instructions very
inconsistent with a sincere alliance, sent them immediately to
the King of Prussia, who did not much regard them, till he
found that he was in persuance [sic] of them exposed without
juring parson and one s grandmother." see post, Letters of May 1 6, 1776, and
JOHNSON. "And I have always July 8, 1782.
said, the first Whig was the Devil. " 2 Voltaire describes Cardinal Fleury
1 This passage is erased in the as a minister, ne comprenant abso-
original. The Duke was no doubt lument rien a une affaire de finance.
the third Duke of Devonshire, who (Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819-25,
was Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland from xix. 38. A writer in the Gentleman s
1737 to 1744. Burke s Peerage, ed. Magazine for March, 1742, p. 165,
1864, p. 335. Taylor had a con- speaking of the oppressive taxation
siderable political interest in the in France says : The people are
county of Derby, which he employed everywhere ripe for rebellion ; the
to support the Devonshire family ; Ministry have demanded a loan of
for, though the schoolfellow and ten millions of livres of the financiers,
friend of Johnson, he was a Whig. to be paid the first of July.
Life, ii. 474. It is likely that Taylor 3 In Notes and Queries this is
hoped to receive from the Duke one printed Russia, but Johnson cer-
of the valuable Irish deaneries or tainly meant, and most probably
bishoprics which were so commonly wrote, Prussia. Horace Walpole
given to Englishmen. Confidence wrote four days later : We were
could be placed in his Grace s veracity, surprised last Tuesday [the 8th] with
for it was this Duke whom Johnson the great good news of the peace
commended for a dogged veracity. between the Queen [Maria Theresa]
Life, iii. 378. and the King of Prussia. Walpole s
For Taylor s greed of preferments Letters, i. 175.
assistance
Aetat. 33.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor.
assistance to the hazard of the late battle, in which it is generally
believed that he lost more than twice as many as the Austrians.
He would then trust the French no longer 1 . You see that I am
determined to write a letter, for I never was authour of so much
political Intelligence before.
I am, if the relief of uneasiness can produce obligations, more
obliged to you, for what I imagine you have now sent Miss 2 ,
than for all that you have hitherto done for me.
Thurloe s papers which cost here 8 qs. 6d?, are intended to
be reprinted in Ireland at four guineas. Methinks you should
send orders to Faulkener 4 to subscribe.
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours very affectionate, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Have you begun to write out your Letters ?
June 10, 1742 5 .
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor
at Market Bosworth, Leicestershire 6 .
1 In the Gentleman s Magazine
for July, 1742, p. 389, much the same
account is given, though Carteret s
name is not mentioned. According
to Carlyle the King of Prussia learnt
of the orders given to Broglio from
one of his prisoners, an Austrian
general who had been mortally
wounded. This man had seen a
letter from Fleury to the Queen of
Hungary, and got the King a sight
of it. History of Friedrich II, ed.
1862, iii. 580. The late battle was
that of Chotusitz or Czaslau, in
which Frederick, though he gained
the victory, lost in killed 1905, to
1052 on the side of the Austrians.
Ib. p. 574. The peace was signed at
Breslau on June n. The news of it
had reached London on the 8th ;
but in England the dates still fol
lowed the Old Style.
2 Miss, no doubt, was Johnson s
step-daughter, Lucy Porter. See
post, p. 1 8.
3 In the Register of Books for
May, 1742, in the Gentleman s Maga
zine, p. 280, I find: A Collection
of the State Papers of John Thurloe,
Esq., Secretary to Oliver Cromwell,
SH-C., price 8 14-5-. in sheets. Wood
ward and Davis.
4 George Faulkner, the prince of
Dublin printers, as Swift called him
(Swift s Works, ed. 1803, xviii. 288) ;
the associate and correspondent of
LordChesterfield(Chesterfield sJ/z .sr.
Works, iv. 291). Boswell describes
him as the famous George Faulkner.
Life, v. 44. Richardson charged
him with joining with other Dublin
booksellers in pirating Sir Charles
Grandison. Sir Charles Grandison,
2nd ed. vi. 412.
5 Horace Walpole, writing on the
same day, thus dates his letter :
June 10, the Pretender s birthday,
which, by the way, I believe he did
not expect to keep at Rome this
year, 1742. Letters, i. 173.
6 Taylor went to Christ Church
with a view to the study of the law,
To
14 To John Levett. [A.D. 1743.
18.
To THE REVEREND DR. BIRCH.
[London], September 29, 1743. Published in the Life, i. 160.
19.
To JOHN LEVETT.
December i, 1743. Published in the Life, i. 160.
20.
To JOHN LEVETT *.
SIR,
I am obliged to trouble you upon an affair which I have
hardly time to explain, but in which I must beg that you will
assist as a few words will enable you to understand it better
than I do ; and the Humanity and Generosity which appeared
in your last letter give me no reason to doubt of your Com
pliance with my Request.
When I married Mrs. Johnson who was her first husband s
executrix, we by the advice of his chief Creditor made a re
signation (I suppose legal) of all his affairs to Mr. Perks an
Attorney of Birmingham. Soon afterwards Mr. Perks died,
as was supposed, without any effects, and therefore We thought
no more of the affair, but were lately accidentally informed that
a Composition is offered, and then I wrote to Birmingham for
but entering into holy orders was Lit. Anec. ix. 58.
presented to the valuable Rectory of J From the original, in the pos-
Market Bosworth in 1740, on the session of the Rev. F. R. Jefferson,
death of Mr. Beaumont Dixie. He Noman s Heath Vicarage, Tarn worth,
was supposed to have got it by pur- Bos well mentions Mr. Levett among
chase. Gisborne, the banker of Johnson s early friends belonging to
Derby, suspecting somewhat from the best families in Lichfield. Life,
the sums Taylor drew from him, i. 81. In 1761 Mr. John Levett was
marked some of the pieces; which returned for Lichfield, but on petition
presently came back, in part of the was declared to be not duly elected,
same sum, from the worthy Patron, Parl. Hist. xv. 1088. Johnson, in a
who had reason afterwards for saying letter dated a month earlier, had
" that a broken attorney made a apologised to Mr. Levett for his
notable parson." He found that he delay in paying the interest of a
had met with his match. Nichols s mortgage. Life, i. 160.
Directions
Aetat. 34.] To John Levett. 1 5
Directions how to act, and received yesterday a Letter by which
I am informed that the accounts are to be irrevocably settled on
Thursday. Having not the papers at London, there is great
danger, as I apprehend, that they cannot arrive soon enough.
I have however sent Miss Porter directions to open a Cabinet,
and bring it to you, and beg that you will find a Messenger to
make the Demand in form 1 .
Be pleased to inform Me where I may see you when you
come to town, for not to have the satisfaction of waiting upon
one for whom, on account of a long series of kindness to my
Father and myself, I have so much Respect will be a great
and uneasy Disappointment to,
Sir,
Your most humble Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
I had forgot to inform you that your Messenger may apply to
Mr. Will" 1 Ward, Mercer in Birm. for directions where to go.
Jan. 3, 1743-4-
To Mr. Levett in Lichfield.
21.
To [PJOHN LEVETT 2 .]
SIR,
I have been hinderd from writing to you by an imagina
tion that it was necessary to write more than I had time for,
1 Light is thrown on this letter by and Elizabeth his wife, executors of
the following passage in a paper by the last will and testament of Harry
Mr. Samuel Timmins, published in Porter, late of Birmingham aforesaid,
the Transactions of the Archaeological woollen draper, deceased." Johnson
Section of the Birmingham and Mid- and his wife were almost the only
land Institute, 1876 : My friend, creditors who did not sign the deed,
Mr. Joseph Hill, says, A copy of an their seals being left void. It is
old deed which has recently come doubtful, therefore, whether they ever
into my hands, shews that a hundred obtained the amount of the com
pounds of Mrs. Johnson s fortune position, ^36 13^. 4^. See also the
was left in the hands of a Birming- Life, i. 95, n. 3.
ham attorney named Thomas Perks, 2 From the original, in the posses-
who died insolvent; and in 1745, a sion of Mr. J. H. Hodson of Lichfield.
bulky deed gave his creditors Js. ^d. It was most likely written to
in the pound. Among the creditors Mr. Levett of that town, to whom
for^ioowere"SamuelJohnson,gent., Johnson, as is shown by his Letter of
but
1 6 To Mr. Urban! [A.D. 1744.
but recollecting that business may be despatched much more
expeditiously by conversation, I beg to be informed when I can
wait on you with most convenience to yourself. I believe I
shall find means of accommodating the affair so as to give you
valuable satisfaction. You forgot to send me word what interest
is due, which I mention that you may examine, for though Mr.
Aston 1 has a receipt for interest which I got him to pay to your
Father, I cannot conveniently wait on him about it.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Golden Anchor, Holborn 2 . Sat. Morning.
22.
To [? JOHN LEVETT 3 .] No date.
SIR,
I am very ill, and unable to wait on you or meet with you.
I have been disappointed by two to whom I applied, and either
of whom might have done it without inconvenience. The gen
tleman whom I have desired to come with this has (?) offered it
on terms which may make a little longer delay, but if you have
any one with whom you can have the things necessary it may
now be done.
I am, Sir,
Your humble friend,
SAM: JOHNSON.
I had sent to you but I had forgot your lodging which you
have not mentioned in your notes.
23.
To MR. URBAN.
August, 1744. Published in the Life, ii. 164.
Dec. i, 1743 (Life, i. 161), owed the ! Johnson twice lodged in Holborn
interest of a mortgage. between the years 1741 and 1749.
1 Mr. Aston probably belonged to Life, iii. 405, n. 6.
the family of Sir Thomas Aston. Life, 3 From the original, in the pos-
i. 83. He is mentioned again, post, session of Mr. J. H. Hodson of
p. 30. Lichfield.
To
Aetat. 34.]
To James Elphinston.
SIR,
24.
To JAMES ELPHINSTON
I have for a long time intended to answer the Letter which
you were pleased to send me, and know not why I have delayed
1 First published in Memoirs of
the Life and Writings of Dr. John
son, 1785, p. 1 66.
James Elphinston most likely be
came known to Johnson through
William Strahan, the printer, who
had married his sister. The year
after the date of this letter he sug
gested and took the charge of an
edition of the Rambler at Edinburgh.
Life, i. 210. About the year 1753
he opened a school at Brompton ;
moving later on to Kensington, where
Boswell and Johnson one day dined
with him (ib. ii. 226), in a noble
mansion opposite to the King s gar
dens, with an elegant ball-room with
handsome bow-windows at the top
of the eastern division of the house.
Nichols s Lit. Anec. iii. 32. Jeremy
Bentham describes it as a spacious
mansion, having dined there on a
summer s day with Burkarti, the
Resident from the Free City of
Hamburgh, who occupied in it a
comfortable and pleasant apartment.
Bentham s Works, x. 58. In the
fourth edition of the Rambler, pub
lished in 1756, the reader is informed
in a foot-note on the first page, that
Mr. Elphinston, to whom the author
of these papers is indebted for many
elegant translations of the mottos
which are inserted from the Edin
burgh edition, now keeps an academy
for young gentlemen at Brompton,
near Kensington. Johnson, who by
his own failure knew the difficulty of
starting an academy, was willing,
it seems, in this curious way, to give
his friend, the young Scotchman, a
helping hand. He thus described
VOL. I.
him twenty years later : His inner
part is good, but his outer part is
mighty awkward. ... I would not
put a boy to him, whom I intended
for a man of learning. But for the
sons of citizens who are to learn a
little, get good morals, and then go
to trade, he may do very well. Life,
ii. 171. He had been abroad in his
youth with Carte, the Jacobite his
torian, who believed in the royal
touch, and he was himself a Non-
juror. Johnson in 1754 had recom
mended his school for the son of his
friend, Fitzherbert, but was told that
the Scotchman and Non-juror would
be insuperable objections. An Ac
count of the Life of Dr. Johnson,
1805, p. 66.
In 1778 Elphinston published that
tran slati on of Martial whi ch provoked
Burns s epigram :
O thou whom Poetry abhors,
Whom Prose has turned out of
doors,
Heard st thou that groan pro
ceed no further,
Twas laurell d Martial roaring
murder.
His brother-in-law Strahan sent
him a subscription of fifty pounds,
and said he would send him fifty
more, if he would not publish. Life,
iii. 258. Of his skill as a translator
the following may be taken as a
sample :
To SABIDIUS.
I love thee not, nor can the cause
display ;
I love thee not, poor Sab : I still
may say.
C it
i8
To Miss Porter.
[A.D. 1749.
it so long ; but that I had nothing particular either of enquiry
or information to send you; and the same reason might still
have the same consequence, but that I find, in my recluse kind
of life, that I am not likely to have much more to say at one
time than another, and that therefore I may endanger, by an
appearance of neglect long continued, the loss of such an
Acquaintance as I know not where to supply. I therefore
write now to assure you how sensible I am of the kindness you
have always expressed to me, and how much I desire the cul
tivation of that Benevolence which perhaps nothing but the
distance between us has hindered from ripening before this
time into Friendship. Of myself I have very little to say, and
of any body else less ; let me, however, be allowed one thing,
and that in my own favour ; that I am,
Dear Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
April 20, 1749.
25.
To Miss PORTER *.
Goff Square 2 , July 12, 1749.
DEAR Miss,
I am extremely obliged to you for. your letter, which
I would have answered last post, but that illness prevented me.
He introduced a new system of or
thography, and quarrelled over it with
Strahan, who, no doubt, refused, as
King s Printer, to follow his brother-
in-law in a mode of spelling of which
the following is a specimen. It is
taken from his Deddicacion To
Dhe King of his Propriety Ascer
tained in her Picture, (two quarto
volumes of about 650 pages) :
Yoor Madjesty haz dained by fixing
Inglish Speech in Inglish Orthog-
graphy to secure dhe unfading luster
ov Truith, and dhe unfailing succes
sion ov a Horrace, a Boileau, and a
Pope. Strahan nevertheless be
queathed to him an annuity of
He lived till the age of eighty-seven,
dying in 1809 ; to the last he wore
the dress which had been in fashion
early last century the coat with
flaps and buttons to the pockets and
sleeves, the powdered bag-wig with
a high toupee, a cocked hat, shoe-
buckles and an amber-headed cane.
Nichols s Lit. Anec. iii. 35.
1 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, p. 62.
2 In Dodsley s London and its
Environs, 1761, iii. 53, this place is
called Cough s Square, and is de
scribed as a very small oblong
square, with a row on each side of
handsome buildings. In what year
I have
Aetat. 39.]
To Miss Porter.
I have been often out of order of late, and have very much
neglected my affairs. You have acted very prudently with
regard to Levett s affair, which will, I think, not at all embarrass
me, for you may promise him, that the mortgage shall be taken
up at Michaelmas, or, at least, some time between that and
Christmas ; and if he requires to have it done sooner, I will
endeavour it \ I make no doubt, by that time, of either doing
it myself, or persuading some of my friends to do it for me.
Please to acquaint him with it, and let me know if he be
satisfied. When he once called on me, his name was mistaken,
and therefore I did not see him ; but, finding the mistake, wrote
to him the same day, but never heard more of him, though I
entreated him to let me know where to wait on him. You
frighted me, you little gipsy, with your black wafer, for I had
Johnson took the house is not known ;
he resided in it till March 23, 1759.
Life, iii. 405, n. 6. It is likely that
the money which he received for
Irene in February, 1749, enabled him
to live in more comfort than hitherto,
and that it was then that he moved.
It was in this house that he wrote the
main part of his Dictionary, his
Ramblers, Adventurers, many of his
Idlers, and Rasselas. It was here
that he mourned over the loss, first
of his wife and then of his mother.
It still stands, with a tablet on it to
tell its history. It is the first or
corner house on the right hand, as
you enter through the arched way
from the North-west. Ib. i. 188,
n. i.
1 On December i, 1743, Johnson
wrote to Levett to ask his forbear
ance with respect to the interest due
on a mortgage. Money no doubt
had been borrowed on the security
of the freehold house at Lichfield
which had belonged to his father,
and in which his mother was still
living. Mr. J. H. Hodson of Lich
field has in his interesting collection
of autographs the following unad-
dressed letter of Johnson s step-
C
daughter, referring to the same
affair :
I shall take it as a particular
favour if you will not mention the
ejectment, or cause it to be deliver d
to Mrs. Johnson till I have spoke to
you again, which I shall be glad to
do the first opportunity. She has
been very poorly for some time, and
is too weak at present to bear the
shock of such a thing, and I believe
the very knowing of it would almost
destroy her. I hope you need not
be under any apprehension concern
ing the Money, as I will do my utmost
endeavour to procure it as soon as
I can. Your complying with the
above request will infinitely oblige
Your humble Servant,
LUCY PORTER.
June 7.
See /#.$/, Letter of March 7, 1752.
On Johnson s death his house was
sold for ,235. Hawkins s Johnson,
p. 599. On October 20, 1887, it was
sold for /8oo to Mr. G. H. Johnson
of Southport. Daily News, Oct. 21,
1887. Mr. Johnson with a noble
spirit is preserving it as a memorial
of its great owner.
I forgot
2O
To
[A.D. 1750.
forgot you were in mourning, and was afraid your letter had
brought me ill news of my mother, whose death is one of the
few calamities on which I think with terror *. I long to know
how she does, and how you all do. Your poor mamma is come
home, but very weak 2 ; yet I hope she will grow better, else she
shall go into the country. She is now up-stairs, and knows not
of my writing.
I am, dear Miss,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
26.
To 3 .
I am very much obliged to you for your commission, which
though, I think, not absolutely necessary to me, will be ex
tremely convenient, as it will rescue me from the necessity
of soliciting a favour, which, you know, all mankind is apt
to rate not according to its real value, but to the exigence of
him that asks it. I have all the assurance that human life
allows, of being able by the time you mention of setling
[sic] the affair without any trouble, and shall consider this
exemption from the pain of borrowing as a very considerable
favour to,
Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Will you spend an evening with me ? as you mention nothing
of my coming to you, I suppose it is not convenient. May
I have the pleasure of seeing you ? I am almost always at
home.
1 Carlyle, who in many ways was
like Johnson, writing about his
mother not long before her death,
said : The thing I have dreaded
all my days is perhaps now drawing
nigh. Correspondence of Emerson
and Carlyle, ed. 1883, ii. 226.
2 Mrs. Johnson, for the sake of
country air, had lodgings at Hamp-
stead. Life, i. 192.
3 From the original in the posses
sion of the Rev. Clement Price, Selby
Oak Vicarage, Birmingham. The
address and date are torn off. It is
possible that this letter was written
to Mr. Levett, and refers to the
mortgage mentioned in the letter to
Miss Porter.
To
Aetat. 4i.] To Samuel Richardson. 21
27.
To THE PRINTER OF THE GENERAL ADVERTISER.
[London, April 4, 1750.] Published in the Life, i. 227.
28.
To THE REVEREND MR. BIRCH.
Gough Square, May 12, 1750. Published in the Life, i. 226.
29.
To JAMES ELPHINSTON.
[London, 1750.] Published in the Life, i. 210.
30.
To JAMES ELPHINSTON.
[London], September 25, 1750. Published in the Life, i. 211.
81.
To SAMUEL RICHARDSON \
DEAR SIR, March 9> 1750-1.
Though Clarissa wants no help from external splendour,
I was glad to see her improved in her appearance 2 , but more
glad to find that she was now got above all fears of prolixity,
and confident enough of success to supply whatever had been
hitherto suppressed. I never indeed found a hint of any such
defalcation, but I regretted it ; for though the story is long,
every letter is short 3 .
1 Published in the Correspondence volumes Richardson says : It was
of Samuel Richardson, v. 281. resolved to present to the World the
2 The first edition of Clarissa Two First Volumes by way of Speci-
(1748) was in small print, in seven men ; and to be determined with
volumes duodecimo. The fourth regard to the rest by the Reception
edition (1751) was in large print, in those should meet with. If that
seven volumes octavo ; each contain- be favourable, Two others may soon
ing a table of contents, while at the follow ; the whole Collection being
end of the last volume is a collection ready for the Press : That is to say,
of many of the Moral and Instruc- If it be not found necessary to ab-
tive Sentiments in this History made stract or omit some of the Letters, in
by an Ingenious Gentleman and order to reduce the Bulk of the
presented to the Editor. Whole. In the Preface to the fourth
3 In the Preface to the first two edition he says : It is proper to
I wish
22
To John Newbery.
[A.D. 1751.
I wish you would add an index rerum x , that when the reader
recollects any incident, he may easily find it, which at present
he cannot do, unless he knows in which volume it is told ; for
Clarissa is not a performance to be read with eagerness, and
laid aside for ever ; but will be occasionally consulted by the
busy, the aged, and the studious 2 ; and therefore T beg that
this edition, by which I suppose posterity is to abide, may want
nothing that can facilitate its use.
I am, Sir,
Yours, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
32.
To JOHN NEWBERY 3 .
DEAR SIR,
I have just now a demand upon me for more money than
I have by me : if you could conveniently help me with two
pounds it will be a favour to
Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
April 18, 1751.
Endorsed 2oth April. Received of Mr. Newbery the sum of two
guineas for the use of Mr. Johnson, p r me.
THOS. LUCY.
observe with regard to the present
Edition that it has been thought fit
to restore many Passages, and
several Letters which were omitted
in the former merely for shortening-
sake. These are distinguished by
Dots or inverted Full-points. And
it is intended to print them sepa
rately, for the sake of doing justice
to the Purchasers of the former Edi
tions.
1 Richardson s last novel, Sir
Charles Grandison, very likely in
consequence of Johnson s request,
repeated as it was in his letter of
September 26, 1753, was furnished
with a copious Index, Historical
and Characteristical, as well as with
one to the Similes and Allusions.
In this latter we find such entries as
the following : GRANDISON, Sir
Charles, His look, To a sun-beam,
v. 332. His friends in the nuptial
procession, To the Satellites attend
ing a primary planet.
2 Lord Macaulay had read Sir
Charles Grandison so often that he
thought it probable that he could re
write it from memory. Trevelyan s
Macaulay, ed. 1877, i. 133. A curious
proof of the popularity of Clarissa
in France is shown by the fact that
Lovelace is given in Littre s Diction
ary as a French word. It is de
fined as elegant se ductenr.
3 This and the next two Letters
To
Aetat. 41.]
To John Newbery.
SIR,
33.
To JOHN NEWBERY.
I beg the favour of you to send me by the bearer a guinea,
for which I will account to you on some future production.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
July 29, 1751.
Endorsed 2gth July. Received of Mr. Newbery the sum of one
guinea for the use of Mr. Johnson.
THOS. LUCY.
The following entry is in Newbery s hand : Lent Mr. Johnson,
July 30, i i.
were first published in Prior s Life
of Goldsmith, ed. 1837, i. 340.
Goldsmith pleasantly introduces
John Newbery in the Vicar of Wake-
field, ch. xviii, as a traveller who
came up to a little ale-house in which
the Vicar was detained by illness
and by want of money. This person
was no other than the philanthropic
bookseller in St. Paul s Churchyard,
who has written so many little books
for children : he called himself their
friend, but he was the friend of all man
kind. He was no sooner alighted, but
he was in haste to be gone ; for he
was ever on business of the utmost
importance, and was at that time
actually compiling materials for the
history of one Mr. Thomas Trip. I
immediately recollected this good-
natured man s red pimpled face ;
for he had published for me against
the Deuterogamists of the age, and
from him I borrowed a few pieces to
be paid at my return. According
to a writer in the European Maga
zine for August, 1793, p. 92, Dr.
Goldsmith used to tell many pleasant
stories of Newbery, who, he said,
was the patron of more distressed
authors than any man of his time.
He is that great philosopher Jack
Whirler of The Idler, No. 19,
whose business keeps him in per
petual motion, and whose motion
always eludes his business. Haw
kins writes of him as a man of a
projecting head, a good understand
ing, and great integrity ; who by a
fortunate connection with Dr. James,
the physician, and the honest exer
tions of his own industry became the
founder of a family. Hawkins s
Johnson, p. 364. He was the vendor
of Dr. James s famous powder, in
which Goldsmith had such faith that
he took it in his last illness, in de
fiance of his doctors, and probably
thereby increased the violence of the
attack. Forster s Goldsmith, ii. 418.
Horace Walpole, who had no less
faith in it, thought that Goldsmith
might have been saved, if he had
continued it, but his physician inter
posed. Letters, vi. 72. Fielding
praises it in Amelia, Bk. viii. ch. 9,
and Cowper felt bound to honour it.
Southey s Cowper, v. 226. See also
ib. p. 126. For an interesting ac
count of Newbery and his connection
To
To John Newbery.
[A.D. 1751.
34.
To JOHN NEWBERY.
DEAR SIR, . Aug. 24, 1751-
I beg the favour of you to lend me another guinea, for
which I shall be glad of any opportunity to account with you,
as soon as any proper thing can be thought on, or which I will
repay you in a few weeks.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
Endorsed 24th August. Received of Mr. Newbery the sum of
one guinea for the use of Mr. Johnson, p r me,
THOS. LUCY.
with Dr. James see A Bookseller of
the Last Century, by Charles Welsh.
London, 1885.
It is likely that the first of the
three sums was an advance and not
a loan, for Johnson was at this time
contributing a Life of Cheynel to
The Student, a Monthly Miscellany
published by Newbery. This Life
appeared in three successive numbers,
probably those for May, June and
July, 1751. In some of the numbers
the name of the month is omitted.
In 1758 Johnson was again working
for Newbery, who was the proprietor,
in whole or in part, of the Idler.
The advances or the loans began
again, as the two following entries
show :
May 19, 1759.
I promise to pay to Mr. Newbery
the sum of forty-two pounds nineteen
shillings and ten pence on demand,
value received.
^42 19.5-. lod. SAM: JOHNSON.
March 20, 1760.
I promise to pay to Mr. Newbery
the sum of thirty pounds upon de
mand.
^30 os. od. SAM : JOHNSON.
Prior s Goldsmith, \. 341.
From April 15, 1758 to April 5,
1760 Johnson wrote his Idlers for a
weekly newspaper in which Newbery
had some part. Life, i. 330. Ac
cording to Hawkins, a share in the
profits of this paper was Johnson s
inducement to write. Hawkins s
Johnson, p. 364. When the Idlers
were collected in volumes they were
published by Newbery, one-third of
the profits going to him and two-
thirds to the author. In an account
between the two men of the sale of
an edition in two volumes of 1500
copies Newbery took 42 is. 2,d.
and Johnson ,84 2s. ^d. Life, i. 335.
It is probable that the money for
which the receipt is given in the text
was an advance on future profits.
See the Introduction to my edition
of Johnson s Essays in The Temple
Library, p. 36.
TO
Aetat. 42.]
To William Strahan.
35.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN I .
DEAREST SIR, Nov - *
The message which you sent me by Mr. Stuart 2 I do not
consider as at all your own, but if you were contented to be
the deliverer of it to me, you must favour me so far as to
return my answer, which I have written down to spare you the
unpleasing office of doing it in your own words. You advise
me to write, I know with very kind intentions, nor do I intend
to treat your counsel with any disregard when I declare that in
the present state of the matter I shall not write - otherwise
than the words following :
That my resolution has long been, and is not now altered,
and is now less likely to be altered, that I shall not see the
Gentlemen Partners 3 till the first volume is in the press, which
they may forward or retard by dispensing or not dispensing
with the last message.
1 From the original in the posses
sion, first, of Mr. Frederick Barker,
of 41 Gunterstone Road, West Ken
sington, W., and subsequently of the
late Mr. S. J. Davey, of 47 Great
Russell Street, W. C.
William Strahan, who was born in
Edinburgh in 1715, at an early age
established himself as a printer in
London. In 1770 he purchased from
Mr. George Eyre a share of the
patent for King s Printer ; he was a
member of Parliament from 1774 to
1783, and he died in 1785. In con
junction either with Millar or Cadell
he was the publisher of works of
Blackstone, Blair, Gibbon, Hume,
Johnson, Robertson, and Adam
Smith ; and he was the printer of
Johnson s Dictionary.
2 Francis Stuart, or Stewart, was
one of the five Scotchmen whom
Johnson employed as amanuenses in
the work of his Dictionary. Life, i.
187. He died early, as is shown by
the next letter but one. In 1780
Johnson writing about him said :
The memory of him is yet fresh in
my mind ; he was an ingenious and
worthy man. Ib. iii. 421. Accord
ing to a writer in the Gent. Mag.
for 1799, p. 1171, who had been
employed in Strahan s printing works,
Stewart in a night ramble in Edin
burgh in 1736 with some of his
companions met with the mob con
ducting Captain Porteous to be
hanged ; they were next day exa
mined about it before the Town
Council, when, as Stewart used to
say, " we were found to be too drunk
to have any hand in the business."
He gave an accurate account of it in
the Edinburgh Magazine of that
time. This last statement throws
doubt on the whole narrative, for the
Scots Magazine, the first published
at Edinburgh, did not begin till 1739.
3 The Gentlemen Partners in the
Dictionary were R. and J.Dodsley, L.
Hawes, C. Hitch, J. and P. Knapton,
T. and T. Longman, and A. Millar.
Be
26
To
[A.D. 1751.
Be pleased to lay this my determination before them this
morning, for I shall think of taking my measures accordingly
to-morrow evening, only this that I mean no harm, but that
my citadel shall not be taken by storm while I can defend it,
and that if a blockade is intended, the country is under the
command of my batteries, I shall think of laying it under
contribution to-morrow Evening *.
I am, Sir,
Your most obliged, most obedient,
and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Strahan.
36.
To- -.
[London], December 10, 1751.
In Messrs. Sotheby and Co. s Auction Catalogue for May 10, 1875,
Lot 83 is an autograph Letter of Dr. Johnson, one page quarto, dated
December 10, 1751. "I thought it necessary to inform you how it
happened that I seemed to give myself so little trouble about my Book,
when I gave you so much." He speaks of Lord Orrery s favourable
opinion of " our Charlotte s Book 2 ," and mentions other matters con
nected with literary subjects. It sold for 2 $s.
1 Johnson was to receive for the
Dictionary .1575 in all, paying his
assistants himself. Boswell says that
he was often goaded to dispatch,
more especially as he had received
all the copy-money by different drafts
a considerable time before he had
finished his task. Life, i. 287. It
seems probable that the partners
had threatened a blockade by
refusing the weekly contribution.
To this, Johnson replied that he was
the real master of the position ; if he
were to throw up the work in the
middle the loss which would be in
curred would fall on them and be very
heavy. By the evening of the next
day therefore they must let him have
some money, or he would strike work.
2 Our Charlotte was Mrs. Len
nox. She had published in the pre
vious winter a novel under the title
of The Memoirs of Harriet Stuart.
One evening at the Club, writes
Hawkins, Johnson proposed to us
the celebrating the birth of her first
literary child, as he called her book, by
a whole night spent in festivity. Our
supper was elegant, and he had
directed that a magnificent hot apple-
pie should make a part of it, and this
he would have stuck with bay-leaves,
because, forsooth, Mrs. Lennox was
an authoress, and had written verses ;
and further, he had prepared for her
a crown of laurel, with which, but not
till he had invoked the Muses by
some ceremonies of his own inven
tion, he encircled her brows. About
five his face shone with meridian
splendour, though his drink had
been only lemonade. Hawkins s
Johnson, p. 286.
In Messrs. Sotheby and Co. s Auc-
To
Aetat. 42.] To William Strahan. 2 7
37.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN z .
DEAR SIR,
What you tell me I am ashamed never to have thought
on I wish I had known it sooner Send me back the last
sheet ; and the last copy for correction. If you will promise
me henceforward to print a sheet a day, I will promise you to
endeavour that you shall have every day a sheet to print,
beginning next Tuesday.
I am, Sir,
Your most, &c.
SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Strahan. J
38.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN 2 .
DEAR SIR,
I must desire you to add to your other civilities this one, to
go to Mr. Millar 3 and represent to him the manner of going on,
and inform him that I know not how to manage. I pay three
and twenty shillings a week to my assistants, in each instance
having much assistance from them, but they tell me they shall
tion Catalogue forNovember 27, 1889, of four pages. Johnson writing on
Lot 102 is a letter of Mrs. Lennox April 3, 1753, says, I began the
dated November 21, 1751, in which second vol. of my Dictionary, room
she writes : Mr. Johnson has in- being left in the first for Preface,
formed me of the generous concern Grammar, and History, none of them
you exprest for the severity of my yet begun. Life, i. 255. As the
critics, and your good intentions to book was published on April 15,
rescue my book from their censures, 1755 (*& i- 2 9 n - the printing
and restore me to Mr. Millar s good must have gone on very rapidly,
opinions. when a start was once made. By
1 From the original in the posses- copy he means his manuscript for
sion of Mr. Frederick Barker, of printing.
41 Gunterstone Road, West Ken- This and the next letter are from
sington. First published in my the original in the possession of Mr.
edition of Boswell s Life of Johnsoti, John Waller, of 2 Artesian Road,
vol. vi. Addenda, p. xxv. Westbourne Grove. First published
In all likelihood Johnson is writing in my edition of Boswell s Life of
about the Dictionary. As the first Johnson, vol. vi. Addenda, p. xxv.
edition was in folio, a sheet consisted 3 For Andrew Mi liar, see /tf.?/, p. 30.
be
28 To- - Levett. [A.D. 1752.
be able to pull better in method, as indeed I intend they shall.
The point is to get two Guineas J .
Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Strahan.
39.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN.
SIR,
I have often suspected that it is as you say, and have told
Mr. Dodsley of it. It proceeds from the haste of the amanuensis
to get to the end of his day s work. I have desired the passages
to be clipped close, and then perhaps for two or three leaves it
is done. But since poor Stuart s 2 time I could never get that
part of the work into regularity, and perhaps never shall. I
will try to take some more care, but can promise nothing ; when
I am told there is a sheet or two I order it away. You will find
it sometimes close ; when I make up any myself, which never
happens but when I have nobody with me, I generally clip it
close, but one cannot always be on the watch.
I am, Sir,
Your most, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
40.
To LEVETT, ESQ., in Lichfield 3 .
SIR,
I am extremely obliged to you for the long credit and kind
forbearance which I have received from you. I have sold a
property principally to satisfy you, and in consequence of that
1 The writer in the Gent. Mag. column, leaving a space between
quoted ante, p. 25, says that after each for the authorities, which were
the printing had gone on some time pasted on as they were collected by
the proprietors of the Dictionary the different amanuenses ; and in
paid Johnson through Mr. Strahan this mode the MS. was so regular
at the rate of a guinea for every that the sheets of MS. which made
sheet of MS. copy delivered. The a sheet of print could be very exactly
copy was written upon quarto post, ascertained.
and in two columns each page. See ante, p. 25, n. 2.
Johnson wrote in his own hand the 3 From the original in the posses-
words and their explanation, and sion of Mr. J. H. Hodson of Lich-
generally two or three words in each field.
sale
Aetat. 42.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 29
sale can now give you a Draught of one hundred pounds upon
a Bookseller of credit payable on the first of May and realizable
in the meantime T . If you have not any evidence of the money
paid for me by Mr. Aston I know not how to ascertain it, for
though I could make oath to a payment I cannot certainly tell
of how much, though I think, of twelve pounds 2 . Would you
be pleased to terminate the affair with Mr. J. Sympson 3 ? I
have not mentioned it to him, because I neither would employ
any one you may not desire to be employed, nor oblige you to
confess any dislike. I know not indeed that anybody needs to
be employed, for I do not doubt your candour.
I am, Sir. with great respect,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
For any money above one hundred pounds I must beg you
to accept my Note for six months.
March 7, 1752.
41.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR.
[London], March 17, 1752. Mentioned in the Life, i. 238.
42.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR.
March 18, 1752. Published in the Life, i. 238.
1 I have little doubt that the This letter darkens the gloom in
property which Johnson sold was which we see the Rambler bring his
his share, or part of his share paper to its close. His wife was on
in The Rambler, the last num- her death-bed, and now we learn
ber of which was published a week that he was harassed for the pay-
after the date of this letter. On ment of a debt which he had incurred
April i of the previous year he had for the sake of his mother,
entered into an agreement with Cave 2 In a letter to Levett dated Dec. I,
about the sale of the second edition of 1743, he says: I will pay the
the first seventy numbers. (Nichols s interest (I think twelve pounds) in
Lit. Anec. viii. 415, where the two months. Life, i. 160. See ante,
year 1759 is clearly a misprint for p. 16, for mention of a receipt which
1751, for it is described as the 24th Mr. Aston had.
George II.) That Johnson subse- 3 For Joseph Simpson, one of
qnently sold the whole of his share Johnson s schoolfellows, who be-
in the future profits we know from came a barrister but fell into a dis-
Chalmers. Biog. Diet. xix. 58. sipated course of life, see Life, iii. 28.
TO
\o
To Andrew Millar.
[A.D. 1752.
SIR,
43.
To THE REVEREND MR. BIRCH
I beg the favour that if you have any catalogue by you
such as the Bibl. Thuaneana 2 , or any other of value, that you
will lend it for a few days to
Sir,
Your most humble servt,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Nov. 4, 1752.
If you leave it out directed, we will call for it.
To the Reverend Mr. Birch.
44.
To ANDREW MILLAR 3 .
SIR, July 1 1.
You seem to have entirely mistaken Mr. Macbean s errand
by objecting want of money no money was asked the whole
affair is that Mr. Macbean and Mr. Hamilton want to wager
as you and I have done, and so lay the money in your hand,
you have therefore to put the money into Macbean s hand to
be put back into yours. I have no share in the matter but
that I lend Macbean the money, that is you lend on my account.
You may easily see my end in it, that it will make both
1 From the original in the British
Museum : Sloane MSS., 4310. 300.
2 The Catalogus Bibliothecce Thu-
an<z was published in Paris in 1679.
The library had belonged to the
historian De Thou (Thuanus), whose
Historia sui Temporis in 138 books
Johnson towards the close of his life
had thoughts of translating. Life,
iv. 410. He inspired, it seems, his
young friend Windham to undertake
the task, who however did not make
much progress. Diary of the Right
Hon. W. Windham, pp. 21, 50. En
mourant de Thou laissait une biblio-
theque qui est reside celebre. Nouv.
Biog. Gen. xlv. 259. Johnson men
tions the Thuanian Catalogue in his
Account of the Harleian Library,
Works, v. 189.
3 From the original in the pos
session of Mr. Alfred Morrison of
Fonthill House.
Andrew Millar was a bookseller
in the Strand, who took the principal
charge of conducting the publication
of Johnson s Dictionary. When the
messenger who carried the last sheet
to him returned, Johnson asked him,
"Well, what did he say?" "Sir,
(answered the messenger) he said,
thank GOD I have done with him."
" I am glad (replied Johnson, with
a smile) that he thanks GOD for
any thing." : Life, \. 287. See also
Letters of Hume to Strahan, p. xxiii.
M
Aetat. 43.]
To Andrew Millar.
M and H push on the business, which is all that we both
wish.
It is therefore my advice that it be complied with, since, as
you see, there is no expense in it, but remember that I don t
care, and will not have it mentioned as any obligation on me,
but as done for the common interests T .
When I sent back your books I returned by mistake to you
a Yoimg ttpon Opium 2 , which I had from Mrs. Strahan ; please to
let me have it back.
Pray be so kind as to procure me the three following books
Law s Serious Call. 8vo. 3
Helsham s Philosophy 4 .
Present State of England last 5 .
I am, Sir, &c.
SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Millar.
1 Johnson had two Macbeans
among his amanuenses, one of whom
he befriended in his old age. Life,
i. 187. Mr. Hamilton was most
likely Archibald Hamilton, the prin
ter, who had kept his coach (Mrs.
Williams said) several years sooner
than Mr. Strahan. Johnson. " He
was in the right. Life is short. The
sooner that a man begins to enjoy
his wealth the better." Ib. ii. 226.
Hamilton, it seems from this letter,
had some share in printing the Dic
tionary, though a great deal of it was
done by Strahan. Ib. iv. 321. Ap
parently for the sake of getting the
work hastened, some kind of wager
had been made by the author and
the publisher. Johnson perhaps had
wagered that he could supply copy
or manuscript faster than Millar
could get it set up in type. Macbean,
who perhaps was at the head of
Johnson s assistants, now wished to
wager against the printer. Millar
was to hold the stakes. Macbean
had no money, and Johnson had no
money, but Millar could trust Johnson
and therefore was to advance it on
his account. He was to put the
amount of the wager into Macbean s
hands, who would at once pay it back
to him as the holder of the stakes.
If Macbean lost, Millar, who would
hand over the stake to Hamilton,
would come on Johnson, who, in
his turn, would no doubt deduct
the money from Macbean s weekly
wages.
2 A Treatise on Opium. By Geo.
Young, M.D. Published by Millar in
I 753- Gent. Mag. 1753, p. 202.
3 When I was at Oxford, said
Johnson, I took up Law s Serious
Call to a Holy Life, expecting to find
it a dull book (as such books generally
are) and perhaps to laugh at it. But
I found Law quite an overmatch for
me. Life, i. 68.
4 A Course of Lectures in Natural
Philosophy, by the late Rich. Hels-
ham, M.D. Gent. Mag. 1739, p. 276.
5 Chamberlayne s Present State of
Great Britain the last edition.
To
,v
To William Strahan.
[A.D. 1753.
SIR,
45.
To THE REVEREND MR. BIRCH T .
I beg the favour of you to lend me Blount s Censura
Scriptorum z . I shall send my servant for it on Monday.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Jan. 20. To the Reverend Mr. Birch.
Endorsed 20 Jan. 1753.
46.
To THE REVEREND JOSEPH WARTON.
[London], March 8, 1753. Published in the Life, \. 253.
SIR,
47.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN 3 .
I have enclosed the Scheme 4 which I mentioned yesterday
in which the work proposed is sufficiently explained.
The Undertaker, Mr. Bathurst 5 , is a Physician of the Univer
sity of Cambridge, of about eight years standing, and will per-
1 From the original in the British
Museum : Sloane MSS. 4310. 302.
2 Sir Thomas Pope Blount s Cen
sura CelebriorumAuthorum. London,
1690, folio. It is a bibliographical
dictionary of a peculiar kind, and
may be described as a record of the
opinions of the greatest writers of all
ages on one another. Among the
celebriores authores passed over in
silence are Spenser, Shakespeare and
Milton. Diet. Nat. Biog., v. 256.
3 From the original in the posses
sion of Mr. Frederick Barker, of 41
Gunterstone Road, West Kensing
ton. First published in my edition
of the Life, vol. vi. Addenda, p. xxi.
4 The Scheme, which if not written
by Johnson was certainly revised by
him, is given in the Addenda to my
edition of the Life, vi. xxii. It was
for a comprehensive Geographical
Dictionary.
5 Bathurst was Johnson s beloved
friend, of whom he hardly ever spoke
without tears in his eyes. Life, i.
190, n. 2. He took his degree of
Bachelor of Medicine at Peterhouse,
Cambridge, in 1745, an( l did not, it
should seem, proceed to the higher
degree. By 1753 he would have been
of eight years standing. In 1757 he
was at the Havannah, where he fell
a sacrifice to the destructive climate.
Johnson wrote to Beauclerk : The
Havannah is taken ; a conquest
too dearly obtained ; for Bathurst
died before it. Vix Priamus tanti
totaque Troja futt. Ib. i. 242, n. I.
The quotation is from Ovid, He-
roides, i. 4.
form
Aetat. 43.] To Samuel Richardson. 33
form the work m such a manner as may satisfy the publick.
No advice of mine will be wanting, but advice will be all that
I propose to contribute unless it should be thought worth while
that I should write a preface, which if desired I will do and put
my name to it. The terms which I am commissioned to offer
are these :
1. A guinea and half shall be paid for each sheet of the copy.
2. The authour will receive a Guinea and half a week from
the date of the contract.
3. As it is certain that many books will be necessary, the
Authour will at the end of the work take the books furnished
him in part of payment at prime Cost, which will be a consider
able reduction of the price of the Copy; or if it seems as
you thought yesterday no reduction, he will allow out of the
last payment fifty pounds for the use of the Books and return
them.
4. In two months after his first demand of books shall be
supplied, he purposes to write three Sheets a week and to con
tinue the same quantity to the end of the work, unless he shall
be hindered by want of Books. He does not however expect
to be always able to write according to the order of the
Alphabet but as his Books shall happen to supply him, and
therefore cannot send any part to the press till the whole is
nearly finished.
5. He undertakes as usual the Correction.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
March 22nd [probably 1753].
To Mr. Strahan.
48.
To SAMUEL RICHARDSON r .
DEAR SIR, May I7 [17 ^ ]
As you were the first that gave me any notice of this
paragraph, I send it to you with a few little notes, which I wish
1 First published in Original Let- Boswell, p. 95, under the date of
ters, edited by Rebecca Warner, May 17, 1755.
1817, p. 209. Published in Croker s This letter was written when a
VOL. I, D you
34 To Samuel Richardson. [A.D. 1753.
you would read. It is well when men of learning and penetration
busy themselves in these enquiries ; but what is their idleness
is my business. Help indeed now comes too late for me , when
a large part of my book has passed the press.
I shall be glad if these strictures appear to you not un
warrantable ; for whom should he who toils in settling a
language desire to please but him who is adorning it 2 ? I hope
your new book is printing. Macte nova virtute.
I am, dear Sir,
Most respectfully and most affectionately,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
49.
To SAMUEL RICHARDSON 3 .
DEAR SIR, September 26, 1753-
I return you my sincerest thanks for the volumes of your
new work ; but it is a kind of tyrannical kindness to give only
so much at a time, as makes more longed for; but that will
probably be thought, even of the whole, when you have given it.
I have no objection but to the preface, in which you first
mention the letters as fallen by some chance into your hands,
large part of one of Johnson s books Carter and Talbot Carres, ii. 131, 9.
had passed the press, and when a x Well might Johnson say that
new book by Richardson was likely "the English Dictionary was written
to be printing. This suits May, with little assistance of the learned,"
1753. On April 3 of that year John- for he told me that the only aid which
son recorded : I began the second he received was a paper containing
vol. of my Dictionary, room being twenty etymologies, sent to him by a
left in the first for Preface, Grammar, person then unknown, who he was
and History, none of them yet be- afterwards informed was Dr. Pearce,
gun. Life, i. 255. The first edition Bishop of Rochester. Life, i. 292.
of Sir Charles Grandison bears the 2 Johnson s admiration of Richard-
date of 1754, but the first four of the son was very great. He was one of
six volumes were published before the very few men whom he sought
the remaining two, and were reviewed after. Ib. iii. 314. In an introduc-
in the Gentleman s Magazine for tory note to the Rambler, No. 97, he
November, 1753, p. 511. Johnson, describes him as an author who has
as his next letter shows, had received enlarged the knowledge of human
a present of some of the volumes as nature.
early as September 26, and Miss 3 Published first in the Richard-
Talbot was reading them still earlier. son Correspondence, v. 283.
and
Aetat. 44.] To the Reverend Dr. Birch. 35
and afterwards mention your health as such, that you almost
despaired of going through your plan. If you were to require
my opinion which part should be changed, I should be inclined
to the suppression of that part which seems to disclaim the
composition T . What is modesty, if it deserts from truth ? Of
what use is the disguise by which nothing is concealed 2 ?
You must forgive this, because it is meant well.
I thank you once more, dear Sir, for your books ; but cannot
I prevail this time for an index ? such I wished, and shall wish,
to Clarissa 3 . Suppose that in one volume an accurate index
was made to the three works but while I am writing an
objection arises such an index to the three would look like the
preclusion of a fourth, to which I will never contribute ; for if
I cannot benefit mankind, I hope never to injure them.
I am, Sir,
Your most obliged and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
5O.
To THE REVEREND DR. BIRCH 4 .
SIR,
If you will be pleased to lend me Clarendon s History for
a few days, it will be a favour to,
Sir,
Your most humble servant.
SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Dr. Birch.
Endorsed January, 1754.
1 In the Richardson Correspond- in a young lady of higher fortune
ence this is printed competition. and born to happier hopes, he con-
2 In the preface Richardson says : tinues : Here the editor appre-
How such remarkable collections hended he should be obliged to stop
of private letters fell into the editor s by reason of his precarious state of
hands he hopes the reader will not health and a variety of avocations
think it very necessary to enquire. which claimed his first attention.
After describing how he had in 3 See ante, p. 22.
Pamela exhibited the beauty and 4 From the original in the British
superiority of virtue in an innocent Museum: Sloane MSS., 4310. 304.
and unpolished mind, and in Ctar/ssa
D 2 TO
36 To the Reverend Joseph Wart on. [A.D.1754.
51.
To THE REVEREND JOSEPH WARTON*.
DEAR SIR, Mardl 8th I754
I cannot but congratulate you upon the conclusion of a
work, in which you have borne so great a part with so much
reputation. I immediately determined that your name should
be mentioned, but the paper having been some time written,
Mr. Hawkesworth, I suppose, did not care to disorder its text,
and therefore put your eulogy in a note. He and every other
man mention your papers of Criticism with great commendation,
though not with greater than they deserve 2 .
But how little can we venture to exult in any intellectual
powers or literary attainments, when we consider the condition
of poor Collins. I knew him a few years ago full of hopes and
full of projects, versed in many languages, high in fancy, and
strong in retention. This busy and forcible mind is now under
the government of those who lately would not have been able
to comprehend the least and most narrow of its designs. What
do you hear of him ? are there hopes of his recovery ? or is he
to pass the remainder of his life in misery and degradation ?
perhaps with complete consciousness of his calamity 3 .
1 First published in Wooll s Me- but with pity and sadness. He lan-
moirs of Dr. Joseph Warton, p. 219. guished some years under that de-
2 On March 8, 1753, Johnson, pression of mind which enchains the
writing for the authors and proprie- faculties without destroying them,
tors of The Adventurer? offered Mr. and leaves reason the knowledge of
Warton two guineas for each paper right without the power of pursuing
that he should contribute. Life, i. it. These clouds which he per-
253. In the last number, published ceived gathering on his intellects he
on March 9, 1754, the day after the endeavoured to disperse by travel,
date of Johnson s letter, Hawkes- and passed into France ; but found
worth, the editor, stated in a note : himself constrained to yield to his
The pieces signed Z are by the Rev. malady, and returned. He was for
Mr. Warton, whose translation of some time confined in a house of
Virgil s Pastorals and Georgics would lunatics, and afterwards retired to
alone sufficiently distinguish him as the care of his sister in Chfchester,
a genius and a scholar. where death, in 1756, came to his
3 Johnson thus described Collins s relief. Johnson s Works, viii. 402.
state in the character which he Johnson was mistaken in the year of
wrote of him in 1763 : The latter his death. He died on June 12,
part of his life cannot be remembered I 739, unnoticed either by the Gentle-
You
Aetat. 44.]
To William Strahan.
37
You have flattered us, dear Sir, for some time, with hopes
of seeing you ; when you come you will find your reputation
increased, and with it the kindness of those friends who do
not envy you ; for success always produces either love or
hatred. I enter my name among those that love, and that love
you more and more in proportion as by writing more you are
more known ; and believe, that as you continue to diffuse among
us your integrity and learning, I shall be still with greater
esteem and affection,
Dear Sir,
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
52.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN J .
SIR,
[Perhaps written at Oxford in July, 1754.]
I shall not be long here, but in the meantime if Miss
Williams wants any money pray speak to Mr. Millar and supply
man s Magazine or the Annual
Register. Goldsmith, writing of him
a few weeks earlier, had described
him as happy if insensible of our
neglect, not raging at our ingratitude.
Enquiry into the Present State of
Polite Learning, ch. x. To this
account Johnson added the following
in his Lives of the Poets: Such
was the fate of Collins, with whom
I once delighted to converse, and
whom I yet remember with tender
ness. . . . His disorder was not
alienation of mind, but general laxity
and feebleness, a deficiency rather of
his vital than intellectual powers.
What he spoke wanted neither judg
ment nor spirit ; but a few minutes
exhausted him. Works, viii. 403.
See post, Letter of April 15, 1756.
Johnson thus mentions him in a note
on Cymbeline in his edition of Shake
speare (vii. 358) : For the obsequies
of Fidele a song was written by my
unhappy friend, Mr. William Collins
of Chichester, a man of uncommon
learning and abilities. I shall give
it a place at the end in honour of his
memory.
1 From the original in the posses
sion of Mr. Frederick Barker, of 41
Gunterstone Road, West Kensington.
First published in my edition of the
Life, vol. vi, Addenda, p. xxvii ;
where in a note I state : Miss
Williams (the blind lady) came to
live with Johnson after his wife s
death in 1752 (ib. i. 232). The fact
that Strahan is asked to supply her
with money after speaking to Mr.
Millar seems to show that this letter
was written some time before the
publication of the Dictionary in April
1755. Millar "took the principal
charge of conducting its publication,
and Johnson "had received all the
copy-money, by different drafts, a
considerable time before he had
finished his task" (ib. i. 287).
His "journey " may have been his
her
38 To the Reverend foseph Warton, [A.D. 1754.
her, they write to me about some taxes which I wish you would
pay.
My journey will come to very little beyond the satisfaction
of knowing that there is nothing to be done, and that I leave
few advantages here to those that shall come after me.
I am, Sir, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.
To Mr. Strahan.
53.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], July 16, 1754. Published in the Life, i. 270.
54.
To ROBERT CHAMBERS.
[London], November 21, 1754. Published in the Life, i. 274.
55.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], November 28, 1754. Published in the Life, i. 275.
56.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], December 21, 1754. Published in the Life, i. 276.
57.
To THE REVEREND JOSEPH WARTON T .
DEAR SIR, [London], Dec. 24th, 1754.
I am sat down to answer your kind letter, though I know
not whether I shall direct it so as that it may reach you ; the
visit to Oxford in the summer of 1754. An Account of the Life of Dr. John-
He went there, because, " I cannot," son, p. 109. That he had intended
he said, "finish my book [the Die- to pay a visit there that summer is
tionary] to my mind without visiting shown by his letter to T. Warton
the libraries" (ib. i. 270). Accord- dated June 24. Life, i. 290. His
ing to Thomas Warton " he collected letter to the same friend, dated
nothing in the libraries for his Die- August 7, leads one to think that he
tionary" (ib. n. 5). It is perhaps to had examined manuscripts during his
this failure that the latter part of the stay. On the whole I am inclined to
letter refers. assign this letter to July, 1754, though
Since writing this note I have it may belong to the following year,
discovered that Johnson visited Ox- First published in Wooll s Me-
ford in July or early in August, 1755. inoirs of Dr. Joseph Warton, p. 229.
miscarriage
Aetat. 45.] To the Reverend Thomas Warton. 39
miscarriage of it will be no great matter, as I have nothing
to send but thanks, of which I owe you many; yet, if a few
should be lost, I shall amply find them in my own mind ; and
professions of respect, of which the profession will easily be
renewed while the respect continues : and the same causes
which first produced can hardly fail to preserve it. Pray let me
know, however, whether my letter finds its way to you.
Poor dear Collins ! Let me know whether you think it would
give him pleasure if I should write to him \ I have often been
near his state 2 , and therefore have it in great commiseration.
I sincerely wish you the usual pleasures of this joyous season,
and more than the usual pleasures, those of contemplation on
the great event which this festival commemorates.
I am, dear Sir.
Your most affectionate
and humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
58.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], February 4, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 278.
59.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], February 4, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 278.
60.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], February 13, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 279.
1 Johnson wrote to Thomas War- low that he could not bear conversa-
ton on November 28, 1754: Poor tion. Once he walked from his
dear Collins ! Would a letter give lodgings opposite Christ Church to
him any pleasure ? I have a mind Trinity College [Warton s College],
to write. T. Warton says in a note but supported by his servant. N.
on this passage : Collins was at Drake s Gleaner, iv. 475.
this time on a visit to Mr. Warton ; 2 Boswell describing Johnson s
but labouring under the most deplor- hypochondria says : I am aware
able languor of body and dejection of that he himself was too ready to call
mind. Life, i. 276, n. 2. Warton such a complaint by the name of
in a letter to William Hymers says : madness. Ib. i. 65. I inherited,
In 1754 he came to Oxford for Johnson said, a vile melancholy from
change of air and amusement, where my father, which has made me mad
he stayed a month ; I saw him fre- all my life, at least not sober. Ib.
quently, but he was so weak and v. 215.
To
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1755.
61.
To THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.
[London], February 7, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 261.
62.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], February, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 279.
63.
To THE VICE-CHANCELLOR OF OXFORD.
London, February 26, 1755. Published in the Life, \. 282.
This Letter was sold by Messrs. Sotheby and Co. on May 10, 1875,
for 6 6s.
64.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], March 20, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 282.
65.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], March 25, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 283.
66.
To THE REVEREND DR. BIRCH.
[London], March 29, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 285.
67.
To MR. BURNEY.
Gough Square, April 8, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 286.
68.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR J .
SIR,
I think your draught better than Mr. Ballard s ; and the
case quite clear on Mr. B s side ; at least so far as that Dr.
Wilson 2 can have no money till the debts due out of that money
which he claims are paid. The law or custom of the Church
1 From the original in the posses- bendaries of Westminster. Le Neve s
sion of Mr. Frederick Barker, of 41 Fast. Ecc. Angl. iii. 366. Taylor, who
Gunterstone Road, West Kensington. was also a prebendary, might have
It was sold by Messrs. Christie and had some dispute with one of them.
Co. on June 5, 1888, for ^3 y. He succeeded Thomas \Vilson in one
2 There were at this time two W T il- of his livings in 1784. Post, Letter
sons, Thomas and Christopher, Pre- of May 13, 1784.
must
Aetat. 45.]
To Edmund Hector.
must determine the rest. It seems equitable enough that he
should claim that money which was received for him, and
only wanted to be divided, if there were no prior claim, or
debt due from it.
What is the matter that one never sees you ? I am moved T ,
and I fancy I shall move again, but how oftensoever I move,
I shall be with great constancy,
Your affectionate, &c.,
April 11, 1755- SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor.
69.
To EDMUND HECTOR 2 .
DEAR SIR,
I was extremely pleased to find that you have not forgotten
your old friend, who yet recollects the evenings which we have
passed together at Warren s 3 and the (illegible 4 ). As Nature,
I suppose, operates very uniformly, I believe you as well as
I are come now to that part in which the gratifications and
friendships of younger years operate very powerfully on the
1 Johnson, writing this word at the
end of one line and the beginning of
the next, divides it mo-ved. By
move he seems to imply change of
residence ; but there seems no doubt
that from about 1749 to 1759 he lived
in Gough Square. Life, iii. 405, n. 6.
The next letter moreover, written
only four days later, is dated Gough
Square. It is possible that the move
was from one house to another in the
same Square.
2 First published in Notes and
Queries, 6th S. iii. 301.
Edmund Hector was a medical
man in practice at Birmingham, the
son, it is probable, of George Hector
of Lichfield. My mother, writes
Johnson of his own birth, had a very
difficult and dangerous labour, and
was assisted by George Hector, a
man-midwife of great reputation. I
was born almost dead, and could
not cry for some time. When he had
me in his arms he said, " Here is a
brave boy." An Account of the
Life of Dr. Johnson, 1805, p. 9.
Johnson recorded in his Diary in
1781 : Hector is an old friend, the
only companion of my childhood that
passed through the school with me.
We have always loved one another.
Life, iv. 135. Hector s sister, Mrs.
Careless, was, said Johnson, the
first woman with whom I was in
love. It dropt out of my head im
perceptibly. If I had married her,
he afterwards added, it might have
been as happy for me. Ib. ii. 460-1.
3 See ante, p. 8, n. 3.
4 Swan is suggested by the pub
lisher of this letter, and with great
probability. For Warren s house,
where Johnson and Hector had
lodged, was over against the Swan
Tavern in High Street. Ib. i. 85, n. 3.
mind.
To Edmund Hector.
[A.D. 1755.
mind. Since we have again renewed our acquaintance do
not let us intermit it so long again.
The Books I think to send you in a strong box by the carrier,
and shall be obliged if you will remit the money to my mother,
who may give you a receipt in my name T .
I wish, come of wishes what will, that my work may please
you, as much as it now and then pleased me, for I did not find
dictionary making so very unpleasant as it may be thought 2 .
Mr. Baskevill 3 called on me here. I suppose you visit his
printing house, which will I think be something very con
siderable. What news of poor Warren? I have not lost all
my kindness for him, for when I remember you I naturally
remember all our connexions, which are more pleasing to me
for your sake.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Gough Square, Fleet Street, Apr. 15, 1755.
To Mr. Hector in Birmingham.
1 The books were probably the
two volumes of the Dictionary which
were published about the day on
which this letter was written. Life, i.
290, n. I. See post, Letter of Oct.
7, 1/56, where Johnson refers to Hec
tor s kindness in this matter.
2 When Stockdale expressed his
surprise that Johnson in his easy
circumstances should think of pre
paring a new edition of a tedious
scientific dictionary, " Sir," said he,
" I like that muddling work." Ib. ii.
203, n. 3. See /</, Letter of Oct. 6,
1772.
3 W. Hutton in his History of
Birmingham, ed. 1795, p. 120, gives
an interesting account of John Bas-
kerville, the famous Birmingham
printer. Born in 1706, he was first a
stone-cutter, then a writing-master,
next a japanner. His inclination
for letters induced him to turn his
thoughts towards the press. He sunk
,600 before he could produce one
letter to please himself. His first
attempt in 1756 was a quarto edition
of Virgil, price one guinea. He died
in 1775. No one could be found to
buy his types. They were refused
by both Universities, and they lay a
dead weight till purchased by a
literary society at Paris in 1779 for
^3700. From them were printed the
great editions of Voltaire s Works
published in 1785-9. Johnson in
1769 gave to the Library of Trinity
College, Oxford, a copy of the Virgil
which he had promised, he said,
many years before. Life, ii. 67.
Macaulay, in the third chapter of his
History (ed. 1874, i. 356), describes
how the magnificent editions of Bas-
kerville went forth to astonish all the
librarians of Europe. I doubt much
whether anything could have aston
ished Bodley s Librarians during the
latter half of the eighteenth century.
The Library shows signs of great
neglect during that period.
To
Aetat. 45.] To MlSS . 43
70.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], May 6, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 288.
71.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], May 13, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 289.
72.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], June 10, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 290
73.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], June 24, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 290.
74.
To Miss - \
MADAM, J ul y *9, 1755-
I know not how liberally your generosity would reward
those who should do you any service, when you can so kindly
acknowledge a favour which I intended only to myself. That
accidentally hearing that you were in town, I made haste to
enjoy an interval of pleasure which I found would be short,
was the natural consequence of that self-love which is always
busy in quest of happiness ; of that happiness which we often
miss when we think it near, and sometimes find when we
imagine it lost. When I had missed you, I went away disap
pointed ; and did not know that my vexation would be so
amply repaid by so kind a letter. A letter indeed can but
imperfectly supply the place of its writer, at least of such
a writer as you ; and a letter which makes me still more desire
your presence, is but a weak consolation under the necessity
1 First published in the Piozzi brought him acquainted was Miss
Letters, ii. 400. Cotterell, one of the two daughters of
Mrs. Piozzi says that it was ad- Admiral Cotterell, who lived opposite
dressed to a lady who desires that Johnson in Castle Street, Cavendish
her name may be concealed. Ib. Square (Life, i. 244).
p. 385. Baretti states in a marginal For Baretti, see Life, i. 302.
note that the lady with whom I
of
44 To tke Reverend Dr. Birch. [A.D. 1755.
of living longer without you : with this however I must be
for a time content, as much content at least as discontent will
suffer me ; for Mr. Baretti being a single being in this part
of the world, and entirely clear from all engagements, takes the
advantage of his independence, and will come before me ; for
which if I could blame him, I should punish him ; but my own
heart tells me, that he only does to me, what, if I could, I should
do to him.
I hope Mrs. ", when she came to her favourite place, found
her house dry, and her woods growing, and the breeze whistling,
and the birds singing, and her own heart dancing. And for you,
Madam, whose heart cannot yet dance to such musick, I know
not what to hope ; indeed I could hope every thing that would
please you, except that perhaps the absence of higher pleasures
is necessary to keep some little place vacant in your remem
brance for,
Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
75.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], August 7, 1755. Published in the Life, i. 290.
76.
To THE REVEREND DR. BIRCH 2 .
SIR,
If you can lend me for a few days Wood s Ath. Ox. 3 , it will
be a favour. My servant will call for it on Monday.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Saturday.
To the Reverend Dr. Birch.
Endorsed Nov. 8, 1755.
1 Mrs. Porter the actress, accord- Mrs. Porter. Life, i. 369 ; and on
ing to Baretti, who says, Johnson Dec. 21 of the same year : Miss
esteemed her much, whatever Mrs. Cotterell is still with Mrs. Porter.
Piozzi may insinuate of his contempt Ib. p. 382.
for theatrical folks. She lived at Q From the original in the British
High-wood-ill [sic]. Johnson wrote Museum -.Sloane MSS. 4310.
to Baretti on July 20, 1762 : Miss 3 Wood s Athena Oxonienses.
Cotterell still continues to cling to
To
Aetat.46.] To Miss Boothby. 45
77.
_ To LEWIS PAUL 1 .
DEAR SIR,
I would not have you think that I forget or neglect you.
I have never been out of doors since you saw me. On the
day after I had been with you, I was seized with a hoarseness,
which still continues ; I had then a cough so violent, that I once
fainted under its convulsions. I was afraid of my lungs. My
Physician bled me yesterday and the day before, first almost
against his will, but the next day without any contest 2 . I had
been bled once before, so that I have lost in all 54 ounces 3 .
I live on broaths, and my cough, I thank God, is much abated,
so that I can sleep. You [sic] find it impossible to fix a time for
coming to you, but as soon as the physician gives me leave,
if you can spare a bed, I will pass a week at your house 4 .
Change of air is often of use, and, I know, you will let me live
my own way. I have been pretty much dejected.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Monday, Dec. 23 5 , 1755.
To Mr. Paul.
78.
To Miss BOOTHBY 6 .
DEAR MADAM, Dec " *>> 755-
It is again midnight, and I am again alone. With what
meditation shall I amuse this waste hour of darkness and
1 First published in Croker s Bos- Kensington. His death on April 25,
well, p. 100. Corrected by me from 1759, is recorded in the Gentleman s
the original in the possession of the Magazine for that year (p. 242) as
late Mr. S. J. Davey, of 45, Great taking place at Kensington Gravel
Russell Street, London. For Lewis Pits.
Paul, see ante, p. 6. ; Monday was the 22nd.
2 In Mr. Croker s edition this is This and the five other letters to
printed without my [word wanting]. Miss Boothby were first published in
The word is not wanting, but difficult the Piozzi Letters, ii. 391-400.
to decipher. Hill Boothby, only daughter of
3 For Johnson s use of bleeding Brooke Boothby and Elizabeth Fitz-
see Life, iii. 152, n. 3. herbert, and sister of the sixth
4 Paul s house was perhaps at baronet, Sir Brooke Boothby, was
vacuity ?
46
To Miss Boothby.
[A.D. 1755.
vacuity? If I turn my thoughts upon myself, what do I per
ceive but a poor helpless being, reduced by a blast of wind to
born Oct. 27, 1708, died Jan. 16,
1756. Johnson had become ac
quainted with her on his visit to
Derbyshire, mentioned ante, p. 3,
when the daughters of some of the
Derbyshire squires showed their
good taste and good sense by desir
ing the company of the young genius,
poor and unpolished as he was.
Life, i. 83. Her friend Miss Mey-
nell, of whom Johnson said that she
had the best understanding he ever
met with in any human being (ib.\
had married Miss Boothby s relation,
William Fitzherbert, father to the
first Lord St. Helens ; a man more
generally acceptable than any
known to Johnson. Ib. iii. 148.
Nevertheless in the year 1772, in
some fit of despondency, after going
one morning to see the convicts
executed, he went to his own stable
and hanged himself with a bridle.
Ib. ii. 228, n. 3. His wife died in
1753, in the flower of her age, dis
tinguished for her piety and fine
accomplishments, as we read in the
Gentleman s Magazine for that year
(p. 148) in a notice likely enough
written by Johnson. He told Mrs.
Thrale, if we can trust that lady s
account, that her husband felt at
once afflicted and released. Her
virtues had been almost oppressive.
Piozzi s Anecdotes, p. 160. Her six
motherless children for the next three
years were under Miss Boothby s
care. An Account of the Life of Dr.
Johnson, 1805, p. 36. She and John
son kept up a long correspondence ;
thirty-two of her letters were pre
served and published, and but six of
his. Ib. pp. 33-144. I never did
exchange letters regularly, he wrote
to Dr. Taylor, but with dear Miss
Boothby. Post, p. 64. Mrs. Piozzi
gives the following account of her,
but how much of it is true cannot be
known. There is surely, to say the
least, great exaggeration in it. Dr.
Johnson told me she pushed her piety
to bigotry,her devotion to enthusiasm ;
that she somewhat disqualified herself
for the duties of this life by her
perpetual aspirations after the next ;
such was however the purity of her
mind, he said, and such the graces
of her manner, that Lord Lyttelton
and he used to strive for her prefer
ence with an emulation that occa
sioned hourly disgust, and ended in
lasting animosity : " You may see
(said he to me when the Poets Lives
were printed) that dear Boothby is
at my heart still. She would delight
in that fellow Lyttelton s company
though, all that I could do ; and I
cannot forgive even his memory the
preference given by a mind like hers.
Piozzi s Anecdotes, p. 160. Did you
not tell him he was a rascal ? Mrs.
Piozzi might have been asked in his
own words (Life, iv. 10) by any one
who had any belief in the latter part
of her story. That Miss Boothby
was a lady of some learning is shown
by a Hebrew Grammar, or the
sketch of one, composed for her own
use, and written in a character
eminently beautiful that was pre
served by her family. Piozzi Letters,
ii. 379-
She is the original of Miss Saint-
hill in The Spiritual Quixote (ed.
1773, iii. 99-183), while Sir William
and Lady Forester, with whom this
very sensible maiden lady was stay
ing, are drawn from the Fitzherberts.
Her Ladyship, we are told, was a
little inclined to the mystic, or rather
the seraphic theology. Ib. p. 101.
Boswell, who quotes with approval
the third of Johnson s letters to Miss
Boothby, says that the excellence
weakness
Aetat. 46.]
To Miss Boothby.
47
weakness and misery ? How my present distemper was brought
upon me I can give no account, but impute it to some sudden
succession of cold to heat ; such as in the common road of life
cannot be avoided, and against which no precaution can be taken.
Of the fallaciousness of hope, and the uncertainty of schemes,
every day gives some new proof ; but it is seldom heeded, till
something rather felt than seen, awakens attention. This illness,
in which I have suffered something and feared much more, has
depressed my confidence and elation ; and made me consider all
that I have promised myself, as less certain to be attained or
enjoyed. I have endeavoured to form resolutions of a better
life ; but I form them weakly, under the consciousness of an
external motive. Not that I conceive a time of sickness a time
improper for recollection and good purposes, which I believe
diseases and calamities often sent to produce, but because no
man can know how little his performance will answer to his
promises : and designs are nothing in human eyes till they are
realised by execution I .
Continue, my Dearest, your prayers for me, that no good
resolution may be vain. You think, I believe, better of me than
I deserve. I hope to be in time what I wish to be ; and what
I have hitherto satisfied myself too readily with only wishing.
Your billet brought me what I much wished to have, a proof that
I am still remembered by you at the hour in which I most desire it !
The Doctor is anxious about you. He thinks you too negli
gent of yourself; if you will promise to be cautious, I will
exchange promises, as we have already exchanged injunctions 2 .
of the others is not so apparent.
Life, iv. 57, n. 3. They are in truth
in an unnatural strain. They were
all written when Johnson was de
pressed by a severe illness and when
she was dying. He seems more
over to affect a style that would have
better become a spiritual novel.
I have not followed Mrs. Piozzi s
arrangement of these letters. I have
little doubt that they were all written
within a few days, and that Johnson
in dating two of them Jan. I and 3,
1755, mistook the year.
1 On his birthday, nine years
later, he recorded : I have now
spent fifty-five years in resolving ;
having from the earliest time almost
that I can remember been forming
schemes of a better life. I have done
nothing. Life, i. 483.
2 In her billet dated Sunday
night (Dec. 28), endorsed by John
son December, 1755, she said: I
beg you would be governed by the
good Doctor while you are sick ;
However,
48 To Miss Boothby. [A.D. 1755.
However, do not write to me more than you can easily bear ; do
not interrupt your ease to write at all.
Mr. Fitzherbert sent to-day to offer me some wine ; the people
about me say I ought to accept it, I shall therefore be obliged
to him if he will send me a bottle *.
There has gone about a report that I died to-day, which
I mention, lest you should hear it and be alarmed. You see
that I think my death may alarm you ; which for me is to think
very highly of earthly friendship. I believe it arose from the
death of one of my neighbours. You know Des Cartes s argu
ment, I think, therefore I am. It is as good a consequence,
I write, therefore I am alive. I might give another, I am alive,
therefore I love Miss Boothby ; but that I hope our friendship
may be of far longer duration than life 2 .
I am, dearest Madam,
with sincere affection,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
79.
To Miss BOOTHBY.
MY SWEET ANGEL, Dec - 3I> [ X 755]-
I have read your book 3 , I am afraid you will think without
any great improvement ; whether you can read my notes I know
not. You ought not to be offended ; I am perhaps as sincere as
the writer. In all things that terminate here I shall be much
guided by your influence, and should take or leave by your
direction ; but I cannot receive my religion from any human
hand 4 . I desire however to be instructed, and am far from
thinking myself perfect.
when you are well, do as you please. Johnson would in all probability
An Account, &c., p. 129. The good have become quite an enthusiast in
Doctor was Lawrence Johnson s point of religion, and have gone mad
physician and friend, sprung from with it. He was so strongly inclined
Milton s Lawrence, of virtuous father to it. BARETTI.
virtuous son. Life, ii. 296, n. I. 3 She had written in her last
1 I am glad you sent for the letter : As an answer to one part
hock, she replied. Mr. Fitzherbert of your letter I have sent you a
has named it more than once. An little book. An Account, &c., p.
Account, &c., p. 130. 130.
3 Had she lived some years longer 4 He would have certainly taken
I beg
Aetat.46.] To Miss Boothby. 49
I beg you to return the book when you have looked into it.
I should not have written what is in the margin, had I not had
it from you, or had I not intended to shew it you.
It affords me a new conviction, that in these books there
is little new, except new forms of expression ; which may be
sometimes taken, even by the writer, for new doctrines.
I sincerely hope that God, whom you so much desire to serve
aright, will bless you, and restore you to health, if he sees it
best. Surely no human understanding can pray for any thing
temporal otherwise than conditionally. Dear Angel, do not
forget me. My heart is full of tenderness.
It has pleased God to permit me to be much better ; which
I believe will please you.
Give me leave, who have thought much on medicine 1 , to
propose to you an easy, and I think a very probable remedy for
indigestion and lubricity of the bowels. Dr. Lawrence has told
me your case. Take an ounce of dried orange-peel finely pow
dered, divide it into scruples, and take one scruple at a time
in any manner 2 ; the best way is perhaps to drink it in a glass
it from her without ever suspecting ledge of physic (he said) I learnt
he did. BARETTI. from Dr. James, whom I helped in
I would be a Papist if I could, writing the proposals for his Dic-
he said to Boswell. I have fear tionary and also a little in the Dtc-
enough ; but an obstinate rationality tionary itself. I also learnt from Dr.
prevents me. Life, iv. 289. She Lawrence, but was then grown more
wrote to him in an earlier letter : I stubborn. Ib. iii.22. See^J/, Letters
am desirous that in the great and of May 23, 1773, and June 19, 1783-
one thing necessary you should 2 Next morning [April I, 1775] I
think as I do ; and I am persuaded won a small bet from Lady Diana
you sometime will. An Account, Beauclerk, by asking Dr. Johnson as
&c., p. loo. It is probable that her to one of his particularities, which
views were somewhat the same as her Ladyship laid I durst not do. It
the poet Cowper s, who wrote shortly seems he had been frequently ob-
before Johnson s death : We re- served at the Club to put into his
joice in the account you give us of pocket the Seville oranges, after he
Dr. Johnson. His conversion will had squeezed the juice of them into
indeed be a singular proof of the the drink which he made for him-
omnipotence of Grace ; and the more self. Beauclerk and Garrick talked
singular the more decided. of it to me, and seemed to think
Southey s Cowper, xv. 150. that he had a strange unwillingness
1 Dr. Johnson, writes Boswell to be discovered. We could not
with justice, was a great dabbler in divine what he did with them ; and
physic. Life, iii. 152. My know- this was the bold question to be put.
VOL. I. E of
5 To Miss Boothby. [A.D. i?56.
of hot red port 1 , or to eat it first and drink the wine after
it. If you mix cinnamon or nutmeg with the powder, it were
not worse ; but it will be more bulky, and so more troublesome.
This is a medicine not disgusting, not costly, easily tried, and if
not found useful, easily left off.
I would not have you offer it to the Doctor as mine.
Physicians do not love intruders ; yet do not take it without his
leave. But do not be easily put off, for it is in my opinion very
likely to help you, and not likely to do you harm ; do not take
too much in haste ; a scruple once in three hours, or about five
scruples a day, will be sufficient to begin, or less, if you find any
aversion. I think using sugar with it might be bad ; if syrup,
use old syrup of quinces : but even that I do not like. I should
think better of conserve of sloes. Has the Doctor mentioned
the bark ? in powder you could hardly take it ; perhaps you
might take the infusion.
Do not think me troublesome, I am full of care. I love you
and honour you ; and am very unwilling to lose you.
A Dieu je vous recommande 2 .
I am, Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
My compliments to my dear Miss 3 .
I saw on his table the spoils of prevailed upon to tell." JOHNSON,
the preceding night, some fresh peels "Nay, Sir, you should say it more
nicely scraped and cut into pieces. emphatically : he could not be pre-
" O, Sir, (said I) I now partly see vailed upon, even by his dearest
what you do with the squeezed friends, to tell." Life, ii. 330.
oranges which you put into your I Port is not in Johnson s Dic-
pocket at the Club." JOHNSON. " I tionary, though he gives claret, hock,
have a great love for them." Bos- and sherry. I have often in my
WELL. " And pray, Sir, what do you boyhood heard port offered to a
do with them ? You scrape them it guest as red wine, while sherry was
seems, very neatly, and what next ? " spoken of as white wine.
JOHNSON. "Let them dry, Sir." 2 The true phrase is Je vous re-
BOSWELL. " And what next ? " commande a Dieu. BARETTI. Once
JOHNSON. " Nay, Sir, you shall know when Dr. Johnson was himself very
their fate no further." BOSWELL. ill he broke out into French. Ah,
" Then the world must be left in the priez Dieu pour moi he exclaimed
dark. It must be said (assuming a suddenly to Miss Burney, grasping her
mock solemnity) he scraped them, hand. Mme. D Arblay sZVaryjii. 295.
and let them dry, but what he did 3 No doubt Mr. Fitzherbert s eldest
with them next he never could be daughter.
To
Aetat. 46.] To Miss Boothby. 51
80.
To Miss BOOTHBY I .
January i, 1755 [1756]-
DEAREST MADAM,
Though I am afraid your illness leaves you little leisure
for the reception of airy civilities, yet I cannot forbear to pay
you my congratulations on the new year ; and to declare my
wishes, that your years to come may be many and happy. In
this wish indeed I include myself, who have none but you on
whom my heart reposes 2 ; yet surely I wish your good, even
though your situation were such as should permit you to
communicate no gratifications to,
Dearest, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
81.
To Miss BOOTHBY.
Jan. 3, 1755 [i756]-
DEAREST MADAM,
Nobody but you can recompense me for the distress which
I suffered on Monday night. Having engaged Dr. Lawrence to
let me know, at whatever hour, the state in which he left you ;
I concluded when he staid so long, that he staid to see my
dearest expire. I was composing myself as I could to hear
what yet I hoped not to hear, when his servant brought me
word that you were better. Do you continue to grow better?
Let my dear little Miss inform me on a card. I would not
have you write lest it should hurt you, and consequently hurt
likewise,
Dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 This letter is quoted by Boswell, his step-daughter : -- Every heart
Life, iv. 57, n. 3. must lean to somebody, and I have
2 Four years later, on the death of nobody but you. Post, Letter of
his mother, he wrote to Lucy Porter, Feb. 6, 1759.
E 2 TO
To Miss Boothby.
82.
To Miss BOOTHBY.
DEAREST DEAR, Saturday, [Jan. 3, 1756].
I am extremely obliged to you for the kindness of your
enquiry. After I had written to you, Dr. Lawrence came, and
would have given some oil and sugar, but I took Rhenish 1
and water, and recovered my voice. I yet cough much, and
sleep ill. I have been visited by another Doctor to-day; but
I laughed at his Balsam of Peru 2 . I fasted on Tuesday, Wed
nesday, and Thursday, and felt neither hunger nor faintness 3 .
I have dined yesterday and to-day, and found little refresh
ment. I am not much amiss ; but can no more sleep than if
my dearest lady were angry at,
Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
83.
To LEWIS PAUL.
January 6, 1756.
In Messrs. Sotheby and Go s. Auction Catalogue for May 10, 1875,
Lot 86 is an autograph Letter of Johnson to Lewis Paul, dated Jan. 6,
1756, with the post-mark Peny Post. Says that he is better, but
cannot yet go into the cold air. It sold for 2 i&s.
84.
To Miss BOOTHBY.
HONOURED MADAM, January 8 I756
I beg of you to endeavour to live. I have returned your
Law, which however I earnestly entreat you to give me 4 . I am
1 Rhenish is not defined in John- to him : Have you read Mr. Law ?
son s Dictionary, but he defines Hock not cursorily but with attention? I
as Old strong Rhenish. wish you would consider him. His
2 This doctor was, I suspect, Appeal to all that doubt I think the
James, who dealt in balsams. Ante, most clear of all his later writings.
p. 8, n. 3. An Account, &c., p. 127. It was
3 As to regular meals (said John- probably this book of hers which he
son), I have fasted from the Sunday s had borrowed and was now returning.
dinner to the Tuesday s dinner with- Law s Serious Call to a Holy Life he
out any inconvenience. Life, iii. 306. had read at Oxford. Ante, p. 30,
4 On October n, 1755, she wrote n. i.
in
Aetat. 46.]
To the Reverend Dr. Birch.
53
in great trouble ; if you can write three words to me, be pleased
to do it. I am afraid to say much, and cannot say nothing
when my dearest is in danger.
The all-merciful GOD have mercy on you.
I am, Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON 1 .
85.
To THE REVEREND DR. BIRCH 2 .
SIR,
Jan. 9, 1756.
Having obtained from Mr. Garrick a benefit for a gentle
woman of \word illegible^, distressed by blindness, almost the
only casualty that could have distressed her, I beg leave to
trouble you, among my other friends, with some of her tickets 4 .
1 She died on the i6th of this
month. I have heard Baretti say,
writes Mrs. Piozzi, that when this
lady died Johnson was almost dis
tracted with his grief. Piozzi s
Anecdotes, p. 161.
In writing to him Miss Boothby
now and then quoted passages from
his letters to her. I have gathered
the following fragments from the
missing correspondence.
Few are so busy as not to find
time to do what they delight in
doing. An Account, &c., p. 42.
The best intention may be trouble
some. Ib. p. 55.
Those whom we condescend to
call Great. Ib.
1 The effect of education is very
precarious. But what can be hoped
without it ? Though the harvest
may be blasted, we must yet cultivate
the ground. Ib. p. 73.
The common dialect of daily cor
respondence. Ib. p. 121.
2 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, p. i or.
Of Dr. Birch Johnson said he
had more anecdotes than any man.
Life,\. 255. He was, says Haw
kins, but a dull writer. Johnson
was used to speak of him in this
manner : " Tom is a lively rogue ;
he remembers a great deal, and can
tell many pleasant stories ; but a pen
is to Tom a torpedo, the touch of it
benumbs his hand and his brain :
Tom can talk, but he is no writer."
Hawkins s Life of Johnson, p. 209.
Horace Walpole describes him as a
worthy, good-natured soul, full of
industry and activity, and running
about like a young setting-dog in
quest of anything, new or old, and
with no parts, taste, or judgment.
Letters, vii. 326. He ran about in
more senses than one, for he once
walked round London, crossing the
Thames twice so as to take in South-
wark. The excursion took him six
hours, and he computed the circuit
at above twenty miles. Hawkins,
p. 208.
3 This word, which is something
like Lournitz, is, perhaps, the name
of the place in South Wales whence
Miss Williams came.
4 Seven years later Boswell, in
the account which he gives of his
first meeting with Johnson, says:
Your
54
To Lewis Paul.
[A.D. 1756.
Your benevolence is well known, and was, I believe, never
exerted on a more laudable occasion.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
86.
To LEWIS PAUL .
SIR,
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 1755 [i756] 2 .
I am much confused with an accident that has happened.
When your papers were brought me, I broke open the first
without reading the superscription, and when I had opened
it, found it not to belong to me. I did not read it when I found
my mistake. I see it is a very full paper, and will give you
much trouble to copy again, but perhaps it will not be neces
sary, and you may mend the seal. I am sorry for the mischance.
You will easily believe it was nothing more. If you send it me
again, the child 3 shall carry it.
For bringing Mrs. Swynfen 4 , I know not well how to attempt
He then addressed himself to
Davies : " What do you think of
Garrick? He has refused me an
order for the play for Miss Williams,
because he knows the house will be
full, and that an order would be
worth three shillings." Eager to
take any opening to get into conver
sation with him, I ventured to say,
"O Sir, I cannot think Mr. Garrick
would grudge such a trifle to you."
" Sir," said he, with a stern look, " I
have known David Garrick longer
than you have done : and I know no
right you have to talk to me on the
subject." Boswell adds in a note :
That this was a momentary sally
against Garrick there can be no
doubt ; for at Johnson s desire he
had, some years before, given a
benefit-night at his theatre to this
very person, by which she had got
two hundred pounds. Life, i. 392.
1 First published in Croker s Bos-
-well, p. 101.
This Letter was sold by Messrs.
Sotheby and Co. on May 10, 1875,
for ^3 4*.
2 This conjectural date, which is
given by Mr. Croker, I have adopted,
as well as his arrangement of the
other undated letters of the same
series. For Lewis Paul, see ante,
p. 6.
The child was perhaps his black
servant who had entered his service
in 1752. Life, i. 239. Post, p. 66, he
is described as my boy.
4 See ante, p. 6, n. 3, where it
is stated that a daughter of John
son s Godfather (Dr. Swynfen), after
wards Mrs. Desmoulins, learnt the
art of pinking crapes by Paul s
machine as his pupil. He borrowed
^200 from her, for which he gave a
bond (afterwards repaid, and the
bond given up and cancelled).
French s Life of S. Crompton, p. 255.
How nearly Mrs. Swynfen was re
lated to this lady I do not know.
it.
Aetat. 46.]
To Miss Carter.
55
it. I am not sure that her husband will be pleased, and I think
it would look too much like making myself a party, instead of
acting the part of a common friend, which I shall be very
ready to discharge. I should imagine that the best way would
be to send her word when you will call on her, and perhaps
the questions on which she is to resuscitate her remembrance,
and come to her at her own house. I really know not how to
ask her husband to send her, and I certainly will not take her
without asking him.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
87.
TO MlSS CARTER 1 .
MADAM,
From the liberty of writing to you, if I have hitherto been
deterred by the fear of your understanding, I am now encouraged
to it by the confidence of your goodness.
I am soliciting a benefit for Miss Williams, and beg that
if you can by letters influence any in her favour, and who is
there whom you cannot influence? you will be pleased to
patronise her on this occasion. Yet, for the time is short,
and as you were not in town, I did not till this day remember
that you might help us, and recollect how widely and how
rapidly light is diffused.
To every joy is appended a sorrow. The name of Miss
Carter introduces the memory of Cave. Poor dear Cave!
1 First published in Pennington s
Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter,
ed. 1816, i. 40.
Miss Elizabeth Carter, commonly
known in later life as the learned
Mrs. Carter, was one of the three
ladies Hannah More and Fanny
Burney being the other two with
whom Johnson dined one day, when
he said : Three such women are
not to be found ; I know not where
I could find a fourth, except Mrs.
Lennox, who is superior to them all.
Life, iv. 275.
He had addressed to her an epi
gram both in Greek and Latin in the
Gentleman s Magazine for 1738, p.
210 (Johnson s Works, i. 170), and
also the following, which, I believe,
is only to be found in Pennington s
Memoirs, i. 398 :
Quid mihi cum Cultu ? Probitas
inculta nitescit,
Et juvat Ingenii vita sine arte rudis.
Ingenium et mores si pulchra pro-
bavit Elisa,
Quid majus mihi spes ambitiosa
dabit ?
I owed
56 To John Ryland. [A.D.1756.
I owed him much ; for to him I owe that I have known you .
He died, I am afraid, unexpectedly to himself, yet surely un-
burthened with any great crime ; and for the positive duties of
religion, I have yet no right to condemn him for neglect 2 .
I am with respect, which I neither owe nor pay to any other,
Madam,
Your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Gough Square, SAM: JOHNSON.
Jan. 14, 1756.
88.
To JOHN RYLAND 3 .
g IR [London, January, 1756.]
I have obtained a benefit play for Miss Williams, which yet
will not be for her benefit without the concurrence of her friends,
among which she numbers you, and therefore has troubled [you]
with tickets which she begs you will try to dispose among your
acquaintance. We both send our compliments to Mrs. Ryland,
and to the young Scholar.
I am. dear Sir,
Your affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Ryland.
1 Under the signature of Eliza Nichols, that Mr. Ryland should
she had been an early contributor to nowhere have been mentioned in
the Gentlemari s Magazine, of which Mr. Boswell s communicative Life
Cave was editor and proprietor. Pen- of Johnson. Lit. Anec. ix. 502. He
nington s Memoirs, p. 37. is twice mentioned, but no more
2 Cave died on January 10, 1754. than mentioned ; nevertheless he. was
In the Memoir which Johnson wrote one of Johnson s oldest and closest
of him he says : He fell into a kind friends. Perhaps Boswell passed
of lethargic insensibility, in which him over in silence, in return for his
one of the last acts of reason which keeping from him the letters which
he exerted was fondly to press the he had received from Johnson. He
hand that is now writing this little was Hawkesworth s brother-in-law,
narrative. Johnson s Works, vi. and Hawkesworth Boswell attacked
433. for his provoking effrontery. Life,
3 From the original in the pos- i. 252. An interesting paper might
session of the late Mr. S. J. Davey, be written on the intentional omis-
of 47 Great Russell Street, London. sions in the Life of Johnson.
It is remarkable, writes John John Ryland was a merchant, a
To
Aetat.46.] To Samuel Richardson. 57
89.
To MR. CAVE 1 .
DEAR SIR [London, January, 1756.]
I find this Gentleman knows more of Tickets than either
you or I ; and I wish you would be so good as to settle with
him. I fancy printed ones may serve, on good strong paper.
Let them be dated right. There should be for Box, Pit, and
Galleries.
I am, Sir,
Your, &c.,
To Mr. Cave. SAM : JOHNSON.
90.
To SAMUEL RICHARDSON 2 .
DEAR SIR, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 1756.
I return you my sincerest thanks for the favour which you
were pleased to do me two nights ago 3 . Be pleased to accept
of this little book, which is all that I have published this
winter 4 . The inflammation is come again into my eye 5 , so
that I can write very little.
I am, Sir,
Your most obliged
and most humble servant,
To Mr. Richardson. SAM: JOHNSON.
good scholar, a staunch Whig of the 2 First published in the Richard-
old school, and a dissenter. He was son Correspondence, v. 285.
a contributor to the Gentleman s 3 The nature of the favour may
Magazine, He constantly visited probably be inferred from his next
Johnson during his last illness, and letter to Richardson (post, p. 61).
supplied Nichols with several of the By his severe illness which affected
particulars in the article on Johnson his sight he must have been kept
in the Gentleman s Magazine, 1784, from earning money by his pen.
p. 957- 4 The little book was either the
1 First published in the Gentle- Abridgment of the Dictionary, ad-
man s Magazine for 1793, p. 19. vertised in the Gentleman s Maga-
Mr. Nichols conjectures with great zine for January, 1756, p. 45, or Sir
probability that this letter refers to Thomas Browne s Christian Morals
Miss Williams s benefit. Cave was with Life, advertised in the Gentle-
either the brother or the nephew of man s Magazine for March, p. 139.
the founder of the Gentleman sMaga- 5 Four days earlier he had thought
zine who had died in 1754. the inflammation cured, for on
To
58 To Lewis Paul. [A.D.1756.
91.
To LEWIS PAUL .
Cjp [London], Wednesday, [1756].
I this morning found a letter, which as you sent when my
eye was out of order, I had never read to this hour, and
therefore, now I have read, I make haste to tell you that if
I understand it right, that is, if Mr. Cave 2 be your landlord,
I believe I can favour you, and, if the difficulty still continues,
will endeavour it. They do not, I fancy, want the money,
and then they may as well seize, if they must seize, for more
or less, the property, I suppose, being equivalent to much more,
and in no danger of being removed. I am very sorry I did not
read the letter among the first things that, upon recovery, I was
able to read ; but having put it aside, it had the fate of other
things for which the proper time has been neglected. Let
me know what I shall do, or whether any thing at all is to
be done.
I am now thinking about Hitch 3 . I am yet inclined to
believe that he will rather lend money upon spindles, a security
which he has found valid, than upon a property to be wrung by
the law from Dr. James, who will not pay for three box tickets
which he took 4 . It is a strange fellow. Hitch has a dislike of
February 15 he composed a prayer are sometimes dim. According to
entitled, When my Eye was re- Malone, speaking to Dr. Burney of
stored to its Use. Prayers aiid his bad eye he said, ; the dog was
Meditations, p. 27. According to never good for much. Life, i. 41,
Boswell, he did not see at all with n. 2.
one of his eyes, though its appear- J First published in Croker s Bos-
ance was little different from that of well, page 101.
the other. Life, i. 41. This seems 2 Probably William Cave, Edward
borne out by his letter to Mrs. Thrale Cave s younger brother, who in-
of May 24, I773> where he says: herited from him a competent estate.
My fever has left me a very severe Johnson s Works, vi. 434, note,
inflammation in the seeing eye. ; See 3 Perhaps Charles Hitch, one of
also Life, ii. 264, where he says, By the original proprietors of Johnson s
an inflammation in my eye I could Dictionary. Life, i. 183.
not for some time read your letter. 4 Paul had granted a license to
Nevertheless writing to Miss Porter Dr. James for the use of his in-
on May 29, 1770, he says : I am vention (Life of Crompton, p. 256,
very sorry that your eyes are bad ; and ante, p. 6), for which, it should
mine continue pretty good, but they seem, money was still due, though
James ;
Aetat. 46.]
To Lewis Paul.
59
James ; perhaps another might think better of him, but where
to find that other I know not. I can, I believe, by a third hand
have Kitch sounded ; but if it had not the appearance of de
clining the office, I should tell you, that your own negotiation
would effect more than mine. However, in both these affairs,
I am ready to do what you would have me.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
92.
SIR,
To LEWIS PAUL 1 .
I am still of opinion that they will hear me at the gate 2 ,
and I have no difficulty to speak to them, but though I hope
I can obtain a forbearance, I am confident that I shall get
nothing more, nor would any attempt to borrow of them or
sell to them have any other effect than that of disabling me
from proceeding in my just request. You may easily believe
that spindles are there in very little credit.
I will propose to a friend to speak to Mr. Hitch, you well
know it is impossible to guess what [may] be the answer when
money is to be sought. If my friend refuses the errand, what
shall we do? that must be considered. Will you then write to
him by me, as a preparative, and then see him if he gives any
countenance to the affair ? You are much more skilful in these
payment apparently was resisted.
The three box-tickets had no doubt
been taken for Miss Williams s
benefit.
1 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, page 101. An exact transcript
of the original letter, now in the
Patent Office Library, has been sent
me by the kindness of Mr. W. E.
Milliken of that Office, who writes to
me : Dr. Johnson was often a guest
in the house of Kenneth Mackenzie,
seventh and last Earl of Seaforth,
whose only child, Caroline, born
1767, was my mother s mother.
Johnson took a great fancy to Lady
Caroline as a child would fondle
her, and call her " his little Jacobitish
mistress " by no means repelled, we
may be sure, by the well-known
sympathies of her house, and by the
fact of her lineal descent, through her
mother, from Charles IPs son, the
Duke of Grafton. Thus it comes
about that I, as an infant, have been
nursed in the arms of one who, as a
little child, had herself been petted
by Dr. Johnson.
2 St. John s Gate, Clerkenwell,
where the Gentleman s Magazine
was published.
transactions
60 To Dr. Hawkeswortk.
transactions than I, and might much sooner find out a proper
person to deal with, for my friends have not much money.
Would it be wrong if you wrote a short letter for me to show
at Cave s as a kind of Credential, containing only a few lines to
mention the value of the stock, the certainty of the security, and
your desire of my interposition. That I may not seem to thrust
myself needlessly between Cave and payment, let the letter be
without dejection as if the delay was a thing rather convenient
than necessary to you. Cave cannot, I think, want forty pounds,
nor perhaps has he twice forty to spare.
I will do my best for you in both negociations, with Hitch my
best can be very little, with Cave I expect to succeed, at least
for so short a delay as to Midsummer, and think it would \sic\
as well in your letter to refer payment to Michaelmass, or Christ-
mass. If they will grant the whole of our request (for I shall
make it mine too) they may more easily grant part. But once
more you know all these things better than I.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
March 12, 1756. SAM: JOHNSON .
To Mr. Paul.
93.
To DR. HAWKESWORTH 2 .
DEAR SIR, t March -
I have been looking into the Book here and there and
I think have read a pretty fair specimen. It is written with
1 While Johnson was thus busying Maxims, Characters, and Reflections,
himself for his friend, he was, as the which had just been published a
next letter but one shows, in diffi- book, according to Boswell, which
culties himself. is entitled to much more praise than
2 From the original in the posses- it has received. Life, iv. 304.
sion of the late Mr. S. J. Davey, Ha wkes worth wrote to Greville :
of 47 Great Russell Street, London. I enclose you Johnson s letter, it
Boswell describes Hawkesworth as will cost you threepence, but I dare
living in great intimacy with John- say you will think it worth twice the
son; about the year 1752. Life, i. money. It is an original, and (as I
234. This letter was enclosed by told you it would be) expressed in
Hawkesworth to Fulke Greville in general terms, without referring to
another dated Bromley, Kent, March particular passages as new, striking,
14, 1756. It refers to Greville s delicate or recherche . You see in
uncommon
Aetat. 46.] To Samuel Richardson. 61
uncommon knowledge of mankind, which is the chief excellence
of such a book. The sentences are keenly pointed, and vigor
ously pushed, which is their second excellence. But it is too
Gallick r , and the proper names are often ill-formed or ill-chosen.
To use a French phrase, I think the good carries it over the
bad 2 . The good is in the constituent, the bad in the accidental
parts.
We cannot come to-morrow, but I purpose to be with you
on the Saturday following, to see the Spring and Mrs. Hawkes-
worth 3 .
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
Miss W 4 sends her compliments.
94.
To SAMUEL RICHARDSON 5 .
SIR,
I am obliged to entreat your assistance. I am now under
an arrest for five pounds eighteen shillings. Mr. Strahan, from
the first place that he has not read Johnson s habit of rarely reading
the book through; he never reads books through, see Life,\. 71; ii. 226.
any book through. . . Take his own * For his dislike of Gallicisms, see
testimony in his own words, they are ib. iii. 343. It is strange that in the
written indeed not in letters but in next sentence in his letter he should
pothooks, a kind of character which himself, to use his own words,
it will probably cost you some time babble a dialect of France.
to decipher, and perhaps at last you 2 Le bon 1 emporte sur le mal.
may not succeed. It is amusing to 3 Hawkes worth was living at Brom-
find Johnson long afterwards, when ley, where Johnson four years earlier
looking through the manuscripts had buried his wife; to which,
which Hawkesworth had left behind writes Boswell, he was probably led
him, asking : - Who was his Ama- by the residence of his friend at that
nuensis ? that small hand strikes a place. Life, i. 241.
reader with terrour. It is pale as 4 Blind Miss Williams,
well as small. Post, Letter of April 5 First published in the Gentle-
I2 j 1777- man s Magazine, 1788, p. 479, and a
According to Mme. D Arblay, Gre- second time in Murphy s Essay on
ville never met Johnson till about Johnson, ed. 1792, p. 87. On the
twenty years after the date of the margin of this letter, says Murphy,
Letter in the text. For the curious there is a memorandum in these
scene which she then witnessed see words : " March 16, 1756. Sent six
Life, iv. 304, n. 4, and Early Diary guineas. Witness, Wm. Richardson. "
of Frances Surney, ii. 285. For My friend Mr. Arthur John Butler,
whom
62 To the Reverend Joseph Warton. [A.
whom I should have received the necessary help in this case,
is not at home ; and I am afraid of not finding Mr. Millar.
If you will be so good as to send me this sum, I will very
gratefully repay you, and add it to all former obligations.
I am, Sir,
Your most obedient
and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Gough Square, March 16, [1756].
95.
To THE REVEREND DR. BIRCH J .
Mr. Johnson returns Dr. Birch thanks for his book which
sickness has obliged him to keep beyond the time intended, and
desires his acceptance of the Life of Sir Thomas Browne, by way
[of] interest for the loan 2 .
To Dr. Birch.
Endorsed March 20, 1756.
96.
To THE REVEREND JOSEPH WARTON 3 .
DEAR SIR, April i S th, 1756.
Though when you and your brother 4 were in town you did
not think my humble habitation worth a visit, yet I will not so
far give way to sullenness as not to tell you that I have lately
seen an octavo book which I suspect to be yours, though I have
not yet read above ten pages 5 . That way of publishing, without
who has done so much to make * From the original in the British
Dante known to English readers, has Museum : Sloane MSS., 4310. 31 1.
seen in the old books of Jacob Ton- s See ante, p. 57, n. 4.
son the younger, a correspondence 3 First published in Wooll s Me-
of about this period, beginning with moirs of Dr. Joseph Warton, p. 238.
a letter from Johnson to the effect 4 Thomas Warton. Johnson felt
that he was in difficulties and re- very grateful to him for the uncom-
quired assistance. The difficulty, he mon care which he had taken of his
added, was not likely to recur, "as I interest in procuring him the degree
have no other debts except to of Master of Arts. Life, i. 275.
friends." There are besides a re- 5 The octavo book was Warton s
ceipt from him and an extract from Essay on the Genius and Writings of
Tonson s ledger "To your note of Pope. Dodsley, the publisher, wrote
hand when you was arrested for to Warton on April 8 : Your Essay
debt . . . 40." is published, the price $s. bound. I
acquainting
Aetat. 46.] To the Reverend Joseph Wart on. 63
acquainting your friends, is a wicked trick x . However, I will
not so far depend upon a mere conjecture as to charge you with
a fraud which I cannot prove you to have committed.
I should be glad to hear that you are pleased with your new
situation 2 . You have now a kind of royalty, and are to be
answerable for your conduct to posterity. I suppose you care
not now to answer a letter except there be a lucky concurrence
of a post-day with a holiday. These restraints are troublesome
for a time, but custom makes them easy, with the help of some
honour, and a great deal of profit, and I doubt not but your
abilities will obtain both.
For my part, I have not lately done much. I have been ill in
the winter, and my eye has been inflamed ; but I please myself
with the hopes of doing many things, with which I have long
pleased and deceived myself.
What becomes of poor dear Collins 3 ? I wrote him a letter
which he never answered. I suppose writing is very trouble
some to him. That man is no common loss. The moralists
all talk of the uncertainty of fortune, and the transitoriness of
beauty; but it is yet more dreadful to consider that the powers
of the mind are equally liable to change ; that understanding
may make its appearance and depart, that it may blaze and
expire.
Let me not be long without a letter, and I will forgive
you the omission of the visit ; and if you can tell me that
have a pleasure in telling you that it been able to persuade the world to
is liked in general, and particularly be of his opinion as to Pope. Life,
by such as you would wish should i. 448.
like it. But you have surely not J Johnson himself for the most
kept your secret : Johnson mentioned part did not print his name on the
it to Mr. Hitch [the bookseller, no title-page, though in most cases, to
doubt] as yours. Wooll s Memoirs quote his own words, he expected
of Dr. Warton, p. 237. The second it to be known (post, Letter of Jan.
volume was not published till 1782, 20, 1759). The authorship of the
though 200 pages of it, as we are told Rambler, however, he tried to keep
in the preface, had been printed secret. Life, i. 209, n. i.
more than twenty years. When 2 In 1755 Warton was elected
Boswell in 1763 expressed his wonder second master of Winchester School,
at the delay, Johnson replied : with the management of a boarding
Why, Sir, I suppose he finds himself house. Wooll s Memoirs, p. 30.
a little disappointed in not having 3 See ante, p. 36.
you
64 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1756.
you are now more happy than before, you will give great
pleasure to,
Dear Sir,
Your most affectionate
and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
97.
To THE REVEREND DR. BIRCH *.
SIR,
Being, as you will find by the proposal, engaged in a work
which requires the concurrence of my friends to make it of
much benefit to me, I have taken the liberty of recommending
six receipts to your care, and do not doubt of your endeavour
to dispose of them.
I have likewise a further favour to beg. I know you have been
long a curious collector of books. If therefore you have any
of the contemporaries or ancestors of Shakespeare, it will be
of great use to lend me them for a short time ; my stock of
those authours is yet but curta supellex 2 .
I am, Sir,
Your obliged humble servant,
June 22, I 75 6. . SAM: JOHNSON. .
To the Reverend Dr. Birch.
98.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR 3 .
DEAR SIR,
I promised to write to you, and write now rather to keep
my promise than that I have anything to say, that might not be
delayed till we meet. I know not how it happens, but I fancy
that I write letters with more difficulty than some other people,
who write nothing but letters, at least I find myself very un
willing to take up a pen, only to tell my friends that I am
well, and indeed I never did exchange letters regularly but
with dear Miss Boothby 4 .
1 From the original in the British 2 Tecum habita, et noris quam sit
Museum: Sloane MSS., 4310. 312. tibi curta supellex. Persius, iv. 52.
The work on which Johnson was 3 First published in Notes and
engaged was his edition of Shake- Queries, 6th S., v. 304.
speare. Life, i. 318, and/w/, p. 68. 4 Johnson wrote to Boswell on
However
Aetat. 46.] To LeiVlS Pdlll. 65
However let us now begin, and try who can continue punc
tuality longest. There is this use in the most useless letter, that
it shews one not to be forgotten, and they may, at least in
the beginning of friendship, or in great length of absence, keep
memory from languishing, but our friendship has been too long
to want such helps, and I hope our absence will be too short
to make them necessary.
My life admits of so little variety, that I have nothing to
relate, you who are married, and a magistrate, may have many
events to tell both foreign and domestick x . But I hope you will
have nothing to tell of unhappiness to yourself.
[I was glad of your prospect of reconciliation with Mouse-
ley (?) 2 , which is, I hope, now completed ; to have one s neighbour
one s enemy is uncomfortable in the country where good neigh
bourhood is all the pleasure that is to be had. Therefore now
you are on good terms with your Neighbours, do not differ
about trifles 3 .]
I am, dear Sir,
Your most affectionate servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
My compliments to your Lady.
July 31, 1756.
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor, at Market Bosworth, Leicestershire 4 .
99.
O TR To LEWIS PAUL S .
I would not have it thought that if I sometimes transgress
the rules of civility, I would violate the laws of friendship. If
December 8, 1763 : I love to see the same reluctance. Wordsworth s
my friends, to hear from them, to Life, ed. 1851, i. 260.
talk to them, and to talk of them ; I Before long Taylor s domestick
but it is not without a considerable events supplied correspondence
effort of resolution that I prevail enough. See post, Letter of August
upon myself to write. Life, i. 473. 13, 1763.
Goldsmith, apologising to one of his 2 See /</, Letter of November 18,
friends for his neglect in correspond- 1756.
ence, said : No turnspit dog gets up * The passage enclosed in brackets
into his wheel with more reluctance is erased in the original,
than I sit down to write. Forster s 4 Taylor was Rector of this town.
Goldsmith, i. 433. Wordsworth had 5 First published in Croker s Bos-
VOL. I. F I had
66
To Lewis Paul.
[A.D.1756.
I had heard anything from the gate J I would have informed
you, and I will send to them lest they should neglect to
transmit any accounts that they receive. I have been many
times hindered 2 from coming to you, but if by coming I could
have been of any considerable use, I would not have been
hindered. They are so cold at the gate both to the landlord
and to you, that if I could think of any body else to apply
to, I would trouble them no more. I am thinking of Dicey.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Sept. 25, 1756.
To Mr. Paul.
SIR,
100.
To LEWIS PAUL 3 .
Wednesday, [1756].
You will think I forgot you, but my boy is run away 4 , and
I know not whom to send. Besides, nothing seemed to require
much expedition, for Mr. Cave has left London almost a fort
night. They intimate at the Gate some desire to know your
determination. I will be with you in a day or two.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
101.
To LEWIS PAUL.
DEAR SIR, Saturday, [1756].
I have been really much disordered, when your last mes
sage came I was on the bed, and had not resolution to rise,
-well, p. 1 02 ; corrected by me from
the original in the possession of the
late Mr. S. J. Davey, of 47 Great
Russell Street, London.
It was sold by Messrs. Christie
and Co., on June 5, 1888, for 4.
1 St. John s Gate. Ante, p. 59.
2 Johnson has not written this
word very clearly, but both here and
just below he has, if I mistake not,
written kindred.
3 This and the next two letters
were first published in Croker s Bos-
well, p. 102.
4 The boy is no doubt Francis
Barber (ante, p. 54, n. 3), who
continued in Johnson s service from
1752 till Johnson s death, with the
exception of two intervals ; in one of
which, upon some difference with his
master, he went and served an
apothecary in Cheapside, but still
visited Dr. Johnson occasionally ;
in another he took a fancy to go to
sea. Life, i. 239, n. I.
having
Aetat. 47.] 70 Edmund Hector. 67
having had no sleep all night. I indeed had for two days no
audible voice, but am now much better, though I cannot hope
to go out very quickly.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
102.
To LEWIS PAUL.
SIR, C N date -]
I am astonished at what you tell me. I cannot well come
out to-night, but will wait on you on Monday evening. I have
been very busy, but have now some leisure. I repeat again
that I am astonished. Henry 1 is just gone out of town, but
I could send to him, if there was any likelihood of advantage
from it. I am certain it is not done with his privity, for he has
no interest in it, and he is too wise to do ill without interest !
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
I am ready to do on this occasion any thing that can be
done.
103.
To EDMUND HECTOR 2 .
DEAR SIR, Oct - ?> W 6 -
After a long intermission of our correspondence you took
some time ago a very kind method of informing me that there
was no intermission of our friendship 3 , yet I know not why,
after the interchange of a letter or two, we have fallen again into
[ David Henry, an Aberdeenshire property of it at his death in 1792.
man, was born in 1710. He came He was an author as well as a printer
up to London at an early age, where and publisher. Patrick Henry, the
as a journeyman printer he lived on American statesman, was the son of
terms of intimacy with Benjamin his first cousin. Nichols s Z,z/. Anec.
Franklin and William Strahan. He iii. 423, 759.
married Cave s sister. In 1754 his 2 First published in Notes and
name appears as a partner at St. Queries, 6th S. iii. 301.
John s Gate, where he lived for 3 See ante, p. 42, n. i.
many years, possessing the freehold
F 2 our
68 To Edmund Hector. [A.D.1756.
our former silence. I remember that when we were nearer each
other we were more diligent in our correspondence, perhaps
only because we were both younger, and more ready to employ
ourselves in things not of absolute necessity. In early life every
new action or practice is a kind of experiment, which when it
has been tried, one is naturally less eager to try again. Friend
ship is indeed one of those few states of which it is reasonable to
wish the continuance through life, but the form and exercise
of friendship varies, and we grow to recollect (?) to show kindness
on important occasions without squandering our ardour in super
fluities of empty civility z .
It is not in mere civility that I write now to you but to inform
you that I have undertaken a new Edition of Shakespeare 2 , and
that the profits of it are to arise from a subscription, I therefore
solicit the interest of all my friends, and believe myself sure of
yours without solicitation. The proposals and receipts 3 may
be had from my mother, to whom I beg you to send for as many
as you can dispose of, and to remit to her money which you
or your acquaintances shall collect. Be so kind as to mention
1 This passage is very difficult a volume of pamphlets in the Bod-
to decipher. Note in Notes and leian Library (No. 141) I have found
Queries, the following entry in Malone s hand-
2 It is remarkable that at this writing :
time his fancied activity was for the The Proposals in 1756 were en-
moment so vigorous that he promised titled thus :
his work should be published before " Proposals for printing
Christmas, 1757. Yet nine years by Subscription
elapsed before it saw the light. The Dramatick Works
Life, i. 319. of
J In a copy of Harwood s History William Shakspeare.
of Lichfield in the Bodleian Library Corrected and Illustrated
one of these receipts has been in- by
serted at p. 487 : Samuel Johnson.
No. 27. Conditions.
Received of The Revd. Mr. j. That the book shall be ele-
Seward One Guinea, being the First gantly printed in eight volumes in
Payment for a Copy of SHAKE- octavo,
SPEARE S WORKS which I promise to 2. That the price to subscribers
deliver according to the Proposals. shall be Two Guineas ; one to be
SAM. JOHNSON. paid at subscribing, the other on the
The signature has been pasted on ; delivery of the book in sheets,
the receipt is in print with the ex- 3. That the work shall be pub-
ception of Mr. Seward s name, which lished in or before Christmas, 1757."
is written, but not by Johnson. In
my
Aetat. 47.] To Lewis Paul. 69
my undertaking to any other friends that I may have in your
part of the kingdom, the activity of a few solicitors may produce
great advantages to me.
I have been thinking every month of coming down into the
country, but every month has brought its hinderances T . From
that kind of melancholy indisposition which I had when we
lived together at Birmingham, I have never been free, but have
always had it operating against my health and my life with
more or less violence 2 . I hope however to see all my friends,
all that are remaining, in no very long time, and particularly you
whom I always think on with great tenderness.
I am, Sir,
Your most affectionate servant,
SAM-. JOHNSON.
To Mr. Hector, in Birmingham.
104.
To LEWIS PAUL 3 .
SIR, Oct. 8, 1756.
You think it hard by this time you cannot have a letter.
I engaged Mr. Newbery 4 , who sent me on Monday night the
note enclosed, and appeared to think the matter well settled.
On Tuesday I wrote to Mr. Henry s , but soon heard he was
out of town. I knew not what to do. I then had recourse to
young Mr. Cave 6 , who very civilly went about the business, and
came to me yesterday in the evening with this account.
Mr. Cave 7 seized, and has a man in possession.
He made a sale, and sold only a fire-shovel for four shillings.
The goods were appraised at about eighty pounds.
1 Johnson let more than twenty Sotheby and Co., on May 10, 1875,
years go by without visiting his for ,3 3^.
native town, being hindered no doubt 4 See ante, p. 22.
mainly by his poverty. Life, i. 340, 5 See ante, p. 67.
n. I. In the last seventeen years of 6 Richard Cave, Edward Cave s
his life he visited it a dozen times. nephew, who from 1754 to 1760
Ib. iii. 452. was the printer of the Gentleman s
2 See ib. i. 64, 87 for his melan- Magazine in conjunction with David
choly indisposition. Henry. Nichols s Lit. Anec. v. 58.
3 First published in Croker s Bos- 7 William Cave. Ante, p. 58,
well, p. 102. . 2.
The original was sold by Messrs.
Mr. Cave
To Dr. Taylor.
Mr. Cave will stay three weeks without any further motion
in the business, but will still keep his possession.
He expects that you should pay the expence of the seizure ;
how much it is I could not be informed.
He will stay to Christmas upon security. He is willing to
continue you tenant, or will sell the mill to any that shall work
or buy the machine. He values his mill at a thousand pounds *.
He did not come up about this business, but another.
Mr. Barker 2 , as young Mr. Cave thinks, is at Northampton.
These, Sir, are the particulars that I have gathered.
I am, Sir,
Your very humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
105.
g IR T O LEWIS PAUL 3 . [No date.]
I am no less surprised than yourself at the treatment which
you have met with, and agree with you that Mr. Cave must
impute to himself part of the discontent that he shall suffer till
the spindles are produced.
If I have any opportunity of dispelling the gloom that over
casts him at present, I shall endeavour it both for his sake and
yours ; but it is to little purpose that remonstrances are offered
to voluntary inattention or to obstinate prejudice. Cuxon in
one place and Garlick in the other leave no room for the un-
pleasing reasonings of
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
106.
TO DR. TAYLOR 4 .
DEAR SIR,
You have no great title to a very speedy answer,, yet I did
not intend to have delayed so long. I am now in doubt whether
1 The mill, I conjecture, was the Life of S. Crompton, p. 265.
place in which the 250 spindles were 3 First published in Croker s Bos-
worked for which Paul had granted well, p. 103.
a license to Edward Cave. Ante, p. 6. The original was sold by Messrs.
2 Perhaps Johnson wrote Bowker, Sotheby and Co., on May 10, 1875,
for with a man of that name Paul for j^i igs.
had been connected in business. 4 First published by the Philobiblon
you
Aetat. 47.] To Dr. Taylor. 7 :
you are not come to town, if you are double postage is a proper
fine 1 .
There is one honest reason why those things are most subject
to delays which we most desire to do. What we think of
importance we wish to do well, to do anything well requires
time, and what requires time commonly finds us too idle or
too busy to undertake it. To be idle is not the best excuse,
though if a man studies his own reformation it is the best reason
he can allege to himself, both because it is commonly true, and
because it contains no fallacy, for every man that thinks he is
idle condemns himself and has therefore a chance to endeavour
amendment, but the busy mortal has often his own commenda
tion, even when his very business is the consequence of Idleness,
when he engages himself in trifles only to put the thoughts of
more important duties out of his mind, or to gain an excuse
to his own heart for omitting them.
I am glad however that while you forgot me you were gaining
upon the affections of other people.
It is in your power to be very useful as a neighbour, a magis
trate, and a Clergyman, and he that is useful, must conduct
his life very imprudently not to be beloved. If Mousley(?) 2
makes advances, I would wish you not to reject them. You
once esteemed him, and the quarrel between you arose from
misinformation and ought to be forgotten.
When you come to town let us contrive to see one another
more frequently, at least once a week. We have both lived
long enough to bury many friends, and have therefore learned
to set a value on those who are left. Neither of us now can find
many whom he has known so long as we have known each
other. Do not let us lose our intimacy at a time when we
ought rather to think of encreasing it. We both stand almost
single in the world, I have no brother, and with your sister you
have little correspondence 3 . [But if you will take my advice, you
Society, vi. 15 ; also in Notes and to him there.
Queries, 6th S. v.324. It is endorsed : 2 The editor of this Letter in Notes
The best Letter in the World. and Queries says that the name may
Johnson directed the letter to be Morley or Moresby. It is no doubt
Market Bosworth ; if Taylor were in the person mentioned ante, p. 65.
London it would have to be forwarded 3 Johnson writing to Hector many
will
72 To Edmund Hector. [A.D. 1757.
will make some overtures of reconciliation to her. If you have
been to blame, you know it is your duty first to seek a. renewal
of kindness. If she has been faulty, you have an opportunity
to exercise the virtue of forgiveness. You must consider that
of her faults and follies no very great part is her own. Much
has been the consequence of her education, and part may
be imputed to the neglect with which you have sometime
treated her. Had you endeavoured to gain her kindness and
her confidence, you would have had more influence over her 1 .]
I hope that before I shall see you, she will have had a visit or
a letter from you. The longer you delay the more you will
sometime repent. When I am musing alone, I feel a pang for
every moment that any human being has by my peevishness
or obstinacy spent in uneasiness 2 . I know not how I have fallen
upon this, I had no thought of it, when I began the letter, [yet]
am glad that I have written it.
I am, dearest Sir,
Your most affectionate
NOV. is, 1756. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor, at Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.
107.
To CHARLES O CONNOR.
London, April 9, 1757. Published in the Life, i. 321,
108.
DEAR SIR, To EDMUND HECTOR3 -
My mother informs me that you have lately remitted her
years later said : You and I should words " You will forgive her and "
now naturally cling to one another : here inserted, not (apparently) in
we have outlived most of those who Johnson s hand, also in much darker
could pretend to rival us in each ink. Note in Notes and Queries.
other s kindness. . . . You indeed 2 I am always sorry (said Dr.
have a sister with whom you can Johnson) when I make bitter speeches,
divide the day: I have no natural and I never do it but when I am
friend left. Life, iv. 147. insufferably vexed. Mme. D Arblay s
1 The sentences in brackets have Diary, i. 131. See Life, ii. 256.
been carefully erased in much darker 3 First published in Notes and
ink, probably by Taylor, and the Queries, 6th S. iii. 321.
some
Aetat. 48.]
To \Thomas Wartori\.
73
some money for the receipts r . I am very sensibly touched by
your kindness. The Subscription though it does not quite equal
perhaps my utmost hope, for when was hope not disappointed ?
yet goes on tolerably, and the undertaking will I think be some
addition to my fortune, whatever it may be to my reputation 2 .
I rather take it unkindly that you do not from time to time
let me hear from you. I am now grown very solicitous about
my old friends, with whom I passed the hours of youth and
cheerfulness, and am glad of any opportunity to revive the
memory of past pleasures. I therefore tear open a letter with
great eagerness when I know the hand in which it is super
scribed. Your letters are always so welcome, that you need not
increase their value by making them scarce.
I am, Sir,
Your most affectionate friend,
SAM: JOHNSON.
London, Apr. 16, 1757.
To Mr. Hector in Birmingham.
109.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], June 21, 1757. Life, i. 322.
110.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], June 28, 1757. Published in the Life, i. 337.
111.
DEAR SIR, To [THOMAS WARTO " ^ Oct. , 7 , , 757 .
I have been thinking and talking with Mr. Allen 4 about
some literary business for an inhabitant of Oxford. Many
1 See ante, p. 68, n. 3.
2 Johnson wrote to Mr. Burney on
December 24, 1757: How my new
edition [of Shakespeare] will be re
ceived I know not ; the subscription
has not been very successful. Life,
3 Published in Croker s Boswell,
page 108, with the following note :
1 This letter was found by Mr. Peter
Cunningham, in the papers of Allen,
the printer, and was intended, no
doubt, for Thomas Warton, though
perhaps, from some change of opinion,
not forwarded to him.
4 Edmund Allen, afterwards John
son s landlord and next neighbour in
Bolt Court, for whom he had much
kindness. Life, iii. 141.
schemes
74 To Bennet Langton. [A.D. 1757-59.
schemes might be plausibly proposed, but at present these may
be sufficient, i. An Ecclesiastical History of England. In this
there are a great many materials which must be compressed into
a narrow compass. This book must not exceed 4 vols. 8vo.
2. A History of the Reformation, (not of England only, but of
Europe ;) this must not exceed the same bulk, and will be full
of [a word omitted] and very entertaining. 3. The Life of
Richard the First. 4. The Life of Edward the Confessor.
All these are works for which the requisite materials may
be found at Oxford, and any of them well executed would be
well received. I impart these designs to you in confidence, that
what you do not make use of yourself shall revert to me un-
communicated to any other. The schemes of a writer are his
property and his revenue, and therefore they must not be made
common. I am, Sir, - . .
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
112.
To MR. BURNEY.
Gough Square, December 24, 1757. First published in the Life,
i- 3 2 3-
113.
To MR. BURNEY.
London, March, 8, 1758. Published in the Life, i. 327.
114.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], April 14, 1758. Published in the Life, i. 335.
115.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], June i, 1758. Published in the Life, i. 336.
116.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], September 21, 1758. Published in the Life, i. 338.
117.
To BENNET LANGTON.
January 9, 1759 [misdated 1758]. Published in the Life, i. 324.
To
Aetat. 48-49.] To Mrs. Johnson (Johnsons mother). 75
118.
To MRS. JOHNSON (Johnson s mother z ).
HONOURED MADAM,
The account which Miss 2 gives me of your health pierces
my heart. God comfort and preserve you and save you, for the
sake of Jesus Christ.
I would have Miss read to you from time to time the Passion
of our Saviour, and sometimes the sentences in the Communion
Service, beginning Come unto me, all ye that travail and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest 3 !
I have just now read a physical 4 book, which inclines me to
think that a strong infusion of the bark would do you good.
Do, dear mother, try it.
Pray, send me your blessing, and forgive all that I have done
amiss to you. And whatever you would have done, and what
debts you would have paid first, or anything else that you would
direct, let Miss put it down ; I shall endeavour to obey you.
I have got twelve guineas 5 to send you, but unhappily am
1 The first seven of these Letters
to Mrs. Johnson and Miss Porter
(excluding No. 128) were published by
Malone in the fourth edition of the
Life ; the remaining five by Croker
in his Bosivell, pages 114, 115, 118.
In 1759, in the month of January,
Johnson s mother died at the great
age of ninety, an event which deeply
affected him ; not that " his mind
had acquired no firmness by the con
templation of mortality," but that
his reverential affection for her was
not abated by years, as indeed he
retained all his tender feelings even
to the latest period of his life. I have
been told that he regretted much his
not having gone to visit his mother
for several years, previous to her
death. But he was constantly en
gaged in literary labours which con
fined him to London ; and though he
had not the comfort of seeing his
aged parent, he contributed liberally
to her support. Life, i. 339.
2 Lucy Porter, his step-daughter.
3 Johnson mingles the version in
the Communion Service Come
unto me all that travail and are
heavy-laden, and I will refresh you,
with that in the Bible Come unto
me, all ye that labour and are heavy-
laden, and I will give you rest. St.
Matthew, xi. 28.
4 Johnson defines physical in its
second signification, pertaining to
the science of healing. For his
dabbling in physic, see ante, p. 49,
n. I.
5 I find in his Diary, writes
Hawkins, a note of the payment to
Mr. Allen, the printer, of six guineas,
which he had borrowed of him, and
sent to his dying mother. Hawkins s
Johnson, p. 366. Johnson, in all his
money difficulties, never seems to
have turned to his old pupil Garrick,
who could easily have helped him,
and no doubt would. Seven years
earlier, however, Johnson had drawn
at
7 6
To Miss Porter.
[A.D. 1759.
at a loss how to send it to-night. If I cannot send it to-night, it
will come by the next post x .
Pray, do not omit any thing mentioned in this letter : God
bless you for ever and ever.
I am your dutiful son,
Jan. 13, 1758 2 . SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mrs. Johnson in Lichfield.
119.
T MlSS
MY DEAR MISS,
I think myself obliged to you beyond all expression of
gratitude for your care of my dear mother. God grant it may
not be without success. Tell Kitty 3 that I shall never forget her
tenderness for her mistress. Whatever you can do, continue to
do. My heart is very full.
I hope you received twelve guineas on Monday. I found
him in Prospero (The Rambler, No.
200), and had ended his paper by
saying : I left him without any
intention of seeing him again, unless
some misfortune should restore his
understanding. 5 Reynolds, more
over, was in great prosperity, for in
1758 he had one hundred and fifty
sitters (Taylor s Reynolds, i. 157).
From him he did at one time borrow
thirty pounds, which, on his death
bed, he requested him to forgive.
Life, iv. 413.
1 Jan. 13, on which day Johnson
was writing, was Saturday. He
wrote again on Tuesday, the i6th;
Thursday, the i8th ; and Saturday,
the 2oth, for it was on the evenings
of those days of the week that mails
left London for all parts of England.
There were at this time only 123
places to which letters were sent
six times a week. Dodsley s London
and its Environs, ed. 1761, v. 219.
As is shown by Johnson s next letter,
the mail that left London for Lich
field on Saturday evening was de
livered on Monday in the morning,
as we learn from the Life, ii. 468,
where a London letter is received at
breakfast-time.
Written by mistake for 1759.
Johnson had not yet got accustomed
to the change of style, which he had
first used six years before (ante, p. 6,
n. i). Even in a letter written so far
on in the year as March I, he
falls into the same blunder (past,
p. 86).
On the outside of this letter was
written by another hand " Pray ac
knowledge the receipt of this by re
turn of post without fail." MALONE.
3 Catherine Chambers, Mrs. John
son s maid-servant. Johnson recorded
in his Diary on Sunday, Oct. 18,
1767. Yesterday, Oct. 17, at about
ten in the morning, I took my leave
for ever of my dear old friend,
Catharine Chambers, who came to
live with my mother about 1724, and
has been but little parted from us
since. She buried my father, my
brother, and my mother. She is
now fifty-eight years old. . . . We
kissed, and parted. I humbly hope
to meet again, and to part no more.
Life, ii. 43.
a way
Aetat. 49.] To Mrs.Joknson. 77
a way of sending them by means of the postmaster, after I had
written my letter, and hope they came safe T . I will send you
more in a few days. God bless you all.
I am, my dear,
Your most obliged
and most humble servant,
Jan. 16,1759. SAM: JOHNSON.
Over the leaf is a letter to my mother.
To Miss Porter, at Mrs. Johnson s, in Lichfield.
120.
To MRS. JOHNSON.
DEAR HONOURED MOTHER,
Your weakness afflicts me beyond what I am willing to
communicate to you. I do not think you unfit to face death 2 ,
but I know not how to bear the thought of losing you. En
deavour to do all you [can] for yourself. Eat as much as
you can.
I pray often for you ; do you pray for me. I have nothing to
add to my last letter.
I am, dear, dear mother,
Your dutiful son.
Jan. 16,1759- SAM: JOHNSON.
121.
To MRS. JOHNSON.
DEAR HONOURED MOTHER,
I fear you are too ill for long letters ; therefore I will only
tell you, you have from me all the regard that can possibly
1 The difficulty of sending money 2 How Johnson s truthfulness
is shown in a letter of Cowper s stands forth here ! No flattering at
dated Olney, Nov. 10, 1767 : I that dread hour. I do not think
shall be glad if you will find an op- you unfit to face death is all that
portunity of sending me six guineas he dared say even to his mother.
in a parcel by the Olney waggon " Don t compliment now," he replied
which sets out from the George, in warmly, on his own death-bed to a
Smithfield, early on Tuesday morn- friend who praised too highly the
ing, therefore it must be sent to the life which he had led. Life, iv. 410,
inn on Monday night. Southey s n. 2.
Cowper, xv. 21.
subsist
78 To Mrs. Johnson. [A.D.1759.
subsist in the heart. I pray God to bless you for evermore, for
Jesus Christ s sake. Amen.
Let Miss write to me every post z , however short.
I am, dear mother,
Your dutiful son,
Jan. 18, 1759. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mrs. Johnson, in Lichfield.
122.
DEAR Miss, To Miss PORTER -
I will, if it be possible, come down to you 2 . God grant
I may yet [find] my dear mother breathing and sensible. Do
not tell her lest I disappoint her. If I miss to write next post,
I am on the road.
I am, my dearest Miss,
Your most humble servant,
Jan. 20, 1759. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Miss Porter, at Mrs. Johnson s, in Lichfield.
123.
To MRS. JOHNSON 3 .
DEAR HONOURED MOTHER,
Neither your condition nor your character make it fit for
me to say much. You have been the best mother, and I believe
the best woman in the world. I thank you for your indulgence
to me, and beg forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and all
that I have omitted to do well 4 . God grant you his Holy
1 Every letter which he received seven in the morning. Johnson in
would have cost him fourpence. In 1772, by which time a great deal had
the last year of Johnson s life the been done to render travelling more
charge was raised to fivepence. By rapid, took twenty-six hours in going
1812 it had gone up to ninepence, in the coach from London to Lich-
where it remained for nearly thirty field a distance of 1 16 miles. Post,
years. Penny Cyclo., ed. 1840, xviii. Letter of Oct. 19, I77 2 -
455. 3 This letter was written on the
2 Travelling was still very slow. second leaf of the preceding. -
Fielding, in Tom Jones (bk. xi. ch. MALONE.
9), published in 1749, describes a 4 In a prayer which Johnson wrote,
nobleman in his coach and six taking dated Jan. 23. The day on which my
two days to perform a journey of dear mother was buried, he says :
ninety miles, though he started at Forgive me whatever I have done
Spirit,
Aetat. 49.]
To William Strakan.
79
Spirit, and receive you to everlasting happiness, for Jesus
Christ s sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive your spirit. Amen.
I am, dear, dear mother,
Your dutiful son,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
Jan. 20, 1759.
SIR,
124.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN T .
When I was with you last night I told you of a story which
I was preparing for the press. The title will be
The Choice of Life
or
The History of Prince of Abissinia.
unkindly to my mother, and what
ever I have omitted to do kindly.
Pr. and Med., p. 37. On Easter
Day of the same year he wrote in a
prayer : Forgive me, O Lord, what
ever my mother has suffered by my
fault. . . . And, O Lord, so far as it
may be lawful I commend unto thy
fatherly goodness my father, brother,
wife, and mother, beseeching thee to
make them happy for Jesus Christ s
sake. Croker s Bosivell, p. 823. In
this commendation, in giving their
names, he mentions them in the order
in which they had died.
1 From the original in the posses
sion of Mr. Frederick Barker, of 41
Gunterstone Road, West Kensington.
First published in my edition of the
Life, vol. vi ; Addenda, p. xxviii.
The late Mr. Strahan, writes
Boswell, told me that Johnson wrote
Rasselas that with the profits he
might defray the expense of his
mother s funeral, and pay some little
debts which she had left. He told
Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he com
posed it in the evenings of one week,
sent it to the press in portions as it
was written, and had never since read
it over. Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston,
and Mr. Dodsley purchased it for a
hundred pounds, but afterwards paid
him twenty-five pounds more, when
it came to a second edition. . . .
Voltaire s Candide, written to refute
the system of Optimism, which it has
accomplished with brilliant success,
is wonderfully similar in its plan and
conduct to Johnson s Rasselas ; inso
much, that I have heard Johnson
say, that if they had not been pub
lished so closely one after the other
that there was not time for imitation,
it would have been in vain to deny
that the scheme of that which came
latest was taken from the other. Life,
1.341. That Johnson sent Rasselas to
the press in portions, as it was written,
does not seem consistent with this
letter, and Sir Joshua s memory
probably failed him on this point.
His friend Baretti said that any
other person with his reputation
would have got ,400 for it, but he
never understood the art of making
the most of his productions. Prior s
Life of Malone, p. 160.
Candide, it should seem, was pub
lished in the latter half of February,
1759. Grimm in his letter of March I
speaks of its having just appeared.
It
So
To William Strahan.
f A.D. 1759.
It will make about two volumes like little Pompadour *, that
is about one middling volume. The bargain which I made with
Mr. Johnson was seventy five pounds (or guineas) a volume, and
twenty-five pounds for the second edition. I will sell this either
at that price or for sixty 2 , the first edition of which he shall
himself fix the number, and the property then to revert to me, or
for forty pounds, and I share 3 the profit, that is retain half the
copy. I shall have occasion for thirty pounds on Monday night
when I shall deliver the book which 1 must entreat you upon
such delivery to procure me. I would have it offered to Mr.
Johnson 4 , but have no doubt of selling it, on some of the terms
mentioned.
I will not print my name, but expect it to be known 5 .
I am, dear Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Jan. 20, 1759.
Get me the money if you can.
He does not mention it in his pre
vious letter of Feb. 15. Carres. Lit.
(ed. 1829), ii. 296. This letter proves
that Rasselas was written before
Candide was published. See also
the Introduction to my edition of
Rasselas, Clarendon Press, 1887,
p. 24.
1 By little Pompadour Johnson,
I conjecture, means the second and
cheaper edition of The History of
the Marchioness de Pompadour*
The first edition was published by
Hooper in one volume, price five
shillings (Gentleman s Magazine for
Oct. 1758, p. 493), and the second in
two volumes for three shillings and
sixpence (Gentleman s Magazine for
Nov. 1758, p. 543). It is strange
however that Johnson should refer
to this book, as it is scandalous and
almost indecent.
2 In the original fifty - five
pounds written first and then scored
over.
3
In my edition of the Life, share
is misprinted have.
* Mr. Johnson, the bookseller, was,
I conjecture, W. Johnston, who, with
Strahan and Dodsley, purchased the
book. He lived in Ludgate Street.
See Nichols s Lit. Anec., iii. 727.
5 Johnson did not generally print
his name. He published anony
mously his translation of Lobe s
Voyage to Abyssinia ; London; The
Life of Savage ; The Rambler and
The Idler, both in separate numbers
and when collected in volumes ;
Rasselas j The False Alarm; Falk
land s Islands; The Patriot; and
Taxation no Tyranny ; (when these
four pamphlets were collected in a
volume he published them with the
title si Political Tracts by the Autkour
of the Rambler). He gave his name
in The Vanity of Human Wishes,
Irene, the Dictionary, his edition of
Shakespeare, the Journey to the
Western Islands, and the Lives of
the Poets.
Fielding at one time of his life
To
Aetat. 49.] To MlSS Porter. 8 1
125.
To Miss PORTER.
You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the
best mother. If she were to live again, surely I should behave
better to her. But she is happy, and what is past is nothing
to her ; and for me, since I cannot repair my faults to her,
I hope repentance will efface them. I return you and all those
that have been good to her my sincerest thanks, and pray God
to repay you all with infinite advantage. Write to me, and
comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad likewise, if Kitty will
write to me. I shall send a bill of twenty pounds in a few days,
which I thought to have brought to my mother; but God
suffered it not. I have not power or composure to say much
more. God bless you and bless us all.
I am, dear Miss,
Your affectionate humble servant,
Jan, 23, 1759 . " SAM: JOHNSON.
To Miss Porter in Lichfield.
126.
To Miss PORTER.
{The beginning is torn and lost?)
.
You will forgive me if I am not yet so composed as to give
any directions about any thing. But you are wiser and better
than I, and I shall be pleased with all that you shall do. It is not
boasted that he had never published speak of this prayer as being com-
even a pamphlet without setting his posed on the day on which his mother
name to it, and adds : For the sake was buried, and add : After his
of men s characters I wish all other wife s death he had allowed forty
writers were by law obliged to use days to pass before his " return to
the same method ; but till they are I life." On looking once more at the
shall no longer impose any such re- passage in Prayers and Meditations,
straint on myself. Fielding s Works, I see that I may have been mistaken,
ed. 1806, v. 413. For he adds that the prayer was
1 In a prayer which Johnson com- repeated on my fast with the ad-
posed on this event he speaks of dition. The addition is likely enough
himself as now about to return to the second part of the prayer, and it
the common comforts and business is in it that this statement is found.
of the world. Pr. and Med., p. 38. When the fast was held we are not
In a note on this (Life, \. 514) I told.
VOL. I. G Of
82
To Miss Porter.
[AD. 1759.
of any use for me now to come down ; nor can I bear the place.
If you want any directions, Mr. Howard * will advise you. The
twenty pounds I could not get a bill for to-night, but will send
it on Saturday.
I am, my dear,
Your affectionate servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Jan. 25, 1759.
127.
To Miss PORTER.
DEAR Miss,
I have no reason to forbear writing, but that it makes my
heart heavy, and I had nothing particular to say which might
not be delayed to the next post ; but had no thoughts of ceasing
to correspond with my dear Lucy, the only person now left in
the world with whom I think myself connected 2 . There needed
not my dear mother s desire, for every heart must lean to some
body, and I have nobody but you ; in whom I put all my little
affairs with too much confidence to desire you to keep receipts,
as you prudently proposed.
If you and Kitty 3 will keep the house, I think I shall like it
best. Kitty may carry on the trade for herself, keeping her own
stock apart, and laying aside any money that she receives for
any of the goods which her good mistress has left behind her.
1 Mr. Howard, whose Christian
name was Charles, was in the law,
and resided in the Close. Boswell
mentions him among Johnson s
early friends and patrons. Life, i.
80. Writing of him in a letter to
Dr. Taylor (post, August 1 8, 1763),
Johnson says : His profession has
acquainted him with matrimonial
law, and he is in himself a cool and
wise man. His daughter Mary
married in December, 1757, Dr.
Erasmus Darwin. Their third son
was Robert Waring Darwin, the
father of Charles Robert Darwin. It
is very likely that from Johnson s
friend, the cool and wise man, the
great naturalist indirectly derived
his Christian name. He was named,
it is believed, after Erasmus Dar
win s favourite son Charles, who
died from a dissection wound at
Edinburgh ; who, in his turn, was
named, we may assume, after his
mother s father, Johnson s friend. It
is interesting to find Charles Dar
win s great-grandfather described by
Johnson as a cool and wise man ;
for no man in a higher degree de
served that character than Charles
Darwin himself.
2 He had some distant relations to
whom he left legacies. Life, iv. 401,
n. 3 ; 402, n. i.
3 Catherine Chambers, Mrs, John
son s old servant. Ante, p. 76, n. 3.
I do
Aetat. 49.]
To Miss Porter.
I do not see, if this scheme be followed, any need of appraising
the books l . My mother s debts, dear mother, I suppose I may
1 His mother had carried on her
husband s trade as a bookseller ; the
books were the stock in her shop.
Life, i. 90, n. 3 ; 175, n. I. In the
Johnson MSS. at Pembroke College
are the following documents relating
to the trade as carried on by her
husband, her son Nathanael and her
self:-
To the Hon d Gilb. Walmesley Esqr.
I Memoires of Literature
for feb. and March .020
May 10, 1726. I Dit. Ap.
and May ....
I Dit. June o
I Swift s Cadenus c. . .
I memoires July, Aug. Sept.
Oct
I Phyical [sic} Diet. . .
I moyle s Works. 3 vol.
I Gullivers Travels. 2 vol.
I Glew [? i lb. of glue] .
I memoirs for Nov. and
Dec
Jan. 27, I726 7 . I Hederici
Lexicon
I Aliffs Canon and Civill
Law
~r
4 2 5
Jan. 27, 1726-7.
Received then the contents of this
Bill four pound two shillings two
pence in full of all Accounts
MICH. JOHNSON.
To the Hon d Mr. Walmesly.
I Holland on ye smallpox 029
i Republick, Aug. Sept.
Oct 030
i Nov. Decemb. ..020
I Norfolk Congress ..009
i Cornel. Nepos, De[cem-
ber] 046
I Republick, Jan. feb.
March, Ap. May ..050
i Letter from Rome . . o i 6
G
2
o
o
I
I
o
4
6
o
17
o
a
9
6
o
5
o
2
o
13
6
I
4
o
i Tryal of witnesses . . o i 6
i Republick, June, July,
Aug 030
i Sept. Oct. ...020
I
6
O
o
3
9
i
2
3
Last Bill, query where it
ended.
Human Understanding .
o
5
6
Republ. May and June
o
2
o
Dunciade and Key . . .
o
2
o
July . .
o
T
J
Here I suppose the former bill
ended.
Decemb. ye 28, 1729.
Recev 3 then the Contents of this
Bill and all Acct.
M. JOHNSON.
SIR,
I here send you the Books
togeather with an account of the
Charge of them ; the whole is
26. 6. 4, rec d 21 so that there re
mains due to me 5. 6. 4, which you
will please to remit att your Con
venient time.
I am your humble Serv 1
D. JOHNSON.
Swarkstone, Aug. 21, 1733.
On Monday and Tuesday the
third and fourth of Sept 1 will be ye
last day s of our attending the sale,
and on which day s we shall return
half a Crown in the Pound, for all
books that may be bought on those
two day s. I shall be glad to have
your company.
For Gilb* Walmesley
Esq. at His House
In Lichfield.
2 pay
8 4
To Miss Porter.
[A.D. 1759.
pay with little difficulty ; and the little trade may go silently
forward. I fancy Kitty can do nothing better; and I shall not
want to put her out of a house, where she has lived so long,
and with so much virtue. I am very sorry that she is ill, and
earnestly hope that she will soon recover ; let her know that
I have the highest value for her, and would do any thing for her
advantage. Let her think of this proposal. I do not see any
To the Hon d Gilbert Walmesley Esqr.
17 Republicks of Letters
from May 1732 to No-
ember 1733 o 17 o
I Lock on ye Longitude 006
o 17 6
Nov. loth, 1733.
Rec d then in full of this Bill and
all Accts.
SARAH JOHNSON.
To Gilbert Walmesley Esq r .
12 Republicks of Letters
from Oct. 1733 to Nov.
1734 o 12 o
Feb. 2 1 st. An Almanack
bound in veil 019
1734, May 20. The Bishops
Charge o I o
Oct. 2. A Play ....006
o 15 3
Rec d Feb. 3, 1734/5 ye contents
of this Bill in full of all accounts, I
say rec d by me,
NATH : JOHNSON.
Febru. ye 3d, 1734-5
t. d.
Mr. Walmsley paid all but 003
October was the last Re-
publick he had then
recev d
June 3oth. Popes Letters .060
12 Republicks since
o 12
o 18 3
Jan. 10, 1735.
Rec d then in full of this Bill and
all Act s.
SARAH JOHNSON.
Ashby, Jan. 31, 1 735-
SIR,
My sister Johnson desiars me to
wright in her behalf to you, there
being due to her for the parcell of
books you had of her at Swarkstone
five pund six shillings and foure
pence, you had a perticuler acount
sent you with the books, as she wase
obliged to sell of the studey of books
at a Joe rate to turn it into money,
she hoped you would have paid the
bill which she sent to Mr. Newton,
some time agoe. He reterned the
bill and said you mentiond some
mestake, which if there wase my
sister desiard him to let you so [sic]
she would desiare you to paye him
the rest, and deduct the mestake for
she desiars no moore than is justly
due to her, the interest that might
have been maid in this time will help
towards a smal mestake. She begs
you will paye the money to Mr.
Newton who will soon come to
Ashby and will i dare saye help it to
my sister Johnson. I am y r
Humble sarvant,
JAMES BATE.
At the foot is written in another
hand: N.B. I paid Mr. Newton
^5 ; but I believe s d [?] I rectify the
mistakes in Mrs. Johnson s bill,
there will be something due, tho a
trifle, to
G. WALMESLEY.
likelier
Aetat. 40.] To MlSS Porter. 85
likelier method by which she may pass the remaining part of
her life in quietness and competence.
You must have what part of the house you please, while you
are inclined to stay in it ; but I flatter myself with the hope that
you and I shall some time pass our days together \ I am very
solitary and comfortless, but will not invite you to come hither
till I can have hope of making you live here so as not to dislike
your situation. Pray, my dearest, write to me as often as you can.
I am. dear Madam,
Your affectionate humble servant.
Feb. 6, 1759. SAM: JOHNSON.
128.
To Miss PORTER 2 .
MY DEAR Miss,
I am very much pleased to find that your opinion concurs
with mine. I think all that you propose is right and beg that
you would manage every thing your own way, for I do not doubt
but I shall like all that you do.
Kitty shall be paid first, and I will send her down money
to pay the London debts afterwards, for as I have had no
connexion with the trade, it is not worth while to appear in
it now. Kitty may close her mistress s account and begin
her own. The stock she shall have as you mention. I hope
she continues to recover.
I am very much grieved at my Mother s death, and do not
love to think nor to write about it. I wish you all kinds of
good, and hope sometime to see you.
I am, dear Miss,
Your affectionate servant,
London, Feb. 15, 1759. SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Miss Porter lived on, it should Johnson given to me by Geo.
seem, in Johnson s house in Lich- Pearson, St. John s Coll. Cam. G.W.
field till she had built one of her George Pearson was probably the
own. Life, \. no, n. 3. She died son of the Rev. Mr. Pearson, of
without ever visiting London. Ib. Lichfield (Life, ii. 471 ; iv. 256),
ii. 462. whom Mr. Croker describes, in one
2 I have carelessly failed to record place, as the legatee of Lucy Porter,
the name of the correspondent to and in another place as the husband
whose kindness I am indebted for of the lady who inherited her fortune,
this unpublished letter. It is en- Croker s Boswell, Preface, p. xiv,
dorsed : An original letter of Dr. and p. 492.
To
86 To Miss Porter. [A.D. 1759.
129.
To Miss PORTER.
DEAR MADAM, March 1 7&\9\ .
I thought your last letter long in coming ; and did not
require or expect such an inventory of little things as you have
sent me. I could have taken your word for a matter of much
greater value. I am glad that Kitty is better ; let her be
paid first, as my dear, dear mother ordered, and then let me
know at once the sum necessary to discharge her other debts,
and I will find it you very soon.
I beg, my dear, that you would act for me without the least
scruple, for I can repose myself very confidently upon your
prudence, and hope we shall never have reason to love each
other less. I shall take it very kindly if you make it a rule to
write to me once at least every week, for I am now very desolate,
and am loth to be universally forgotten.
I am, dear sweet,
Your affectionate servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
130.
To Miss PORTER.
DEAR MADAM, March 2 3> 759-
I beg your pardon for having so long omitted to write.
One thing or other has put me off. I have this day moved my
things, and you are now to direct to me at Staple Inn, London 2 .
I hope, my dear, you are well, and Kitty mends. I wish her
success in her trade. I am going to publish a little story book,
1 See ante, p. 76, n. 2. Apparently he had dispersed his
2 He had left Gough Square, household, sleeping probably in his
where he had lived since 1749. Life, old house, but having no cooking
iii. 405, n. 6. On January 9 of this done there. His chambers in Staple
year (in a letter misdated 1758) he Inn are not known. I made enquiries
wrote to Langton, who had sent about them, but was informed that
him some game : I have left off the books of the Society had been
house-keeping, and therefore made destroyed in a fire.
presents of the game. Life, i. 326.
which
Aetat. 49.]
To Mrs. Montagu.
which I will send you when it is out . Write to me, my dearest
girl, for I am always glad to hear from you.
I am, my dear,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
131.
I0 >
To Miss PORTER.
DEAR MADAM,
I am almost ashamed to tell you that all your letters came
safe, and that I have been always very well, but hindered, I
hardly know how, from writing. I sent, last week, some of my
works, one for you, one for your aunt Hunter, who was with my
poor dear mother when she died, one for Mr. Howard 2 , and one
for Kitty.
I beg you, my dear, to write often to me, and tell me how you
like my little book.
I am, dear love,
Your affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
132.
To MRS. MONTAGU 3 .
MADAM, J une ^ W9-
I am desired by Mrs. Williams to sign receipts with her
name for the subscribers which you have been pleased to pro-
1 The little story book was Ras-
selas. It was reviewed in the Gentle
man s Magazine for April (p. 184),
and was no doubt published in that
month. The Gentlemaris Magazine
at this time was published at the end
of the month, or even later. Thus
the number for April, 1759, contains
news as late as April 30.
2 See ante, p. 82, n. i.
3 This and the following letter
were first published in Croker s
Bos-well, page 118.
For an account of Mrs. Montagu,
see Boswell s Johnson, ii. 88. In
1775 she gave Mrs. Williams a small
annuity. Croker s Bos-well, p. 458,
and post, Letter of Sept. 22, 1783.
The subscriptions were perhaps for
Mrs. Williams s Miscellanies, though
that volume was not published till
seven years later. Life, ii. 25.
Johnson once censured Mrs. Mon
tagu s mode of conferring charity.
If, said he, a wench wants a good
gown, do not give her a fine smelling-
bottle, because that is more delicate ;
as I once knew a lady lend the key
of her library to a poor scribbling
dependant, as if she took the woman
for an ostrich that could digest iron.
Piozzi s Anecdotes, p. 271. We learn
from Hay ward s Piozzi, i. 154, that
this lady was Mrs. Montagu.
cure,
88 To Mrs. Montagu. [A.D. 1759.
cure, and to return her humble thanks for your favour, which
was conferred with all the grace that elegance can add to
beneficence.
I am, Madam.
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
133.
To MRS. MONTAGU.
MADAM, Gray>s lnn1 Dec - I7> I759>
Goodness so conspicuous as yours will be often solicited,
and perhaps sometimes solicited by those who have little pre
tension to your favour. It is now my turn to introduce a
petitioner, but such as I have reason to believe you will think
worthy of your notice. Mrs. Ogle, who kept the music-room
in Soho Square 2 , a woman who struggles with great industry
for the support of eight children, hopes by a benefit concert to
set herself free from a few debts, which she cannot otherwise
discharge. She has, I know not why, so high an opinion of me
as to believe that you will pay less regard to her application
than to mine. You know, Madam, I am sure you know, how
hard it is to deny, and therefore would not wonder at my com
pliance, though I were to suppress a motive which you know
not, the vanity of being supposed to be of any importance to
Mrs. Montagu. But though I may be willing to see the world
deceived for my advantage, I am not deceived myself, for I know
that Mrs. Ogle will owe whatever favours she shall receive from
the patronage which we humbly entreat on this occasion, much
1 Johnson, who had moved to a Madame Cornelys who took Car-
Staple Inn on March 23 of this lisle House in Soho Square, enlarged
year, had resided there but a short it, and established assemblies and
time, and was now occupying cham- balls by subscription. She had ap-
bers in Gray s Inn, whence in a few parently been there some years, as
months he moved to Inner Temple in 1764 he had said that she had
Lane. I am informed by Mr. W. enlarged her vast room. Letters,
R. Douthwaite, Librarian of Gray s iv. 302 ; v. 283. She got into diffi-
Inn and author of Gray s Inn, its culties and died in the Fleet Prison.
History and Associations, that he Cunningham s Handbook of London,
does not seem to have held chambers ed. 1850, p. 456. Perhaps Mrs. Ogle
directly from the Society. had occupied the same house.
2 Horace Walpole in 1 77 1 mentions
more
Aetat. so.] To the Reverend Thomas Percy. 89
more to your compassion for honesty in distress, than to the
request of,
Madam,
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
134.
To JOSEPH SIMPSON.
[London, 1759 ?] Published in the Life, i. 346.
Boswell ascribes this undated letter to 1759. In a note on it I have
shown that it probably belongs to a later date.
135.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], October 18, 1760. Published in the Life, i. 357.
136.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS PERCY .
DEAR SIR,
I went this morning to Mr. Millar 2 , and found him very
well disposed to your project. I told him the price of 3 vols.
was an hundred guineas, to which he made no objection 3 . I said
nothing of advancing any money, for he was in great haste, and
I did not at once recollect it. There is only one thing which I
1 From the original in the Dyce three volumes, and Johnson, as Percy
and Forster Libraries, Science and tells us in his Preface, had seen some
Art Department, South Kensington, of the manuscript and had urged its
communicated to me by Mr. R. publication. Shenstone wrote on
Forster Sketchley. March I, 1761 : You have perhaps
2 Andrew Millar, the great book- heard me speak of Mr. Percy ; he
seller, whom Johnson called the was in treaty with Mr. James Dods-
Maecenas of the age. Life, i. 287, ley for the publication of our best old
n. 3. ballads in three volumes. ... I pro-
J In 1761 Percy published a trans- posed the scheme for him myself.
lation from the Portuguese of a Shenstone s Works, iii. 321. Mr.
Chinese novel, Hau Kiati Chooan, in Shenstone, writes Percy in his Pre-
four volumes, and in 1 762 Mis- face, was to have borne a joint
cellaneous Pieces relating to the share in the work had not death un-
Chinese, in two volumes. His Re- happily prevented him. (He died
liques of Ancient English Poetry on Feb. n, 1763.) The bargain
did not appear till 1765; nevertheless with Millar dropped through, for it
it is no doubt this work which was was Dodsley who had the high
the subject of this letter. It was in honour of publishing the Reliques.
dislike.
To Miss Porter.
[A.D. 1761.
dislike. He wants the Sheets that are in my hands to shew to
I know not whom. In that there is yet some danger. If we
had not had this Specimen I think we should have immediately
bargained. Perhaps after all the bargain is made. You will
know from his own Letter, which he promised me to write to
night, and which, if he writes it, will make this superfluous. But,
this business being of moment, I would not appear to neglect it.
Make all compliments to Mrs. Percy \ for
Sir,
Your most humble servant,
NOV. 29, 1760. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Mr. Percy.
137.
To Miss PORTER 2 .
Inner Temple Lane 3 , Jan. 13, 1761.
DEAREST MADAM,
I ought to have begun the new year with repairing the
omissions of the last, and to have told you sooner, what I can
1 It was to his young wife that
Percy, two years earlier, had ad
dressed those pretty lines begin
ning :-
O Nancy, wilt thou go with me,
Nor sigh to leave the flaunting
town ?
Can silent glens have charms for
thee?
The lowly cot and russet gown ?
Dodsley s Collection of Poems, ed.
1758, vi. 233, and H. B. Wheatley s
edition of the Reliques, i. Preface,
P- 72.
2 First published in Croker s Bo s-
well, 8vo. ed., p. 122.
Johnson had moved into Inner
Temple Lane in 1760. I have been
told, says Hawkins, by his neigh
bour at the corner, that during the
time he dwelt there, more inquiries
were made at his shop for Mr. John
son than for all the inhabitants put
together of both the Inner and
Middle Temple. Hawkins s Life of
Johnson, p. 383. In Dodsley s Lon
don, published in 1761, the side of
the Temple fronting the Thames is
described as lying open and airy,
and enjoying a delightful prospect
into Surrey. vol. vi. p. 104. Boswell,
thirty years after Johnson, had
chambers on the same staircase, and
here he was forcing himself to sit
some hours a-day, at the very time
that he was bringing out his Life of
Johnson. Letters of Bcswell, p. 335,
and Croker s Boswell, p. 830.
According to the Gentleman s
Magazine for 1857, part ii, p. 552,
Johnson had occupied the first
floor of No. I. On October 8 of that
year there was a sale by auction of
the floor, windows, doors, and panel
partition. They fetched ,10 $s.
The entire staircase and the outside
door with its pilasters were with
drawn from the sale, as the Benchers
wished to preserve them as relics.
The house was pulled down. It
always
Aetat. si.] To the Reverend Thomas Percy.
always tell you with truth, that I wish you long life and happi
ness, always increasing till it shall end at last in the happiness of
heaven.
I hope, my dear, you are well ; I am at present pretty much
disordered by a cold and cough ; I have just been blooded, and
hope I shall be better.
Pray give my love to Kitty. I should be glad to hear that
she goes on well.
I am, my dearest dear,
Your most affectionate servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
138.
To JOSEPH BARETTI.
London, June 10, 1761. Published in the Life, i. 361.
139.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS PERCY .
DEAR SIR,
The kindness of your invitation would tempt me to leave
pomp and tumult behind, and hasten to your retreat ; however,
as I cannot perhaps see another coronation 2 so conveniently as
stood on the site of what is now
called Johnson s Buildings.
To the kindness of Mr. H. W.
Lawrence, Sub-Treasurer of the Inner
Temple, I owe the following copy of
a Bench Table Order :
Inner Temple, Bench Table,
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1857.
Ordered that the Staircase, &c.
of Dr. Johnson s Staircase be pre
sented to the Crystal Palace Com
pany.
Mr. W. Gardiner, the Secretary
of the Crystal Palace Company, in
forms me that no trace of it can be
found. He does not think that it
was ever set up, but that it was
stored in a part of the building which
was destroyed by fire in 1866.
Charles Lamb, who in 1809 took
chambers at No. 4 of the same Lane,
says : I have two rooms on the
third floor and five rooms above, with
an inner staircase to myself, and all
new painted &c., and all for ,30 a
year ! Letters of Charles Lamb, ed.
by A. Ainger, i. 252.
1 From the original in the posses
sion of Mr. Alfred Morrison, of Font-
hill House.
This Letter was sold for $ ioj.
by Messrs. Christie & Co. on June 5,
1888. Lot 48.
- The Coronation took place on
Sept. 22. Horace Walpole wrote on
Sept. 28 : What is the finest sight
in the world ? A Coronation. What
do people talk most about ? A
Coronation. What is delightful to
have passed ? A Coronation. In
deed, one had need be a handsome
young peeress not to be fatigued to
this,
92 To Miss Porter. [A.D. 1762.
this, and I may see many young Percies, I beg your pardon for
staying till this great ceremony is over, after which I purpose to
pass some time with you, though I cannot flatter myself that I
can even then long enjoy the pleasure which your company
always gives me, and which is likewise expected from that of
Mrs. Percy, by,
Sir,
Your most affectionate
Sept. 1 2 , 1781. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Mr. Percy, at Easton Mauduit, Northamptonshire, by
Castle Ashby.
140.
To DR. STAUNTON.
[London], June i, 1762. Published in the Life, i. 367.
4
141.
To A LADY.
[London], June 8, 1762. Published in the Life, i. 368.
142.
To JOSEPH BARETTI.
London, July 20, 1762. Published in the Life, i. 369.
143.
To THE EARL OF BUTE.
[London], July 20, 1762. Published in the Life, i. 376.
144.
To Miss PORTER .
DEAR MADAM,
If I write but seldom to you it is because it seldom happens
that I have anything to tell you that can give you pleasure, but
last Monday I was sent for by the chief Minister 2 the Earl of
death with it. Letters, iii. 444. John- Minister is in Johnson s Dictionary.
son visited Percy at his Vicarage at In 1775 he used the term Prime
Easton Maudit in 1764. Life, \. 486. Minister. Life, ii. 355. Hume in
1 From the original in the posses- 1742 speaks of Walpole as Prime
sion of the late Mr. Stamford Raffles, Minister. Hume s Essays, ed. 1742,
13 Abercromby Square, Liverpool. ii. 204. For Johnson s pension see
* Neither Premier nor Prime Life, i. 372.
Bute,
Aetat. 53.] To Miss Reynolds. 93
Bute, who told me that the King had empowered him to do
something for me ; and let me know that a pension was granted
me of three hundred a year. Be so kind as to tell Kitty.
I am, dearest Madam,
Your most affectionate
July 24 , 1762. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Miss Porter, Lichfield.
145.
To THE EARL OF BUTE.
Temple Lane, November 3, 1762. Published in the Life, i. 380.
146.
To Miss REYNOLDS z .
DEAR MADAM, Dec. 21,1762.
If Mr. Mudge should make the offer you mention, I shall
certainly comply with it, but I cannot offer myself unasked 2 . I
am much pleased to find myself so much esteemed by a man
whom I so much esteem.
Mr. Tolcher 3 is here ; full of life, full of talk, and full of en
terprise. To see brisk young fellows of seventy-four, is very
surprising to those who begin to suspect themselves of growing
old.
1 First published in Croker s Bos- Great Britain and Ireland, was born
well, page 129. in 1762. It is probable therefore
Boswell says that he had seen that it was about him that the offer
Johnson s letters to Miss Reynolds was made. See Boswell s Johnson,
(Sir Joshua s sister), but that her too i. 378, and Knight s Cyclo. of Biog.
nice delicacy would not permit them iv. 373.
to be published. Life, i. 486, n. I. 3 An alderman of Plymouth, he
2 To be a godfather. - - MlSS to whom Johnson exclaimed in his
REYNOLDS. Mr. Mudge was most mock enthusiasm, " I hate a
likely one of the sons of the Rev. Docker." CROKER. See the Life,
Zachariah Mudge, either John, the i. 379, n. 2. Northcote in Hazlitt s
celebrated surgeon, or Thomas, who Conversations (p. 288) said : Old
in 1793 or 1794 received a reward of Mr. Tolcher used to say of the
_^3,ooo from Parliament for his im- famous Pulteney " My Lord Bath
provement in the construction of always speaks in blank verse." He
chronometers. William Mudge, John gave young Northcote an introduc-
Mudge s son, famous for the part he tion to Reynolds. Leslie and Taylor s
took in the trigonometrical survey of Life of Reynolds, i. 406.
You
94 To Joseph Baretti. [A.D.1762.
You may tell at Torrington that whatever they may think, I
have not forgot Mr. Johnson s widow I , nor school Mr. Johnson s
salmon nor Dr. Morison s Idler. For the widow I shall apply
very soon to the Bishop of Bristol 2 , who is now sick. The salmon
I cannot yet learn any hope of making a profitable scheme, for
where I have inquired, which was where I think the information
very faithful, I was told that dried salmon may be bought in
London for a penny a pound ; but I shall not yet drop the
search.
For the school, a sister of Miss Carwithen s has offered herself
to Miss Williams, who sent her to Mr. Reynolds, where the
business seems to have stopped. Miss Williams thinks her well
qualified, and I am told she is a woman of elegant manners, and
of a lady-like appearance. Mr. Reynolds must be written to,
for, as she knows more of him than of me, she will probably
choose rather to treat with him.
Dr. Morison s Books shall be sent to him with my sincere
acknowledgements of all his civilities.
I am going for a few days or weeks to Oxford, that I may free
myself from a cough, which is sometimes very violent ; however,
if you design me the favour of any more letters, do not let the
uncertainty of my abode hinder you, for they will be sent after
me, and be very gladly received by,
Madam,
Your most obliged humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
147.
To JOSEPH BARETTI.
London, December 21, 1762. Published in the Life, i. 380.
1 A clergyman s widow to procure 2 Thomas Newton, a Lichfield
a pension for her. Miss REYNOLDS, man. Johnson hearing his Disser-
Johnson and Reynolds on their tour fattens on the Prophecies described
to Devonshire in the summer of this as his great work, said : - Why,
year had visited at Torrington Rey- Sir, it is Tom s great work ; but how
nolds s brother-in-law, Mr. Johnson. far it is great, or how much of it is
Leslie and Taylor s Life of Reynolds, Tom s, are other questions. Life,
IOT c IV. 2oO.
. 41$.
To
Aetat. 53.]
To George Strakan.
148.
To GEORGE STRAHAN T .
DEAR GEORGE, Feb - T 9>
I am glad that you have found the benefit of confidence,
and hope you will never want a friend to whom you may safely
disclose any painful secret. The state of your mind you had not
so concealed but that it was suspected at home, which I mention
that if any hint should be given you, it may not be imputed to
me, who have told nothing but to yourself, who had told more
than you intended 2 .
I hope you read more of Nepos, or of some other book,
than you construe to Mr. Bright 3 . The more books you look
into for your entertainment, with the greater variety of style
you will make yourself acquainted. Turner I do not know ; but
think that if Clark 4 be better, you should change it, for I shall
never be willing that you should trouble yourself with more than
one book to learn the government of words. What book that
one shall be. Mr. Bright must determine. Be but diligent in
reading and writing, and doubt not of the success. Be pleased
to make my compliments to Miss Page and the gentlemen.
I am,
Dear Sir,
Yours affectionately,
SAM: JOHNSON.
149.
To GEORGE STRAHAN 5 .
DEAR SIR, March 26, 1763.
You did not very soon answer my letter, and therefore
cannot complain that I make no great haste to answer yours.
1 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, page 129.
George Strahan, the son of William
Strahan the printer, became Vicar
of Islington. He attended Johnson
on his death-bed, and published his
Prayers and Meditations. Life, iv.
376. He was at this time at the
Abingdon Grammar School.
2 See />.$/, Letter of Aug. 19, 1782.
3 Mr. Bright was the Master of
Abingdon School.
4 I think that John Clarke is
meant, the author of books on Latin
Grammar and Composition. 1 do
not know who Turner was.
5 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, page 130.
I am
96 To Miss Porter. [A.D. 1703.
I am well enough satisfied with the proficiency that you make,
and hope that you will not relax the vigour of your diligence.
I hope you begin now to see that all is possible which was pro
fessed. Learning is a wide field, but six years spent in close
application are a long time ; and I am still of opinion, that if
you continue to consider knowledge as the most pleasing and
desirable of all acquisitions, and do not suffer your course to be
interrupted, you may take your degree not only without de
ficiency, but with great distinction.
You must still continue to write Latin. This is the most
difficult part, indeed the only part that is very difficult of your
undertaking. If you can exemplify the rules of syntax, I know
not whether it will be worth while to trouble yourself with any
more translations. You will more increase your number of
words, and advance your skill in phraseology, by making a short
theme or two every day; and when you have construed properly
a stated number of verses, it will be pleasing to go from reading
to composition, and from composition to reading. But do not
be very particular about method ; any method will do, if there
be but diligence. Let me know, if you please, once a week what
you are doing.
I am,
Dear George,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
150.
To Miss PORTER T .
MY DEAR, April 12, 1763.
The newspaper has informed me of the death of Captain
Porter 2 . I know not what to say to you, condolent 3 or con
solatory, beyond the common considerations which I suppose
you have proposed to others, and know how to apply to your
self. In all afflictions the first relief is to be asked of God.
1 First published in Croker s Bos- stately home, and making a hand-
ivell, page 130. some garden in an elevated situation
2 Miss Porter s brother, a Captain in Lichfield. Life, ii. 462.
in the Navy, left her a fortune of ten 3 Condolent is not in Johnson s
thousand pounds ; about a third of Dictionary.
which she laid out in building a
I wish
Aetat 53.] To George Strahan. 97
I wish to be informed in what condition your brother s death
has left your fortune ; if he has bequeathed you competence or
plenty, I shall sincerely rejoice ; if you are in any distress or
difficulty, I will endeavour to make what I have, or what I can
get, sufficient for us both.
I am,
Madam,
Yours affectionately,
SAM: JOHNSON.
151.
To GEORGE STRAHAN z .
DEAR SIR, A P ril l6 > J 7 6 3-
Your account of your proficience is more nearly equal,
I find, to my expectations than your own. You are angry that
a theme on which you took so much pains was at last a kind
of English Latin; what could you expect more? If at the
end of seven years you write good Latin, you will excel most of
your contemporaries : Scribendo disces scribere. It is only by
writing ill that you can attain to write well. Be but diligent
and constant, and make no doubt of success.
I will allow you but six weeks for Tully s Offices. Walker s
Particles 2 1 would not have you trouble yourself to learn at all by
heart, but look in it from time to time, and observe his notes and
remarks, and see how they are exemplified. The translation
from Clark s history will improve you, and I would have you
continue it to the end of the book.
I hope you read by the way at loose hours other books,
though you do not mention them ; for no time is to be lost ; and
what can be done with a master is but a small part of the whole.
I would have you now and then try at some English verses.
When you find that you have mistaken any thing, review the
passage carefully, and settle it in your mind.
1 First published in Croker s Bos- ing to the proprietie and elegance
well, page 130. of the Latine. London, 1655. By
2 Treatise of English Particles, William Walker, B.D.
shewing how to render them accord-
VOL. I. H Be
98 To Miss Porter. [A.D.
Be pleased to make my compliments, and those of Miss
Williams, to all our friends.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours most affectionately,
SAM: JOHNSON.
152.
To THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE GRENVILLE x .
SIR, July a, 1 763.
Be pleased to pay to the bearer seventy- five pounds, being
the quarterly payment of a pension granted by his Majesty, and
due on the 24th day of June last to, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM- JOHNSON 2 .
153.
To Miss PORTER 3 .
MY DEAREST DEAR, July s I763
I am extremely glad that so much prudence and virtue
as yours is at last awarded 4 with so large a fortune, and doubt
not but that the excellence which you have shewn in circum
stances of difficulty will continue the same in the convenience of
wealth.
I have not written to you sooner, having nothing to say,
1 Published in the Grenmlle do to any other Person breathing ;
Papers, ii. 68. He therefore most ardently begs to
George Grenville was Chancellor see Them at any Hour this after-
of the Exchequer. For the payment of noon, and He will at all Events im-
Johnson s pension see Life, i. 376, n. 2. mediately enter upon this very in-
2 Four days before the date of teresting Subject, and when once
this letter the following note had begun, there is no Danger of His
been sent, which, in its result, affected wandering upon any other : in Short,
Johnson s life scarcely less than his see Them, He must, for He assures
pension. I owe this copy of it to the Them, with the greatest Truth and
kindness of Mrs. Thomas, of Eyhorne Sincerity, that They have murder 3 d
House, Hollingbourne, near Maid- Peace and Happiness at Home,
stone, who possesses the original : South war k, 28 June, 1763.
Mr. Thrale presents His most Mr. Thrale married Miss Salus-
respectfull compliments to Mrs. and bury on the following Oct. n. Gen-
Miss Salusbury and wishes to God tlemarfs Magazine, 1763, p. 518.
He could have communicated His 3 First published in Croker s Bos-
Sentiments to Them last night, which well, page 144.
is absolutely impossible for Him to 4 Perhaps he wrote rewarded.
which
Aetat. 53.] To Miss Porter. 99
which you would not easily suppose nothing but that I love
you and wish you happy; of which you may be always assured,
whether I write or not.
I have had an inflammation in my eyes ; but it is much better,
and will be, I hope, soon quite well.
Be so good as to let me know whether you design to stay at
Lichfield this summer ; if you do, I purpose to come down.
I shall bring Frank z with me ; so that Kitty must contrive to
make two beds, or get a servant s bed at the Three Crowns 2 ,
which may be as well. As I suppose she may want sheets, and
table linen, and such things, I have sent ten pounds, which she
may lay out in conveniences. I will pay her for our board
what you think proper ; I think a guinea a week for me and the
boy.
Be pleased to give my love to Kitty.
I am, my dearest love,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
154.
To Miss PORTER 3 .
MY DEAREST LOVE, J uly I2 > I763
I had forgot my debt to poor Kitty; pray let her have the
note, and do what you can for her, for she has been always very
good. I will help her to a little more money if she wants it, and
will write. I intend that she shall have the use of the house as
long as she and I live 4 .
That there should not be room for me at the house is some
disappointment to me, but the matter is not very great. I am
sorry you have had your head filled with building, for many
reasons. It was not necessary to settle immediately for life at
any one place; you might have staid and seen more of the
world. You will not have your work done, as you do not under
stand it, but at twice the value. You might have hired a house
1 His black servant. 1776. Life, ii. 461. It is still stand-
2 The good old-fashioned inn, ing.
the very next house to that in which 3 First published in Croker s Bos-
Johnson was born and brought up, well, page 145.
where he and Boswell stayed in 4 See ante, p. 82.
H 2 at
ioo To George Strahan. [A.D. i?63.
at half the interest of the money for which you build it, if your
house cost you a thousand pounds. You might have the Palace
for twenty pounds T , and make forty of your thousand pounds ;
so in twenty years you would have saved four hundred pounds,
and still have had your thousand.
I am, dear Dear,
Yours, &c v
SAM: JOHNSON.
155.
To GEORGE STRAHAN 2 .
DEAR GEORGE,
To give pain ought always to be painful, and I am sorry
that I have been the occasion of any uneasiness to you, to whom
I hope never to [do] any thing but for your benefit or your
pleasure. Your uneasiness was without any reason on your part,
as you had written with sufficient frequency to me, and I had
only neglected to answer them, because as nothing new had
been proposed to your study, no new direction or incitement
could be offered you. But if it had happened that you had
omitted what you did not omit, and that I had for an hour,
or a week, or a much longer time, thought myself put out of
your mind by something to which presence gave that prevalence,
which presence will sometimes give even where there is the most
prudence and experience, you are not to imagine that my friend
ship is light enough to be blown away by the first cross blast, or
that my regard or kindness hangs by so slender a hair as to be
broken off by the unfelt weight of a petty offence. I love you,
and hope to love you long. You have hitherto done nothing
to dimmish my good will, and though you had done much more
than you have supposed imputed to you, my good will would
not have been diminished.
I write thus largely on this suspicion, which you have suffered
to enter your mind, because in youth we are apt to be too
1 When Boswell visited Lichfield permanent abode,
in 1776 the Bishop s Palace was - First published in Croker s Bos-
occupied by Miss Seward s father. -well, page 146; corrected by me
Life, ii. 467. Bishop Selwyn, who from the original in the possession
was appointed in 1867, was, I was of Mr. W. R. Smith, of Greatham
told, the first prelate who made it his Moor, West Liss, Hants.
rigorous
Aetat. 53.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 101
rigorous in our expectations, and to suppose that the duties of
life are to be performed with unfailing exactness and regularity;
but in our progress through life we are forced to abate much
of our demands, and to take friends such as we can find them,
not as we would make them.
These concessions every wise man is more ready to make
to others, as he knows that he shall often want them for himself ;
and when he remembers how often he fails in the observance or
cultivation of his best friends, is willing to suppose that his
friends may in their turn neglect him, without any intention to
offend him.
When therefore it shall happen, as happen it will, that you or
I have disappointed the expectation of the other, you are not
to suppose that you have lost me, or that I intended to lose you ;
nothing will remain but to repair the fault, and to go on as if it
never had been committed.
I am, Sir,
Your affectionate servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Thursday, July 14, 1763.
156.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR .
DEAR SIR,
You may be confident that what I can do for you either by
help or counsel in this perplexity shall not be wanting, and
I take it as a proof of friendship that you have recourse to
me on this strange revolution of your domestick life.
I do not wonder that the commotion of your mind made
it difficult for you to give me a particular account, but while my
knowledge is only general, my advice must be general too.
Your first care must be of yourself and your own quiet. Do
not let this vexation take possession of your thoughts, or sink
too deeply into your heart. To have an unsuitable or unhappy
1 First published in The Miscel- Dr. Taylor and his wife which ended
lanies of the Philobiblon Society, vi. in a separation. Boswell seems to
19; afterwards by Professor J. E. B. have known nothing of this matter.
Mayor in Notes and Queries, 6th According to Nichols (Lit. Anec.
S., v. 324. It is the first of a series ix. 58) Taylor was twice married.
of letters about a quarrel between
marriage
IO2 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor, [A.D. ives.
marriage happens every day to multitudes, and you must en
deavour to bear it like your fellow sufferers by diversion at one
time and reflection at another. The happiness of conjugal life
cannot be ascertained or secured either by sense or by virtue,
and therefore its miseries may be numbered among those evils
which we cannot prevent and must only labour to endure with
patience, and palliate with judgement. If your condition is
known I should [think] it best to come from the place, that you
may not be a gazing-stock to idle people who have nobody
but you to talk of. You may live privately in a thousand places
till the novelty of the transaction is worn away. I shall be glad
to contribute to your peace by any arrangement in my power.
With respect to the Lady I so little understand her temper
that I know not what to propose. Did she go with with [sic] a
male or female companion ? With what money do you believe her
provided? To whom do you imagine she will recur for shelter?
What is the abuse of her person which she mentions ? What is
[the] danger which she resolves never again to incur ? The tale
of Hannah I suppose to be false, not that if it be true it will
justify her violence and precipitation, but it will give her con
sequent superiority in the publick opinion and in the courts of
Justice, and it will be better for you to endure hard conditions
than bring your character into a judicial disquisition.
I know you never lived very well together, but I suppose that
an outrage like this must have been preceded by some un
common degrees of discord from which you might have pro
gnosticated some odd design, or that some preparations for this
excursion must have been made, of which the recollection may
give you some direction what to conjecture, and how to proceed.
You know that I have never advised you to any thing tyran
nical or violent, and in the present case it is of great importance
to keep yourself in the right, and not injure your own right
by any intemperance of resentment or eagerness of reprisal.
For the present I think it prudent to forbear all persuit \sic\,
and all open enquiry, to wear an appearance of complete in
difference, and calmly wait the effects of time, of necessity, and
of shame. I suppose she cannot live long without your money,
and the confession of her want will probably humble her.
Whether
Aetat. 53.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 103
Whether you will inform her brother, I must leave to your
discretion, who know his character and the terms on which
you have lived. If you write to him, write like a man ill treated
but neither dejected nor enraged.
I do not know what more I can say without more knowledge
of the case, only I repeat my advice that you keep yourself
cheerful, and add that I would have [you] contribute nothing
to the publication of your own misfortune. I wondered to see
the note transcribed by a hand which I did not know.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most affectionate
SAM: JOHNSON.
August 13, 1763.
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor in Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
157.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR \
DEAR SIR,
I have endeavoured to consider your affair according to the
knowledge which the papers that you have sent me, can afford,
and will very freely tell you what occurs to me.
Who Mr. Woodcock is I know not, but unless his character
in the world, or some particular relation to yourself, entitle him
to uncommon respect, you seem to treat him with too much
deference by soliciting his interest and condescending to plead
your cause before him, and imploring him to settle those terms
of separation which you have a right to prescribe. You are
in my opinion to consider yourself as a man injured, and instead
of making defence, to expect submission. If you desert your
self who can support you ? You needed not have confessed
so much weakness as is made appear by the tale of the half-
crown and the pocket picked by your wife s companion. How
ever nothing is done that can much hurt you.
You enquire what the fugitive Lady has in her power. She
has. I think, nothing in her power but to return home and mend
her behaviour. To obtain a separate maintenance she must
prove either cruelty to her person or infidelity to her bed, and
1 First published in The Misccl- 22 ; afterwards in Notes and Queries,
lanies of the Philobiblon Society, vi. 6th S., v. 342.
I suppose
1 04 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1763.
I suppose neither charge can be supported. Nature has given
women so much power that the law has very wisely given them
little z .
The Letter for Mr. Wakefield I think you do not want; it
is his part to write to you, who are ill treated by his sister.
You owe him, I think, no obligations, but have been accustomed
to act among your wife s relations with a character of inferiority
which I would advise you to take this opportunity of throwing
off for ever. Fix yourself in the resolution of exacting repara
tion for the wrong that you suffer, and think no longer that
you are to be first insulted and then to recompense by sub
mission the trouble of insulting you.
If a separate alimony should come to be stipulated I do
not see why you should by an absurd generosity pay your
wife for disobedience and elopement. What allowance will be
proper I cannot tell, but would have you consult our old friend
Mr. Howard 2 . His profession has acquainted him with matri
monial law, and he is in himself a cool and wise man. I would
not have him come to Ashbourne nor you go to Lichfield ; meet
at Tutbury 3 or some other obscure and commodious place and
talk the case at large with him, not merely as a proctor but
as a friend.
Your declaration to Mr. Woodcock that you desired nothing
to be a secret was manly and right ; persist in that strain of
talking, receive nothing, as from favour or from friendship ;
whatever you grant, you are to grant as by compassion, what
ever you keep, you are to keep by right. With Mr. Wakefield
you have no business, till he brings his sister in his hand, and
desires you to receive her.
I do not mean by all this to exclude all possibility of accom
modation ; if there is any hope of living happily or decently,
cohabitation is the most reputable for both.
1 Men, said Johnson, know that 3 Tutbury is nearly half-way be-
women are an over-match for them, tween Ashbourne and Lichfield, lying
and therefore they choose the a little off the main road. Here in
weakest or most ignorant. If they 1569, and again in 1585, Mary Queen
did not think so, they never could of Scots was imprisoned. Froude s
be afraid of women knowing as History of England, ed. 1870, ix. 33 ;
much as themselves. Life, v. 226. xi. 529.
2 See ante, p. 82, n. i.
Your
Aetat. 53.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 105
Your first care must be to procure to yourself such diversions
as may preserve you from melancholy and depression of mind,
which is a greater evil than a disobedient wife. Do not give way
to grief, nor nurse vexation in solitude ; consider that your case
is not uncommon, and that many live very happily who have
like you succeeded ill in their . . . . z connexion.
I cannot butt \sic\ think that it would be prudent to remove
from the clamours, questions, hints, and looks of the people
about you, but of this you can judge better than,
Dear Sir,
Your affectionate
Aug. 18,1763. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
158.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR 2 .
DEAR SIR,
Having with some impatience reckoned upon hearing from
you these two last posts, and been disappointed, I can form
to myself no reason for the omission but your perturbation
of mind, or disorder of body arising from it, and therefore I once
more advise removal from Ashbourne as the proper remedy
both for the cause and the effect.
You perhaps ask, whither should I go ? any whither where
your case is not known, and where your presence will cause
neither looks nor whispers. Where you are the necessary sub
ject of common talk, you will not safely be at rest.
If you cannot conveniently write to me yourself let somebody
write for you to
Dear Sir,
Your most affectionate
SAM: JOHNSON.
August 25, 1763.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
1 This word I cannot decipher. 2 From the original in my posses-
It looks like " uplier. " Professor sion ; first published in my edition
Mayor, Notes and Queries. of the Life, i. 472.
To
1 06 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1753.
159.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR I .
DEAR SIR, Se P h 3, *7 6 3-
Mr. Woodcock, whatever may be his general character,
seems to have yielded on this occasion a very easy admission to
very strong prejudices. He believes every thing against you
and nothing in your favour. I am therefore glad that his
resolution of neutrality, so vehemently declared, has set you free
from the obligation of a promise made with more frankness than
prudence to refer yourself to his decision. Your letters to him
are written with great propriety, with coolness and with spirit,
and seem to have raised his anger only by disappointing his
expectations of being considered as your protector, and being
solicited for favour and countenance. His attempts to intimidate
you are childish and indecent ; what have you to dread from the
Law ? The Law will give Mrs. Taylor no more than her due
and you do not desire to give her less.
I wish you had used the words pretended friendship and would
have [you] avoid on all occasions to declare whether, if she should
offer to return, you will or will not receive her. I do not see that
you have any thing more [to do] than to sit still, and expect
the motions of the Lady and her friends. If you think it neces
sary to retain Council [sic], I suppose you will have recourse to
Dr. Smallbrook 2 , and some able Man of the common Law or
chancery, but though you may retain them provisionally, you
need do nothing more ; for I am not of opinion that the Lady s
friends will suffer her cause to be brought into the Courts.
I do not wonder that Mr. Woodcock is somewhat incredulous
when you tell him that you do not know your own income ; pray
take care to get information, and either grow wiser or conceal
your weakness. I could hardly believe you myself when I heard
1 First published in The Miscel- Dr. Smalbroke of the Commons,
lanies of the Philobiblon Society, vi. whether a person might be permitted
28; afterwards in Notes and Queries, to practice as an advocate there
6th S., v. 343. without a doctor s degree in Civil
2 About this time [1738] John- Law. Life, \. 134.
son applied to Dr. Adams to consult
that
Aetat. 53.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 107
that a wrong letter had been sent to Woodcock by your servant
who made the packet. You are the first man who, being able to
read and write, had packets of domestick quarrels made by
a servant. Idleness in such degree, must end in slavery, and
I think you may less disgracefully be governed by your Lady
than by Mr. Hint[?]. It is a maxim that no man ever was
enslaved by influence r while he was fit to be free.
I cannot but think that Mr. Woodcock has reason on his side
when he advises the dismission of Hannah. Why should you
not dismiss her? It is more injury to her reputation to keep
her than to send her away, and the loss of her place you may
recompense by a present or some small annuity conveyed to her.
But this I would have you do not in compliance with solicitation
or advice, but as a justification of yourself to the world; the
world has always a right to be regarded 2 .
In affairs of this kind it is necessary to converse with some
intelligent man, and by considering the question in all states
to provide means of obviating every charge. It will surely be
right to spend a day with Howard. Do not on this occasion
either want money or spare it.
You seem to be so well pleased to be where you are, that
I shall not now press your removal, but do not believe that
every one who rails at your wife, wishes well to you. A small
country town is not the place in which one would chuse to
1 The word influence was much in of the Crown, almost dead and
men s mouths at this time. Hume rotten as Prerogative, has grown up
in his History of England (ed. 1773, anew, with much more strength, and
viii. 319), writing of the reign of far less odium, under the name of
Charles II, says: The Crown Influence. Payne s Burke, i. 10.
still possessed considerable power of Johnson perhaps had in mind the
opposing parliaments, and had not following lines in The Castle of In-
as yet acquired the means of in- dolence (ii. 29) :
fluencing them. Cf. also ib. vi. 163. But in prime vigour what can last
The elder Pitt, in 1766, said in Par- for ay ?
liament : I have had the honour That soul-enfeebling wizard Indo-
to serve the Crown, and if I could lence,
have submitted to influence might I whilom sung, wrought in his works
have still continued to serve. Parl. decay;
Hist. xvi. 98. Burke in 1770, in his Spread far and wide was his curs d
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present influence.
Discontents, writes : The power 2 See Life, ii. 74, n. 3.
quarrel
io8 To George Strahan. [A.D. 1753.
quarrel with a wife ; every human being in such places is
a spy.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours affectionately,
SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
160.
To GEORGE STRAHAN z .
DEAR SIR,
I should have answered your last letter sooner if I could
have given you any valuable or useful directions, but I know not
any way by which the composition of Latin verses can be much
facilitated. Of the grammatical part which comprises the know
ledge of the measure of the foot, and quantity of the syllables,
your grammar will teach you all that can be taught, and even
of that you can hardly have any thing by rule but the measure of
the foot. The quantity of syllables even of those for which rules
are given is commonly learned by practice and retained by
observation. For the poetical part, which comprises variety
of expression, propriety of terms, dexterity in selecting com
modious words, and readiness in changing their order, it will all
be produced by frequent essays, and resolute perseverance. The
less help you have the sooner you will be able to go forward
without help.
I suppose you are now ready for another author. I would
not have you dwell longer upon one book, than till your fami
liarity with its style makes it easy to you ; every new book will
for a time be difficult. Make it a rule to write something in
Latin every day, and let me know what you are now doing, and
what your scheme is to do next. Be pleased to give my
compliments to Mr. Bright, Mr. Stevenson, and Miss Page.
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate servant,
Sept. 20, 1763. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Strahan at the Reverend Mr. Bright s in Abingdon, Berks.
1 First published in Croker s Bos- of Mr. W. R. Smith, of Greatham
well, page 161 ; corrected by me Moor, West Liss, Hants,
from the original in the possession
To
Aetat. 54.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 1 09
161.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR J .
DEAR SIR,
The alterations which you made in the letter, though I
cannot think they much mended it, yet did no harm, and per
haps the letter may have the effect of reducing the Lady and
her friends to terms truly moderate and reasonable by shewing
what slight account you make of menaces and terror. I no more
desire than you to bring the cause before the Courts, and if they
who are on the Lady s side can prove nothing, they have in
reality no such design. It is not likely that even if they had
proof of incontinency they would desire to produce it, or make
any other use of it, than to terrify you into their own Conditions.
Of the letter which you sent me I can form no judgement till
you let me know how it came into your hands. If the servant
who received it produced it voluntarily, I suspect that it was
written on purpose to be shewn you ; if you discovered it by
accident, it may be supposed to be written that it might be
shewn to others. I do not see that it deserves or requires any
notice on either supposition.
You suspect your housekeeper at Ashbourn of treachery, and
I doubt not that the Lady has her lower friends and spies behind
her. But let your servant be treacherous as you suppose, it is
your own fault if she has any thing to betray. Do your own
business, and keep your own secrets, and you may bid defiance
to servants and to treachery.
Your conduct with regard to Hannah has, I think, been ex
actly right ; it will be fit to keep her in sight for some months,
and let her have directions to shew herself as much as she can.
Your ill health proceeds immediately from the perturbation
of your mind. Any incident that makes a man the talk and
spectacle of the world without any addition to his honour is
naturally vexatious, but talk and looks are all the evils which
this domestick revolution has brought upon you. I knew that you
and your wife lived unquietly together, I find that provocations
1 First published in the Miscel- vi. 32 ; afterwards in Notes and
lanies of the Philobiblon Society, Queries, 6th S., v. 382.
were
no
To Miss Reynolds.
[A.D. 1763.
were greater than I had known, and do not see what you have
to regret but that you did not separate in a very short time
after you were united. You know, however, that I was always
cautious when I touched on your differences, that I never advised
extremities, and that I commonly softened rather than instigated
resentment. What passes in private can be known only to those
between whom it passes, and they who [are] ignorant of the
cause and progress of connubial differences, as all must be but
the parties themselves, cannot without rashness give any counsel
concerning them. Your determination against cohabitation with
the Lady I shall therefore pass over, with only this hint, that
you must keep it to yourself; for as by elopement she makes
herself liable to the charge of violating the marriage contract,
it will be prudent to keep her in the criminal state, by leaving
her in appearance a possibility of return, which preserves your
superiority in the contest, without taking from you the power
of limiting her future authority, and prescribing your own
conditions.
I cannot but think that by short journeys, and variety of
scenes, you may dissipate your vexation, and restore your
health, which will certainly be impaired by living where every
thing seen or heard impresses your misfortunes on your mind.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most &c. &c.,
Sept. 29, 1763. SAM : JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor in Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
162.
To Miss REYNOLDS *.
Oxford, October 27, [1763].
Your letter has scarcely come time enough to make an answer
possible. I wish we could talk over the affair. I cannot go now.
1 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, page 161. Mr. Croker says in
a note that Captain, afterwards Sir
George Collier, was about to sail to
the Mediterranean, and offered Miss
Reynolds a passage ; and she ap
pears to have wished that Johnson
might be of the party. Johnson was
not aware that Captain Collier s lady
was also going. Sir Joshua had
gone to the Mediterranean in a
similar way with Captain Keppel.
Sir George Collier in 1779 was the
commander of the English Fleet in
the war against America. Annual
Register, 1779, P- 188.
I must
Aetat. 54.] To MlSS Porter.
I must finish my book z . I do not know Mr. Collier. I have
not money beforehand sufficient. How long have you known
Collier, that you should have put yourself into his hands? I
once told you that ladies were timorous, and yet not cautious.
If I might tell my thoughts to one with whom they never had
any weight, I should think it best to go through France. The
expense is not great ; I do not much like obligation, nor think
the grossness of a ship very suitable to a lady. Do not go till I
see you. I will see you as soon as I can.
I am, my dearest,
Most sincerely yours,
SAM: JOHNSON.
163.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, December 8, 1763. Published in the Life, i. 473.
164.
To Miss PORTER 2 .
MY DEAR, London, Jan. 10, 1764.
I was in hopes that you would have written to me before
this time, to tell me that your house was finished, and that you
were happy in it. I am sure I wish you happy. By the carrier
of this week you will receive a box, in which I have put some
books, most of which were your poor dear mamma s, and a
diamond ring, which I hope you will wear as my new year s gift.
If you receive it with as much kindness as I send it, you will not
slight it ; you will be very fond of it.
Pray give my service to Kitty 3 , who, I hope, keeps pretty
well. I know not now when I shall come down ; I believe it
will not be very soon. But I shall be glad to hear of you from
time to time.
1 If this letter is assigned to the * First published in Croker s Bos-
right year the book must have been well, page 163.
his edition of Shakespeare, which 3 Catherine Chambers. Ante, p.
was begun in 1756 and completed 76, n. 3.
in 1765.
I wish
112 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. rzea.
I wish you, my dearest, many happy years ; take what care
you can of your health.
I am, my dear,
Your affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
165.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR .
DEAR SIR,
I congratulate you upon the happy end of so vexatious
an affair, the happyest [sic] that could be next to Reformation
and Reconcilement. You see how easily seeming difficulties are
surmounted.
That your mind should be harried, and your spirits weakened,
it is no wonder ; your whole care now should be to settle and
repair them. To this end I would have you make use of all
diversions, sports of the field abroad, improvement of your estate
or little schemes of building, and pleasing books at home ; or if
you cannot compose yourself to read, a continual succession of
easy company. Be sure never to be unemployed, go not to bed
till you sleep, and rise as soon as you wake, and give up no
hours to musing and retrospect. Be always busy_
You will hardly be quite at rest till you have talked yourself
out to some friend or other, and I think you and I might con
trive some retreat for part of the summer where we might spend
some time quietly together, the world knowing nothing of the
matter 2 .
I hear you talk of letting your house at Westminster. Why
should you let it ? Do not shew yourself either intimidated or
ashamed, but come and face mankind like one that expects not
censure but praise. You will now find that you have money
enough. Come and spend a little upon popular hospitality.
Your low spirits have given you bad counsel : you shall not
give your wife, nor your wife s friends, whose power you now
find to be nothing, the triumph of driving you out of life. If
1 First published in the Miscel- this summer at Easton Maudit, in
lanies of the Philobiblon Society, vi. Northamptonshire (Life, i. 486). It
37 ; afterwards in Notes and Queries, is possible that Taylor met him some-
6th S., v. 382. where in the neighbourhood, and
2 Johnson spent some weeks of talked himself out to him.
you
Aetat. 54.] To William Strahan. 1 1 3
you betray yourself who can support you ? All this I shall be
glad to dilate with you in a personal interview at some proper
place, where we may enjoy a few days in private.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours affectionately,
May 22, 1764. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
166.
To JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
Easton Maudit, August 19, 1764. Published in the Life, i. 486.
167.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN \
SIR,
I think I have pretty well disposed of my young friend
George, who, if you approve of it, will be entered next Monday
a Commoner of University College, and will be chosen next day
a Scholar of the House. The Scholarship is a trifle, but it gives
him a right, upon a vacancy, to a Fellowship of more than sixty
pounds a year if he resides, and I suppose of more than forty if
he takes a Curacy or small living 2 . The College is almost filled
with my friends, and he will be well treated 3 . The Master is
First published in my edition of phistam in perpetuum hujus Collegii
Boswell s Johnson, volume vi, Ad- Socium.
denda, p. xxx, from the original in He vacated his fellowship in 1773.
the possession of Mr. Frederick Jones had been elected Fellow on
Barker, of 41 Gunterstone Road, August 7, 1766. Life of Sir William
W T est Kensington. Jones, p. 45. His fellowship is de-
2 In the College records is the scribed as not exceeding, upon an
following entry : average, one hundred pounds.
Oct. 30-31, 1764. Candidatis 3 Among Johnson s friends belong-
examinatis electi sunt Gulielmus ing either then or later on to the Col-
Jones et Georgius Strahan in vacuas lege were the Master, Dr. Wetherell ;
Exhibitiones D ni Simonis Benet William Scott (afterwards Lord
Baronetti. Stowell) ; John Scott (afterwards
Gulielmus Jones is the famous Earl of Eldon) ; Robert Chambers
oriental scholar, Sir William Jones, (afterwards Sir Robert Chambers,
whose portrait adorns the Hall of his one of the Judges in Bengal); the
ancient College. Life, ii. 25, n. 2. Right Hon. William Windham ; and
On April 16, 1767, is found the Mr. Coulson, whose guest he was in
election of Georgium Strahan, so- June, 1775 (post, Letter of June i,
VOL. I. I informed
To William Strahan.
[A.D. 1764.
informed of the particular state of his education, and thinks,
what I think too, that for Greek he must get some private
assistance, which a servitour of the College is very well qualified
and will be very willing to afford him on very easy terms.
I must desire your opinion of this scheme by the next post,
for the opportunity will be lost if we do not now seize it, the
Scholarships being necessarily filled up on Tuesday.
I depend on your proposed allowance of a hundred a year,
which must the first year be a little enlarged because there are
some extraordinary expenses, as
Caution * (which is allowed in his last quarter) .700
Thirds 2 (He that enters upon a room pays two
thirds of the furniture that he finds, and receives
from his successor two thirds of what he pays ;
so that if he pays 20 he receives ^13 6s. 8d.,
this perhaps may be) ....
Fees at entrance, matriculation, &c., perhaps
His gown (I think) .....
12
2
O
o
2 IO
O
O
O
If you send us a Bill for about thirty pounds we shall set out
commodiously enough. You should fit him out with cloaths
and linen, and let him start fair, and it is the opinion of those whom
1775). In the Common Room there
is an engraving of him with this
inscription: Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
in hac camera communi frequens
conviva. D.D. Gulielmus Scott nuper
socius. I have drunk, said John
son, three bottles of port without
being the worse for it. University
College has witnessed this. Life,
iii. 245.
See Appendix Bfor A. Macdonald s
Letter to David Hume about an
Oxford education.
1 The caution is the sum de
posited by an undergraduate with
the College Bursar or Steward as a
security for the payment of his bat-
tells or account. Johnson in 1728
had to pay at Pembroke College the
same sum (seven pounds) that George
Strahan in 1764 had to pay at
University College. Life, i. 58, n. 2.
2 An undergraduate who entered
Queen s College in 1778 wrote to his
father : My furniture is pretty
good, and the thirds will run low, I be
lieve. Letters o/Radcliffe and James,
p. 45. Bentham, who entered Queen s
College in June, 1760, calls them
thirdings. He paid 8 for his
caution ; \ 12s. 6d. for his gown
(which, being a commoner s, would
be cheaper than Strahan s), and 7^.
for his cap and tassel.
Less than a year before the date
of Johnson s Letter he had been
attending Blackstone s lectures on
law, and detecting the lecturer s
fallacy about natural rights. Bent-
ham s Works, x. 36, 39, 45.
I consult,
Aetat. 55.]
To William Strahan.
I consult, that with your hundred a year and the petty scholar
ship he may live with great ease to himself, and credit to you *.
Let me hear as soon as is possible.
In your affair with the university, I shall not be consulted, but
I hear nothing urged against your proposal 2 .
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
Oct. 24, 1764. SAM: JOHNSON.
My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.
To Mr. Strahan, Printer, in New Street, Shoe-lane, London.
1 Dr. Wetherell wrote to Mr.
Strahan on May 20, 1767 : I think
myself peculiarly happy in being so
nearly connected with your son
George, whose amiable temper will
always render him a valuable mem
ber of society, and whose studies
will, I hope, benefit mankind. From
an original letter in the possession of
Mr. Frederick Barker.
2 When in February, 1767, John
son had his interview with George III,
the King asked him what they were
doing at Oxford. Johnson answered,
he could not much commend their
diligence, but that in some respects
they were mended, for they had put
their press under better regulations,
and were at that time printing Poly-
bius. Life, ii. 35. He overstated
the case. By that time not even an
editor had been secured ; one was
found by the end of the year. Ad
vances were made to him till 1787
for work done, when they came to an
end, and the edition of Polybius too.
It does not appear that a single page
of type had been set up. More than
a hundred years after the last pay
ment was made, in the Selections
from Polybius of Mr. Strachan-
Davidson, Johnson s statement was
in part made good. Nevertheless
the press had been put under better
regulations, and the first steps had
been taken in advancing it from a
state of degradation to the proud
position which it now holds. In the
Orders of the Delegates of the Press,
1758, there is the following entry,
bearing date but six days later than
that of Johnson s letter :
Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1764. At a
meeting of the Delegates of the
Press.
Ordered,
That the following articles be
made the foundation of the new
lease to be granted of the moiety of
the Printing House ; that a copy of
them be delivered to Mr. Baskett
and Mr. Eyre, and that they be
desired to give in their respective
proposals at a meeting to be held on
Tuesday the sixth of November.
(p. 41.)
The chief part of the lease con
sisted of the privilege to print Bibles
and Prayer Books. Mark Baskett
and members of his family before
him had long been tenants. His
lease was to expire at Lady Day,
1765. It seems probable that Strahan
had hoped to get a share in the lease.
Six years later he purchased from
Eyre a share of the patent for
King s Printer. Nichols s Lit. Anec.
iii. 392. From a curious manuscript
volume in the possession of the
Delegates I have been allowed to
extract the following abbreviated
account of what took place :
2 TO
u6
To David Garrick.
[A.D. 1765.
168.
To DAVID GARRICK .
DEAR SIR, May 18,1765.
I know that great regard will be had to your opinion of an
In November 1764, Mr. Basket
came to Oxford, and petitioned for a
renewal of his lease. Mr. Eyre, a
printer of London, made a somewhat
better offer. Mr. Basket s offer was
accepted by the Delegates out of
regard to the fact that he and mem
bers of his family had long been
tenants, and a note of agreement was
signed by the Vice-Chancellor on
the one part and by Mr. Basket on
the other. Mr. Eyre dispersed a
Memorial, dated Nov. 28, 1764, to
the Common Rooms setting forth
the Hardships of his Case. His
partisans maintained that Mr. Basket
did not deserve any Preference, as
he had even forfeited his Former
Lease by his great Neglect and
shamefull manner of Printing. There
was great Truth in this last Argu
ment. Mr. Basket lived upon a
Genteel Private Fortune, and neither
understood nor gave any Attention
to the Business of Printing. He left
it therefore to the Care of his Ser
vants, who employed the Presses in
printing a Great Number of small
Prayer-Books in I2mo. for Foreign
Sale : So that what Mr. Eyre al-
ledged in his Memorial was an
indisputable Fact " That most of
the Chapells in Oxford were supply d
with Folio and Quarto Prayers Book
[sic] from Cambridge." The Under
Serv ts and Press-men were a set of
Idle Drunken Men, and the House
appeared more like an Ale House
than a Printing Room.
It was very evident that a great
Majority of the Members of Con
vocation would declare against full-
filling the Agreement. The Opinion
of Councill was taken whether having
been signed by the Vice-Chancel
lor it was absolutely binding. The
answers returned by Mr. Wilbraham
were so confused and perplexed
that very little knowledge or satisfac
tion was to be obtained from them.
Mr. Norton [afterwards Sir Fletcher
Norton, first Lord Grantley ; Life,
ii. 91, 472, n. 2] return d an Answer
favourable to the Friends of Mr. Eyre
who consulted him. The lease,
partly owing to the illness of the
Vice-Chancellor, was not brought
before Convocation till his successor
entered into office.
On Oct. 21, 1765, a New Oc
casional Delegacy for Leasing out
the House &c. was appointed. On
Oct. 29, the Lease was brought
before Convocation. The Seal was
refused by a great Majority. On
Nov. 6 a new Delegacy was ap
pointed, who examined the Proposals
of different Printers, and in the end
appointed Messrs. Gill and Wright,
Stationers in Abchurch Lane, London,
who undertook to give a Bond to
indemnify the University from the
Costs of any Suit which Mr. Basket
should commence against them :
On Dec. 10 the several Proposals
were read in Convocation. There
was against Mr. Basket s being
Tenant, a great Majority. Against
Mr. Eyre a great Majority. For
Messrs. Wright and Gill a great
Majority. Their tenancy lasted till
the end of 1788. They both became
Aldermen of London ; each was
supposed to have left a fortune of
.300,000. Nichols s Lit. A nee. iii.6o4-
1 Published in the Private Corre-
Edition
Aetat. 55.]
To David Garrick.
117
Edition of Shakspeare. I desire, therefore, to secure an honest
prejudice in my favour by securing your suffrage, and that this
prejudice may really be honest, I wish you would name such
plays as you would see, and they shall be sent you by,
Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON .
169.
To DAVID GARRICK 2 .
DEAR SIR,
You have many requests, and many of them must be
spondence of David Garrick, \. 183,
and Croker s Bostuell, p. 167.
1 Johnson s edition was published
in the following October. He did
not go the way to secure Garrick s
good-will, for in his Preface he re
flected on him in the following
passage : I collated such copies as
I could procure, and wished for
more, but have not found the col
lectors of those rarities very com
municative. Life, ii. 192. Dr.
Warton writing on Jan. 22, 1766,
said : Garrick is entirely off from
Johnson, and cannot, he says, for
give him his insinuating that he
withheld his old editions, which
always were open to him. Wooll s
Warton, p. 313. See the Life, v. 244,
n. 2 for Johnson s doubt whether
Garrick had ever examined one of
Shakespeare s plays from the first
scene to the last. What answer
Garrick sent to Johnson s letter is
not known ; the following letter
which he wrote to him nearly a fort
night later is given in the Garrick
Correspondence^ i. 186 :
May 31, 1765.
DEAR SIR,
My brother greatly astonished
me this morning, by asking me " if I
was a subscriber to your Shak
speare ? " I told him, yes^ that I was
one of the first, and as soon as I
heard of your intention ; and that I
gave you, at the same time, some
other names, among which were the
Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Beighton,
&c. I cannot immediately have
recourse to my memorandum, though
I remember to have seen it just
before I left England. I hope that
you will recollect it, and not think
me capable of neglecting to make
you so trifling a compliment, which
was doubly due from me, not only
on account of the respect I have
always had for your abilities, but
from the sincere regard I shall ever
pay to your friendship.
I am, Sir, your most obedient
humble servant,
DAVID GARRICK.
It is a curious fact that in the
edition of Shakespeare which John
son and Steevens published jointly in
1773, while in Johnson s Preface,
which comes first, the reflection on
Garrick remains, in Steevens Adver
tisement to the Reader which follows
it is stated that Mr. Garrick s col
lection of plays, curious and extensive
as it is, derives its greatest value
from its accessibility.
2 From the original in the posses
sion of Mr. Alfred H. Huth, Bolney
House, Ennismore Gardens, London.
There is nothing to show in what
year this Letter was written. It was
denied,
u8 To George Strahan. [A.D. 1765.
denied ", but I hope this will not be of the number, by which
you are desired to order your Boxkeeper, to reserve four places
for Dr. Bell of Westminster 2 , any night on which you intend to
appear, before Friday.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
May 25. SAM: JOHNSON.
[Written in pencil To David Garrick, Esq., Adelphi 3 .]
17O.
To GEORGE STRAHAN 4 ,
University College, Oxford.
DEAR SIR,
That I have answered neither of your letters you must not
impute to any declension of good will, but merely to the want of
something to say. I suppose you pursue your studies diligently,
and diligence will seldom fail of success. Do not tire yourself
so much with Greek one day as to be afraid of looking on it the
next ; but give it a certain portion of time, suppose four hours,
and pass the rest of the day in Latin or English. I would have
you learn French, and take in a literary journal once a month,
which will accustom you to various subjects, and inform you
what learning is going forward in the world. Do not omit to
mingle some lighter books with those of more importance ; that
which is read remisso animo is often of great use, and takes
great hold of the remembrance. However, take what course you
will, if you be diligent you will be a scholar 5 .
I am, dear Sir,
Yours affectionately,
SAM: JOHNSON.
sold by Messrs. Sotheby and Co., on 3 Garrick moved to the Adelphi
May 10, 1875, f r 2 1 S S - about 1770 or 1771, so that the letter
1 Boswell at his first meeting with belongs to a later year.
Johnson heard him complain that 4 First published in Croker s Bos-
Garrick had refused him an order well, page 168.
for the play for Miss Williams. Life, 3 G. Strahan s fellow-student Wil-
i. 392. Ham Jones, in the first two or three
2 See Life, ii. 204, n. I for the years after matriculation, not only
Rev. Dr. Bell, Prebendary of West- read with great assiduity all the
minster. Greek poets and historians of note,
To
Aetat. 55.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 119
171.
.p, ~ To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR x .
It is so long since I heard from you that I know not well
whither to write. With all your building and feasting you might
have found an hour in some wet day for the remembrance of
your old friend. I should have thought that since you have led
a life so festive and gay you would have [invited] me to partake
of your hospitality. I do not [know] but I may come, invited or
uninvited, and pass a few days with you in August or September,
unless you send me a prohibition, or let me know that I shall be
insupportably burthensome. Let me know your thoughts on
this matter, because I design to go to some place or other and
would be [loth] to produce any inconvenience for my own
gratification.
Let me know how you go on in the world, and what entertain
ment may be expected in your new room by,
Dear Sir,
Your most affectionate Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Temple 2 , July 15, 1765.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
172.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
MADAM, London Aug 3> ^
If you have really so good an opinion of me as you express,
it will not be necessary to inform you, how unwillingly I miss
and the entire works of Plato and First published in the Miscel-
Lucian, with a vast apparatus of leaties of the Philobiblon Society, vi.
commentaries on them, and the best 39 5 afterwards in Notes and Queries,
authors in Italian, Spanish and For- 6th S. v. 383.
tuguese, but also studied deeply 2 Johnson was still living in Inner
Arabic, Persian and Hebrew. He Temple Lane, where he had resided
brought to Oxford a native of Aleppo for more than five years. Writing to
who spoke Arabic fluently, in the Taylor on the following October 2, he
hope that some of his brother-col- dates his letter Johnson s Court.
legians would take lessons from this 3 First published in the Piozzi
man and help to bear the expense of Letters, i. I. For Johnson s first
his maintenance. Life of Sir Wil- acquaintance with the Thrales, see
Ham Jones, p. 40. the Life, i. 49, 52-
the
120 To Mr. or Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1765.
the opportunity of coming to Brighthelmstone in Mr. Thrale s
company; or, since I cannot do what I wish first, how eagerly
I shall catch the second degree of pleasure, by coming to you
and him, as soon as I can dismiss my work from my hands 2 .
I am afraid to make promises even to myself; but I hope that
the week after the next will be the end of my present business.
When business is done, what remains but pleasure? and where
should pleasure be sought, but under Mrs. Thrale s influence ?
Do not blame me for a delay by which I must suffer so
much, and by which I suffer alone. If you cannot think I
am good, pray think I am mending, and that in time I may
deserve to be,
Dear Madam,
Your most obedient and
most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
173.
To MR. OR MRS. THRALE.
Autumn of 1765.
Mr. Johnson in the autumn of the next year [1765] followed us to
Brighthelmstone, whence we were gone before his arrival ; so he was
disappointed and enraged, and wrote us a letter expressive of anger
which we were very desirous to pacify, and to obtain his company again
if possible. Mr. Murphy brought him back to us again very kindly.
1 Brighthelmstone, or Brighton, regular and daily market. Gentle-
was still a small place, but was grow- man s Magazine, 1761, p. 249. Five
ing rapidly. Defoe in 1722 says that years later in the same Magazine
Bright Helmston was commonly (1766, p. 59) we read that it is a
called Bredhemston. Defoe s Tour, small ill-built town, containing six
Vol. I, Letter ii, p. 61. In 1761 it was principal streets, East Street, Black
described as being bounded on the Lion Street, Ship Street, Middle
west by a large corn field, and on the Street, West Street and North Street,
east by a fine lawn called the Steine, It is become one of the principal
which runs winding up into the places in the kingdom for the resort
country among hills to the distance of of the idle and dissipated, as well as
some miles. Though, it was added, of the diseased and infirm. See also
the town is well supplied with pro- Wooll s Memoirs of Dr. Warton,
visions, yet some inconveniencies p. 347.
are experienced from the want of a 2 His edition of Shakespeare.
Piozzi
Aetat. 55.] To [ike Rev. Edward Lye\ 1 2 1
Piozzi Anecdotes, page 126. This letter is not in Mrs. Piozzi s
Collection.
174.
To [THE REV. EDWARD LYE l ~\.
DEAR SIR,
I think you may be encouraged by the liberality of the
Archbishop to hope for more Patrons of your undertaking, and
therefore advise you to open your Subscription. The method
may perhaps be not at first to advertise but to send your pro
posal with a letter to such of the Bishops and others as you hope
to find favourers of literature, sending at the same time to all
your inferiour [?] friends, particularly to our Club 2 . When you
see how far your personal interest will carry you, an estimate may
be easily made of the probability of success, and the measures
will be easily adjusted. I would have the whole price paid at
once, which all will readily comply with, and much trouble
will be saved. In contracting with your printer, oblige him to
a certain number of Sheets weekly. If you print at London,
you will like Mr. Allen the printer better than most others.
He is a Northamptonshire Man 3 . Go on boldly, I doubt not
your Success.
1 From the original in the posses- he would go on with his work. He
sion of Mr. Frederick Barker, of 41 lived to print about thirty sheets, but
Gunterstone Road, West Kensing- died on August 16, 1767, leaving its
ton. completion to his friend, the Rev.
Though this letter has no address Owen Manning, who published it in
I have no doubt that it was written 1772, from the press of Mr. Allen of
to the Rev. Edward Lye, Vicar of Bolt Court. Nichols s Lit. Anec.
Yardley Hastings, Northampton- ix. 751.
shire, the editor of Junius s Ety- 2 Johnson wrote to Boswell on
mologicum Anglicanum to which March 9, 1766: Mr. Lye is print-
Johnson had gone for some of his ing his Saxon and Gothick Diction-
etymologies. Lye for many years ary ; all THE CLUB subscribes.
before 1765 had been engaged on an Life, ii. 17.
Anglo-Saxon and Gothic Dictionary, 3 Mr. Lye s living was in North-
but had almost relinquished the de- amptonshire, near Easton Maudit,
sign from a dread of the labour and Dr. Percy s vicarage, where Johnson
expense. On June 25, 1765, Arch- had spent some weeks the year be-
bishop Seeker urged him to print it fore. Life, i. 486. Allen the printer
by subscription, and promised to Johnson described as one of his
subscribe .50. On July 5, Lye best and tenderest friends. Ib. iv.
replied that with this encouragement 354.
Please
122 To the Reverend Joseph Wart on. [A.D. 1765.
Please to make Mrs. Calvert the compliments of Mrs. Williams,
and of,
Dear Sir,
Your most humble Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
We have Gothick types at London.
Aug. 17, 1765.
175.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR x .
DEAR SIR,
You need be no longer in pain, for I received your letter,
but though when I wrote to you I expected soon to have had it
in my power to go to you, yet, as it often happens, one thing or
another has obstructed my purpose.
My Shakespeare is now out of my hands, and I do not see
what can hinder me any longer. When I find that I can come
I will write to you, for I suppose you will meet me at Derby 2 . I
think it time that we should see one another, and spend a little
of our short life together.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours affectionately,
Oct. 2, 1765. SAM: JOHNSON.
Johnson s Court, Fleet Street 3 .
176.
To THE REVEREND JOSEPH WARTON 4 .
Oct. Qth, 1765.
DEAR SIR,
Mrs. Warton uses me hardly in supposing that I could forget
so much kindness and civility as she showed me at Winchester 5 .
I remember, likewise, our conversation about St. Cross 6 . The
1 First published in the Miscel- 5 Johnson had spent two nights at
laniesof the Philobiblon Society, vi. Winchester in August, 1762, on his
4I> way to Devonshire with Reynolds.
2 Johnson did not pay his visit to Leslie and Taylor s Life of Reynolds,
the Midland Counties before the i. 214. He visited it again in 1778.
summer of 1767. Life, iii. 367.
3 For Johnson s Court, see the The ancient and beautiful
Life, ii. 5, 229, 427. pital for aged brethren about a mile
4 First published in Wooll s Life from Winchester.
of Dr. Joseph Warton, page 309.
Aetat. 56.] To the Reverend Dr. Leland. 123
desire of seeing her again will be one of the motives that will
bring me into Hampshire.
I have taken care of your book ; being so far from doubting
your subscription, that I think you have subscribed twice : you
once paid your guinea into my own hand in the garret in Gough
Square. When you light on your receipt, throw it on the fire ;
if you find a second receipt, you may have a second book z .
To tell the truth, as I felt no solicitude about this work, I
receive no great comfort from its conclusion ; but yet am well
enough pleased that the public has no farther claim upon me. I
wish you would write more frequently to,
Dear Sir,
Your affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
177.
To CHARLES BURNEY.
[London], October 16, 1765. Published in the Life, i. 500.
178.
To THE REVEREND DR. LELAND 2 .
SIR,
Among the names subscribed to the degree which I have
had the honour of receiving, from the University of Dublin, I find
none of which I have any personal knowledge but those of Dr.
Andrews and yourself.
1 Johnson had opened his sub- writing to William Burke on July 27
scription list for his edition of of this year says : I am First Lord
Shakespeare in 1756. Ante, p. 68. of the Treasury and Paymaster-
2 First published in Malone s General of the forces to my lawful
edition of the Life. and rightful sovereign King Andrews
Johnson had received from Trinity the Great. John Rooney, the porter,
College, Dublin, the degree of is my private-secretary ; and I have
Doctor of Laws. Life, i. 489. Dr. every morning a levee of chimney-
Leland was the author of a His- s weepers, paviours, carpenters, junior
tory of Ireland. Ib. ii. 255 ; iii. fellows, &c. I take bribes of hares
112. He was a frequent corre- and wild-fowl from the brewer. I do
spondent of Edmund Burke, whom he jobs; and in all respects am per-
addressed as My dear Ned. Dr. fectly a ministerial man in this little
Francis Andrews was the Provost, kingdom. Btirke Correspondence, i.
the only layman who had held that 82, 462.
office since the Restoration. Leland
Men
1 24 To Edmund Hector. [A.D. 1766.
Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as
they are represented by those who know them ; and therefore
I flatter myself that I owe much of the pleasure which this dis
tinction gives me, to your concurrence with Dr. Andrews in
recommending me to the learned society.
Having desired the Provost to return my general thanks to
the University, I beg that you, Sir, will accept my particular and
immediate acknowledgments.
I am, Sir,
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Johnson s Court, Fleet Street,
London, Oct. 17, 1765.
179-
To EDMUND HECTOR *.
DEAR SIR,
I am very glad of a letter from you upon any occasion, but
could wish that when you had despatched business, you would give
a little more to friendship, and tell me something of your self.
The books must be had by sending to Mr. Tonson the receipts
and second payment which belongs to him 2 . Any bookseller
will do it, or any correspondent here. It would be extremely
inconvenient, and uncustomary for me to charge myself with the
distribution.
I never refuse any subscriber a new receipt when he has lost
that which he had. You have three by which you may supply
the three deficiencies. When the former receipts are found they
must be destroyed.
If Mr. Taylor 3 be my old friend, make my kindest com
pliments.
1 First published in Notes and how much he received for his labours.
Qtieries, 6th S. iii. 321. I have two very cogent reasons, he
2 The first payment for the new said, for not printing any list; one
edition of Shakespeare (a guinea) that I have lost all the names, the
had been made to Johnson, as is other that I have spent all the
shown by his receipt (ante, p. 68). money. Life, iv. in. J.andR. Ton-
The second payment was the book- son stand first in the list of book
sellers share. Had Johnson followed sellers on the ti tie-page of his Shake-
the usual custom of printing the list speare.
of subscribers we should have known 3 John Taylor, who by his in-
Bv
Aetat. 56.] To Miss Porter. 125
My heart is much set upon seeing you all again, and I hope
to visit you in the spring or summer, but many of my hopes have
been disappointed. I have no correspondence in the country,
and know not what is doing. What is become of Mr. Warren x ?
His friend Paul has been long dead 2 . And to go backwarder,
what was the fate of poor George Brylston 3 ?
A few years ago I just saluted Birmingham, but had no time
to see any friend, for I came in after midnight with a friend,
and went away in the morning 4 . When I come again I shall
surely make a longer stay ; but in the mean time should think it
an act of kindness in you to let me know something of the
present state of things, and to revive the pleasure which your
company has formerly given to,
Dear Sir,
Your affectionate and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Dec. 8, 1765.
To Mr. Hector, in Birmingham.
180.
To Miss PORTER 5 .
Johnson s Court, Fleet Street, Jan. 14, 1766.
DEAR MADAM,
The reason why I did not answer your letters was that I
can please myself with no answer. I was loth that Kitty should
genuity in mechanical inventions printed his translation of Lobo s
and his success in trade acquired an Abyssinia. Life, i. 86. Ante, p. 8.
immense fortune. Life, i. 86. 2 Lewis Paul, Johnson s corre-
John Taylor, Esq. may justly be spondent, died on April 25, 1759.
deemed the Shakespeare or Newton Gentleman s Magazine, 1759, p. 242.
of Birmingham. He rose from See ante, p. 6.
minute beginnings to shine in the 3 Of poor George Brylston and
commercial hemisphere, as they in his fate nothing, I fear, can ever be
the poetical or philosophical. To known.
this uncommon genius we owe the 4 No doubt he passed through it
gilt button, the japanned and gilt on his way to Lichfield, where he
snuff-box, with the numerous race spent five days in. the winter of
of enamels ; also the painted snuff- 1761-2. Life, i. 370.
box. ... He died in 1775 at the age 5 First published in Croker s Bos-
of 64, after acquiring a fortune of well, page 173.
,200,000. W. Hutton s Brief His- Miss Porter had probably finished
tory of Birmingham, 1797, p. 9. her new house, and was now on the
1 The Birmingham bookseller who point of leaving Johnson s, in which
leave
126 To Miss Porter. [A.D. 1766.
leave the house till I had seen it once more, and yet for some
reasons I cannot well come during the session of parliament T .
I am unwilling to sell it, yet hardly know why. If it can be let,
it should be repaired, and I purpose to let Kitty have part of
the rent while we both live ; and wish that you would get it
surveyed, and let me know how much money will be necessary
to fit it for a tenant. I would not have you stay longer than is
convenient, and I thank you for your care of Kitty.
Do not take my omission amiss. I am sorry for it, but know
not what to say. You must act by your own prudence, and I
shall be pleased. Write to me again ; I do not design to neglect
you any more. It is great pleasure for me to hear from you ;
but this whole affair is painful to me. I wish you, my dear, many
happy years. Give my respects to Kitty.
I am, dear Madam,
Your most affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
181.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
Johnson s Court, January 14, 1766. Published in the Life, ii. 3.
182.
To BENNET LANGTON.
Johnson s Court, March 9, 1766. Published in the Life, ii. 16.
183.
To BENNET LANGTON.
Johnson s Court, May 10, 1766. Published in the Life, ii. 17.
184.
To WILLIAM DRUMMOND.
Johnson s Court, August 13, 1766. Published in the Life, ii. 27.
185.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, August 21, 1766. Published in the Life, ii. 20.
she had been living with his mother s stayed on in the old house.
old servant Kitty (Catherine Cham- x For an explanation of this see
bers). Kitty died in the following the Life, i. 518.
year, having, it seems probable,
TO
Aetat. 57.] To MlSS Porter. I 2 7
186.
To DAVID GARRICK T .
DEAR SIR, Oct I0 I766
I return you thanks for the present of the Dictionary, and
will take care to return you other books.
I have had it long in my mind to tell you that there is a
hundred pounds of yours in Mr. Jonson s 2 hands, if you have
not received it. I know not whether any other paper than what
I gave you be necessary. If there is anything more to be done,
I am ready to do it.
Please to make my compliments to Mrs. Garrick.
I am, Sir,
Your obliged, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
187.
To Miss PORTER 3 .
DEAR MADAM,
Soon after I had received your letter I went to Oxford 4 , and
did not return till last Saturday. I do not very clearly under
stand what need there is of my coming to Lichfield. It is now
too late in the year to repair the poor old house, if the reparation
can be delayed. Nor can I very easily discover what I can do
towards it when I come, more than pay the money which it shall
cost. The days are now grown short, and a long journey will be
uncomfortable, and I think it better to delay doing whatever
is to be done till Spring. I will come down, however, if you
desire it.
I am sorry to have no better account of poor Kitty s health.
I hope she will be better. Pray give my love to her, and desire
her not to forget my request.
I should take it kindly if you would now and then write to me,
1 Published in the Garrick Corre- Garrick s plays.
spondence, i. 245. 3 From the original in the posses-
2 The editor of the Garrick Cor- sion of the Rev. W. E. Buller, The
respondence suggests Tonson. It Vicarage, Chard.
is very likely that Jacob Tonson * For this visit to Oxford see Life,
the younger published some of ii. 25.
and
128 To Mrs. Tkrale. [A.D. 1757.
and give me an account of your own health, and let me know
how you go on in your new house.
I am, dear Madam,
Your most affectionate humble servant,
NOV. 13, 1766. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mrs. Lucy Porter, Lichfield.
188.
To MRS. SALUSBURY T .
MADAM, . February 14, 1767.
I hope it will not be considered as one of the mere formalities
of life, when I declare, that to have heard nothing of Mrs. Thrale
for so long a time has given me pain. My uneasiness is sincere,
and therefore deserves to be relieved. I do not write to Mrs.
Thrale, lest it should give her trouble at an inconvenient time 2 -
I beg, dear Madam, to know how she does ; and shall honestly
partake of your grief if she is ill, and of your pleasure if she is
well.
I am, Madam,
Your most obliged and
most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
189.
To WILLIAM DRUMMOND.
Johnson s Court, April 21, 1767. Published in the Life, ii. 29.
190.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
MADAM, Lichfield, July 20, 1767.
Though I have been away so much longer than I purposed
or expected, I have found nothing that withdraws my affections
1 Piozzi Letters, 5. 3. Mrs. Salus- epitaph on her see his Works, i. 152.
bury was Mrs. Thrale s mother, wife 2 On March 3 of this year Henry
of John Salusbury of Bachy-craig, Salusbury Thrale was christened at
and daughter of Sir Thomas Cotton St. Saviour s, Southwark.
of Combermere. For Johnson s Latin 3 Piozzi Letters, \. 4.
desirous
Aetat. 57.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
129
from the friends whom I left behind, or which makes me less
desirous of reposing at that place which your kindness and Mr.
Thrale s allows me to call my home *.
Miss Lucy 2 is more kind and civil than I expected, and has
raised my esteem by many excellencies very noble and re
splendent, though a little discoloured by hoary virginity. Every
thing else recals to my remembrance years, in which I proposed
what, I am afraid, I have not done, and promised myself pleasure
which I have not found 3 . But complaint can be of no use ; and
why then should I depress your hopes by my lamentations ? I
suppose it is the condition of humanity to design what never will
be done, and to hope what never will be obtained. But among
the vain hopes, let me not number the hope which I have, of
being long,
Dear Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 See fast, Letter of Oct. 15, 1773.
D. Lysons, describing the house at
Streatham, says : On the side of
the small common between Streat
ham and Tooting is a villa which
belonged to the late Henry Thrale,
Esq. . . . The kitchen-gardens are
remarkably spacious, and surrounded
by brick walls fourteen feet in height,
built for the reception of forcing-
frames. Adjoining the house is an
enclosure of about 100 acres, sur
rounded with a shrubbery and gravel
walk of nearly two miles in circum
ference. Environs of London, ed.
1800, iii. 482. Mrs. Piozzi later on
fronted the house, so as to make
it look wholly new. Hayward s
Piozzi, ii. 140. This interesting
spot has unhappily been swept over
by the advance of London.
2 His step-daughter, Lucy Porter.
Five years earlier, in a letter to
Baretti, he had written : My
daughter-in-law [step-daughter], from
whom I expected most, and whom I
met with sincere benevolence, has
lost the beauty and gaiety of youth,
without having gained much of the
wisdom of age. Life, i. 370. She
was born in January, 1717, and was
only seven years younger than her
step-father.
3 In his Annales (Life, i. 74) he
recorded : In 67, when I was at
Lichfield, I went to look for my
nurse s house ; and inquiring some
what obscurely was told, " this is the
house in which you were nursed." I
saw my nurse s son, to whose milk I
succeeded, reading a large Bible,
which my nurse had bought, as I
was then told, some time before her
death. An Account of the Life of
Dr. Johnson, 1805, p. 12.
VOL. I.
K
To
130 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1707.
191.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield Oct 3 I?67
You are returned, I suppose, from Brighthelmstone, and
this letter will be read at Streatham.
Sine me, liber, ibis in urbem 2 .
I have felt in this place something like the shackles of destiny.
There has not been one day of pleasure, and yet I cannot get
away 3 . But when I do come, I perhaps shall not be easily
persuaded to pass again to the other side of Styx, to venture
myself on the irremeable road 4 . I long to see you, and all
those of whom the sight is included in seeing you. Nil mihi
rescribas ; for though I have no right to say, ipsa veni, I hope
that ipse veniam 5 . Be pleased to make my compliments.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
192.
To BENNET LANGTON.
Lichfield, October 10, 1767. Published in the Life, ii. 45.
193.
To WILLIAM DRUMMOND.
Johnson s Court, October 24, 1767. Published in the Life, ii. 30.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 5. lowing spring he told Bos well that
2 Ovid, Tristia, i. i. I. Johnson often he had lately been a good while at
quotes Latin in his letters to Mrs. Lichfield, but had grown very weary
Thrale. Comparing her with her before he left it. BOSWELL. " I
husband he said: She is more wonder at that, Sir ; it is your native
flippant, but he has ten times her place." JOHNSON. "Why so is
learning; he is a regular scholar, Scotland your native place." 1 Life,
but her learning is that of a school- ii. 52.
boy in one of the lower forms. Life, 4 The keeper charmed, the chief
i. 494. without delay
3 In August he recorded at Lich- Passed on and took the irremeable
field in his Diary : I have been way.
disturbed and unsettled for a long Dryden s ^Eneid, vi. 424. See
time, and have been without resolu- also Pope s Iliad, xix. 312.
tion to apply to study or to business, See post, Letter of July 8, 1784,
being hindered by sudden snatches. for the irremeable stream.
Pr. and Med., p. 73. The fol- 3 Ovid, Heroides, i. 2.
TO
Aetat. 58.] To Mrs . Aston. 131
194.
To MRS. ASTON T .
MADAM, Nov - 1 7> *7(>7-
If you impute it to disrespect or inattention, that I took no
leave when I left Lichfield, you will do me great injustice. I
know you too well not to value your friendship.
When I came to Oxford I inquired after the product of our
walnut-tree, but it had, like other trees this year, but very few
nuts, and for those few I came too late. The tree, as I told you,
Madam, we cannot find to be more than thirty years old, and,
upon measuring it, I found it, at about one foot from the ground,
seven feet in circumference, and at the height of about seven
feet, the circumference is five feet and a half; it would have
been, I believe, still bigger, but that it has been lopped 2 . The
nuts are small, such as they call single nuts ; whether this
nut is of quicker growth than better I have not yet inquired ;
such as they are, I hope to send them next year.
You know, dear Madam, the liberty I took of hinting that I
did not think your present mode of life very pregnant with
happiness. Reflection has not yet changed my opinion. Solitude
excludes pleasure, and does not always secure peace 3 . Some
communication of sentiments is commonly necessary to give vent
to the imagination, and discharge the mind of its own flatu
lencies. Some lady surely might be found, in whose conversa
tion you might delight, and in whose fidelity you might repose.
The World, says Locke, has people of all sorts 4 . You will for
give me this obtrusion of my opinion ; I am sure I wish you
well.
Poor Kitty has done what we have all to do, and Lucy has
1 First published in Croker s Bos- should have attained to such a size
well, page 188. in so short a time.
Mrs. (or rather Miss) Elizabeth 3 The life of a solitary man will
Aston was the daughter of Sir be certainly miserable, but not cer-
Thomas Aston, Bart. Life, i. 83 ; tainly devout. Rasselas, ch. 21.
ii. 466, 9. 4 The Rambler, No. 160, opens
2 It seems impossible that a wal- with this quotation,
nut-tree, fast growing though it is,
K 2 the
132
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D 1768.
the world to begin anew I : I hope she will find some way to
more content than I left her possessing.
Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Hinckley 2 and
Miss Turton.
I am, Madam,
Your most obliged and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
195.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, [New Inn Hall, Oxford 4 ], March 3, 1768.
I thought Mr. W-- had been secured. Since what I have
done is ineffectual, I doubt the power of my solicitation ; but,
to leave nothing undone, I have written to him.
1 Kitty Chambers, with whom
Lucy Porter had lived in Johnson s
house, had lately died.
2 She was related to Miss Seward.
Letters of Anna Seivard, iv. 113,
378-
3 Ptoszi Letters, \. 6.
This and some of the following
letters refer chiefly to the General
Election of 1768. Horace Walpole
wrote on March 8 : Our, and my
last, Parliament will be dissolved the
day after to-morrow. Letters, v.
89. Mr. Thrale had been elected
for Southwark at a bye-election in
Dec. 1765 (Par I. Hist.xv. 1089) and
sat till the dissolution of 1780 Life,
iii. 442. He had stood, I believe,
for Abingdon in 1754, for in the
fragment of a manuscript diary in
the possession of Mr. Mathews of St.
Giles s, Oxford, I have seen the fol
lowing entry : 1754, April 15. Mr.
Morton was chosen for Abingdon,
after a long opposition of first Col-
lington, Esq., who left ye town and
his Debts unpaid. Next Thrale,
Esq., who notwithstanding ye Super
fluity of his money was rejected to
ye Honour of Abingdon.
4 Johnson was visiting his friend
Mr. Chambers, who was now
Vinerian Professor, and lived in
New Inn Hall. Life, ii. 46. As
Principal of the Hall he had suc
ceeded Blackstone, the author of
the Commentaries, in 1766; he held
the post till his death in 1803, in
spite of his long absence in India as
Chief-Justice of Bengal. But as
there do not seem to have been any
students this mattered little. He
was succeeded by Blackstone s son
William, who was Principal till 1831,
himself generally non-resident, with
out a single member on the books
but himself. There were no rooms
in the Hall except the Head s dwell
ing-place. Cox s Recollections of
Oxford, ed. 1870, pp. 64, 193. Hearne,
writing in 1732, tells how George
Wigan, who was elected Principal in
1726, hath not had so much as one
gownsman entered at it ever since
he had it, but shutting up the
gate altogether wholly lives in
the country. Bliss s Remains of
Thomas Hearne, iii. 84. After 1831
students, or rather undergraduates,
were once more admitted. In 1887
the Hall, in virtue of a statute made
by the University Commissioners, be
came completely united with Balliol
College.
Mr. Pennick
Aetat. 58.] To the Reverend Richard Pennick. 133
Mr. Pennick I have seen, but with so little approach to inti
macy that I could not have recollected his name ; yet to him I
have inclosed a letter, which, after this information, you may use
as you think is best. I suppose it can do no harm.
Do you think there is any danger, that you are thus anxious
for a single vote ? Pray let me know, as often as you can find
a little time ; for I love to see a letter.
Be pleased to make my compliments to Mr. Thrale and Mrs.
Salusbury, and Miss Hetty, and every body. How does the
poor little maid r ?
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
196.
To THE REVEREND RICHARD PENNICK 2 .
SIR,
I am nattered by others with an honour with which I dare
not presume to flatter myself, that of having gained so much of
your kindness or regard, as that my recommendation of a
Candidate for Southwark may have some influence in determin
ing your vote at the approaching election.
As a man is willing to believe well of himself, I now indulge
1 Miss Hetty was Mrs. Thrale s Museum; ob. Jan. 29, 1803. Ib. p. 102.
eldest daughter, Esther, the Queeney Miss Burney (who spells his name
of these letters. In 1808 she married Penneck) writing of him in 1775
Admiral Lord Keith. Allardyce s says: He took so violent a passion
Life of Lord Keith, p. 348. In 1854 for a Miss Miller, an actress, that
it was stated that she was the last upon suspecting Mr. Colman was
survivor of all the persons mentioned his rival, this pious clergyman, who
in Boswell. Gentleman! s Magazine, is twice the heightt \sic\ at least of
1854, ii. 322. She died on March 31, Mr. Colman, one night, in the
1857. The poor little maid is men- streets, knocked him down when he
tioned again, post, p. 134. was quite unprepared for any attack.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 7 ; republished . . . He is half a madman ; he looks
with corrections from the original dark and designing and altogether
in Notes and Queries, 5th S. vii. 101. ill- favoured Early Diary of
The Rev. Richard Pennick was Frances Burney, ii. 2, 9, where in an
chaplain to the Earl of Bristol in his interesting note the editor shows the
embassy to Spain in 1760, and Rec- better side of this divine s character,
tor of Abinger in Surrey from 1764 Horace Walpole wrote on Feb. n,
to 1803. He had also the living of 1773 : Colman has been half-
St. John, Southwark [which would murdered by a divine out of jealousy,
give him his vote], and was Keeper who keeps Miss Miller. Letters,
of the Reading Room in the British v. 435.
my
134 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. ives.
my vanity, by soliciting your vote and interest for Mr. Thrale,
whose encomium I shall make very compendiously, by telling
you that you would certainly vote for him if you knew him.
I ought to have waited on you with this request, even though
my right to make it had been greater. But, as the election
approaches, and I know not how long I may be detained here,
I hope you will not impute this unceremonious treatment to any
want of respect in, Sir,
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
New Inn Hall, Oxford, March 3, 1768.
To the Rev. Mr. Pennick at the Museum.
197.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
[Oxford], March 14, 1768.
MADAM,
My last letter came a day after its time, by being carried
too late to the post. This I mention, that you may not suspect
me of negligence. I wrote at the same time to Mr. W. in more
forcible terms than perhaps he thinks I had a right to : he has
not answered me. He and his wife are on such terms, that I
know not whether his inclination can be inferred from hers.
If I can be of any use, I will come directly to London ; but
if Mr. Thrale thinks himself certain, I have no doubt. That
they all express the same certainty, has very little effect on those
who know how many men are confident without certainty, and
positive without confidence. We have not any reason to suspect
Mr. Thrale of deceiving us or himself.
I hope all our friends at Streatham are well ; and am glad to
hope that the poor maid will recover. When the mind is drawn
toward a dying bed, how small a thing is an election ? But on
death we cannot be always thinking, and, I suppose, we need
not 2 . The thought is very dreadful !
This little dog does nothing, but I hope he will mend ; he is
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 8. of death, he said, the business of
If one was to think constantly life would stand still. Life, v. 316.
now
Aetat. 58.] To Apperley. 135
now reading Jack the Giant-killer T . Perhaps so noble a narra
tive may rouse in him the soul of enterprise.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
198.
To APPERLEY 2 .
Sir,
I do not think that you can live anywhere without gaining
influence, and therefore believing that you cannot be without it
in Oriel College, I take the liberty of entreating you to employ
it at the approaching election of a Fellow, in favour of Mr.
Crosse, a gentleman of great merit both literary and social, and
one on whom some such benefaction is necessary in the prosecu
tion of his studies.
This address to you I make merely from zeal to serve him,
without any solicitation, and as he is a man whom I have a
desire to forward, you will, by doing what you can for him, and
doing it speedily, bestow a very great favour upon,
Sir,
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Oxford, March 17, 1768. J
To - - Apperley, Esq., at Sir W. W. Wynne s, Bart.,
in Grosvenor Square, London.
1 This little dog is of course 2 From the original in the pos-
himself. For his uses of the term session of Mr. George Pritchard,
dog see Life, vi. 298, and for his de- i, Connaught Street, Hyde Park,
fence of Jack the Giant-killer as a Who were Apperley and Crosse I
book for children, Ib. iv. 8, n. 3. do not know for certain, but most
It is, said Northcote in his old age, probably they are found in the fol-
the first book I ever read, and I lowing list :
cannot describe the pleasure it gives Apperley, Anthony, Jesus College,
me even now. I cannot look into it B.A. 1733, M.A. 1735.
without my eyes filling with tears. James, Jesus College, B.A.
I do not know what it is (whether 1728, M.A. 1731, B.M.
good or bad), but it is to me, from 1734-
early impressions, the most heroic of Crosse, John, of St. Martin s-in-the-
performances. I remember once not Fields, St. Edmund Hall,
having money to buy it, and I tran- matric. Oct. 21, 1762 ;
scribed it all out with my own hand. B.A. Dec. i, 1768.
Conversations of Northcote, p. 96. Crosse was not elected Fellow of
To
136 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1768.
199.
To MRS. THRALE .
MADAM, [Oxford], March 18, 1768.
No part of Mr. Thrale s troubles would have been trouble
some to me, if any endeavours of mine could have made them
less. But I know not that I could have done more for him, than,
in your approaching danger, I can do for you. I wish you both
well, and have little doubt of seeing you both emerge from your
difficulties.
When the election is decided, I entreat to be immediately
informed ; and when you retreat to Streatham, if I shall not
have returned to town, I hope that Mrs. Salusbury will favour
me now and then with an account of you, when you can less
conveniently give it of yourself. To be able to do nothing in
the exigence of a friend is an uneasy state, but in the most
pressing exigencies it is the natural state of humanity, and in all
has been commonly that of,
Dear Madam,
Your, &c.
SAM: JOHNSON.
200.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
Oxford, March 23, 1768. Published in the Life, ii. 58.
201.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Oxford > March 2 4> 768.
You serve me very sorrily. You may write every day to
Oriel. He was not qualified for the Hall for their active Methodism,
approaching election, which was Johnson justified their expulsion,
held on the Friday after Easter, as BOSWELL. " But, was it not hard,
he was not a B.A. ; but from his Sir, to expel them ; for I am told
standing he might have qualified had they were good beings ? " JOHNSON.
he wished. No doubt he would have " I believe they might be good
done so had he had any chance of beings ; but they were not fit to be
success. in the University of Oxford. A cow
1 Piozzi Letters, \. g. is a very good animal in the field,
Two days before this letter was but we turn her out of a garden."
written six followers of John Wesley Life, ii. 187.
were expelled from St. Edmund 2 Piozzi Letters, i. 10.
this
Aetat. 58.] To Mrs , Tkrale. 137
this place z ; and yet I do not know what is the event of the
Southwark election, though, I am sure, you ought to believe
that I am very far from indifference about it 2 . Do let me know
as soon as you can.
Our election was yesterday. Every possible influence of hope
and fear was, I believe, enforced on this occasion ; the slaves of
power, and the solicitors of favour, were driven hither from the
remotest corners of the kingdom, but judex hone stum prxtulit
utili 3 . The virtue of Oxford has once more prevailed.
The death of Sir Walter Bagot, a little before the election 4 ,
left them no great time to deliberate, and they therefore joined
to Sir Roger Newdigate their old representative, an Oxfordshire
gentleman, of no name, no great interest, nor perhaps any other
merit, than that of being on the right side. Yet when the poll
was numbered, it produced
For Sir R. Newdigate 352
Mr. Page 396
Mr. Jenkinson 198
Dr. Hay 62 5
1 In the list of daily posts (Sun- the High Church party, which in the
days excepted) established on Oct. reign of the first two Georges had
10, 1763, Oxford is entered. The been the Jacobite party, and the new
charge was threepence for a single party of the King s Friends. The
letter of one sheet. Court and City Court, wrote Horace Walpole, had
Register for 1765, p. 130. It was set up Jenkinson, one of the favourite
raised to fourpence in 1784; five- cabal, for Oxford, where he had
pence in 1797 ; sixpence in 1801 ; been bred, but he lost the election
sevenpence in 1805 ; and eightpence by a considerable majority, though
in 1812. Penny Cyclo., article Post- the favours of the Crown were now
Office. showered on that University. Me-
The poll had closed the day moirs of the Reign of George III,
before with the following result : iii. 191. In his Letters (vi. 282) Wai-
Henry Thrale .... 1248 pole describes Newdigate as a
Sir Joseph Mawbey . . 1159 man who formerly would have been
William Belcher ... 994 proud to be chief mourner at the
Jackson s Oxford Journal, March Pretender s funeral. Jenkinson had
26 *768. been Lord Bute s private secretary,
Horace, 4 Odes, ix. 41. < one of the Jesuits of the Treasury,
Five days after Bagot s death, on as Walpole calls him. He rose
Jan. 25 of this year, a new writ had through royal favour to be Earl of
been ordered, when Sir William Liverpool. Life, iii. 146. Hay (afier-
Uolben was returned. Parl. Hist. wards Sir George Hay) was a Fellow
xv ; I0 ?5. of St. John s College. He had taken
The contest had been between his degree of D.C.L. in 1741-2, and
Of
138
To Miss Porter.
[A.D. 1768.
Of this I am sure you must be glad ; for, without enquiring
into the opinions or conduct of any party, it must be for ever
pleasing to see men adhering to their principles against their
interest, especially when you consider that these voters are poor,
and never can be much less poor but by the favour of those
whom they are now opposing.
I am, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
202.
To Miss PORTER T .
Oxford, April 18, 1768.
MY DEAR, DEAR LOVE,
You have had a very great loss 2 . To lose an old friend, is
to be cut off from a great part of the little pleasure that this life
allows. But such is the condition of our nature, that as we live
on we must see those whom we love drop successively, and find
was known as Dr. Hay. He was
one of the Lords of the Admiralty
(with a brief interval) from 1756 to
1765, when he was made Dean of
the Arches. Both men, in spite of
their defeat, were returned to this
Parliament, Jenkinson being elected
for two places. Parl. Hist. xvi.
432, 442, 445. In Balliol, Brasenose,
Pembroke, University, and Wor
cester not a single vote was given
against Newdigate. In Christ Church,
and in Merton which had always
been a Hanoverian stronghold, Jen
kinson had a large majority. Hay s
stronghold was St. John s, where he
received double as many votes as
Newdigate. On the list of voters is
entered Jeremy Bentham, M.A., of
Queen s College, with a Q [query]
against his name, for his right to vote
was disputed. Though he had taken
the degree of M.A. he was under age.
He voted for Jenkinson and Hay.
As there was no scrutiny the legality
of his vote was never settled. He
had been engaged, he says, partly
in reading Montesquieu and partly
in watching a chemical experiment,
when the Archbishop of York called
on him to solicit his vote for these
two candidates. Bentham s Works,
x. 48, 54. Johnson s name is not
given in the polling-list, and it is clear
that he had no vote. By his diploma
of M.A. he was entitled to one, so
long as he paid the yearly University
dues. He was doubtless hindered
by his poverty. In the Bodleian a
list of the poll is preserved, from
which I have got much of this in
formation. Among the 493 voters I
noticed only three names of any
great distinction Blackstone, Bent-
ham, and William Scott, afterwards
Lord Stowell. Only 14 of the voters
had two Christian names not quite
I in every 35.
1 First published in Malone s
edition of Bosivell.
2 The death of her aunt, Mrs.
Hunter, widow of Johnson s school
master. CROKER. She was with
my poor mother when she died,
wrote Johnson. Ante, p. 87.
our
Aetat. 58.]
To Miss Porter.
139
our circle of relation grow less and less, till we are almost
unconnected with the world ; and then it must soon be our turn
to drop into the grave. There is always this consolation, that
we have one Protector who can never be lost but by our own
fault, and every new experience of the uncertainty of all other
comforts should determine us to fix our hearts where true joys
are to be found T . All union with the inhabitants of earth must
in time be broken ; and all the hopes that terminate here, must
on [one] part or other end in disappointment.
I am glad that Mrs. Adey and Mrs. Cobb 2 do not leave you
alone. Pay my respects to them, and the Sewards, and all my
friends. When Mr. Porter 3 comes, he will direct you. Let me
know of his arrival, and I will write to him.
When I go back to London, I will take care of your
reading-glass. Whenever I can do anything for you, remember,
my dear darling, that one of my greatest pleasures is to please
you.
The punctuality of your correspondence I consider as a proof
of great regard. When we shall see each other, I know not, but
1 that so, among the sundry
and manifold changes of the world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found.
Collect for the Fourth Sunday after
Easter.
2 Mrs. Cobb and her niece, Miss
Adey, were great admirers of Dr.
Johnson. Life, ii. 466. Miss Seward
(unhappily one of the most untruthful
of writers) says that Johnson ex
claimed : How should Moll Cobb
be a wit ? Cobb has read nothing,
Cobb knows nothing ; and where
nothing has been put into the brain
nothing can come out of it to any
purpose of rational entertainment.
Anna Seward s Letters, iii. 330. It is
probable that Mrs. Cobb and Mrs.
Adey had been with their brother
joint-owners of Edial Hall when
Johnson rented it for his academy.
3 Her surviving brother, who
died in 1783. Life, iv. 256. Miss
Seward in April, 1764, describes him
as a thin, pale personage, some
what below the middle height, with
rather too much stoop in the
shoulders, and a little more withered
by Italian suns than are our English
sober bachelors after an elapse of
only forty years, in a black velvet
coat, and a waistcoat richly em
broidered with coloured flowers upon
gold tissue ; a bag wig in crimp
buckle powdered white as the new-
shorn fleece. Miss Porter she de
scribes on the same occasion as
rustling into the drawing-room in
all the pomp of blue and white tissue
and Brussels lace, with the most
satisfied air. Anna Seward s Poeti
cal Works, ed. 1810, i. cxv. There
was this excuse for the finery, that
Mr. Porter was paying a formal call
on Miss Sarah Seward, to whom he
was engaged.
let
1 40 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1768.
let us often think on each other, and think with tenderness. Do
not forget me in your prayers. I have for a long time back been
very poorly ; but of what use is it to complain ?
Write often, for your letters always give great pleasure to
My dear,
Your most affectionate
and most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
203.
To MRS. THRALE .
MADAM, Oxford, April 19, 1768.
If I should begin with telling you what is very true, that I
have of late been very much disordered, you might perhaps
think that in the next line I should impute this disorder to my
distance from you ; but I am not yet well enough to contrive
such stratagems of compliment. I have been really very bad,
and am glad that I was not at Streatham, where I should have
been troublesome to you, and you could have given no help
to me.
I am not, however, without hopes of being better, and there
fore hear with great pleasure of the welfare of those from whom
I always expect to receive pleasure when I am capable of
receiving it, and think myself much favoured that you made so
much haste to tell me of your recovery.
I design to love little Miss Nanny very well ; but you must
let us have a Bessy some other time 2 . I suppose the Borough
bells rung for the young lady s arrival 3 . I hope she will be
happy. I will not welcome her with any words of ill-omen.
She will certainly be happy, if she be as she and all friends are
wished to be by, Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 12. next child was named Lucy Eliza-
2 On the 1 7th the child had been beth and he was godfather,
christened Anna Maria. No doubt 3 Mr. Thrale s brewery and town-
Johnson had asked that one of Mrs. house were in the Borough of South-
Thrale s daughters should bear the wark.
name of his wife Elizabeth. The
To
Aetat. 58.] 70 Mrs. Tkrale. 141
204.
To MRS. THRALE x .
MADAM, Oxford A ? ril 28 I768
It is indeed a great alleviation of sickness to be nursed by
a mother, and it is a comfort in return to have the prospect
of being nursed by a daughter, even at that hour when all
human attention must be vain. From that social desire of being
valuable to each other, which produces kindness and officious-
ness, it proceeds, and must proceed, that there is some pleasure
in being able to give pain 2 . To roll the weak eye of helpless
anguish, and see nothing on any side but cold indifference, will,
I hope, happen to none whom I love or value ; it may tend to
withdraw the mind from life, but has no tendency to kindle those
affections which fit us for a purer and a nobler state.
Yet when any man finds himself disposed to complain with
how little care he is regarded, let him reflect how little he
contributes to the happiness of others, and how little, for the
most part, he suffers from their pains. It is perhaps not to be
lamented, that those solicitudes are not long nor frequent, which
must commonly be vain ; nor can we wonder that, in a state
in which all have so much to feel of their own evils, very few
have leisure for those of another 3 . However, it is so ordered,
that few suffer from want of assistance ; and that kindness which
could not assist, however pleasing, may be spared.
These reflections do not grow out of any discontent at
C s 4 behaviour : he has been neither negligent nor trouble
some ; nor do I love him less for having been ill in his house 5 .
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 13. reproaching us with our happiness,
2 He means, I suppose, that there while so many of our brethren are in
is some pleasure in finding that one s misery, and Life, ii. 94, where John-
sufferings are a cause of pain to son maintains that an excess of
another. sympathy would be misery to no
3 Adam Smith in his Theory of purpose.
Moral Sentiments, published in 1759, 4 Chambers.
had said (ed. 1801, ii. 27) : Before 5 Johnson said, " How few of his
we can feel much for others we friends houses would a man choose
must in some measure be at ease to be at when he is sick." He men-
ourselves. Cf. ib. i. 281, where he tioned one or two. I recollect only
attacks those whining and melan- Thrale s. Life, iv. 181. He would not
choly moralists who are perpetually have been a troublesome patient any-
There
H 2 To F. A. Barnard. [A.D. 1708.
There is no small degree of praise. I am better, having scarce
eaten for seven days. I shall come home on Saturday.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
205.
To MRS. THRALE J .
MADAM, [Oxford], May 23, 1768.
Though I purpose to come home to-morrow 2 , I could not
omit even so long, to tell you how much I think myself favoured
by your notice. Every man is desirous to keep those friends
whom he is proud to have gained, and I count the friendship
of your house among the felicities of life.
I thank God that I am better, and am at least within hope of
being as well as you have ever known me. Let me have your
prayers.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
2O6.
TO F. A. BARNARD 3 .
g IR May 28, 1768.
It is natural for a scholar to interest himself in an expedi
tion, undertaken, like yours, for the importation of literature ;
where, for, according to Mrs. Piozzi each ; outside passengers half-price.
(Anec. p. 275), he required less Each inside passenger was allowed
attendance, sick or well, than ever I 20 Ibs. of luggage ; above that weight
saw any human creature. a penny per Ib. was charged. Had
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 15. Johnson had heavy luggage he might
2 For his arrival in London and have sent it by the University Old
his surprising Boswell one morning Stage Wagon, which left Oxford
with a visit at his lodgings see Life, every Tuesday morning at one
ii. 59. He might have returned o clock [i.e. one hour after mid-
either by the Oxford Post- Coach, night], and arrived at the Oxford
which left at 8 a.m. ; fare 15^., no Arms in Warwick Lane every Wed-
outside passengers ; or by the Ox- nesday at three. It returned on
ford Machine which left the Bear Thursdays at nine [in the morning],
Inn, High Street, every Monday, and was at Oxford on Friday even-
Wednesday, and Friday at 6 a.m. ings. Jacksorfs Oxford Journal,
What time these coaches reached Lon- Feb. 20, 1768.
don we are not told. The Machine 3 First published in the Report of
was licensed by the Vice- Chancellor ; the Committee on Papers relating to
carried six inside passengers at icw. the Royal Librarywhich his Majesty
and
Aetat. 58.]
To F. A. Barnard.
and therefore, though, having never travelled myself, I am very
little qualified to give advice to a traveller ; yet, that I may not
seem inattentive to a design so worthy of regard, I will try
whether the present state of my health will suffer me to lay
before you what observation or report have suggested to me,
that may direct your inquiries, or facilitate your success.
Things of which the mere rarity makes the value, and which are
prized at a high rate by a wantonness rather than by use, are
always passing from poorer to richer countries ; and therefore,
though Germany and Italy were principally productive of typo
graphical curiosities, I do not much imagine that they are now
to be found there in great abundance. An eagerness for scarce
books and early editions, which prevailed among the English
about half a century ago, filled our shops with all the splendour
and nicety of literature ; and when the Harleian Catalogue r was
published, many of the books were bought for the library of the
King of France.
I believe, however, that by the diligence with which you have
enlarged the library under your care, the present stock is so
nearly exhausted, that, till new purchases supply the booksellers
with new stores, you will not be able to do much more than
glean up single books, as accident shall produce them ; this,
therefore, is the time for visiting the continent.
What addition you can hope to make by ransacking other
countries we will now consider. English literature you will not
seek in any place but in England. Classical learning is diffused
everywhere, and is not, except by accident, more copious in one
has presented to the Nation. See not Frederick Augustus, but Frede-
Centleman s Magazine, 1823, part i.
P- 347-
In a note in Croker s Boswell, p.
196, Barnard is described as Mr.,
afterwards Sir Francis, Barnard,
Librarian to King George III.
According to Nichols his name was
not Francis, but Frederick Augustus.
See Nichols s Lit. Hist. iv. 699. I
learn from Mr. R. R. Holmes, the
Librarian at Windsor Castle, that
Nichols also is mistaken, for he was
rick Augusta. So he is given in the
first volume of the Catalogue of the
Royal Library.
Boswell had been shown this letter,
but had been refused leave to print
it. Life, ii. 33, n. 4. It was Barnard
who arranged Johnson s interview
with the King. Id. There can be
little question that the present letter
was written to be shown to the King.
1 See Life, i. 153.
part
144 To F. A. Barnard. [A.D. 1768.
part of the polite world than in another. But every country has
literature of its own, which may be best gathered in its native
soil. The studies of the learned are influenced by forms of
government and modes of religion ; and, therefore, those books
are necessary and common in some places, which, where different
opinions or different manners prevail, are of little use, and for
that reason rarely to be found.
Thus in Italy you may expect to meet with canonists and
scholastic divines, in Germany with writers on the feudal laws,
and in Holland with civilians. The schoolmen and canonists
must not be neglected, for they are useful to many purposes ;
nor too anxiously sought, for their influence among us is much
lessened by the Reformation. Of the canonists at least a few
eminent writers may be sufficient. The schoolmen are of more
general value. But the feudal and civil law I cannot but
wish to see complete J . The feudal constitution is the original
of the law of property, over all the civilised part of Europe ;
and the civil law, as it is generally understood to include the
law of nations, may be called with great propriety a regal
study. Of these books, which have been often published, and
diversified by various modes of impression, a royal library
should have at least the most curious edition, the most splendid,
and the most useful. The most curious edition is commonly
the first, and the most useful may be expected among the last.
Thus, of Tully s Offices, the edition of Fust is the most curious,
and that of Graevius the most useful 2 . The most splendid the
eye will discern. With the old printers you are now become
well acquainted ; if you can find any collection of their pro
ductions to be sold, you will undoubtedly buy it ; but this can
scarcely be hoped, and you must catch up single volumes
[ Johnson wrote to Boswell on important part of the history of man-
Aug. 31, 1772 : The leisure which kind. Do not forget a design so
I cannot enjoy, it will be a pleasure worthy of a scholar who studies the
to hear that you employ upon the law of his country, and of a gentle-
antiquities of the feudal establish- man who may naturally be curious
ment. The whole system of ancient to know the condition of his own
tenures is gradually passing away ; ancestors. Life, ii. 202. See also ib.
and I wish to have the knowledge of iii. 414.
it preserved adequate and complete ; ; Fust s edition was published in
for such an institution makes a very 1465, and Graevius s in 1688.
where
Aetat. SB.] To F. A. Barnard. 145
where you can find them. In every place things often occur
where they are least expected. I was shown a Welsh grammar
written in Welsh, and printed at Milan, I believe, before any
grammar of that language had been printed here 1 . Of pur
chasing entire libraries, I know not whether the inconvenience
may not overbalance the advantage. Of libraries connected
with general views, one will have many books in common with
another. When you have bought two collections, you will find
that you have bought many books twice over, and many in
each which you have left at home, and, therefore, did not want ;
and when you have selected a small number, you will have the
rest to sell at a great loss, or to transport hither at perhaps a
greater. It will generally be more commodious to buy the few
that you want, at a price somewhat advanced, than to encumber
yourself with useless books. But libraries collected for particu
lar studies will be very valuable acquisitions. The collection
of an eminent civilian, feudist 2 , or mathematician, will perhaps
have very few superfluities. Topography or local history pre
vails much in many parts of the continent. I have been told
that scarcely a village of Italy wants its historian 3 . These
books may be generally neglected, but some will deserve
attention by the celebrity of the place, the eminence of the
authors, or the beauty of the sculptures 4 . Sculpture has always
been more cultivated among other nations than among us. The
old art of cutting on wood, which decorated the books of ancient
impression, was never carried here to any excellence ; and the
practice of engraving on copper, which succeeded, has never been
much employed among us in adorning books. The old books
with wooden cuts are to be diligently sought ; the designs were
often made by great masters, and the prints are such as cannot
1 In the Brit. Mus. Catalogue is en- 1757, p. 177, where it is stated that
tered : Welsh Grammar. By G. there is scarce a village in Italy
Roberts. Milan (?), 8. 1567. See but there is a particular history of
also William Rowlands Cambrian it. It is strange that Johnson, who
Bibliography, p. 22. generally would not listen in silence
2 Feudist is not in Johnson s Die- to an exaggeration, here circulates
tionary. He formed the word, I one so gross.
conjecture, from the French feudz ste. 4 Johnson does not give this use
3 Johnson is thinking of a passage of sculptures in his Dictionary.
in Baretti s Italian Library, ed.
VOL. I. L be
146
To F. A. Barnard.
[A.D. 1768.
be made by any artist now living. It will be of great use to
collect in every place maps of the adjacent country, and plans of
towns, buildings, and gardens. By this care you will form a
more valuable body of geography than can otherwise be had.
Many countries have been very exactly surveyed, but it must
not be expected that the exactness of actual mensuration will be
preserved, when the maps are reduced by a contracted scale,
and incorporated into a general system.
The king of Sardinia s Italian dominions are not large, yet the
maps made of them in the reign of Victor fill two Atlantic
folios *. This part of your design will deserve particular regard,
because, in this, your success will always be proportioned to
your diligence. You are too well acquainted with literary
history not to know that many books derive their value from the
reputation of the printers. Of the celebrated printers you do
not need to be informed, and if you did ; might consult Baillet,
Jugemens des S^avans 2 . The productions of Aldus are enu
merated in the Bibliotheca Graeca 3 , so that you may know
when you have them all ; which is always of use, as it prevents
needless search. The great ornaments of a library, furnished
for magnificence as well as use, are the first editions, of which,
therefore, I would not willingly neglect the mention. You
know, sir, that the annals of typography begin with the Codex,
J457 4 ; but there is great reason to believe, that there are
latent, in obscure corners, books printed before it. The secular
feast, in memory of the invention of printing, is celebrated in
the fortieth year of the century; if this tradition, therefore, is
right, the art had in 1457 been already exercised nineteen
years 5 .
1 Theatre des Etats du Due de
Savoie, published in 1700 at the
Hague. Johnson gives as one of the
meanings of Atlas, a large square
folio. By Atlantic folios he means
folios of this large square size. They
are still called Atlas folios.
2 Adrien Baillet s Jugements des
savants sur les principaux outrages
des auteurs, 9 vols., 1685-6.
3 J. A. Fabricius s Bibliotheca
Graeca, ed. 1726 ; xiii. 606.
4 Johnson most likely got his in
formation from Maittaire s Annales
Typographic^ 1719. On p. 35 we
find given as the first printed book,
Psalmorum Codex ; per Joannem
Fust et Petrum Schoeffer. Mogun-
tiae, 1457. Moguntia is Mainz.
5 Early in 1740 the third hun
dred year s feast of the noble art
and mystery of printing, discovered
There
Aetat.ss.j To F. A. Barnard. 147
There prevails among typographical antiquaries a vague
opinion, that the Bible had been printed three times before the
edition of 1462, which Calmet calls La premiere edition bien
averee. One of these editions has been lately discovered in a
convent, and transplanted into the French king s library ".
Another copy has likewise been found, but I know not whether
of the same impression, or another. These discoveries are
sufficient to raise hope and instigate inquiry. In the purchase
of old books, let me recommend to you to inquire with great
caution, whether they are perfect. In the first edition the loss
of a leaf is not easily observed. You remember how near
we both were to purchasing a mutilated Missal at a high
price.
All this perhaps you know already, and, therefore, my letter
may be of no use. I am, however, desirous to show you, that I
wish prosperity to your undertaking. One advice more I will
give, of more importance than all the rest, of which I, therefore,
hope you will have still less need. You are going into a part of
the world divided, as it is said, between bigotry and atheism :
such representations are always hyperbolical, but there is cer
tainly enough of both to alarm any mind solicitous for piety
and truth ; let not the contempt of superstition precipitate you
into infidelity, or the horror of infidelity ensnare you in super
stition. I sincerely wish you successful and happy, for
I am, Sir,
Your affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
207.
To FRANCIS BARBER.
[London], May 28, 1768. Published in the Life, ii. 62.
in 1440, was celebrated in Stras- quarto. In the Bodleian there are
burg. Gentleman s Magazine, 1740, two Bibles earlier than the edition of
p. 95. Nineteen years seems a 1462, one published as early as 1456,
mistake for seventeen years. and the other in 1460-1. The copy
1 Augustin Calmet published at in the French King s library John-
Paris in 1709-16 Conunentaire sur son saw when he visited Paris in
tous les livres de lancien et du 1775, but he had doubts about it.
nouvean Testament, in 25 vols. Life, ii. 397.
L 2 TO
148 To Miss Porter. [A .0.1768.
208.
To MRS. THRALE J .
MADAM [Johnson s Court, London,] June 17, 1768.
I know that you were not displeased to find me gone
abroad, when you were so kind as to favour me with a visit.
I find it useful to be moving; but whithersoever I may wander,
I shall not, I hope, leave behind me that gratitude and respect,
with which your attention to my health, and tenderness for my
weakness, have impressed my heart. May you be long before
you want the kindness which you have shown to,
Madam,
Your &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
209.
To Miss PORTER 2 .
MY LOVE,
It gives me great pleasure to find that you are so well
satisfied with what little things it has been in my power to
send you. I hope you will always employ me in any office
that can conduce to your convenience. My health is, I thank
God, much better ; but it is yet very weak ; and very little
things put it in a troublesome state ; but still I hope all will be
well. Pray for me.
My friends at Lichfield must not think that I forget them.
Neither Mrs. Cobb, nor Mrs. Adey, nor Miss Adey, nor Miss
Seward, nor Miss Vise, are to suppose that I have lost all
memory of their kindness. Mention me to them when you see
them. I hear Mr. Vise 3 has been lately very much in danger.
I hope he is better.
When you write again, let me know how you go on, and what
company you keep, and what you do all day. I love to think
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 15. Mr. A. Hayward s sale on March 21,
2 First published in Croker s Bos- 1890, for 8 $s. The Times, March
well, page 197 ; corrected by me 22, 1890.
from the original in the possession 3 Boswell, who writes the name
of Mr. Frederick Barker, of 41 Gun- Vyse, speaks of him as the respect-
terstone Road, West Kensington. able clergyman at Lichfield, who was
One of Johnson s letters of this date, contemporary with Johnson. Life,
probably this very one, was sold at iii. 124.
on
Aetat. 59.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 149
on you, but do not know when I shall see you. Pray, write
very often. I am,
Dearest,
Your humble Servant,
June 1 8, 1768. SAM; JOHNSON.
210.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
MADAM, [Johnson s Court, London], Nov. 1 1, 1768.
I am sincerely sorry for you both ; nor is my grief dis
interested ; for I cannot but think the life of Mrs. Salusbury
some addition to the happiness of all that know her. How
much soever I wish to see you, I hope you will give me no
pleasure at the expence of one to whom you have so much
reason to be attentive.
I am, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
211.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
MADAM, Dec. 2, 1768.
I can readily find no paper that is not ruled for juridical
use 3 . You will wonder that I have not written, and indeed
I wonder too ; but I have been oddly put by 4 my purpose. If
my omission has given you any uneasiness, I have the mortifica
tion of paining that mind which I would most wish to please.
I am not, I thank God, worse than when I went ; and you have
no hope that I should grow better here. But I will show my
self to-morrow, and only write in hope that my letter will come
before me, and that you will have forgiven the negligence of,
Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Piozzi Letters, 5. 16. To write to W, Lucy, Zolcher [? Tol-
Mrs. Salusbury, whose life seems cher. See ante, p. 93, n. 3] Boswell."
to have been in great danger, lived 2 Piozzi Letters, i. 17.
till 1773. 3 Perhaps Johnson was visiting
In Messrs. Puttick and Simpson s his friend Mr. Welch, the Magistrate.
Auction Catalogue of March 16, 1852, Life, iii. 216.
Lot 437 is as follows : In Dr. John- 4 Put by; to turn off, to divert.
son s Autograph. "Liber Memora- J ohnson s Dictionary.
bilis [? Memorialis]. Nov. 14, 1768.
To
150 To Miss Flint. [A.D. 1760.
212.
To DAVID GARRICK.
Jan. 17, 1769.
In Messrs. Sotheby s Auction Catalogue of May 10, 1875, Lot 89
is an autograph letter of Johnson to David Garrick, \\ pages quarto,
dated Jan. 17, 1769. He speaks of his kind promise of a benefit
for Mrs. Williams ; asks him to select an appropriate play, and
hopes he will continue to make his favour as efficatious as he can.
1769, I suspect, is a misprint for 1756, for in January of that year
Garrick gave Miss Williams a benefit. I find no mention of a second.
213.
TO MlSS FLINT 1 .
MADEMOISELLE, A Londr es, Mars 31, 1769.
II faut avouer que la lettre que vous m avez fait Thoneur de
m ecrire, a etc long-terns sans reponse. Voici mon apologia.
J ai etc afflige d une maladie de violence peu supportable, &
d un lenteur bien ennuiant. Tout etat a ses droits particuliers.
On compte parmi les droits d un malade ce de manquer aux
offices de respect, et aux devoirs de reconoissance. Gene par
ses douleurs, il ne scait veiller qu a soi-meme. II ne pense qu a
se soulager, et a se retablir, peu attentif a tout autre soin, et peu
sensible a la gloire d etre traduit d une main telle que la
votre.
Neanmoins, Mademoiselle, votre merite auroit exige que je
m efforcasse a vous rendre graces de vos egards, si je 1 aurois pu
faire sans y meler des querelles. Mais comment m empescher
1 Piozzi Letters , i. 18. Mrs. the guillotine. In a list of the Eng-
Piozzi says in a note : Miss Flint lish prisoners I find her name
was a very young lady, who had entered as follows : Louise Mather
translated Johnson s Strictures at the Flint Rivarol, wife of the royalist
end of Shakespeare s Plays. Miss pamphleteer. Arrested as wife of
Reynolds had accompanied her to emigre". At Luxembourg, Austin
Paris. According to Northcote, Convent and Port Royal, April 22,
she subsequently married a M. de 1794 to July 23, 1794. Her father
Reveral ; being left a widow she was was a teacher of languages. She
guillotined with her only son in the died 1821. Englishmen in the
Reign of Terror. Northcote s Rey- French Revolution, by John G.
nolds, i. 201. Whatever may have Alger, 1889, p. 345.
been the fate of her son, she escaped
de
Aetat. 59.] To Mrs. Thrale. 151
de me plaindre de ces appas par lesquelles vous avez gagne sur
1 esprit de Mademoiselle Reynolds jusqu a ce qu elle ne se sou-
vient plus ni de sa patrie ni de ses amis. C est peu de nous
louer, c est peu de repandre nos ouvrages par des traductions les
plus belles, pendant que vous nous privez du plaisir de voir
Mademoiselle Reynolds & de 1 ecouter. Enfin, Mademoiselle,
il faut etre moins aimable, arm que nous vous aimions plus.
Je suis,
Mademoiselle,
Votre tres humble &
Obeissant Serviteur,
SAM: JOHNSON.
214.
To MRS. THRALE .
MADAM, [London], May 18, 1769
Now I know you want to be forgetting me, but I do not
want to be forgotten, and would rather send you letters, like
Prestos, 2 , than suffer myself to slip out of your memory. That
I should forget you, there is no danger ; for I have time enough
to think both by night and day; and he that has leisure for any
thing that is not present, always turns his mind to that which he
likes best.
One reason for thinking on you is, that I must for a while be
content with thinking, for our affairs will not suffer me to come
home till Saturday.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
215.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
[London], May 31, 1769. Published in the Life, ii. 67.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 19. Journal to Stella, Works, ed. 1803,
2 August 2, 1711. The Secretary xxi. 270. Johnson said that the Letters
and I have been walking three or which composed this Journal have
four hours to-day. The Duchess of some odd attraction. Life,iv.\ ]J,n.
Shrewsbury asked him, was not that 2. By Deane Swift s edition of Swift s
Dr. Dr., and she could not say my Letters (1768) Presto had lately be-
name in English, but said Dr. Presto, come known as Swift s name,
which is Italian for Swift. Swift s
To
152 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. i?69.
216.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, New Inn Hal1 [ xford >] J une 2 7> 1769-
I had your note sent hither ; and can easily spare the pine
apple, and be satisfied with the reason for which it was sent.
Though I hope I shall never want any new memorials to keep
you in my mind, yet I am glad to find you solicitous not to be
forgotten, though I should not deserve to be remembered if there
could be any reason for such solicitude.
The pain and sickness which you suffer, you may bear to feel
and I to think on with less impatience on your part, and less
grief on mine, because the crisis is within view. I will not
encrease your uneasiness with mine. I hope I grow better. I am
very cautious, and very timorous 2 . Whether fear and caution
do much for me, I can hardly tell. Time will perhaps do more
than both.
I purpose to come to town in a few days, but I suppose
I must not see you. I will, however, call on Mr. Thrale in the
Borough, and shall hope to be soon informed that your trouble
is over, and that you are well enough to resume your care
for that which yet continues, and which your kindness may
sometimes alleviate.
I am, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
217.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
MADAM, Oxford, June 29, 1769.
Hesiod, who was very wise in his time, though nothing to
such wise people as we, says, that the evil of the worst times has
some good mingled with it 4 . Hesiod was in the right. These
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 20. On September 18 he recorded in
Johnson had been at Oxford his journal : This year has been
almost a month, perhaps longer (Life, wholly spent in a slow progress of
ii. 67), so that it is probable that some recovery. Pr. and Med., p. 85.
of his letters to Mrs. Thrale are 3 P 102 zi Letters, i. 21.
missing. He was the guest no doubt 4 aXX eyun-??? K! rola-i juejui ^erai
of Chambers (ante, p. 132, n. 4). e o^Xa KaKolaiv, HESIOD, Works
2 During this visit he seldom or and Days, 1. 179.
never dined out. Life, ii. 68, n. I.
times
Aetat. 59.] To Mrs. Thrale. 153
times are not much to my mind ; I am not well ; but in these
times you are safe, and have brought a pretty little Miss.
I always wished it might be a Miss, and now that wish is
gratified, nothing remains but that I entreat you to take care of
yourself; for whatever number of girls or boys you may give us,
we are far from being certain that any of them will ever do for
us what you can do ; it is certain that they cannot now do
it, and the ability which they want, they are not likely to gain
but by your precepts and your example ; by an example of
excellence, and by the admonitions of truth.
Mr. Thrale tells me, that my furlough is shortened ; I am
always ready to obey orders ; I have not yet found any place
from which I shall not willingly depart to come back to
you.
I am, dearest Lady,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
218.
TO MR. THRALE 1 .
CJR New Inn Hall, Oxford, June 29, 1769.
That Mrs. Thrale is safely past through her danger is
an event at which nobody but yourself can rejoice more than I
rejoice. I think myself very much honoured by the choice that
you have been pleased to make of me to become related to the
little maiden 2 . Let me know when she will want me, and
I will very punctually wait on her.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
219.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAREST MADAM, J ul y 6 > J 7 6 9-
Though I am to come home to-morrow, I would not let the
alarming letter which I received this morning be without notice.
Dear Madam, take all possible care of your health. How near
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 23. Ante, p. 140. For her death, see
2 She was born on June 22, and post, Letter of Nov. 18, 1773.
christened Lucy Elizabeth. He had 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 23.
asked that he might have a Bessy.
we
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1769.
we always are to danger ! I hope your danger is now past ;
but that fear, which is the necessary effect of danger, must
remain always with us. I hope my little Miss is well. Surely
I shall be very fond of her. In a year and half she will run
and talk. But how much ill may happen in a year and half !
Let us however hope for the better side of possibility, and think
that I may then and afterwards continue to be,
Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
220.
To MRS. THRALE .
MADAM, Lichfield, August 14, 1769.
I set out on Thursday morning, and found my companion,
to whom I was very much a stranger, more agreeable than
I expected. We went cheerfully forward, and passed the night
at Coventry 2 . We came in late, and went out early; and
therefore I did not send for my cousin Tom 3 ; but I design to
make him some amends for the omission.
Next day we came early to Lucy, who was, I believe, glad to
see us. She had saved her best gooseberries upon the tree
for me ; and, as Steele says, / was neither too proud nor too wise
to gather them. I have rambled a very little inter fontes et
flumina nota*, but I am not yet well. They have cut down the
trees in George Lane 5 . Evelyn, in his book of Forest Trees,
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 24.
2 Coventry is ninety miles from
London ; Lichfield is twenty-six
miles farther. Paterson s British
Itinerary, i. 149.
3 Johnson mentions his cousin,
Tom Johnson, in his Letters of
May I, 1770, where he calls him my
nearest relation, of Dec. 6, I774,and
May 29, 1779. In his will he left a
bequest to his descendants. Life, iv.
403, 440.
Hie inter flumina nota
Et fontes sacros frigus captabis
opacum.
VIRGIL. Eclogues, i. 52.
Johnson again quotes these lines
inaccurately, post, Letter of July 8,
1771. In 1783 he said: I have
this year read all Virgil through ;
the Eclogues I have almost all by
heart. Life, iv. 218.
5 I was, says Johnson, by my
father s persuasion put to one Mar-
cleWjCommonly called Bellison,the ser
vant, or wife of a servant of my father,
to be nursed in George Lane, where I
used to call when I was a bigger boy,
and eat fruit in the garden, which
was full of trees. Here it was dis
covered that my eyes were bad. . . .
My mother visited me every day,
tells
Aetat. 59.] To Mrs. Aston. 155
tells us of wicked men that cut down trees, and never prospered
afterwards 1 ; yet nothing has deterred these audacious alder
men from violating the Hamadryads of George Lane. As an
impartial traveller I must however tell, that in Stow-street,
where I left a draw-well, I have found a pump ; but the lading-
well in this ill-fated George Lane lies shamefully neglected.
I am going to-day or to-morrow to Ashbourne ; but I am at
a loss how I shall get back in time to London. Here are only
chance coaches, so that there is no certainty of a place. If I do
not come, let it not hinder your journey. I can be but a
few days behind you ; and I will follow in the Brighthelmstone
coach. But I hope to come.
I took care to tell Miss Porter, that I have got another Lucy.
I hope she is well. Tell Mrs. Salusbury, that I beg her stay at
Streatham, for little Lucy s sake.
I am, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
221.
To MRS. ASTON 2 .
MADAM Brighthelmstone, August 26, 1769.
I suppose you have received the mill : the whole apparatus
seemed to be perfect, except that there is wanting a little tin
spout at the bottom, and some ring or knob, on which the bag that
catches the meal is to be hung. When these are added, I hope
you will be able to grind your own bread, and treat me with a
cake made by yourself, of meal from your own corn of your own
grinding 3 .
I was glad, Madam, to see you so well, and hope your health
will long increase, and then long continue.
I am, Madam,
Your most obedient servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
and used to go different ways, that z Silva : or a Discourse of Forest
her assiduity might not expose her Trees. By John Evelyn, ed. 1776,
to ridicule, and often left her fan or pp. 633-643.
glove behind her that she might 2 First published in Croker s Bos-
have a pretence to come back un- well, page 198.
expected; but she never discovered For Mrs. Aston, see ante, p. 131, n.\.
any token of neglect. Annals, 3 In the April number of the
P- 10. Gentleman s Magazine for this year
To
156
the Reverend Thomas Percy. [A.D. 1709,
222.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
Brighthelmstone, September 9, 1769. Published in the Life, ii. 70.
223.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR T .
DEAR SIR,
I got very well to London, and went on the next Monday
to Brighthelmston, from which I am now returned. I think you
might write to me, and let me know what became of your
demand of the living 2 , and other occurrences of your life. I am
not fully determined against coming this winter again into your
corner of the world, but I have got no settled plan. Write
to me however.
I am, Sir,
Your most, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Oct. 5, 1769.
224.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS PERCY 3 .
SIR,
I am desired by some Ladies who support a Charity School
on Snow hill, to solicit you for a Charity Sermon, to be
(p. 177) there are a print and descrip
tion of a hand-cornmill invented by
Samuel and Sampson Freeth of
Birmingham.
1 From the original in the posses
sion of Mr. Alan Stenning of St.
Stephen s Club.
It was franked by Mr. Thrale.
- Johnson, writing to Mrs. Thrale
about Taylor on May 16, 1776, says :
Livings and preferments, as if he
were in want with twenty children,
run in his head. Taylor seems to
have been successful in his demand,
for I find in the Gentleman s Maga
zine for October of this year (p. 511),
under Ecclesiastical Preferments,
Rev. Dr. Taylor to the living of
St. Botolph, Aldersgate.
3 From the original in the Dyce
and Forster Libraries, South Ken
sington Museum, sent me by Mr.
R. F. Sketchley.
The Ladies Charity School which
was founded in King Street, Snow
Hill, in 1702, still flourishes, having
been transferred first to John Street,
Bedford Row, next to Queen Square,
Bloomsbury, and lastly to Powis
Gardens, Netting Hill. Boswell
mentions Johnson s old friend Mrs.
Gardiner, the wife of a tallow-chand
ler, not in the learned way, but a
worthy good woman, as very zealous
for its support (Life, i. 242 ; iv. 246).
So also was Miss Williams, who left
her little substance to the school
(ib. iv. 241) amounting, as the old
books of the Institution still show,
to ^357- In it are preserved her
tea-spoons and portrait ; also a set
of spoons which in all likelihood
preached
Aetat. 60.] To the Reverend Henry Bright. 157
preached either the last Sunday of this month, or the first of the
next. This application had been made sooner if you had been
in town, but I hope it is not yet too late, and that if you
can comply without great inconvenience you will not refuse.
They meet on Wednesday, and desire to know your determina
tion to-morrow. I hope you will not refuse them, for I have a
great esteem of some of them, and I think you may appear with
great propriety on such occasions.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
NOV. 5 , 1769. . . SAM: JOHNSON.
Please to send your answer to Mrs. Williams, for I shall not
be in town.
To the Reverend Mr. Percy.
225.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, November 9, 1769. Published in the Life, ii. no.
226.
To THE REVEREND HENRY BRIGHT r .
g IR Johnson s Court, Fleet Street, Jan. 9, 1770.
I would gladly be informed if you are willing to take
were Johnson s. He was one of the Vicarage House, St. Sepulchre s,
subscribers from the year 1777 till Nov. 8, 1769.
his death. It afforded a hint for The Rev. Mr. Percy, Chaplain to
the story of Betty Broom in the his Grace the Duke of Northumber-
Idler, Nos. 26 and 29 (ib. iv. 246). land and the Rev. Mr. Butler of
On March 12, 1783, as the Minutes Charlotte Street Chapel, have pro-
show : Dr. Johnson, having turn, mised to preach for these children
presents Mary Ann Austin, daughter on Sunday, 26 instant.
of Charles and Amey Austin, living Vicarage House, St. Sepulchre s,
at the top of Goswell Street, at one Dec. 13, 1769.
Mr. Mason s, near the prison bar. Mr. Treasurer reported that there
Mrs. Thrale was both a subscriber was collected at the Charity Sermons
and a manager. See an article in preached (Nov. 26 last) by the Rev.
The Speaker for March 22, 1890, in Mr. Percy and the Rev. Mr. Butler
which I have given an account of ^23 i6s. iod
Johnson s connection with this in- I am indebted for these extracts to
stitution. Miss Anne C. Moore, the Honorary
The following extracts from the Secretary of the Charity.
Minute Book of the Institution shew * From the original in the British
the result of Johnson s applica- Museum : StoweMSS., 685.
tion - Henry Bright was Master of
another
158
To Miss Porter.
[A.D. 1770.
another pupil, in the same manner as Mr. Strahan was taken.
You will, I think, have more trouble with him, and therefore
ought to have a higher price.
I shall [be] at Oxford on Fryday \sic\ and Saturday next T ,
when if you cannot come over, I shall expect a letter from you.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
227.
To THE REVEREND DR. FARMER.
Johnson s Court, March 21, 1770. Published in the Life, ii. 114.
228.
To Miss PORTER 2 .
DEAREST MADAM, Ma ^ I77a
Among other causes that have hindered me from answering
your last kind letter, is a tedious and painful rheumatism, that
has afflicted me for many weeks, and still continues to molest
me 3 . I hope you are well, and will long keep your health and
your cheerfulness.
One reason why I delayed to write was, my uncertainty how
to answer your letter. I like the thought of giving away the
money very well ; but when I consider that Tom Johnson 4 is my
nearest relation, and that he is now old and in great want ; that
he was my playfellow in childhood, and has never done any thing
to offend me ; I am in doubt, whether I ought not rather give it
him than any other.
Of this, my dear, I would have your opinion. I would
willingly please you, and I know that you will be pleased best
with what you think right. Tell me your mind, and do not
Abingdon Grammar School. Ante,
p. 95.
1 Of this visit to Oxford there is
no mention elsewhere.
2 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, page 214.
3 He describes his sufferings from
this illness in his Diary, and ends by
saying : The pain harasses me
much ; yet many have the disease
perhaps in a much higher degree,
with want of food, fire, and covering,
which I find thus grievous, with all
the succours that riches and kind
ness can buy and give. (He was
staying at Mr. Thrale s.) Pr. and
Meet. p. 94.
4 Ante, p. 154, n. 3.
learn
Aetat. eo.] To Miss Porter. 1 59
learn of me to neglect writing ; for it is a very sorry trick, though
it be mine.
Your brother T is well ; I saw him to-day, and thought it long
since I saw him before : it seems he has called often, and could
not find me.
I am, my dear,
Your affectionate humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
229.
To Miss PORTER 2 .
MY DEAREST DEAR, London > Ma ^ 2 9 1 77-
I am very sorry that your eyes are bad ; take great care
of them, especially by candlelight. Mine continue pretty good,
but they are sometimes dim 3 . My rheumatism grows gradually
better. I have considered your letter, and am willing that the
whole money should go where you, my dear, originally intended.
I hope to help Tom some other way. So that matter is over.
Dr. Taylor has invited me to pass some time with him at
Ashbourne ; if I come, you may be sure that I shall take you
and Lichfield in my way. When I am nearer coming, I will
send you word.
Of Mr. Porter I have seen very little, but I know not that it
is his fault, for he says that he often calls, and never finds me ;
I am sorry for it, for I love him. Mr. Mathias 4 has lately had a
great deal of money left him, of which you have probably heard
already.
I am. my dearest,
Your most obedient servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
230.
To THE REVEREND THOMAS WARTON.
London, June 23, 1770. Published in the Life, ii. 114.
1 Miss Porter s second brother, gentleman of this name and his
who died in 1783. Life, iv. 256. sister are more than once mentioned
2 First published in Croker s Bos- in Miss Sevvard s Correspondence,
well, page 214. Miss Burney mentions also a Mr.
3 See ante, p. 57, n. 5. Mathias as paying her at the end of
4 Johnson mentions him again, 1786 her salary at Court. Mme.
post, Letter of April 8, 1780. A D Arblay s Diary, iii. 257.
TO
160 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D.mo.
231.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR *.
DEAR SIR,
I hope the danger that has threatened you is now over, and
that you have nothing now to overcome but that languor which
must necessarily succeed a disorder so violent as yours. Re
covery is a state which requires great caution, and I entreat you
not to be negligent of yourself.
I am now at Lichfield, and if my company can afford you
either help or entertainment I am ready to come to you. If you
can write let me know from yourself the state of your health ;
if writing is difficult, let me hear by some other hand. Be very
careful of yourself.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most humble servant,
,.,,.,, T SAM: JOHNSON.
Lichfield, July 2, 1770.
232.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield, July 7, 1770.
I thought I should have heard something to-day about
Streatham ; but there is no letter ; and I need some consolation,
for Rheumatism is come again, though in a less degree than
formerly. I reckon to go next week to Ashbourne, and will try
to bring you the dimensions of the great bull 3 . The skies and
the ground are all so wet, that I have been very little abroad ;
and Mrs. Aston is from home, so that I have no motive to walk.
When she is at home, she lives on the top of Stow Hill 4 , and I
1 First published in the Miscel- slopes from the east end of the
lanies of the Philobiblon Society, Cathedral, and forms with ^its old
v i_ 42. g re Y tower on the banks of its lake
2 Piozzi Letters, \. 2,6. so lovely a landscape, that Thomas
3 Sz&post, p. 1 66. Day, the author of Sandford and
4 Boswell describes Mrs. Aston Merton, was at this time educating
and her widowed sister Mrs. Gastrell an orphan girl of thirteen with the
as having each a house and garden intention of fitting her to be his wife,
and pleasure-ground, prettily situated He had given her the name of
upon Stow Hill, a gentle eminence, Sabrina Sidney, in honour of the
adjoining to Lichfield. Life, ii. 47- river Severn and Algernon Sidney.
It was in a pleasant house in the Johnson might well have seen her,
little green valley of Stow, that for all the ladies of the place kindly
commonly
Aetat. eo.] 70 Mrs. Thrale. 1 6 1
commonly climb up to see her once a day. There is nothing
there now but the empty nest. I hope Streatham will long be
the place I .
To write to you about Lichfield is of no use, for you never saw
Stow-pool, nor Borowcop-hill. I believe you may find Borow or
Boroughcop-hill in my Dictionary, under cop or cob 2 . No
body here knows what the name imports.
I have taken the liberty to enclose a letter ; for, though you
do not know it, three groats make a shilling 3 .
I am, dearest Madam,
Yours, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
233.
TO MRS. THRALE 4 .
MADAM, Lichfield, July il, 1770.
Since my last letter nothing extraordinary has happened.
Rheumatism, which has been very troublesome, is grown better.
I have not yet seen Dr. Taylor, and July runs fast away. I shall
not have much time for him, if he delays much longer to come
or send. Mr. Grene, the apothecary 5 , has found a book, which
took notice of her. The education English troops.
which Day gave her was successful, ! The postage on a letter to Lich-
but she went counter to some of his field, a place more than 80 and less
fancies, and he would not marry her. than 140 miles from London, was
Seward s Memoirs of Dr. Darwin, at this time fourpence. Dodsley s
p. 22, and Memoirs of R. L. Edge- London, v. 211. On the letter en-
ivorth, pp. 135, 150, 218. closed by Johnson an extra charge
Johnson wrote some Latin verses of the same amount would have been
on the little stream that flows in the made ; but the packet no doubt was
valley, which begin : directed to Mr. Thrale, who, being a
Errat adhuc vitreus per prata member of Parliament, would receive
virentia rivus, it free of charge. The enclosed
Quo toties lavi membra tenella letter, being franked by Thrale,
puer. Works, \. 163. would also go free. A groat there-
1 The sentence seems imperfect. fore was saved either to Johnson, or
1 Johnson defines Cop as The more probably to his correspondent,
head, the top of anything; anything for letters were very rarely prepaid ;
arising to a head. He does not in- a groat, he seems to say, is of some
stance Borowcop Hill. In the Ann. importance, for three make a shil-
Reg. for 1775, part I, p. 134 a , men- ling,
tion is made of Cop s Hill in Boston, 4 Piozzi Letters, i. 27.
whence the Americans fired on the 5 For Mr. Green and his Museum
a In this volume of the Ann. Reg. there are three pages each numbered 134.
VOL. I. M tells
l62
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1770.
tells who paid levies in our parish, and how much they paid,
above an hundred years ago. Do you not think we study this
book hard ? Nothing is like going to the bottom of things.
Many families that paid the parish rates are now extinct, like
the race of Hercules J . Pulvis et umbra sumus 2 . What is
nearest us touches us most. The passions rise higher at do
mestic than at imperial tragedies. I am not wholly unaffected
by the revolutions of Sadler-street 3 ; nor can forbear to mourn a
little when old names vanish away, and new come into their place.
Do not imagine, Madam, that I wrote this letter for the sake
of these philosophical meditations ; for when I began it, I had
see Life, ii. 465. Erasmus Darwin,
writing on December 17, 1790, says :
I remember Mr. Green of Lich-
field, who is now growing very old,
once told me his retail business [as
an apothecary] by means of his
show-shop and many-coloured win
dow produced him ^100 a year. C.
Darwin s Life of Erasmus Darwin,
p. 38. In the same letter, speak
ing of a young man who was think
ing of settling at Lichfield as an
apothecary or surgeon, and of the
means of getting acquainted with
people, Darwin says : Fourthly
card assemblies, I think at Lich
field surgeons are not admitted as
they are here [Derby] ; but they are
to dancing assemblies.
1 Ut tamen Herculeae superes-
sent semina gentis, &c.
OviD, Fasti, ii. 237.
2 HORACE, 4 Odes, vii. 16.
3 At the corner of Sadler Street,
now known as Market Street, John
son s house stood. Among the revo
lutions of the town the watchmen s
bills had not disappeared. In a note
in his Shakespeare on Dogberry s
charge to the Watch, only have a
care that your bills be not stolen
(Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii.
scene 4), he says : A bill is still
carried by the watchmen at Lich
field. The Watch, as I was informed
at Lichfield, used to be called
" dozeners a ." The twelve bills they
bore were always carried till very
lately in the Court of Array ; they
are still preserved in the Guild Hall.
This Court of Array was a survival
of old times. The Statutes of Array
by which Commissioners were em
powered to take in each county a re
view of all the freemen able to bear
arms, &c. were repealed in the
reign of James I. Notwithstanding
the Bailiffs have constantly held a
manorial court on Green Hill at the
same time as the view of men and
arms according to ancient charter
and prescription. Harwood s His
tory of Lichfield, p. 354.
John Howard, who visited the
City Gaol three years later, describes
it as having the rooms too small
and close. No yard, no water, no
straw. Allowance \s. 6d. a week.
Out of this allowance the wretched
prisoner had to buy all that he
needed. State of the Prisons, &.C.,
ed. 1777, p. 329.
a In Jersey there are in each parish several vinteniers, each of whom has the
charge of a particular vintaine into which the parishes are divided. Casarea: The
Island of fersey, ed. 1840, p. 126.
neither
Aetat. GO.] To Mrs, Thrale. 163
neither Mr.Grene, nor his book, in my thoughts; but was resolved
to write, and did not know what I had to send, but my respects
to Mrs. Salusbury, and Mr. Thrale, and Harry x , and the Misses.
I am, dearest Madam,
Yours, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
234.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfieid, July 14, 1770.
When any calamity is suffered, the first thing to be re
membered is, how much has been escaped. The house might
have been entered by ruffians when Mrs. Salusbury had been in
it, and who can tell what horrours might have followed !
I thought you would in time compliment your compliments
away. Nothing goes well when I am from you, for when I am
from you the house is robbed 3 . You must therefore suppose,
that if I had been with you, the robbery would not have been.
But it was not our gang 4 . I should have had no interest.
Your loss, I am afraid, is very great ; but the loss of patience
would have been greater.
My rheumatism torments me very much, though not as in
the winter. I think I shall go to Ashbourne on Monday or
Tuesday.
You will be pleased to make all my compliments.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
235.
TO MRS. THRALE 5 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfieid, July, [1770].
Do not say that I never write to you, and do not think
that I expected to find any friends here that could make me
1 Mrs. Thrale s son who died 4 Johnson s gang must have
suddenly six years later when John- been a cant word of the Streatham
son was in Lichfieid. Life, ii. 468. set. Baretti belonged to it, as Mrs.
2 Piozzi Letters, \. 28. Thrale s answer showed. Piozzi
3 Mrs. Salusbury s house in town Letters, i. 30.
was robbed of goods and linen to a 5 Piozzi Letters, i. 289.
large amount, while she was absent This Letter Mrs. Piozzi carelessly
at Streatham. Note by Mrs. Piozzi. inserts among those of 1775, though
M 2 wish
164
To Mrs. Thralc.
[A.D. 1770.
wish to prolong my stay. For your strawberries, however, I have
no care. Mrs. Cobb has strawberries, and will give me as long
as they last ; and she has cherries too. Of the strawberries at
Streatham I consign my part to Miss and Harry. I hope Susy
grows, and Lucy begins to walk. Though this rainy weather
confines us all in the house, I have neither frolicked nor fretted.
In the tumult, whatever it was, at your house, I hope my
countrywomen either had no part, or behaved well. I told Mr.
Heartwell, about three days ago, how well Warren was liked in
her place.
I have passed one day at Birmingham with my old friend
Hector there s a name and his sister, an old love T . My
mistress is grown much older than my friend.
O, quid habes illius, illius
Quae spirabat amores,
Quse me surpuerat mihi 2 .
Time will impair the body, and uses us well if it spares the
mind.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
236.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, , \ Ashboume, July 20, 1770.
I hope your complaint 4 , however troublesome, is without
danger ; for your danger involves us all. When you were ill
before, it was agreed that if you were lost, hope would be lost
with you ; for such another there was no expectation of
finding.
I came hither on Wednesday, having staid one night at a
in it is mention of Johnson s little
god-daughter, Lucy, who died in
1773. It belongs no doubt to July,
1770, when the child was thirteen
months old, and might be beginning
to walk.
1 Mrs. Careless, a clergyman s
widow.
ii. 459.
Post, p. 202, and Life,
2 Of her, of her what now remains,
Who breathed the loves, who
charmed the swains,
And snatched me from my
heart ?
FRANCIS, Horace, Odes, iv. 13. 18.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 3 1 .
4 She had suffered from an odious
sore throat. Ib. p. 30.
lodge
Aetat. 60.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
lodge in the forest of Nedewood r . Dr. Taylor s is a very
pleasant house, with a lawn and a lake, and twenty deer and
five fawns upon the lawn 2 . Whether I shall by any light see
Matlock I do not yet know 3 .
Let us not yet have done rejoicing that Mrs. Salusbury was
not in the house. The robbery will be a noble tale when we
meet again.
That Baretti s book would please you all I made no doubt.
I know not whether the world has ever seen such Travels before 4 .
1 June 6, 1785. There are not, I
apprehend, less than a thousand
acres of oak timber now standing in
Needwood Forest : a quantity of
which few other forests of the king
dom can at present boast. W.
Marshall s Rural Economy of the
Midland Counties, ii. 357. In 1798
the forest was said to cover nearly
ten thousand acres. Shaw s History
of Staffordshire, p. 65. Landor in
one of his Imaginary Conversations
makes Johnson say : In my English
travels I saw gossamer formerly in
Needwood Forest, five miles from
Lichfield ; latterly my travels were
in Scotland, where there was no
plant to support it. Lander s Works,
ed. 1876, iv. 221.
2 For Boswell s description of Dr.
Taylor s house see Life, ii. 473. In
Nichols s Lit. Anec., ix. 62, there is
the following note :
Inscription by Dr. Johnson on
Dr. Taylor s house at Ashbourn :
" Stet domus haec donee Testudo
perambulet orbem,
Et donee fluctus ebibat Formica
marines."
This is false metre ; read
" Ebibat et donee fluctus formica
marines."
I am informed by the Rev. Francis
Jourdain, Vicar of Ashbourne, that
Dr. Taylor s house is practically as
he left it, the coat of arms still re
maining in the entrance hall. The
garden, however, has been altered,
the lake has been filled up, and the
stream diverted.
3 Mrs. Thrale in a letter which he
had just received had said : Mr.
Thrale particularly vexes lest you
should not see Matlock on a moon
light night. Piozzi Letters, i. 31.
He visited it in their company four
years later. Life, v. 430.
4 Baretti s Journey from London
to Genoa, in four small volumes, is
noticed in the Gentleman s Maga
zine for July of this year (p. 323). It
must have met with a quick sale, for
at least two more editions were pub
lished before the end of the year. In
his Preface he says : I have spared
no pains to carry my reader in some
measure along with me ; to make
him see what I saw, hear what I
heard, feel what I felt, and even
think and fancy whatever I thought
and fancied myself. Should this
method prove agreeable, and procure
the honour of a favourable reception
to my work, I shall owe it in a
great part to my most revered friend,
Dr. Samuel Johnson, who suggested
it to me, just as I was setting out on
my first journey to Spain. In a
marginal note on Johnson s letter
Baretti says: Johnson does not
tell it, but he never could think that
the petty adventures told in it were
true : they are however all true to
a tittle in spite of his incredulity.
Those
1 66 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D.mo.
Those whose lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who
know how to write very seldom ramble. If Sidney had gone, as
he desired, the great voyage with Drake, there would probably
have been such a narrative as would have equally satisfied the
poet and philosopher 1 .
I have learned since I left you, that the names of two of the
Pleiades were Coccymo and Lampado 2 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
237.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAREST MADAM, Ashboume, July 23, 1770.
There had not been so long an interval between my two
last letters, but that when I came hither I did not at first under
stand the hours of the post.
I have seen the great bull ; and very great he is. I have seen
likewise his heir apparent, who promises to inherit all the bulk
and all the virtues of his sire. I have seen the man who offered
an hundred guineas for the young bull, while he was yet little
better than a calf 4 . Matlock, I am afraid, I shall not see, but I
Johnson told Boswell that writers (xiii. 25) are found Coccymo and
of travels were more defective than Lampatho. Smith s Clas. Diet.
any other writers. Life, ii. 377. See 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 32.
also /<?.?/, Letter of August 12, 1773. 4 Dr. Taylor was remarkable for
1 The next step which Sir Philip having the finest breed of milch
Sidney intended into the world was cows in Derbyshire or perhaps in
an expedition of his own projecting, England ; he sold one some time
wherein he fashioned the whole body, before his death for 160 guineas, and
with purpose to become head of it a heifer for 70 guineas. Mr. Mar-
himself. I mean the last employ- shall [Rural Economy, &c., i. 18]
ment but one of Sir Francis Drake says, " In the Midland District,
to the West Indies. Fulke Grevil s where the land is titheable, the tithe
Life of Sir Philip Sidney, ed. 1652, is seldom taken in kind. I met with
p. 81. only one instance, Bosworth Field,
2 The allusion, writes Mrs. by Dr. Taylor." He had frequently
Piozzi, is to a search made at that talked of leaving his .fortune to
time by the Streatham coterie for Johnson. He died February 29,
female names ending in O. I never 1788, worth about .1,200 a year,
heard a word of that Coterie. - besides personalities to a very con-
BARETTI. In the list of the Pleiades siderable amount. Nichols s Lit.
given by the scholiast of Theocritus Anec. ix. 63. See Life, iii. 150.
purpose
Aetat. 6i.] To Mr. Smith. 167
purpose to see Dovedale ; and after all this seeing, I hope to see
you.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
238.
To FRANCIS BARBER.
London, September 25, 1770. Published in the Life, ii. 115.
239.
To THE REVEREND DR. JOSEPH WARTON.
[London], September 27, 1770. Published in the Life, ii. 115.
24O.
To MR. AND MRS. THRALE 1 .
Mr. Johnson flatters himself that there is no need of informing
Mr. Thrale that the application required was made to Mr.
Burke, or Mrs. Thrale, that he wishes her every thing that friend
ship can wish her. He has sent her a pamphlet to amuse her in
her confinement, which he would not have shown to more than
Mr. Thrale, and Mrs. Salusbury.
Johnson s Court, Oct. 2, [1770].
241.
To FRANCIS BARBER.
[London], December 7, 1770. Published in the Life, ii. 116.
242.
To MR. SMITH 2 .
SIR,
I beg leave to give you again the trouble which you were so
1 From the original in the posses- 1773 ; neither could it have been
sion of Mrs. Thomas, of Eyhorne The False Alarm, which was written
House, Maidstone. at the Thrales house, and read to Mr.
It seems probable that this letter Thrale the moment it was finished,
was written in 1770. Mrs. Salus- Life, ii. in. I am surprised to find
bury died on June 18, 1773. If that Falkland s Islands was written
the pamphlet was, as seems likely, so long before its publication, though
one of Johnson s, it was Falkland s Johnson does speak of the much
Islands, which was published in lingering of my own and much of
March, 1771. It was neither The the ministry in getting it out. Ib.
Patriot nor Taxation no Tyranny, ii. 135.
both of which were written after 2 From the original in the posses-
kind
1 68 To John Rivington. [A.D. 1771.
kind as to take last year of cashing [?] these bills and paying
them.
Be pleased to send me some Irish Cloath for 12 Shirts at 4
yards to a shirt, the price may be from %s. 6d. to 4s. the yard.
The piece which you sent in the summer to Mrs. Williams, you
may charge to me.
I inclose, as I did last year, a bill of 50 which I beg to know
whether you receive. You need send back no money, but
a state of the account between us.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
As I remember, there was a surplus of about ten pounds in
your hands last year.
January 25, 1771.
To Mr. Smith.
243.
To JOHN RIVINGTON l .
SIR,
When Mr. Steevens treated with you about the new im
pression of Shakespeare, he agreed with \sii\ the additions now
made should be printed by themselves for the benefit of former
purchasers. As some of my subscribers may think themselves
ill treated, it is proper to advertise our intention, and I shall
be glad to see it done in one or more of the papers next week.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Feb. 2, 1771. J
To Mr. Rivington, Bookseller.
sion of Mr. Alfred Morrison, of Font- From the original in the posses-
hill House. sion of Messrs. Robson and Kars-
This Letter was sold by Messrs. lake, 23 Coventry Street, Hay-
Sotheby and Co., on May 10, 1875, market.
for 2 los. (Lot 90), and on June 5, Johnson s Shakespeare, which was
1 888, by Messrs. Christie and Co., for first published in 1765 and had
4 los. (Lot 43). reached a second edition, was re-
Mr. Smith was perhaps Henry published by George Steevens in
Smith, Thrale s relation and ex- 1773. Life, ii. 204. Rivington was
ecutor. Post, Letters of April 5 one of the proprietors, and no doubt
and 17, 1781. acted for the others. At the end of
To
Aetat. 61.]
To Henry Thrale.
169
SIR,
244.
To THE REV. DR. RICHARD FARMER x .
Some time ago Mr. Steevens and I took the liberty of
sending a catalogue in hope of some improvement and aug
mentation. Mr. Steevens, who undertakes the whole care of
this impression, begins to fancy that he wants it.
I have done very little to the book ; but by the plunder of your
pamphlet, and the authorities which Mr. Steevens has very
diligently collected, I think it will be somewhat improved. If
you could spare us any thing we should think your communi
cation a great favour. I hope amongst us all Shakespeare will
be better understood. You have already done your part,, and
when you have finished what I am told you are now projecting
will leave I believe much fewer difficulties to future criticks.
I am. Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SA&: JOHNSON.
Johnson s Court, Fleet Street, Feb. 18, 1771.
245.
To HENRY THRALE 2 .
DEAR SIR, [London], March, 1771.
In the Shrewsbury, an East India ship, commanded by
vol. x is an Appendix of 45 unpaged
leaves. Very possibly it was printed
separately and sent to the sub
scribers to the two earlier editions.
No copy of such a separate publica
tion is in the British Museum.
King s College, has collected an
account of all the translations which
Shakspeare might have seen and
used. He wishes his catalogue to be
perfect, and therefore intreats that
you will favour him by the insertion
c From the original in the posses- of such additions as the accuracy of
sion of Mr. Thomas Thring, of 2 your inquiries has enabled you to
Thornhill Villas, Weymouth. "
T
bought it, he informs me, of a
bookseller at Salisbury some fifty
years ago.
Though it bears no address, there
is no doubt that it was written to
the Rev. Dr. Farmer, Master of
Emanuel College, Cambridge. Bos-
well publishes a second letter to him
written a month later, in which
Johnson says : Mr. Steevens, a
very ingenious gentleman, lately of
make. Life, ii. 114. Farmer had
published in 1767 An Essay on the
Learning of Shakespeare, which
Johnson praised. Ib. iii. 38, n. 6.
Steevens in the Advertisement to the
Reader in his and Johnson s Shake
speare acknowledges Dr. Farmer s
assistance. Appendix ii of vol. x
consists of many pages of his Ob
servations.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 33.
Captain
170
To Bennet Langton.
[A.D. 1771.
Captain Jones, there is one Thomas Coxeter, who lately enlisted
as a soldier in the Company s service z . He repents of his ad
venture, and has written to his sister, who brings this letter, to
procure him his discharge. He is the son of a gentleman, who
was once my friend 2 ; and the boy was himself a favourite with
my wife. I shall therefore think it a great favour, if you will be
pleased to use your influence with Sir George Colebrook 3 , that
he may be discharged. The request is not great; for he is
slight and feeble, and worth nothing but to those who value him
for some other merit than his own 4 .
I am. &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
246.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], March 20, 1771. Published in the Life, ii. 135.
1 The Company must have had
difficulty in raising troops in Eng
land, for in the Gentleman s Maga
zine for March of this year (p. 141)
it is stated that one of their recruit
ing officers had returned from Ger
many bringing with him five hun
dred men from the Duchy of
Wirtemburg only.
2 See Life, iii. 158, for the collec
tion of the minor poets which Coxeter
had made. He was educated at
Trinity College, Oxford, and coming
to London worked for the book
sellers. He died on April 19, 1747.
Johnson assisted his orphan daughter.
Nichols s Lit. Anec. ii. 512. Among
the Promotions announced in the
Gent. Mag. I find his name in the
list for the February before his
death (p. 103) entered for a very
poor piece of preferment : Tho.
Coxeter Esq.; elected secretary to
the committee of subscribers for
purchasing materials for Mr. Carte s
History of England.
3 May i, 1774. Sir George Col-
brooke, a citizen, and martyr to what
is called speculation, had his pic
tures sold by auction last week.
Walpole s Letters, vi. 81. I pro
fessed myself sincerely grieved when
accumulated distresses crushed Sir
G. Colebrook s family, and I was so.
"Your own prosperity," said John
son, " may possibly have so far
increased the natural tenderness of
your heart that for aught I know
you may be a little sorry ; but it is
sufficient for a plain man if he does
not laugh when he sees a fine new
house tumble down all on a sudden,
and a snug cottage stand by ready
to receive the owner, whose birth
entitled him to nothing better, and
whose limbs are left him to go to
work again with. Piozzi Anecdotes,
p. 89.
4 See post, Letter of December i,
1776, for Johnson s attempt to get
the young man admitted into a
hospital.
To
Aetat. 61.]
To Miss Langton.
171
247.
To Miss LANGTON J .
MADAM, London, April 17, 1771.
If I could have flattered myself that my letters could have
given pleasure, or have alleviated pain, I should not have
omitted to write to a lady to whom I do sincerely wish every
increase of pleasure, and every mitigation of uneasiness.
I knew, dear Madam, that a very heavy affliction 2 had fallen
upon you ; but it was one of those which the established course
of nature makes necessary, and to which kind words give no
relief. Success is, on these occasions, to be expected only from
time 3 .
Your censure of me, as deficient in friendship, is therefore too
severe. I have neither been unfriendly, nor intentionally uncivil.
The notice with which you have honoured me, I have neither
forgotten, nor remembered without pleasure.
The calamity of ill health, your brother will tell you that
I have had, since I saw you, sufficient reason to know and to
pity 4 . But this is another evil against which we can receive
little help from one another. I can only advise you, and I advise
you with great earnestness, to do nothing that may hurt you,
and to reject nothing that may do you good. To preserve
health is a moral and religious duty : for health is the basis
of all social virtues ; we can be useful no longer than while we
are well 5 .
If the family knows that you receive this letter,, you will be
pleased to make my compliments.
1 First published in the Gentle
man s Magazine for 1800, page
915.
Miss Langton was Bennet Lang-
ton s sister. She died in 1791. Ib.
2 It is possible that Johnson refers
to the death of her father, old Mr.
Langton, which had taken place in
1769, as I learn from the Gentle
man s Magazine, 1824, part ii. p. 8.
3 While grief is fresh every at
tempt to divert only irritates. You
must wait till grief be digested,
and then amusement will dissipate
the remains of it. Life, iii. 28.
1 He recorded on his next birth
day (Sept. 1 8) : For the last year
I have been slowly recovering both
from the violence of my last illness,
and, I think, from the general
disease of my life. Pr. and Med.
p. 104.
5 See post, Letter of March 15,
1777, where he says : Gaiety is a
duty when health requires it.
I flatter
172
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1771.
I flatter myself with the hopes of seeing Langton after Lady
Rothes s recovery * ; and then I hope that you and I shall renew
our conferences, and that I shall find you willing as formerly to
talk and to hear ; and shall be again admitted to the honour
of being,
Madam,
Your most obedient
and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
248.
To THE COUNTESS. DE BOUFFLERS.
May 1 6, 1771. Published in the Life, ii. 405, and Piozzi Letters, i. 34.
For the date, see note in the Life.
249.
To MRS. THRALE, 2 .
DEAR MADAM, [London], June 15, 1771.
It seems strange that I should live a week so near you, and
yet never see you. I have been once to enquire after you, and
when I have written this note am going again. The use of
the pamphlet the letter will shew, which lies at the proper page.
When Mr. L shews so much attention, it cannot become me
to shew less. What to think of the case I know not ; the rela
tion has all appearance of truth ; and one great argument is, that
the only danger is in not believing. The water can, I think, do
no harm ; Dr. Wall thinks it may do good 3 . If Mrs. Salusbury
1 Langton which Johnson hoped
to see was not his friend of that
name, but the Lincolnshire village.
His letter to Bennet Langton dated
August 29 of this year (Life, ii. 142)
shews that he had been expected
there. Lady Rothes, who had been
married on May 24, 1770 (Gentle
man s Magazine, 1770, p. 278), was
expecting to be confined ; it was
after her recovery that the visit was
to be paid. There is no need for
Mr. Croker s conjectural alteration of
the date of the letter.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 35.
Mrs. Salusbury, Mrs. Thrale s
mother, to whom the letter refers,
died of cancer on June 18, 1773. Pr.
and Med., p. 128. Probably the
disorder had begun its attack.
3 The water was laurel-water ;
post, p. 179. Dr. Wall was not
Martin Wall the Oxford physician
with whom Boswell and Johnson
drank tea in 1784 (Life, iv. 292), for
he had not by this time taken his
degree in medicine ; but his father,
Dr. John Wall, of Worcester. See
Gentleman s Magazine, 1756, p. 572,
for his Treatise on the Malvern
Waters.
should
Aetat. ei] To Mrs. Thrale, 173
should think fit to go before you can go with her, I will attend
her, if she will accept of my company, with great readiness, at
my own expence, and if I am in the country will come back.
I need not tell you, that I hope you are with the necessary
exceptions all well, or that
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
250.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, June 20, 1771. Published in the Life, ii. 140.
251.
To MRS. THRALE \
DEAR MADAM, Thursday, June 20, 1771.
This night, at nine o clock, Sam. Johnson and Francis Barber
Esquires, set out in the Lichfield stage ; Francis is indeed rather
upon it. What adventures we may meet with who can tell ?
I shall write when I come to Lichfield, and hope to hear in
return, that you are safe, and Mrs. Salusbury better, and all the
rest as well as I left them.
I am, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
252.
To MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield, June 22, 1771.
Last night I came safe to Lichfield ; this day I was visited
by Mrs. Cobb. This afternoon I went to Mrs. Aston, where I
found Miss T 3 , and waited on her home. Miss T wears
spectacles, and can hardly climb the stiles. I was not tired at
all, either last night or to-day. Miss Porter is very kind to me.
Her dog and cats are all well.
In all this there is nothing very memorable, but sands form
1 Piozzi Letters, \. 36. 2 Piozzi Letters, i. 37.
The journey to Lichfield by the 5 Perhaps Miss Turton whose
stage-coach a distance of 1 16 miles death is mentioned in the Letter of
took twenty-six hours ; post, p. 191. August 13, 1777.
Barber was Johnson s black servant.
the
1 74 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1771.
the mountain I . I hope to hear from Streatham of a greater
event, that a new being is born that shall in time write such
letters as this, and that another being is safe that she may
continue to write such. She can indeed do many other things ;
she can add to the pleasure of many lives, and among others to
that of
Her most obedient and
most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
253.
To MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, [Lichfieid], June 25, 1771.
All your troubles, I hope, are now past, and the little stranger
safe in the cradle. You have then nothing to do but survey the
lawn from your windows, and see Lucy try to run after Harry.
Here things go wrong. They have cut down another tree 3 , but
they do not yet grow very rich. I enquired of my barber after
another barber; that barber, says he, is dead, and his son has
left off, to turn maltster. Maltsters, I believe, do not get much
money. The price of barley and the king s duty are known, and
their profit is never suffered to rise high 4 . But there is often
a rise upon stock. There may as well be a fall .Very seldom.
There are those in this town that have not a farthing less this
year than fifty pounds by the rise upon stock 5 . Did you think
there had been yet left a city in England, where the gain of fifty
pounds in a year would be mentioned with emphasis ?
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Think nought a trifle, though it the different taxes upon malt amount
small appear ; to six shillings a quarter. Wealth
Small sands the mountains, mo- of Nations, iii. 356-7.
ments make the year, 5 Johnson refers, I suppose, to the
And trifles life. rise in value of the stock of malt.
YOUNG S Love of Fame, Satire vi. He may however be speaking of
2 Piozzi Letters, \. 38. the funds. The Three per Cents.
3 See ante, p. 154. Reduced which on Jan. 4 were at
4 Adam Smith says that the 77f had risen by June 26 to 88.
opportunities of defrauding the re- Gentleman s Magazine, 1771, pp.
venue are much greater in a brewery 48, 288.
than in a malt-house. He adds that
To
Aetat. 61.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
175
254.
To MRS. THRALE r .
DEAR MADAM, Ashboume, July 3 , 1771.
Last Saturday I came to Ashbourne; the dangers or the
pleasures of the journey I have at present no disposition to
recount ; else might I paint the beauties of my native plains ;
might I tell of the smiles of nature, and the charms of art 2 :
else might I relate how I crossed the Staffordshire canal, one of
the great efforts of human labour, and human contrivance ;
which, from the bridge on which I viewed it, passed away on
either side, and loses itself in distant regions, uniting waters that
nature had divided, and dividing lands which nature had united 3 .
I might tell how these reflections fermented in my mind till the
chaise stopped at Ashbourne, at Ashbourne in the Peak. Let
not the barren name of the Peak terrify you ; I have never
wanted strawberries and cream. The great bull 4 has no disease
but age. I hope in time to be like the great bull ; and hope you
will be like him too a hundred years hence.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
255.
To MRS. THRALE S .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, July 7, 1771.
No news yet of *****. Our expectations were premature.
Poor Dr. Taylor is ill, and under my government ; you know
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 39.
2 But what avail her unexhausted
stores,
Her blooming mountains and her
sunny shores,
With all the gifts that heaven and
earth impart,
The smiles of nature and the
charms of art,
While proud oppression in her
valleys reigns,
And tyranny usurps her happy
plains ?
ADDISON. A Letter from Italy,
Works, i. 35.
3 In the Gentleman s Magazine for
July of this year (p. 296) there is a
plan of the Grand Canal from the
Trent to the Mersey, of which about
45 miles had been completed, from
the mouth of the Derwent in Derby
shire to Stone in Staffordshire. It
was this portion that Johnson crossed.
When the canal was completed in all
its length the waters of the Irish
Sea and the German Ocean were
united.
4 See ante, p. 160.
5 Piozzi Letters, i. 40.
that
176 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1771.
that the act J of government is learned by obedience ; I hope I
can govern very tolerably.
The old rheumatism is come again into my face and mouth,
but nothing yet to the lumbago ; however, having so long thought
it gone, I do not like its return.
Miss Porter was much pleased to be mentioned in your letter,
and is sure that I have spoken better of her than she desired.
She holds that both Frank and his master are much improved.
The master, she says, is not half so lounging and untidy as he
was, there was no such thing last year as getting him off his
chair.
Be pleased to make my compliments to every body.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
256.
To MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield > J ul ? 7 ^> w-
Once more I sit down to write, and hope you will once more
be willing to read it.
Last Sunday an old acquaintance found me out, not. I think,
a school-fellow, but one with whom I played perhaps before I
went to school. I had not seen him for forty years, but was
glad to find him alive. He has had, as he phrased it, a matter
of four wives 3 , for which neither you nor I like him much the
better ; but after all his marriages he is poor, and has now, at
sixty-six, two very young children.
Such, Madam, are the strange things of which we that travel
come to the knowledge. We see mores hominum multorum*.
1 Johnson, I believe, wrote not matter when thus used as space or
act but art, and not desired but de- quantity nearly computed. We may
serred. compare Launcelot s Here s a small
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 41. trifle of wives, in The Merchant of
There is an error in the date of Venice, Act ii. sc. 2.
this letter. On July 7 of this year 4 Horace, Ars Poetica, ]. 142:
Johnson, as the last letter shews, Qui mores hominum multoruin
was not at Lichfield but Ashbourne. vidit, et urbes.
3 Perhaps the old acquaintance Manners and towns of various
was one Jackson mentioned by Bos- nations viewed.
well, Life, ii. 463. FRANCIS, Horace, Ars Poet. 1.
Johnson in his Dictionary defines 142.
You
Aetat. 6i.] 70 Mrs . 7^ hr ale . 177
You that waste your lives over a book at home, must take life
upon trust.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
257.
To MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST MADAM, Ashboume, July 8, 1771-
Indifference is indeed a strange word in a letter from me to
you 2 . Which way could it possibly creep in? I do not re
member any moment, for a very long time past, when I could
use it without contradiction from my own thoughts.
This naughty baby stays so long that I am afraid it will be
a giant, like king Richard. I suppose I shall be able to tell it,
Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wert born V I wish
your pains and your danger over.
Dr. Taylor is better, and is gone out in the chaise. My rheu
matism is better too.
I would have been glad to go to Hagley, in compliance with
Mr. Lyttelton s kind invitation, for beside the pleasure of his
conversation, I should have had the opportunity of recollecting
past times, and wandering per monies notos et flumina nota, of
recalling the images of sixteen, and reviewing my conversations
with poor Ford 4 . But this year will not bring this gratification
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 42. Life, v. 456-7. See post, Letter of
2 Indifference does not occur in Aug. 13, 1777. Johnson at the age
any previous letter. She referred, of fifteen, by the advice of his
perhaps, to a passage in Letter 260, cousin, the Rev. Mr. Ford, had been
which is, I suspect, misdated. sent to school at Stourbridge, two or
3 When thou ivast born. three miles from Hagley. There he
3 Henry VI, Act v. sc. 6. remained a little more than a year.
4 Mr. Lyttelton was William Life \. 49. Speaking of Ford he
Henry Lyttelton, created Lord West- said : Sir, he was my acquaintance
cote in 1776, and Lord Lyttelton in and relation, my mother s nephew.
1794. He was living at this time at He had purchased a living in the
a house called Little Hagley. John- country, but not simoniacally. I
son visiting him in September, 1774, never saw him but in the country,
in company with the Thrales, re- I have been told he was a man of
corded: We went to Hagley, great parts; very profligate, but I
where we were disappointed of the never heard he was impious. Ib. iii.
respect and kindness that we ex- 348.
pected. . . . We made haste away For the Latin quotation in the
from a place where all were offended. text, see ante, p. 154, n. 4.
VOL. I. N within
I 7 8
To Mrs. Thrale,
[A.D. 1771-
within my power. I promised Taylor a month. Every thing is
done here to please me ; and his ill health is a strong reason
against desertion.
I return all the compliments, and hope I may add some at last
to this wicked, tiresome, dilatory bantling z .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
258.
To MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAREST MADAM, . r Ashboume, July 10, 1771-
I am obliged to my friend Harry, for his remembrance ; but
think it a little hard that I hear nothing from Miss.
There has been a man here to-day to take a farm. After
some talk he went to see the bull, and said that he had seen
a bigger 3 . Do you think he is likely to get the farm ?
Toujours strawberries and cream 4 .
Dr. Taylor is much better, and my rheumatism is less painful.
Let me hear in return as much good of you and of Mrs. Salus-
bury. You despise the Dog and Duck ; things that are at hand
are always slighted. I remember that Dr. Grevil, of Gloucester,
sent for that water when his wife was in the same danger ; but he
lived near Malvern, and you live near the Dog and Duck 5 . Thus,
in difficult cases, we naturally trust most what we least know.
Why Bromfield 6 , supposing that a lotion can do good, should
1 Johnson in his Dictionary intro
duces a conjectural and absurd de
rivation of this word by a sentence
which would make the modern phi-
logist smile If, he says, it has
any etymology.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 43.
3 See ante, p. 166.
4 Johnson no doubt is thinking of
tou jours perdrix. Swift in the
Preface to A Tale of a Tub, describ
ing how a poor poet may ring the
changes as far as it will go, adds :
but the reader quickly finds it all
pork. In a note Plutarch is referred
to. Swift s Works, iii. 58.
5 Lysons mentions a mineral
spring at Streatham the water of
which is sent, he says, in consider
able quantities to some of the
hospitals in London. Environs of
London, ed. 1800, iii. 491.
6 Bromfield is mentioned post,
Letter of June 14, 1779. Johnson
recorded in his Diary on March 27,
1782 : In the evening Dr. Brom
field and his family Merlin s steel
yard given me. Pr. and Med. p.
209. In the Gentleman s Magazine
for 1786, p. 270, among the deaths I
find, March 24, in Gerrard Street,
Soho, in his 6$th year, Robert Brom
field, M.D., F.R.S.
despise
Aetat. ei.] To Mrs . T/irale. 1 79
despise laurel-water in comparison with his own receipt, I do not
see ; and see still less why he should laugh at that which Wall
thinks efficacious. I am afraid philosophy will not warrant much
hope in a lotion.
Be pleased to make my compliments from Mrs. Salusbury to
Susy.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
259.
To MRS. THRALE \
DEAR MADAM, Ashboume, July 15, 1771.
When we come together to practise chymistry 2 , I believe
we shall find our furnaces sufficient for most operations. We
have a gentleman here reading philosophical lectures, who per
forms the chymical part with furnaces of the same kind with
ours, but much less ; yet he says, that he can in his little furnace
raise a fire that will melt iron. I saw him smelt lead ; and shall
bring up some ore for our operations. The carriage will cost
more than the lead perhaps will be worth ; but a chymist is very
like a lover ;
And sees those dangers which he cannot shun.
I will try to get other ore, both of iron and copper, which are all
which this country affords, though feracissima metallorum regio.
The doctor has no park, but a little enclosure behind his
house, in which there are about thirty bucks and does; and
they take bread from the hand. Would it not be pity to kill
them ? It seems to be now out of his head.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
260.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
MADAM, Ashbourne, July 17, 1771.
At Lichfield I found little to please me. One more of my
Piozzi Letters, i. 45. mistry < an enchanting study as he
2 It was about this time that a called it see Life, i. 140, 436; iii.
laboratory was fitted up at Streat- 398 ; iv. 237.
ham for Mr. Johnson s amusement. 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 46.
Note by Mrs. Piozzi. See post, p. Perhaps this letter is misdated, for
183. For Johnson s love of che- it seems to have been written very
N 2 few
1 80 To Mrs. Thrale. LA.D. 1771.
few school-fellows is dead ; upon which I might make a new
reflection, and say, Mors omnibus communis I . Miss Porter was
rather better than last year ; but I think Miss Aston grows
rather worse. I took a walk in quest of juvenile images, but
caught a cloud instead of Juno.
I longed for Taylor s chaise 2 ; but I think Lucy did not long
for it, though she was not sorry to see it. Lucy is a philosopher ;
and considers me as one of the external and accidental things
that are to be taken and left without emotion. If I could learn
of Lucy would it be better ? Will you teach me ?
I would not have it thought that I forget Mrs. Salusbury; but
nothing that I can say will be of use ; and what comfort she can
have, your duty will not fail to give her.
What is the matter that Queeney 3 uses me no better? I
should think she might have written to me ; but she has
neither sent a message nor a compliment. I thank Harry for
remembering me.
Rheumatism teazes me yet.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
261.
To SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
Ashbourne, July 17, 1771. Published in the Life, ii. 141.
262.
TO MRS. THRALE 4 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, July 20, 1771.
Sweet meat and sour sauce. With your letter which was
soon after Johnson s departure from must die. Anatomy of Melancholy,
Lichfield. He left it on June 29. ed. 1660, p. 344.
1 Baretti says that this was a say- 2 For Taylor s large roomy post
ing of Pero Grulla (Verdad de Pero chaise, drawn by four stout plump
Grulla). SHALLOW. Certain, tis horses, and driven by two steady
certain ; very sure, very sure : death, jolly postillions, see Life, ii. 473.
as the Psalmist saith, is common to 3 A kind of nickname given to
all : all shall die. 2 Henry IV, Act Mrs. Thrale s eldest daughter, whose
iii. sc. 2. Tis an inevitable chance, name being Esther she might be
the first statute in Magna Charta, an assimilated to a Queen. Ib. iii. 422.
everlasting Act of Parliament, all 4 Piozzi Letters, \. 47.
kind.
Aetat. ei.] To Mrs. Thrale. 181
kind, I received another from Miss ***** J , to let me know
with what frigidity I have answered her ; and to tell me, that
she neither hopes nor desires to excite greater warmth. That
my first salutation Madam surprised her, as if an old friend,
newly meeting her, had thrown a glass of cold water in her face ;
and that she does not design to renew our conversations when
I condescend to visit them, after * * * * gets up.
Tis not for nothing that we life persue 2 .
I have certainly now such a letter as I never had before, and
such as I know not how to answer. I dare neither write with
frigidity, nor with fire. Our intercourse is something
Which good and bad does equally confound,
And either horn of fate s dilemma wound 3 ,
There was formerly in France a cour de t amour \ but I fancy
nobody was ever summoned before it after threescore : yet in
this court, if it now subsisted, I seem likely to be nonsuited.
I am not very sorry that she is so far off. There can be
no great danger in writing to her.
Of long walks I cannot tell you ; for I have no companion ;
and the rheumatism has taken away some of my courage : but
last night I slept well.
To strawberries and cream which still continue, we now add
custard and bilberry pye.
Our two last fawns are well ; but one of our swans is sick.
Life, says Foresight, is chequer-work 4 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Miss Porter I think is meant. And both the horns of fate s
See post, p. 184, where Johnson ex- dilemma wound.
presses his surprise that she detained COWLEY, The Mistress : Against
him at Lichfield, and p. 191. Hope.
2 Johnson wrote pursue, but 4 FORESIGHT. Nay I have had
many women will write persue! some omens. I got out of bed
BARETTI. backwards too this morning without
Hope, whose weak being ruined premeditation ; pretty good that too.
is But then I stumbled coming down
Alike if it succeed, and if it stairs and met a weasel ; bad omens
miss ; those. Some bad, some good ; our
Whom good or ill does equally lives are checquered. Congreve,
confound, Love for Love Act ii. sc. I.
To
1 82 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1771.
263.
To MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, [Ashboume], July 22, 1771.
Nothing new has happened, and yet I do not care to omit
writing. Last post I had four letters, all female. Besides yours,
I had one from Mrs. Hervey 2 , Miss * * * * , and Mrs. Williams.
Mrs. Hervey must stay; and what to say to * * * * I cannot
devise.
My rheumatism continues to persecute me most importunately;
and how to procure ease in this place, where there are no hot
rooms, I do not see ; but I always hope next day, or next night,
will be better, and am not always disappointed.
Queeney has not written yet ; perhaps she designs that
I should love Harry best.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
264.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashboume, July 24, 1771-
We have no news here but about health and sickness. I am
miserably harassed. Dr. Taylor is quite well. The sick swan is
dead ; and dead without an elegy 4 , either by himself or his
friends. The other swan swims about solitary, as Mr. Thrale,
and I, and others should do, if we lost our mistress.
The great bull, and his four sons, are all well. We call the
first of the young bulls the Dauphin ; so you see, non deficit alter
aureus 5 . Care is taken of the breed.
Naughty Queeny ! no letter yet. I hope we shall teach little
Lucy better.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 49. Dictionary,
2 She was of the Aston family and 5 Primo avulso non deficit alter
the widow of Johnson s friend the Aureus, et simili frondescit virga
Hon. Henry Hervey. Life, i. 83, n. 4. metallo.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 50. VIRGIL, ^Eneid, vi. 143.
4 So on Maeander s banks when The first thus rent, a second will
death is nigh arise,
The mournful swan sings her own And the same metal the same
elegy. room supplies.
DRYDEN ; quoted in Johnson s DRYDEN.
Be
Aetat. 61.]
To Henry Thrale.
Be pleased to make my compliments to Mr. Thrale ; and
desire that his builders will leave about a hundred loose bricks.
I can at present think of no better place for chymistry, in fair
weather, than the pump-side in the kitchen garden J .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
265.
To HENRY THRALE z .
DEAR SIR, ^ &&gt; > 771
I am this morning come to Lichfield, a place which has
no temptations to prolong my stay; but if it had more, would
not have such as could withhold me from your house when I am
at liberty to come to it. I hope our dear mistress is got up, and
recovering 3 . Pray tell her to mind, whether I am not got quite
wild for want of government. My thoughts are now about get
ting to London. I shall watch for a place ; for our carriages are
only such as pass through the place, sometimes full, and some
times vacant 4 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Mrs. Piozzi says : We made
up a sort of laboratory at Streatham
one summer, and diverted ourselves
with drawing essences and colouring
liquors. But the danger Mr. Thrale
found his friend Dr. Johnson in one
day, when he got the children and
servants round him to see some ex
periments performed, put an end
to all our entertainment. Piozzfs
Anecdotes, p. 236. A writer in the
Gentleman s Magazine (1830, part
i. p. 295) gives the following anec
dote, which he had about twenty-five
years earlier from Bishop Watson
of Llandaff, who was Professor of
Chemistry in Cambridge at the time
of Johnson s visit in 1765. Johnson
coming to the laboratory was asked
by Watson Vwhether there was any
experiment in particular which he
wished to see performed. He re
plied : I have been told that there
are two cold fluids which when mixed
will take fire ; I do not credit it.
Watson made his assistant pour
into one crucible rectified spirit of
turpentine and into the other con
centrated vitriolic acid with due
proportion of the nitric. They were
fastened to the end of long rods,
held out of the window, and then
mixed. The flame which ensued
was such as to induce Johnson to be
thankful that the explosion was on
the outside.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 51.
3 On July 23 she had given birth
to a daughter Sophia, who married
Henry Merrick Hoare and died on
Nov. 8, 1824.
4 Lichfield was on the London and
Chester Road that passed through
Dunstable, Coventry, and Stafford.
For the difficulty in getting a place
in the passing carriages both here
TO
184 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1771.
266.
To MRS. THRALE r .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfieid, Sat. Aug. 3 , 1771-
If you were well enough to write last Tuesday, you will
surely be well enough to read on Monday; and therefore I will
now write to you as before.
Having stayed my month with Taylor, I came away on
Wednesday, leaving him, I think, in a disposition of mind not
very uncommon, at once weary of my stay, and grieved at my
departure 2 .
My purpose was to have made haste to you and Streatham ;
and who would have expected that I should be stopped by
Lucy 3 ? Hearing me give Francis orders to take us places, she
told me that I should not go till after next week. I thought it
proper to comply; for I was pleased to find that I could please,
and proud of shewing you that I do not come an universal
outcast. Lucy is likewise a very peremptory maiden ; and if
I had gone without permission, I am not very sure that I might
have been welcome at another time.
When we meet, we may compare our different uses of this
interval. I shall charge you with having lingered away, in
expectation and disappointment, two months 4 , which are both
physically and morally considered as analogous to the fervid and
vigorous part of human life ; two months, in which Nature exerts
all her powers of benefaction, and graces the liberality of her
hand by the elegance of her smile ; t\vo months, which, as
Doodle says, you never saw before Y and which, as La Bruyere
says, you shall never see again.
and at Oxford see post, Letters of and no man likes to live under the
June 6, and July 26, 1775. eye of perpetual disapprobation."
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 52. Life, iii. 181.
2 Dr. Johnson said to me of 3 Miss Porter. See ante, p. 181,
Dr. Taylor, " Sir, I love him ; but n. I.
I do not love him more ; my regard * Johnson, writing to Bennet
for him does not increase. As it is Langton on Aug. 29, said : The
said in the Apocrypha, " his talk is Queen and Mrs. Thrale, both ladies
of bullocks : " I do not suppose he is of experience, yet both missed their
very fond of my company. His reckoning this summer. Life, ii.
habits are by no means sufficiently 142.
clerical : this he knows that I see ; s Doodle, an Alderman of London,
But
Aetat. 61.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
But complaints are vain ; we will try to do better another
time. To-morrow and to-morrow T . A few designs and a few
failures, and the time of designing will be past.
Mr. Seward left Lichfield yesterday, I am afraid, not much
mended by his opium 2 . He purposes to wait on you ; and if
envy could do much mischief, he would have much to dread,
since he will have the pleasure of seeing you sooner than,
Dear Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
267.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield, Aug. 5, 1771.
Though I have now been two posts without hearing from
you, I hope no harm has befallen you. I have just been with
the old Dean 4 , if I may call him old who is but seventy-eight ;
and find him as well, both in mind and body, as his younger
is a character in The London
Cuckolds by Edward Ravenscroft ;
first acted in 1682. Till the year
1752 it was commonly acted on
Lord Mayor s Day in contempt and
to the disgrace of the city. Mr. Gar-
rick set the example of decorum by
omitting to perform it on the ninth
of November in 1752, though it was
acted at Covent Garden that and
the following year ; but on that
day, in 1754, the King commanded
The Provoked Husband at Covent
Garden, which, we believe, gave
the death-blow to this obscenity.
Baker s Biog. Dram., ed. 1812, ii.
375. See also Gentleman s Maga
zine, 1752, p. 535, and 1754, p.
532.
1 Johnson perhaps has in his
thoughts the line in Macbeth (Act v.
sc. 5) : To-morrow, and to-morrow,
and to-morrow.
2 Johnson speaking of the Rev.
Mr. Seward said : Sir, he is a
valetudinarian, one of those who are
always mending themselves. Life,
iii. 152. Johnson one evening at
Mr. Seward s house heard " Me
miserable ! " in Paradise Lost (Bk.
iv. 1. 73) commended as highly
pathetic. He left the house with a
Mr. Price. They had walked some
way in silence, when Johnson sud
denly stopped, and turning to his
companion exclaimed, " Sir, don t
you think that Me miserable ! is
miserable stuff? " On another oc
casion he said to him : If I saw
a Whig and a Tory drowning, I
would first save the Tory ; and when
I saw that he was safe, not till then,
I would go and help the Whig; but
the dog should duck first ; the dog
should duck," laughing with plea
sure at the thought of the Whig s
ducking. Gary s Lives of English
Poets, ed. 1846, p. 87.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 54.
4 Addenbroke, who had been
Dean since 1745. See post, Letters
of November 30, 1774, and August
27, 1777.
neighbours.
1 86
To David Garrick.
[A.D. 1771.
neighbours. I went with my Lucy this morning to a phi
losophical lecture J ; and have been this evening to see Mr.
Green s curiosities, both natural and artificial 2 ; and I am come
home to write to my dear lady.
So rolls the world away 3 .
The days grow visibly shorter. Immortalia ne speres monet
annus*. I think it time to return. Do you think that after all
this roving you shall be able to manage me again ? I suppose,
like * * * * , that you are thinking how to reduce me ; but you
may spare your contrivances ; and need not fear that I find any
reception that gives me pleasure equal to that of being,
Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
268.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], August 29, 1771. Published in the Life, ii. 142.
269.
To DAVID GARRICK 5 .
DEAR SIR Streatham, Dec. 12, 1771.
I have thought upon your epitaph but without much effect.
An epitaph is no easy thing.
1 See post, Letter of September
21, 1773, for his being owned at
table in Scotland by one who had
seen him at a philosophical lecture
at Lichfield.
2 See ante, p. 161, n. 5.
3 So runs the world away. Ham
let, Act iii. sc. 2, 1. 285.
4 HORACE, 4 Odes, vii. 7.
Those circling hours and all the
various year
Convince us nothing is immortal
here. FRANCIS.
5 Published in the Garrick Cor
respondence, i. 446, and again from
the original in Croker s Bosivell (p.
225), apparently more correctly.
Garrick wrote to Dr. John Hoadley
on January 4, 1772 : Mrs. Hogarth
having desir d me to write an
Epitaph for her Husband our most
Excellent friend I have done it, as
well as I can, and I am lucky enough
to have it approv d by those I w d
wish to please here it is for you :
EPITAPH.
Farewel ! great Painter of Mankind !
Who reach d the noblest point of
Art,
Whose pictur d Morals charm ye
mind,
And thro the Eyes correct ye
heart.
If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay,
If Nature touch thee, drop a tear,
If Neither move thee, turn away,
For HOGARTH S honoured dust
lies here.
What say you ?
From the facsimile in Mr. Alfred
Of
Aetat. 62.] To David Garrick. 187
Of your three stanzas, the third is utterly unworthy of you.
The first and third together give no discriminative character. If
the first alone were to stand, Hogarth would not be distinguished
from any other man of intellectual eminence. Suppose you
worked upon something like this :
The Hand of Art here torpid lies
That traced the essential form of Grace :
Here Death has closed the curious eyes
That saw the manners in the face.
If Genius warm thee, Reader, stay,
If Merit touch thee, shed a tear;
Be Vice and Dulness far away !
Great Hogarth s honour d dust is here.
In your second stanza, pictured morals is a beautiful expres
sion, which I would wish to retain ; but learn and mourn cannot
stand for rhymes. Art and nature have been seen together too
often. In the first stanza is feeling, in the second/^/. Feeling
for tenderness or sensibility is a word merely colloquial, of late
introduction, not yet sure enough of its own existence to claim
a place upon a stone . If thou hast neither, is quite prose, and
prose of the familiar kind. Thus easy is it to find faults, but it
is hard to make an Epitaph 2 .
When you have reviewed it, let me see it again : you are
Morrison s Collection of Autographs , on Hogarth s mausoleum in Chis-
" l62 - wick Churchyard. It agrees with
Dr. Johnson, writes Mrs. Piozzi, Garrick s in all but the fifth line,
made four lines on the death of which runs :
poor Hogarth, which were equally If thou hast genius, Reader,
true and pleasing : I know not why stay.
Garrick s were preferred to them. * Nevertheless Johnson in his
The hand of him here torpid lies Dictionary gives as the second mean-
That drew th essential form of ing of feeling, sensibility; tenderness,
grace j and quotes examples from Shake-
Here closed in death th attentive speare and Bacon. See Life, ii. 95,
e y es for his contempt for very feeling
That saw the manners in the people. " They pay you by feeling?
face - he said.
Piozzi s Anecdotes, p. 135. , See Appendix C. for two sets of
In the Gentlemaris Magazine for verses by Garrick.
1772, p. 336. is given the inscription
welcome
1 88 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A. 0.1771.
welcome to any help that I can give, on condition that you
make my compliments to Mrs. Garrick.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
270.
To [ ? THOMAS CADELL].
1771.
In Mr. Fletcher s Auction Catalogue of May 30, 1845, Lot 115 is a
Note of Johnson to his Publisher to bind two copies of False Alarm
and Falkland Islands. 1771.
271.
To SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
[Johnson s Court], February 27, 1772. Published in the Life, ii.
144.
272.
To JOSEPH BANKS.
Johnson s Court, February 27, 1772. Published in the Life, ii. 144.
273.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], March 14, 1772. Published in the Life, ii. 146.
274.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], March 15, 1772. Published in the Life, ii. 145.
275.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR *.
DEAR SIR,
When I promised to dine with you to-morrow I did not
sufficiently consider what I was promising. On the last day of
Lent I do not willingly go out, and shall be glad to change to-
1 First published in the Miscel- dinner in Passion Week had the
lanies of the Philobiblon Society, vi. example of at least two Bishops of
43. Dr. Taylor, whose habits were his age. See the Life, iv. 88, for
by no means sufficiently clerical Johnson s admirable sophistry in
(ante, p. 184, n. 2), in giving a his defence of his dining with them.
morrow
Aetat. 62.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 189
morrow for Monday, or any other day except Thursday next
week.
I am, Sir,
Your most, &c.,
A ., SAM: JOHNSON.
April 17, 1772. J
276.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], August 31, 1772. Published in the Life, ii. 201.
277.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR T .
DEAR SIR,
I am sorry to find both from your own letter and from Mr.
Langley 2 that your health is in a state so different from what
might be wished. The Langleys impute a great part of your
complaints to a mind unsettled and discontented. I know that
you have disorders, though I hope not very formidable, in
dependent of the mind, and that your complaints do not arise
from the mere habit of complaining. Yet there is no dis
temper, not in the highest degree acute, on which the mind
has not some influence, and which is not better resisted by a
cheerful than a gloomy temper. I would have you read when
you can force your attention, but that perhaps will be not so
often as is necessary to encrease the general cheerfulness of
Life. If you could get a little apparatus for chimistry or ex
perimental philosophy it would offer you some diversion, or if
you made some little purchase at a small distance, or took
some petty farm into your own hands, it would break your
thoughts when they become tyrannous and troublesome, and
supply you at once with exercise and amusement.
You tell me nothing of Kedlestone 3 , which you went down
with a design of visiting, nor of Dr. Butler 4 , who seems to be
1 First published in Notes and Derby, which Johnson and Boswell
Queries, 6th S., v. 383. visited in Dr. Taylor s chaise on
The Head Master of Ashbourne September 19, 1777. Life, iii. 160.
School. Life, iii. 138. He and 4 Johnson, no doubt, wrote Butter.
Taylor, it seems, were at variance A Scotch physician of that name
later on. Post, Letters of July 12, living at Derby was visited by him
1775, an d September 18, 1777. and Boswell in 1776 and 1777.
3 Lord Scarsdale s mansion near Life, iii. i, 163.
a very
19 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1772.
a very rational man, and who told you with great honesty
that your cure must in the greatest measure depend upon
yourself.
Your uneasiness at the misfortunes of your Relations, I
comprehend perhaps too well. It was an irresistible obtrusion
of a disagreeable image, which you always wished away but
could not dismiss, an incessant persecution of a troublesome
thought neither to be pacified nor ejected. Such has of late
been the state of my own mind. I had formerly great command
of my attention, and what I did not like could forbear to think
on. But of this power, which is of the highest importance to
the tranquillity of life, I have been some [sic] much exhausted,
that I do not go into a company towards night, in which I
foresee any thing disagreeable, nor enquire after any thing to
which I am not indifferent, lest something, which I know
to be nothing, should fasten upon my imagination, and hinder
me from sleep 1 . Thus it is that the progress of life brings
often with it diseases, not of the body only, but of the mind.
We must endeavour to cure both the one and the other. In
our bodies we must ourselves do a great part, and for the
mind it is very seldom that any help can be had, but what
prayer and reason shall supply.
I have got my work so far forward that I flatter myself
with concluding it this month 2 , and then shall do nothing so
willingly as come down to Ashbourne. We will try to make
October a pleasant month.
I am, Sir,
Yours affectionately,
SAM: JOHNSON.
August 31, 1772.
I wish we could borrow of Dr. Bentley the Preces in usum
Sarum 3 .
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor in Ashbourn, Derbys.
1 See Life, ii. 440, for Johnson s corded: Of the spring and summer
directions for the management of I remember that I was able in those
the mind. seasons to examine and improve my
2 He was engaged on the fourth Dictionary Pr. and Med. p. 123.
edition of his Dictionary. On Easter 3 Dr. Bentley was Richard Bent-
Eve of the following year he re- ley, D.D., nephew of the great
To
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
191
278.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR T .
DEAR SIR,
Now you find yourself better consider what it is that has
contributed to your recovery, and do it ever again. Keep
what health you have and try to get more.
I am now within a few hours of being able to send the whole
dictionary to the press, and though I often went sluggishly to
the work, I am not much delighted at the co[mpletion] 2 . My
purpose is to come down to Lichfield next week. I will send
you word when I am to set out, and hope you will fetch me.
Miss Porter will be satisfied with a very little of my company 3 .
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate Servant,
Oct. 6, 1772. SAM: JOHNSON.
The Rev d Dr. Taylor in Ashbourn, Derbys.
279.
TO MRS. THRALE 4 .
DEAR MADAM, [Lichfield], October 19, 1772.
I set out on Thursday night at nine, and arrived at Lich
field on Friday night at eleven, no otherwise incommoded than
with want of sleep, which however I enjoyed very comfortably
the first night.
I think a stage coach is not the worst bed 5 .
Bentley, Rector of Nailstone,
Leicestershire, and Senior Fellow
of Trinity College, Cambridge. On
his death his library was sold by
auction at Leicester in December,
1786. The Catalogue of the Sale is
in the Bodleian Library. The book
which Johnson wished to borrow
was perhaps Lot 114, described as
Romish Rituale, very elegantly
bound in morocco, printed at Paris
by Francis Reynault, in red and
black, and adorned with a number of
curious wood-cuts, 1536. It was sold
apparently for half-a-crown ; the pre
sent price, I am told, of such a work
would be from ^15 to ^20.
1 First published in Notes and
Queries, 6th S., v. 422. Franked
Free by Mr. Thrale.
2 Johnson, I believe, found relief
in the somewhat mechanical work of
revising his Dictionary. Percival
Stockdale records in his Memoirs,
ii. 179, that about 1774 Johnson
offered to edit a new edition of
Chambers s Dictionary of the Arts
and Sciences. When Stockdale ex
pressed his surprise that in his easy
circumstances he should be ready to
undertake so tedious a task, Sir
(said he) 1 like that muddling work.
3 See ante, p. 181, n. i.
4 Piozzi Letters, i. 55.
5 See post, Letter of May 6, 1776.
I am
192
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1772.
I am here at present a little wind-bound, as the paper will
show you, and Lichfield is not a place of much entertainment ;
yet, though I have some thoughts of rambling a little, this is to
be my home long enough to receive a letter, which will, I hope,
tell me that you are busy in reformation, that dear Mrs. Salus-
bury is easy, that all the young people are well, and that Mr.
Thrale brews at less expence than fourteen shillings a quarter.
They have had in this country a very prosperous hay-harvest r ,
but malt is fi ve-and-sixpence a strike 2 , or two pounds four
shillings a quarter. Wheat is nine-and-sixpence a bushel. These
are prices which are almost descriptive of a famine. Flesh is
likewise very dear 3 .
1 Aug. 3, 1772. We have had and
have the summerest summer that I
have known these hundred years.
We had really begun to fancy that
some comet had brushed us a little
out of the sun s way. Walpole s
Letters, v. 403.
2 Strike. A bushel ; a dry
measure of capacity. Johnson s
Dictionary.
1 In the Letters of October 24,
November 9, 19, we have further
mention of Mr. Thrale s difficulties.
In a marginal note Mrs, Piozzi
says : " Mr. Thrale was a very
merry talking man in 1760 ; but the
distress of 1772, which affected his
health, his hopes, and his whole
soul, affected his temper too." Hay-
ward s Piozzi, i. 42. In her Auto
biographical Memoirs she gives a
further account of these troubles.
Her extreme inaccuracy to use
the term Boswell justly applies to her
(Life, i. 416, n. 2) renders it how
ever untrustworthy. She says that
a vulgar fellow, by name Humphrey
Jackson (post, p. 213), had long
practised on poor Thrale s credulity.
He had led him into enormous ex
pense in the manufacture of a stuff
which should preserve ships bottoms
from the worm, and in brewing by
some new process. Hay ward s Piozzi,
i. 257. In June of this year the
failure of the great banking-house
of Neal, Fordyce & Co. was the
beginning of a commercial panic.
An universal bankruptcy was ex
pected. The whole city was in an
uproar ; many of the first families in
tears. Gentleman s Magazine for
1772, pp. 292-3. Will you believe
in Italy, wrote Horace Walpole to
Sir Horace Mann, that one rascally
and extravagant banker had brought
Britannia, Queen of the Indies, to
the precipice of bankruptcy ! Letters,
v. 395. See post, Letter of August
12, 1773. A sudden run, writes
Mrs. Piozzi, threatened the house of
Thrale, and death hovered over the
head of its principal. Her mother,
Mrs. Salusbury, showed great firm
ness. Fear not, said Johnson,
the menaces of suicide ; the
man who has two such females
to console him never yet killed
himself, and will not now. Of all
the bankrupts made this dreadful
year, none have destroyed them
selves but married men, who would
have risen from the weeds un-
drowned, had not the women clung
about and sunk them, stifling the
voice of reason with their cries. Mrs.
Piozzi adds that Mrs. Salusbury lent
Thrale all her savings, ,3,000, and
In
Aetat. 63.]
70 Mrs. Thrale.
193
In this wide-extended calamity let us try what alleviation can
be found in our kindness to each other.
I am, &c. 5
SAM: JOHNSON.
280.
To MRS. THRALE 1 .
MADAM, Lichfield, October 24, 1772.
I would have you consider whether it will not be best to
write to Sir T 2 , not taking notice of any thing proposed to
Mr. B - ; and only letting him know, that the report which
terrified you so much has had little effect ; and that you have
now no particular need of his money. By this you will free him
from solicitude ; and, having nothing to fear from you, he will
love you as before. It will abate any triumph of your enemies,
and dispose them less to censure, and him less to regard censure.
When you wrote the letter which you call injudicious, I told
that three other friends lent ,17,000
among them. Our debts were
.130,000, besides borrowed money.
Yet in nine years was every shilling
paid. Hayward s Piozzi, i. 258.
To add to the distress, there had
been in late years a great rise in the
price of grain. Hume writing in
1755 sa Y s tna t thirty-two shillings a
quarter for wheat, and sixteen for
barley, which were regarded as low
in the reign of James I, would
rather pass for high by our present
estimation. In a note added to the
edition of 1770 he says: In the
short period of the last fifteen years
prices have perhaps risen more than
during the preceding hundred and
fifty. History, ed. 1773, vi. 177.
Adam Smith writing in the year
1775 attributes the high price of corn
during the ten or twelve years past
to the unfavourable seasons through
the greater part of Europe. Wealth
of Nations, ed. i8u,i. 275. For the
bad seasons see post, the second
Letter of July, 1775. By 1776 good
times had returned, with the best
VOL. I.
brown malt laid in at thirty shillings
and sixpence. Post, Letter of May
18, 1776. The price for wheat given
by Johnson does not agree with that
given in the Gentleman s Magazine,
1772, p. 442. There the average
price in Staffordshire from October
5 to October 10 is stated to be seven
shillings and sevenpence one shil
ling and twopence dearer than in
London. Perhaps Johnson was
speaking of the best wheat. In
Staffordshire wheat was dearer than
in any other county. For the dear-
ness of flesh, remedies were sought in
London. In May the Committee
at the Chapter Coffee-house sold beef
from ?)\d. to ^d. and mutton from $\d.
to 4\d. per pound for ready money by
the carcase. Ib. p. 244.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 56.
2 Sir Thomas Salusbury, Mrs.
Thrale s uncle. It had been expected
that she would inherit his property,
but he married a second time, and
disappointed her. Piozzi Letters,
i. 201, 4, and Hayward s Piozzi,
i. 251.
O you
194
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1772.
you that it would bring no money; but I do not see how, in
that tumult of distress, you could have forborn it, without appear
ing to be too tender of your own personal connections, and to
place your uncle above your family. You did what then seemed
best, and are therefore not so reasonable as I wish my mistress
to be, in imputing to yourself any unpleasing consequences.
Your uncle, when he knows that you do not want, and mean not
to disturb him, will probably subside in silence to his former
stagnation of unactive kindness.
Do not suffer little things to disturb you. The brewhouse
must be the scene of action, and the subject of speculation.
The first consequence of our J late trouble ought to be, an en
deavour to brew at a cheaper rate ; an endeavour not violent
and transient, but steady and continual, prosecuted with total
contempt of censure or wonder, and animated by resolution
not to stop while more can be done. Unless this can be done,
nothing can help us ; and if this be done, we shall not want
help.
Surely there is something to be saved ; there is to be saved
whatever is the difference between vigilance and neglect, between
parsimony and profusion.
The price of malt has risen again. It is now two pounds
eight shillings the quarter 2 . Ale is sold in the public houses at
sixpence a quart, a price which I never heard of before 3 .
This weather, if it continues, will certainly save hay 4 ; but it
can but little balance the misfortune of the scanty harvest.
This, however, is an evil which we only share with the whole
nation, and which we did not bring upon ourselves.
1 Johnson s use of the words we
and our here and in other Letters
shows that not only was Streatham
his home, but that he was indeed
one of the household in its troubles
and triumphs.
2 Writing to Mrs. Thrale on Oc
tober 7 of the following year he calls
forty shillings a frightful price for
malt.
3 By the Mutiny Act the inn
keeper was required to find each
soldier quartered on him lodging,
diet, and five pints of small beer for
fourpence a day. This was the law
in 1741, and I believe in 1772. With
the great rise in the price of malt-
liquor this must have become a heavy
tax on the publicans. Life, iii. 9,
n. 4.
4 It would save hay by making
the grass grow so that there would
be feed for the stock. See post, p.
198.
I fancy
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 195
I fancy the next letter may be directed to Ashbourne. Pray
write word how long I may have leave to stay.
I sincerely wish Mrs. Salusbury continuance and increase of
ease and comfort ; and wish all good to you all.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
281.
To MRS. THRALE *.
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, October 29, 1772.
In writing to your uncle you certainly did well ; but your
letter was hardly confident enough. You might have ventured
to speak with some degree of indifference, about money which
you know that you shall not have. I have no doubt of the
present perverseness of his intention ; but, if I mistake not his
character, his intention and execution are not very near each
other ; and, as he acts by mere irritation, when the disturbance
is over, he will lie still.
What have I committed that I am to be left behind on
Saturdays ? The coach, I think, must go twice with the rest ;
and at one of the times you might make room for me, if you
cared for me. But so am I served, that sit thinking and think
ing of you, and all of you.
Poor dear Mrs. Salusbury ! Is the place then open 2 ? I am
however glad to hear that her vigour of mind is yet undiminshed.
I hope she will now have less pain.
We are here as we used to be. Our bulls and cows, if there
is any change, seem to grow bigger.
That you are to go to the other house I am inwardly pleased,
however I may pretend to pity you ; and I am of Mamma s
opinion, that you may find yourself something to do there, and
something of importance 3 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Piozzi Letters, 1.59. many literary meetings, where John-
2 She was dying of cancer. son had his own room as well as at
3 The other house was Mr. Streatham. Life, i. 493 ; ii. 286, n. I.
Thrale s house in the Borough close It stood, says Mrs. Piozzi, in what
to his Brewery, the scene of so is now Park Street, Southwark, but
O 1 To
196
To Mrs. Tfirale.
[A.D. 1772.
282.
To MRS. THRALE T .
MADAM, [Ashbourne], October 31, 1772.
Though I am just informed, that, by some accidental negli
gence, the letter which I wrote on Thursday was not given to
the post, yet I cannot refuse myself the gratification of writing
again to my mistress 2 ; not that I have any thing to tell, but
that by showing how much I am employed upon you, I hope to
keep you from forgetting me.
Doctor Taylor asked me this morning on what I was think
ing ? and I was thinking on Lucy 3 . I hope Lucy is a good
girl. But she cannot yet be so good as Queeney. I have got
nothing yet for Queeney s cabinet 4 .
I hope dear Mrs. Salusbury grows no worse. I wish any
thing could be found that would make her better. You must
remember her admonition, and bustle in the brewhouse 5 . When
I come you may expect to have your hands full with all of us.
then Deadman s Place ; so called
because of the pest houses which
were established there in the Great
Plague of London. Hayward s
Piozzi, ii. 107. In Dodsley s London
and its Environs, ii. 220, we find
Deadman s Place, near Dirty Lane,
South wark. There were ten Dirty
Lanes in London at this time. Ib.
p. 234. Johnson in 1779 reproached
Mrs. Thrale with her despicable
dread of living in the Borough.
Post, Letter of November 16, 1779.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 60.
2 Johnson used to call Mrs. Thrale
Madam or My mistress, and Mr.
Thrale Master or My master. Life,
i. 494. She called her second hus
band My master. Hayward s Piozzi,
ii. 69.
3 His god-daughter. Ante, p. 155.
4 See post, Letter of November 3,
1773. What has become of the
curiosities which Johnson collected
for Mrs. Thrale s little girl ?
5 Mrs. Piozzi says that her mother
and Johnson had disliked one
another extremely. She worried
herself and him by her superfluous
attention to foreign politics. He
teased her by writing in the news
papers concerning battles and plots
which had no existence. She was
exceedingly angry, and scarcely, I
think, forgave the offence till the
domestic distresses of the year 1772
reconciled them, and taught them
the true value of each other ; excel
lent as they both were, far beyond
the excellence of any other man and
woman I ever yet saw. Anecdotes,
p. 128. Bustle was a favourite word
of Johnson s. See post. Letters of
April 25 and June 6, 1780. He did
not however like the thing, and in
the Isle of Skye was displeased at
BoswelPs bustling. It does not
hasten us a bit, he said. It is
getting on horseback in a ship. All
boys do it ; and you are longer a boy
than others. Boswell adds : He
himself has no alertness. Life, v. 307.
Our
Aetat. es.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 197
Our bulls and cows are all well ; but we yet hate the man that
had seen a bigger bull . Our deer have died ; but many arc
left. Our waterfall at the garden makes a great roaring this
wet weather 2 .
And so no more at present from, Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
283.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, \ Ashbourne, NOV. 4 , 1772.
We keep writing to each other when, by the confession of
both, there is nothing to be said ; but, on my part, I find it very
pleasing to write ; and what is pleasing is very willingly con
tinued.
I hope your prescriptions have been successful, and Mr.
Thrale is well. What pity it is that we cannot do something
for the dear lady ! Since I came to Ashbourne I have been out
of order. I was well at Lichfield. You know sickness will
drive me to you ; so perhaps you very heartily wish me better :
but you know likewise that health will not hold me away; and
I hope you think that, sick or well,
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
284.
To MRS. THRALE 4 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, Nov. 7, 1772.
So many days and never a letter ! Fugere fides, pietasque
pndorque 5 . This is Turkish usage. And I have been hoping
and hoping. But you are so glad to have me out of your
mind.
I think you were quite right in your advice about the thousand
pounds, for the payment could not have been delayed long ; and
1 Ante, p. 178. 5 This quotation seems to be a re-
2 Bosvvell describes this artificial miniscence of Ovid,Met(imorfi/t0ses, i.
waterfall. Life, iii. 190. 129, which runs fugere pudor, verum-
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 62. que, fidesque, and of vii. 72, which
4 Piozzi Letters, i. 63. runs rectum, pietasque, pudorque.
a short
198 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1772.
a short delay would have lessened credit, without advancing
interest. But in great matters you are hardly ever mistaken.
We have here very rainy weather ; but it makes the grass
grow, and makes our waterfall roar. I wish Queeney heard it ;
she would think it very pretty. I go down to it every day, for
I have not much to do ; and have not been very well ; but by
physick am grown better. You and all your train may be
supposed to keep me company in my walks. I wish I could
know how you brew, and how you go on ; but you tell me
nothing.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
285.
To MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, [Ashboume], Nov. 9 , 1772.
After I had sent away my last letter, I received yours,
which was an answer to it ; but, being not fully directed, had
lain, I think, two days at the office.
I am glad that you are at last come home, and that you exert
your new resolution with so much vigour. But the fury of
housewifery will soon subside ; and little effect will be produced
but by methodical attention and even frugality ; nor can these
powers be immediately attained. You have your own habits,
as well as those of others, to combat : you have yet the skill of
management to learn, as well as the practice to establish. Do
not be discouraged either by your own failures, or the perverse-
ness of others ; you will, by resolution frequently renewed, and
by perseverance properly excited, overcome in time both them
and yourself.
Your letter to Sir * * * 2 will, I doubt not, have the effect
intended. When he is not pinched he will sleep.
Mr. Thrale s money, to pay for all, must come from the sale
of good beer. I am far from despairing of solid and durable
prosperity. Nor will your success exceed my hopes, or my
opinion of your state, if, after this tremendous year, you should
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 64.
2 Sir Thomas Salusbury. Ante, p. 193, n, 2.
annually
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thralc. 1 99
annually add to your fortune three thousand pounds. This will
soon dismiss all incumbrances ; and, when no interest is paid,
you will begin annually to lay up almost five thousand. This is
very splendid ; but this, I think, is in your power.
Dear mamma, I hope, continues to be cheerful. Do the
s take her house furnished ? I think it a very proper
habitation for them, out of the smoke of the city, and yet not in
the blaze of the court.
I am much obliged to you for your desire of my return ; but
if I make haste, will you promise not to spoil me ? I do not
much trust yet to your new character, which I have had only
from yourself.
Be pleased to direct your next letter to Lichfield ; for I shall,
I think, be contriving to find my way back.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
286.
To MRS. THRALE r .
DEAR MADAM, [Ashboume], Nov. 19, 1772.
I longed for your letter to-day ; for till that came I could
not make any promises, or form any determinations. You need
not doubt my readiness to return, but it is impossible to foresee
all occasions of interruption, or all necessities of compliance.
Be pleased to tell poor dear Mrs. Salusbury, that I wish her
better ; and to wish is all the power that we have. In the
greatest exigencies we can only regret our own inability. I
think Mrs. Queeney might write again.
This year will undoubtedly be an year of struggle and diffi
culty ; but I doubt not of getting through it ; and the difficulty
will grow yearly less and less. Supposing that our former mode
of life kept us on the level, we shall, by the present contraction
of expence, gain upon fortune a thousand a-year, even though
no improvements can be made in the conduct of the trade.
Every two thousand pounds saves an hundred pound interest,
and therefore as we gain more we pay less. We have a rational
hope of success ; we have rather a moral certainty, with life and
1 Ptozzi Letters, i. 66.
health.
2oo To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1772.
health. Let us therefore not be dejected. Continue to be a
housewife, and be as frolicksome with your tongue as you
please.
I am, dearest Lady, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
287.
To MRS. THRALE T .
DEAR MADAM, [Ashboume], NOV. 23, 1772.
I am sorry that none of your letters bring better news of
the poor dear lady. I hope her pain is not great. To have a
disease confessedly incurable and apparently mortal is a very
heavy affliction ; and it is still more grievous when pain is
added to despair.
Every thing else in your letter pleased me very well, except
that when I come I entreat I may not be flattered, as your
letters flatter me 2 . You have read of heroes and princes ruined
by flattery, and I question if any of them had a flatterer so
dangerous as you. Pray keep strictly to your character of
governess.
I cannot yet get well ; my nights are flatulent and unquiet,
but my days are tolerably easy, and Taylor says that I look
much better than when I came hither. You will see when I
come, and I can take your word.
Our house affords no revolutions. The great bull is well.
But I write not merely to think on you, for I do that without
writing, but to keep you a little thinking on me. I perceive
that I have taken a broken piece of paper, but that is not the
greatest fault that you must forgive in, Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
288.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, [Ashboume], NOV. 27, 1772.
If you are so kind as to write to me on Saturday, the day
on which you will receive this, I shall have it before I leave
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 67. mode of flattery which she frequently
2 Johnson again complains of her practised. Life, ii. 349. See also
flattery, post, Letters of May 23 and ib. v. 440.
2 4 1773- Boswell describes a coarse 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 68.
Ashbourne.
Aetat. 63.J
To Mrs. Thrale.
201
Ashbourne. I am to go to Lichfield on Wednesday, and pur
pose to find my way to London through Birmingham and
Oxford.
I was yesterday at Chatsworth \ It is a very fine house.
I wish you had been with me to see it ; for then, as we are apt
to want matter of talk, we should have gained something new
to talk on. They complimented me with playing the fountain,
and opening the cascade. But I am of my friend s opinion,
that when one has seen the ocean, cascades are but little things.
I am in hope of a letter to-day from you or Queeney, but the
post has made some blunder, and the packet is not yet dis
tributed. I wish it may bring me a little good of you all.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
289.
To MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield, Dec. 3, 1772.
I found two letters here, to recompense my disappointment
at Ashbourne. I shall not now be long before I hope to settle,
for it is a fine thing to be settled. When one parts from friends
it is uncertain when one shall come back, and when one comes
back it is not very certain how long one shall stay. But hope,
you know, was left in the box of Prometheus 3 .
Miss Aston claims kin to you, for she says she is some
how a-kin to the Cottons 4 . In a little time you shall make
them all yet prouder of their kindred. Do not be depressed.
Scarce years will not last for ever ; there will sometime be
good harvests 5 . Scarcity itself produces plenty by inciting
1 He visited it with the Thrales in
1774, and alone in 1784. Life, iv.
357 5 v. 429.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 69.
3 Epimetheus.
4 Sir Robert Cotton of Comber-
mere, Cheshire, who was made a
baronet in 1677, married Hester,
heiress of Sir Thomas Salusbury,
Bart., of Llewenny, Denbighshire.
Mrs. Thrale was their great-grand
daughter. Burke s Peerage, article
Viscount Combermere, and Hay-
ward s Piozzi, \. 241.
5 John Wesley in an interesting
letter dated Dover, December 9,
1772, examines the causes of the
general scarcity. I ask, he writes,
why are thousands of people starv
ing, perishing for want, in every part
of England ? The fact I know ; I
have seen it with my eyes in every
corner of the land. I have known
those who could only afford to eat
cultivation.
2O2 To Edmzmd Hector. [A.D. 1772.
cultivation. I hope we shall soon talk these matters over very
seriously, and that we shall talk of them again much less
seriously many years hence.
My love to all,
Both great and small.
These verses I made myself, though perhaps they have been
made by others before me.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
290.
To EDMUND HECTOR J .
DEAR SIR,
When I came down into this country, I proposed to myself
the pleasure of a few days passed in your company, but it has
happened now as at many former times that I proposed enjoy
ments which I cannot obtain. I have a hasty summons to
London, and can hope for little more than to pass a night with
you and Mrs. Careless 2 .
I purpose to come to you on Monday, and to go away next
day, if I can get a place in the Oxford coach. If by this notice
you can secure a place for Tuesday to Oxford, it will be a
a little coarse food every other day. Hence in the same town, where
I have known one picking up stink- within my memory eggs were sold
ing sprats from a dunghill, and eight or ten a penny, they are now
carrying them home for herself and sold six or eight a groat [fourpence].
her children. I have known another (3) The enormous taxes which are
gathering the bones which the dogs laid on almost everything that can
had left in the streets, and making be named. Not only abundant taxes
broth of them to prolong a wretched are raised from earth, fire and water,
life. Among the causes of the but in England the ingenious states-
scarcity he places (i) The immense men have found a way to tax the
quantities of bread-corn consumed very light. The taxes are so high on
by distilling converted into a deadly account of the national debt. Scots
poison. (2) The monopolising of Magazine, 1772, p. 665.
farms. The land which was for- J First published in Notes and
merly divided among ten or twenty Queries, 6th S., iii. 361. .
little farmers is now engrossed by one 2 Hector s widowed sister. She
great farmer. Every one of those was, said Johnson, the first woman
little farmers was glad to send his with whom I was in love. It dropped
bacon, or pork, or fowls and eggs out of my head imperceptibly, but
to market continually. But the she and I shall always have a kind-
great, the gentleman farmers, are ness for each other. Life, ii. 459.
above attending to those little things
favour.
Aetat. 63.] To the Rev. James Granger. 203
favour. I hope we shall meet again with more leisure, and
revive past images, and old occurrences.
I am, dear Sir,
Your faithful humble servant,
Lichfield, Dec. 5, 1772. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Hector, in Birmingham.
291.
To EDMUND HECTOR .
DEAR SIR,
I got hither last night, full of your kindness and that of
Mrs. Careless, and full of the praises of Banstay (?), which though
I had not many days before seen Chatsworth, keeps, I think, the
upper place in my imagination. I return all my friends sincere
thanks for their attention and civility.
Yet perhaps I had not written so soon had I not had another
favour to solicite (sic]. Your case of the cancer and mercury
has made such impression upon my friend 2 , that we are very
impatient for a more exact relation than I could give, and
I therefore entreat, that you will state it very particularly, with
the patient s age, the manner of taking mercury, the quantity
taken, and all that you told or omitted to tell me. To this
request I must add another that you will write as soon as
you can.
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate servant,
Dec. 12, 1772. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Hector, in Birmingham.
292.
To THE REV. JAMES GRANGER 3 .
SIR, [London, Dec. 15, 1772.]
When I returned from the country I found your letter ; and
would very gladly have done what you desire, had it been in my
1 First published in Notes and page 471. Mr. Croker states in a
Queries, 6th S., iii. 361. note that this letter was found
1 Mrs. Salusbury. Ante, p. 195, by Mr. P. Cunningham among
n. 2. Granger s, with the date of Decem-
3 Published in Croker s Soswell, ber 15, 1772. He does not explain
power.
2O4 To Mrs. Tkrale. [A.D. 1773.
power. Mr. Farmer 1 is, I am confident, mistaken in supposing
that he gave me any such pamphlet or cut. I should as soon
have suspected myself, as Mr. Farmer, of forgetfulness ; but that
I do not know, except from your letter, the name of Arthur
O Toole 2 , nor recollect that I ever heard of it before. I think it
impossible that I should have suffered such a total obliteration
from my mind of any such thing which was ever there. This at
least is certain, that I do not know of any such pamphlet ; and
equally certain I desire you to think it, that if I had it, you
should immediately receive it from,
Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
293.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
[London,] Tuesday, Jan. 26, 1773.
MADAM,
The inequalities of human life have always employed the
meditation of deep thinkers, and I cannot forbear to reflect on
the difference between your condition and my own. You live
upon mock turtle, and stewed rumps of beef; I dined yesterday
upon crumpets. You sit with parish officers, caressing and
caressed, the idol of the table, and the wonder of the day 4 .
why he inserted it under the date of with a sword in his hand, on the
1775. Johnson speaking of Granger blade of which are many crowns,
said : His Biographical History is &c. I am informed, Granger con-
full of curious anecdote, but might tinues, that this print was prefixed
have been better done. The dog is to Taylor, the Water Poet s Honour
a Whig. I do not like much to see of the noble Captain O 1 Toole, first
a Whig in any dress ; but I hate to edition, 1622.
see a Whig in a parson s gown. Johnson was careless about his
Life, v. 255. own documents, and those of others.
1 Farmer was Dr. Richard Far- G. Steevens speaks of certain anno-
mer, Master of Emanuel College, tations being in Dr. Johnson s
Cambridge. Ante, p. 169. chaos of papers. Garrick Corres.
2 In Granger s Biographical His- i. 586.
tory of England (ed. 1779, i. 397) 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 71.
in Class vii, under Men of the 4 Mr. Thrale, as member for
Sword, is the following description Southwark, had to give treats to the
of a print of O Toole : Arthurus electors. Mrs. Piozzi writing of this
Severus Nonesuch O Toole. Aet. time says : I grew useful now,
80. 1618. An old man in armour, almost necessary ; wrote the adver-
I pine
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
205
I pine in the solitude of sickness, not bad enough to be pitied,
and not well enough to be endured. You sleep away the night,
and laugh or scold away the day 1 . I cough and grumble, and
grumble and cough. Last night was very tedious, and this day
makes no promises of much ease. However I have this day put
on my shoe, and hope that Gout is gone. I shall have only
the cough to contend with, and I doubt whether I shall get rid
of that without change of place. I caught cold in the coach as
I went away, and am disordered by very little things. Is it ac
cident or age ?
I am, dearest Madam, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
294.
To MRS. THRALE 2 .
MADAM, Feb. 19, 1773-
I think I am better, but cannot say much more than that
I think so. I was yesterday with Miss Lucy Southwell and
Mrs. Williams, at Mr Southwell s. Miss Frances Southwell is
not well 3 .
tisements, looked to the treats, and
people to whom I was till then un
known admired how happy Mr.
Thrale must be in such a wonder of
a wife. Hayward s Piozzi, i. 257.
1 She was oftener scolding their
children than laughing with her
friends. BARETTI.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 72.
3 The Southwells were, I conjec
ture, of the same family as Johnson s
friend, the second Lord Southwell,
whom he described as the highest-
bred man without insolence that I
ever was in company with ; the most
qualified I ever saw. Life, iv. 173.
According to a story told by Horace
Walpole (Letters, iii. 403) Lucy
Southwell was little better than a
card-sharper. Writing on May 14,
1761, he says : Jemmy Lumley last
week had a party of whist at his own
house ; the combatants, Lucy South
well, that curtseys like a bear, Mrs.
Prijean, and a Mrs. Mackenzy. They
played from six in the evening till
twelve next day ; Jemmy never
winning one rubber, and rising a
loser of two thousand pounds. How
it happened I know not, nor why his
suspicions arrived so late, but he
fancied himself cheated, and refused
to pay. However, the bear had no
share in his evil surmises ; on the
contrary, a day or two afterwards he
promised a dinner at Hampstead to
Lucy and her virtuous sister. There
he met Mrs. Mackenzy, who, on his
refusing to pay her, horsewhipped
him in the garden at Hampstead.
Jemmy cried out murder ; his ser
vants rushed in, rescued him from
the jaws of the lioness, and carried
him off in his chaise to town. The
Southwe.ls, who were already arrived,
and descended on the noise of the
fray, finding nobody to pay for the
dinner, and fearing they must, set
out for London too without it, though
I suppose they had prepared tin
I have
2O6
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
I have an invitation to dine at Sir Joshua Reynolds s on
Tuesday. May I accept it ?
Do not think I am going to borrow the Roller. I have under
taken to beg from you the favour of lending to Miss Reynolds
Newton on the Prophecies 1 , and to Miss Williams Burney s
Musical Journey 2 . They are, I believe, both at Streatham.
Be pleased to make my most respectful compliments to dear
Mrs. Salusbury. I wish I could send her any thing better.
Diversas hominum sortes. Here am I, sitting by myself,
uncertain whether I shall dine on veal or mutton ; and there are
you with the top dish and the bottom dish, all upon a card, and
on the other side of the card Tom Lisgow 3 . Of the rest that
he pleased, to add to an ideal
account subsisting between them the
expense of a dinner. Hawkins s
Johnson, p. 405.
1 Tom s great work, as Johnson
described Bishop Newton s book.
Life, iv. 286.
2 The Present State of Music in
France, Italy, and Germany, 3 vols.,
I77I-3-
Dr. Johnson gave much praise to
his friend Dr. Burney s elegant and
entertaining travels, and told Mr.
Seward that he had them in his dye,
when writing his Journey to the
Western Islands of Scotland! Life,
iv. 1 86.
3 Tom Lisgow was a voter at the
Southwark election. Mr. K -was
another. When they were enter
tained at Mr. Thrale s table, the
Editor of these letters used to write
the bill of fare on one side of a large
blank card in a small character, the
names of the company on the other
side, and refer to it from time to
time as it lay by her plate, that no
mistakes might be made, or offence
given from ignorance or forgetful-
ness ; to this practice Mr. Johnson
laughingly alludes. NOTE BY MRS.
PlOZZI.
See post, Letter of January 2,
1775. Mr. K - was perhaps the
dwell
pockets to carry off all that should
be left. Letters, iii. 403.
Neither did Lord Southwell bear a
good reputation. Mrs. Osborn wrote
on June 29, 1751 : The town says
Lord Tilney is gone with Lord South
well and Strickland to Spaa, and
that they will fill their pockets before
they part with him. Mrs. Osborn,
Political and Social Letters of a Lady
of the Eighteenth Centitry, p. 107.
Hawkins gives a curious account
of Edmund Southwell, Lord South
well s younger brother, one of John
son s distressed friends, who had
quitted the army, and trusted to
Providence for a support. He was a
man of wonderful parts, of lively and
entertaining conversation, and well-
acquainted with the world. His
practice was to wander about the
streets of London, and call in at
such coffee-houses, for instance,
the Smyrna and Cocoa-tree \Life,
v. 386, n. i] in Pall Mall, and
Child s and Batson s [Id. iii. 355,
n. 2] in the City, as were frequented
by men of intelligence, or where any
thing like conversation was going
forward ; in these he found means to
make friends from whom he derived
a precarious support. Mr. Bates, the
master of the Queen s Arms Tavern
[lb, iv. 87], suffered him, as often as
Aetat. 63.]
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor.
207
dwell in darker fame why should I make mention ? Tom Lisgow
is an assembly. But Tom Lisgow cannot people the world.
Mr. K must have a place. The lion has his jackall. They
will soon meet.
And when they talk, ye gods ! how they will talk 1 .
Pray let your voice and my master s help to fill the pauses.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
295.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, February 24, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 204.
296.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR 2 .
DEAR SIR,
Is it not a strange thing that we should visit, and meet, and
live kindly together, and then part without any enquiry after
each other ? This is surely not quite right, and therefore I will
this day put an end to it, by desiring you to inform me about
Mr. Keep on whom she has the fol
lowing marginal note : When he
heard I was a native of North Wales
he told me that his wife was a Welsh
woman, and desired to be buried at
Ruthyn. " So," says the man, " I
went with the corpse myself, because
I thought it would be a pleasant
journey, and indeed I found Ruthyn
a very beautiful place." Hayward s
Piozzi, i. 308.
1 What can be more natural,
more soft, or more passionate than
that line in Statira s speech where
she describes the charms of Alex
ander s conversation :
" Then he would talk -.Good Gods !
how he would talk ! "
ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 39.
The following is the passage in
which this famous line is found :
STATIRA.
From every pore of him a perfume falls ,
He kisses softer than a southern
wind,
Curls like a vine, and touches like a
God.
SYSIGAMBIS.
When will thy spirits rest, these tran
sports cease ?
STATIRA.
Will you not give me leave to warn
my sister ?
As I was saying but I told his
sweetness,
Then he will talk, Good Gods, how
he will talk !
The Rival Queens; or Alexander
the Great, by Nathanael Lee, Act i.
2 From the original in the posses
sion of Messrs. J. Pearson & Co., of
5 Pall Mall Place, S.W.
This letter was sold by Messrs.
Christie & Co., on June 5, 1888, for
S 5 s -
your
2o8 7"o the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1773.
your health and your quiet, of both which I shall willingly hear
the improvement and encrease.
As to my own health it has been pretty much interrupted by
a cough which has hung on me about ten weeks, and for six a
fever has been very violent. I have been sometimes near fainting,
but have never fainted. My quiet nobody tries to interrupt, or
if they try, I seldom hear of it.
When I had left you, I passed some days at Lucy s, and lent
Mr. Greene the axe and lance T . I then went to Birmingham,
and was a while with Hector.
About three weeks ago the Schoolmaster who has dedicated
his Spelling-book to you, came to me with a request that I would
put my name to a printed recommendation, which was to stand
before it 2 . This, you see, was not fit for me to do. He was not
importunate, but, I suppose, was not pleased. You will sometime
let him see the impropriety of his request, that a man, who con
siders you as his friend, may not think himself unkindly treated.
My cold was once so bad that I began to think of country air,
but then what country. I doubt Derbyshire is not the place that
cures coughs. While I deliberated, I grew better, but perceive
myself now not the match that I once was for wind and weather 3 .
Dr. Lawrence 4 laughs at me when he sees me in a great coat.
Infirmity has come somewhat suddenly, at least unexpectedly
upon me, and I am afraid that I suffer myself to be corroded
with vain and idle discontent.
Let me hear from you.
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate humble servant,
London, Feb. 27, 1773. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
1 Johnson had left Taylor s house shivered from the coldness of the
at Ashbourne for Lichfield about the night-air as he and Johnson sailed
end of November. Ante, p. 201. Mr. up the Thames from Greenwich,
Green had a Museum at Lichfield. Johnson, he writes, whose robust
Life, ii. 465. frame was not in the least affected by
2 In the list of books in the Gentle- the cold, scolded me, as if my shiver-
maris Magazine for January of this ing had been a paltry effeminacy,
year (p. 38) is The Rational Spelling- saying, " Why do you shiver ? "
took. By John Clarke of Grantham. Life, i. 462.
3 Ten years earlier, when Boswell 4 Ante, p. 47, n. 2.
To
Aetat. 63.] To the Rev. W. S. Johnson, LL.D. 209
297.
To MR. B-
Johnson s Court, March 4, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 207.
298.
To THE REVEREND MR. WHITE.
Johnson s Court, March 4, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 207.
299.
To THE REVEREND W. S. JOHNSON, LL.D. 1
SIR,
Of all those whom the various accidents of life have brought
within my notice, there is scarce any man whose acquaintance
I have more desired to cultivate than yours. I cannot indeed
charge you with neglecting me, yet our mutual inclination could
never gratify itself with opportunities. The current of the day
always bore us away from one another, and now the Atlantic is
between us.
Whether you carried away an impression of me as pleasing as
that which you left me of yourself, I know not ; if you did, you
have not forgotten me, and will be glad that I do not forget
you. Merely to be remembered is indeed a barren pleasure, but
it is one of the pleasures which is more sensibly felt as human
nature is more exalted.
To make you wish that I should have you in my mind, I
would be glad to tell you something which you do not know ;
but all public affairs are printed ; and as you and I have no
common friend, I can tell you no private history.
The Government, I think, grow stronger ; but I am afraid the
1 First published in the Gentle- mended him to the acquaintance of
man s Magazine for 1825, part ii. Dr. Samuel Johnson. Several letters
p. 320. passed between them, after the
William Samuel Johnson of American Dr. Johnson had returned
Connecticut spent several years in to his native country ; of which, how-
England about the middle of the ever, it is feared that this is the only
last century. He received the de- one remaining. Ib. W. S. Johnson
gree of Doctor of Civil Law from the is described in Alumni Oxonienses
University of Oxford; and this cir- as M.A. by diploma April 21, 1756;
cumstance, together with the acci- D.C.L. by diploma, Jan. 23, 1766,
dental similarity of name, recom- a Missionary.
VOL. I. P
2 1 o To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
next general election will be a time of uncommon turbulence,
violence, and outrage.
Of Literature no great product has appeared, or is expected ;
the attention of the people has for some years been otherwise
employed 1 .
I was told a day or two ago of a design which must excite
some curiosity. Two ships are in preparation, which are under
the command of Captain Constantine Phipps, to explore the
Northern Ocean ; not to seek the north-east or the north-west
passage, but to sail directly north, as near the pole as they can
go. They hope to find an open ocean, but I suspect it is one
mass of perpetual congelation 2 . I do not much wish well to
discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and
robbery 3 .
I have been out of order this winter, but am grown better.
Can I never hope to see you again, or must I be always content
to tell you that in another hemisphere,
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
Johnson s Court, Fleet Street, London, SAM : JOHNSON.
March 4, 1773.
To W. S. Johnson, LL.D., Stratford, Connecticut.
300.
TO MRS. THRALE 4 .
Johnson s Court, Fleet Street,
DEAREST MADAM, March 9, 1773.
Dr. James called on me last night, deep, I think, in wine 5 .
Our dialogue was this :
1 Adam Smith was writing his North Pole, Dr. Johnson observed,
Wealth of Nations and Gibbon his that it was conjectured that our
Decline and Fall, though neither former navigators have kept too
work was published till three years near land, and so have found the sea
later. frozen far north, because the land
2 Captain Phipps (afterwards Baron hinders the free motion of the tide ;
Mulgravej set sail in the following but, in the wide ocean, where the
May, and in the neighbourhood of waves tumble at their full conveni-
Spitzbergen reached the latitude of ence, it is imagined that the frost
more than 80. He returned to does not take effect. Life, v. 236.
England in the end of September. 3 See id. ii. 479.
Gentleman s Magazine, 1774, p. 420. 4 Piozzi Letters, i. 74.
Talking of Phipps s voyage to the 5 I knew a physician, said John-
You
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 2 1 1
-You find the case hopeless ? Quite hopeless. But I hope
you can procure her an easier dismission out of life ? That, I
believe, is in our power.
The rest of his talk was about other things.
If it can give the dear lady any comfort, be pleased to let her
know that my grief for her is very serious and very deep. If
I could be useful as you can be, I would devote myself to her as
you must do. But all human help is little ; her trust must be in
a better Friend.
You will not let me burst in ignorance of your transaction
with A *. Surely my heart is with you in your whole
system of life.
I am, dear Madam, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
I had written this letter before yours came. God bless you all.
301.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
[Johnson s Court],
DEAR MADAM, March 11,1773.
Your negotiation will probably end as you desire. I wish
your pious offices might have the same success, but death is
necessary, and your tenderness will make it less painful. I am
sorry that I can do nothing. The dear lady has my wishes, and
son, who for twenty years was not would have sent them into the world
sober; yet in a pamphlet which he booted and spurred. G. M. Berke-
wrote upon fevers he appealed to ley s Poems, Preface, p. 426. See
Garrick and me for his vindication also Life, i. 81, 159.
from a charge of drunkenness. Life, J A is, I conjecture, the man
iii. 389. It has been stated, and mentioned in the following passage
perhaps rightly, that this physician in Mrs. Thrale s letter of November
was James. Mrs. Piozzi at Boulogne n, 1779 : Do you remember when
recalled the story she once heard of Mr. Perkins told us of that fellow
Miss Ashe, speaking of poor Dr. A r, who would force us into a law-
James, who loved profligate conver- suit and then lost his cause how I
sation dearly " That man should asked in what manner he looked ?
set up his quarters across the water Why, says Perkins, he looked like a
(said she) ; why Boulogne would be man that was nonsuited. Piozzi
a seraglio to him." 3 Piozzi s Journey, Letters, ii. 87.
&c., i. 6. He disapproved of riding, In an undated letter belonging to
for he once told a Prebendary of 1773 she speaks of his callous
Canterbury that if God had meant cruelty. Ib. i. 87.
men should ride so constantly he 2 Piozzi Letters, i. 75.
P 2 sometimes
212 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
sometimes my prayers. I hope our prayers will be heard for
her, and her prayers for herself.
I am, &c>,
SAM: JOHNSON.
302.
To MRS. THRALE .
DEAR MADAM, [Johnson s Court], March 17, 1773.
To tell you that I am sorry both for the poor lady and for
you is useless. I cannot help either of you. The weakness of
mind is perhaps only a casual interruption or intermission of the
attention,, such as we all suffer when some weighty care or urgent
calamity has possession of the mind. She will compose herself.
She is unwilling to die, and the first conviction of approaching
death raised great perturbation. I think she has but very lately
thought death close at hand. She will compose herself to do
that as well as she can, which must at last be done 2 . May she
not want the Divine assistance.
You, Madam, will have a great loss ; a greater than is common
in the loss of a parent. Fill your mind with hope of her happi
ness, and turn your thoughts first to Him who gives and takes
away, in whose presence the living and dead are standing to
gether. Then remember, that when this mournful duty is paid,
others yet remain of equal obligation, and, we may hope, of less
painful performance. Grief is a species of idleness 3 , and the
necessity of attention to the present preserves us, by the merciful
disposition of Providence, from being lacerated 4 and devoured
by sorrow for the past. You must think on your husband and
your children, and do [for them] what this dear lady has done
for you.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 76. 1794, 5. 345), that it should be so
2 Johnson talking of dying said : seldom used in conversation, though
A man knows it must be so, and eminently pleasing, one might in-
submits. It will do him no good to quire long and find no cause, unless
whine/ Life, ii. 107. its familiarity with the surgeon s pro-
3 All unnecessary grief, said fession may be deemed one. She
Johnson, is unwise, and therefore had heard Johnson use it, for it
will not be long retained by a sound seems a favourite term with him.
mind. Ib. iii. 136. See/^y/, Letters of March 30, 1776,
4 Of the word lacerate Mrs. Piozzi and July 27, 1778, and Life, ii. 106 ;
says in her British Synonymy (ed. iii. 419.
Not
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 2 1 3
Not to come to town while the great struggle continues is
undoubtedly well resolved. But do not harass yourself into
danger ; you owe the care of your health to all that love you, at
least to all whom it is your duty to love. You cannot give such
a mother too much, if you do not give her what belongs to
another.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
303.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
[Johnson s Court],
March 20, 1773. The Equinox.
MADAM,
I have now heard twice to-day how the dear lady mends ;
twice is not often enough for such news. May she long and
long continue mending. When I see her again, how I shall love
her. If we could keep a while longer together, we should all, I
hope, try to be thankful. Part we must at last ; but the last
parting is very afflictive. When I see her I shall torment her
with caressing her 2 . Has she yet been down stairs ?
On Tuesday morning I hope to see you. I have not much to
tell you, but will gather what little I can.
I shall be glad to see you, for you are much in my head, not
withstanding your negotiations for my master, he has mended
his share for one year, you must think of cutting in pieces and
boiling him 3 . We will at least keep him out of J ck n s
copper 4 . You will be at leisure now to think of brewing and
negotiating, and a little of,
Madam,
Yours, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Piozzi Letters, \. 78. Johnson wrote it.
2 On June 1 8, the day of her death, 4 For the impostor Jackson see
he recorded in his Diary : Yester- ante, p. 192, n. 3. He had persuaded
day as I touched her hand and kissed Mr. Thrale, writes Mrs. Piozzi, to
it, she pressed my hand between her build a copper somewhere in East
two hands, which she probably in- Smithfield, the very metal of which
tended as the parting caress. Pr. cost .2000, for the manufacture of
and Med. p. 128. his stuff which should preserve ships
3 This sentence surely is not as bottoms. Hayward s Piossi, i. 257.
To
214 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
304.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
MADAM, March 25, 1773.
If my letters can do you any good, it is not fit that you
should want them. You are always flattering me with the good
that I do, without knowing it.
The return of Mrs. Salusbury s appetite will undoubtedly
prolong her life ; I therefore wish it to continue or to improve.
You did not say whether she went down stairs.
Harry will be happier now he goes to school and reads
Milton 2 . Miss will want him for all her vapouring.
Did not I tell you that I thought I had written to Boswell ?
he has answered my letter 3 .
I am going this evening to put young Otway to school with
Mr. Elphinston 4 .
C is so distressed with abuse about his play, that he has
solicited Goldsmith to take him off the rack of the newspapers^.
M is preparing a whole pamphlet against G , and
G is, I suppose, collecting materials to confute M- - 6 .
Jennens has published Hamlet, but without a preface, and
1 Piozzi Letters, \. 79. and actresses had taken their tone
: The poor boy was but seven from the manager, and three of them
years old. He died at the age of ten. refused to play. Forster s Goldsmith,
3 Boswell himself arrived in London ii. 334-6. How wrong they were in
a week later. Life, ii. 209. their forebodings is shown by a
4 See ante, p. 17. sentence in Horace Walpole s Letters
5 C was George Colman the (v. 452), who wrote on March 16 :
elder, Manager of Covent Garden There was a new play by Dr. Gold-
Theatre. His play was She Stoops smith last night, which succeeded
to Conquer, which he had been pre- prodigiously.
vailed on at last by much solicitation, 6 M is Mickle, the translator
nay a kind of force, to bring on. of the Lusiad, and G is Garrick.
Life, iii. 320. Johnson wrote on The play that was refused was The
March 4 of this year: Dr. Gold- Siege of Marseilles. Garrick wrote
smith has a new comedy in rehearsal to Boswell on September 14 of this
at Covent Garden, to which the year : Your friend threatens
manager predicts ill success. I hope me much. I only wish that he would
he will be mistaken. I think it put his threats in execution, and, if
deserves a very kind reception. Id. he prints his play, I will forgive him.
ii. 208. According to Mr. Forster, Life, v. 349. See also ib. ii. 182,
Colman would not go to the expense n. 3, and Appendix D of the present
of new scenes or dresses. The actors volume.
Aetat. 63.]
To Oliver Goldsmith.
215
S declares his intention of letting him pass the rest of
his life in peace 1 . Here is news.
I am, Sec.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
305.
To OLIVER GOLDSMITH 2 .
SIR,
I beg that you will excuse my Absence to the Club ; I am
going this evening to Oxford.
I have another favour to beg. It is that I may be considered
as proposing Mr. Boswel for a candidate of our Society, and
that he may be considered as regularly nominated.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
April 23, 1773. SAM: JOHNSON.
To Dr. Goldsmith.
1 Charles Jennens published in
1773 an edition of Hamlet collated
with ancient and modern editions.
Lowndes Bibl. Man. iii. 2277. S
was George Steevens, who assisted
Johnson in the revised edition of his
Shakespeare (ante, p. 168), famous for
the malignity of his attacks. Life, iii.
281; iv.274- Jennens, the year before,
had published anonymously A vindi
cation of King Lear from the Abuse
of the Critical Reviewers, in which
(p. 2) he attacked Johnson and
Steevens. Johnson he said had
tacitly owned that he was the writer
of a forged letter in the Public
Advertiser, wherein the Doctor dis
covers hisknowledgeinthe geography
of his native country, by representing
Gopsal (the seat of Mr. Jennens) as
some city or large town.
2 Published in Croker s Bosivell,
page 255. Corrected by me from
the original in the possession of
Mr. Alfred Morrison of Fonthill
House.
It is, says Mr. Forster, the only
fragment of correspondence between
Johnson and Goldsmith that has been
preserved. The Club met on the
evening of the day on which this
letter was written, and Goldsmith
was in the chair. Forster s Gold
smith, ii. 367. If Johnson went to
Oxford his stay there was brief, as
on the morning of April 27 Boswell
found him at home. Life, ii. 229. It
is possible that he gave up his visit
on finding that several of the mem
bers wished to keep Boswell out. Ib.
v. 76. For Boswell s election on the
3<Dth see ib. ii. 235, 240.
Goldsmith was, it should seem,
not given to letter-writing. Grainger,
the author of the Sugar Cane, wrote
to Dr. Percy on March 24, 1764:
When I taxed little Goldsmith for
not writing as he promised me, his
answer was that he never wrote a
letter in his life ; and faith I believe
him unless to a Bookseller for
money. Messrs. Sotheby s Auction
Catalogue for November 27, 1889.
Lot 75.
This Letter was sold by Messrs.
Christie & Co. on June 5, 1888 for
,40. The high price was in part
due to the fact already mentioned
To
216 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. ms.
306.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, [Johnson s Court], April 27, 1773.
Hope is more pleasing than fear, but not less fallacious ;
you know, when you do not try to deceive yourself, that the
disease which at last is to destroy, must be gradually growing
worse, and that it is vain to wish for more than that the descent
to death may be slow and easy. In this wish I join with you,
and hope it will be granted. Dear, dear lady, whenever she is
lost she will be missed, and whenever she is remembered she
will be lamented. Is it a good or an evil to me that she now
loves me 2 ? It is surely a good ; for you will love me better,
and we shall have a new principle of concord ; and I shall be
happier with honest sorrow, than with sullen indifference ; and
far happier still than with counterfeited sympathy.
I am reasoning upon a principle very far from certain, a
confidence of survivance 3 . You or I, or both, may be called
into the presence of the Supreme Judge before her. I have
lived a life of which I do not like the review. Surely I shall in
time live better.
I sat down with an intention to write high compliments, but
my thoughts have taken another course, and some other time
must now serve to tell you with what other emotions, benevo
lence, and fidelity,
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
307.
To THE REVEREND W. BAGSHAW.
[London,] May 8, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 258.
308.
TO MRS. THRALE 4 .
MADAM, [Johnson s Court], May 17, 1773.
Never imagine that your letters are long ; they are always
that it is the only Letter of John- 2 See ante, p. 196, n. 5.
son to Goldsmith that is known to 3 Survivance is not in Johnson s
exist. Dictionary.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 81. 4 Piozzi Letters, i. 82.
too
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thralc. 2 1 7
too short for my curiosity. I do not know that I was ever
content with a single perusal.
Of dear Mrs. Salusbury I never expect much better news
than you send me ; de pis en pis is the natural and certain
course of her dreadful malady. I am content when it leaves
her ease enough for the exercise of her mind.
Why should Mr. ***** suppose, that what I took the liberty
of suggesting was concerted with you ? He does not know how
much I revolve his affairs, and how honestly I desire his pros
perity. I hope he has let the hint take some hold of his
mind T .
Your declaration to Miss * * * * is more general than my
opinions allow. I think an unlimited promise of acting by the
opinion of another so wrong, that nothing, or hardly any thing,
can make it right. All unnecessary vows are folly, because they
suppose a prescience of the future which has not been given us.
They are, I think, a crime, because they resign that life to
chance which God has given us to be regulated by reason ; and
superinduce a kind of fatality, from which it is the great privilege
of our nature to be free 2 . Unlimited obedience is due only to
the Universal Father of Heaven and Earth. My parents may
be mad or foolish ; may be wicked and malicious ; may be
erroneously religious, or absurdly scrupulous. I am not bound
to compliance with mandates either positive or negative, which
either religion condemns, or reason rejects. There wanders
about the world a wild notion, which extends over marriage
more than over any other transaction. If Miss * * * * followed
a trade, would it be said that she was bound in conscience to
give or refuse credit at her father s choice ? And is not marriage
a thing in which she is more interested, and has therefore more
right of choice ? When I may suffer for my own crimes, when
1 Mrs. Piozzi in a copy of the ward s Piozzi, i. 65.
printed letters has filled up the 2 BOSWELL. " But you would
blank with the name of Thrale, and not have me to bind myself by a
has added : Concerning his con- solemn obligation." JOHNSON (much
nection with quack chemists, quacks agitated) : " What ! a vow O, no,
of all sorts ; jumping up in the night Sir, a vow is a horrible thing, it is a
to go to Marlbro Street from South- snare for sin." Life, iii. 357. See
wark, after some advertising mounte- also ib. ii. 21.
bank, at hazard of his life. Hay-
I may
2i8 To Mrs. Tkrale. [A. D. 1773.
I may be sued for my own debts, I may judge by parity of
reason for my own happiness. The parent s moral right can
arise only from his kindness, and his civil right only from his
money I .
Conscience cannot dictate obedience to the wicked, or com
pliance with the foolish ; and of interest mere prudence is the
judge.
If the daughter is bound without a promise, she promises
nothing ; and if she is not bound, she promises too much.
What is meant by tying up money in trade I do not under
stand. No money is so little tied as that which is employed in
trade. Mr. * * * * perhaps only means, that in consideration of
money to be advanced, he will oblige his son to be a trader.
This is reasonable enough. Upon ten thousand pounds diligently
occupied, they may live in great plenty and splendour, without
the mischiefs of idleness.
I can write a long letter as well as my mistress ; and shall be
glad that my long letters may be as welcome as her s.
My nights are grown again very uneasy and troublesome.
I know not that the country will mend them ; but I hope your
company will mend my days. Though I cannot now expect
much attention, and would not wish for more than can be spared
from the poor dear lady, yet I shall see you and hear you every
now and then ; and to see and hear you, is always to hear wit,
and to see virtue 2 .
I shall, I hope, see you to-morrow, and a little on the two
next days ; and with that little I must for the present try to be
contented.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Johnson more than once upheld As if th were burying of the dead :
stoutly the right of the child in mar- Cast earth to earth, as in the
riage. See Life, 5.346 ; iii. 377. In grave,
Hudibras the Lady in her Answer To join in wedlock all they have.
to the Knight had maintained much Hudibras, ed. 1806, ii. 445.
the same, where she says : For Miss * * * * see the next
This is the way all parents prove letter.
In managing their children s love ; 2 Poor Johnson ! How careless in
That force em t intermarry and examining the nature and the con-
wed, . duct of his Friends ! BARETTI.
To
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
219
309.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR LADY, [Johnson s Court], May 22/1773.
Dr. Lawrence z is of your mind about the intermission, and
thought the bark would be best ; but I have had so good a night
as makes me wonder. Dr. Lawrence is just gone. He says I
have no fever, and may let bark alone, if I will venture, but it is
meo periculo.
Make my compliments to the dear lady.
I think Mr. T has done right in not prohibiting at least
F- -B flight with her lover. There is no danger of Mr. R s
taking care of his son, and of his son s wife ; and as he is willing
to receive a daughter-in-law without a fortune, he has a right to
provide for her his own way. The great motive to his consent
is, that his son will engage in trade ; and therefore no doubt can
be made but he will enable him to do it ; and whether at Mid
summer, or Michaelmas, we have no need to care, nor right to
prescribe 3 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 88.
2 Dr. Lawrence was one of the
two physicians from whom Johnson
got that knowledge of physic
which no doubt shortened his life.
Boswell describes him as the
learned and worthy Dr. Lawrence,
whom Dr. Johnson respected and
loved as his physician. Life,\\.2(^6,n.
I ; iii. 22 ; ante, p. 48. Johnson states
in his Diary that he had at this time
attempted to learn the Low Dutch
language. My progress, he con
tinues, was interrupted by a fever,
which by the imprudent use of a
small print left an inflammation in
my useful eye. Pr.andAfed.^.i^g.
3 Baretti, who was likely to be
well-informed in this case, fills up
the three blanks with the names of
Thrale, Fanny Plumb, and Rice. In
a marginal note on one of Mrs.
Thrale s letters (Piozsi Letters, i.
95) he says : Young Rice, with
Mr. Thrale s consent, if not by his
advice, went away to France with
Fanny, the daughter of Mr. Plumb,
brother-in-law to Mr. Thrale, and
there married her. The old Gripus
would not consent she should marry
during his life time. BARETTI.
Mr. Thrale s sisters, all eminent for
personal beauty, were, according to
Mr. Hayward, Mrs. Rice, Mrs.
Nesbitt (afterwards Mrs. Scott), and
Lady Lade. Hayward s Piozzi, i.
255. Miss Burney (Diary, ii. 23)
mentions a Mrs. Plumbe, one of
poor Mr. Thrale s sisters, so that
Mr. Hayward s list is not complete.
Mrs. Thrale writing to Johnson
begged him to settle with Mr. Thrale
about these lovers. Piozzi Letters,
i. 88. It seems probable that Mr.
Plumb was dead, and that Mr.
Thrale was Fanny s guardian.
To
22O To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
310.
To MRS. THRALE *.
DEAREST LADY, Ma ^ 2 3> I 773-
Still flatter, flatter ! Why should the poor be flattered ?
The doctor was with me again to-day, and we both think the
fever quite gone. I believe it was not an intermittent, for I took
of my own head physick yesterday ; and Celsus says, it seems,
that if a cathartick be taken the fit will return certo certius.
I would bear something rather than Celsus should be detected
in an error. But I say it was a febris continua, and had a
regular crisis 2 .
What poor * * * * said, is worthy of the greatest mind, since
the greatest mind can get no further. In the highest and the
lowest things we all are equal.
As to Mr. * * * * 3 , let him see a couple of fellows within call ;
and if he makes a savage noise, order them to come gradually
nearer, and you will see how quiet he will grow.
Let the poor dear lady know that I am sorry for her sorrows,
and sincerely and earnestly wish her all good.
Write to me when you can, but do not flatter me. I am
sorry you can think it pleases me 4 . It is enough for me to be,
as Mr. * * * * phrases it,
MADAM,
Your friend and servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
311.
To MRS. THRALE 5 .
DEAR MADAM, Ma y 2 4, 1773-
My fever has departed ; but has left me a very severe
inflammation in the seeing eye. I take physick, and do not
eat.
Recommend me to the poor dear lady, whom I hope to see
again, however melancholy must be the interview 6 . She has
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 89. called A in the Letter of March 9 ;
2 Boswell justly called Johnson a ante, p. 211.
great dabbler in physic. Life, iii. 4 Ante, p. 200.
152. 5 Piozzi Letters, i. 93.
3 The man, I conjecture, who was 6 He recorded in his Diary on
now
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
221
now quickly to do, what I cannot reasonably hope to put off
long,
Res si qua diu mortalibus ulla est 1 ;
and which is at no great distance from the youngest. I have
the same hope with poor N- .
You do not tell me whither the young lovers are gone. I am
glad * * * * is gone with them. What a life do they image in
futurity ! how unlike to what they are to find it ! But to-morrow
is an old deceiver, and his cheat never grows stale 2 . I suppose
they go to Scotland. Was ***** dressed a la Nesbitiennc 3 ?
I shall not, I think, go into the country till you are so kind
as to fetch me, unless some stronger invitation should be offered
than I have yet found.
The difference between praise and flattery is the same as
between that hospitality that sets wine enough before the guest,
and that which forces him to be drunk. If you love me, and
surely I hope you do, why should you vitiate my mind with a
false opinion of its own merit 4 ? why should you teach it to be
unsatisfied with the civility of every other place ? You know
how much I honour you, and you are bound to use your in
fluence well.
Do not let your own dear spirits forsake you. Your talk at
present is heavy, and yet you purpose to take me ; but I hope I
shall take from it one way what I add another. I purpose to
Friday, June 18 : This day after
dinner died Mrs. Salusbury. Pr.
and Med. p. 128.
1 AZneid, x. 86 1.
If life and long were terms that
could agree.
DRYDEN.
2 See Dryden s lines quoted in
the Life, iv. 303, beginning
* When I consider life, tis all a cheat.
3 See post, Letter of May 25,
1780, where Johnson writes : A
lady has sent me a vial, like Mrs.
Nesbitt s vial, of essence of roses.
What am I come to ? Mr. Nesbitt,
Thrale s brother-in-law, is mentioned
in Goldsmith s lines:
So tell Horneck and Nesbitt,
And Baker and his bit,
And Kauffman beside,
And the Jessamy bride.
GOLDSMITH, Selected Poems,
ed. Austin Dobson, pp.
119, 211.
4 Johnson speaking of the ap
plause which Swift constantly re
ceived says : He that is much
flattered soon learns to flatter him
self; we are commonly taught our
duty by fear or shame, and how can
they act upon the man who hears
nothing but his own praises ?
Works, viii. 217.
watch
222 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A. D. 1773.
watch the mollia temper a fandi 1 , and to talk, as occasion offer,
to * * * *.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
312.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR.
[London], June 23, 1773.
In Messrs. Christie & Co. s Auction Catalogue of June 5, 1888, Lot
44 is a Letter of Johnson to Dr. Taylor, two pages quarto, dated June
2 3? I 773- Friendly letter of condolence. "Do not lie down, and
suffer without struggle or resistance. I fancy that neither of us uses
exercise enough."
It was sold for 7 ys.
313.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
Johnson s Court, July 5, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 264.
314.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], August 3, 1773- Published in the Life, ii. 265.
315.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], August 3, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 266.
316.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR 2 .
DEAR SIR,
Your solicitude for me is a very pleasing evidence of your
friendship. My eye is almost recovered, but is yet a little dim,
and does not much like a small print by candle light. You will
however believe that I think myself pretty well, when I tell you
my design.
I have long promised to visit Scotland, and shall set out to
morrow on the journey. I have Mr. Chambers 3 company as far
1 Mollissima fandi tempora. z First published in Notes and
^Eneid, iv. 293. Queries, 6th S., v. 422.
Himself meantime the softest 3 Chambers (ante, p. 132), who
hours would choose. was going a judge, with six thousand
DRYDEN. a year, to Bengal, was visiting New-
No doubt it was to Mr. Thrale castle, his native town, to take leave
that Johnson purposed to talk. of his relations. Life, ii. 264 ; v. 16.
as
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 223
as Newcastle, and Mr. Boswell an active lively fellow is to
conduct me round the country. What I shall see, I know not,
but hope to have entertainment for my curiosity, and I shall be
sure at least of air and motion. When I come back, perhaps a
little invitation may call me into Derbyshire, to compare the
mountains of the two countries.
In the mean time I hope you are daily advancing in your
health. Drink a great deal *, and sleep heartily, and think now
and then of
Dear Sir,
Your Most humble Servant,
Aug. 5, 1773. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev. Dr. Taylor in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
317.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
Newcastle, August ir, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 266.
318.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, [Newcastle], August 12, 1773.
We left London on Friday the sixth, not very early, and
travelled without any memorable accident through a country
which I had seen before. In the evening I was not well, and
was forced to stop at Stilton, one stage short of Stamford, where
we intended to have lodged.
/, Letter of June 23, 1776, for the corresponding month of
where Johnson writes to Taylor : the previous year.) The French
I hope you persevere in drinking. traveller Faujas Saint-Fond who
He himself was for the larger part of made the same journey a few
his life a water-drinker. Life, i. 103, years later, writing of the road from
n. 3. London to Stilton says : Rien
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 103. n est au-dessus de la beaute" et de la
For Johnson s journey to Scotland commodite du chemin pendant ces
see Life, ii. 265, and the whole of 63 milles ; c est 1 avenue d un magni-
vol. v. and my Footsteps of Dr. fique jardin. Voyage en Angleterre,
Johnson in Scotland. The weather ed. 1797, i. 146. Stilton is 75 miles
was bright and hot, as is shewn by from London. Johnson had seen
the table given in the Gentleman s this country early in 1764 when he
Magazine for 1774, p. 290. (In visited the Langton family at their
that Magazine a Meteorological seat at Langton in Lincolnshire.
Diary of the Weather is often given Life, i. 476.
On
224 To Mrs. Tkrale. [A.D. 1773.
On the yth, we passed through Stamford and Grantham T , and
dined at Newark, where I had only time to observe that the
market-place was uncommonly spacious and neat. In London
we should call it a square, though the sides were neither straight
nor parallel. We came, at night, to Doncaster 2 , and went to
church in the morning, where Chambers found the monument of
Robert of Doncaster, who says on his stone something like
this : What I gave, that I have ; what I spent, that I had ;
what I left, that I lost. So saith Robert of Doncaster, who
reigned in the world sixty-seven years, and all that time lived
not one 3 . Here we were invited to dinner, and therefore made
no great haste away.
We reached York however that night ; I was much disordered
with old complaints. Next morning we saw the Minster, an
edifice of loftiness and elegance equal to the highest hopes of
architecture. I remember nothing but the dome of St. Paul s
that can be compared with the middle walk. The Chapter
house is a circular building, very stately, but I think excelled
by the Chapter-house of Lincoln.
1 Stamford is 89 miles from Lon- Howe : Howe : who : is : here
don by the coach road, Grantham I : Robyn : of Doncaster
no, and Newark 124. Paterson s and : Margaret : my : feare
British Itinerary, i. 203-6. Accord- That : I : spent : that : I
ing to Tristram Shandy (ed. 1767, i. had :
92) between Stilton and Grantham, That : I : gave : that : I : have
a distance of 35 miles, there were but That : I : left : that : I
two stages. These two stages my loste :
mother declared were so truly tragi- A.D. 1579-
comical that she did nothing but Quod : Robertus : Byrkes :
laugh and cry in a breath from one Who : in : this : world : did :
end to the other of them all the way. reigne :
2 Doncaster is 160 miles and York Threeskore : yeares : and :
197 miles from London. Smollett seaven :
describes all the windows of all the And : yet : lived : not : one.
inns from Doncaster northwards as Gibbon quotes much the same epitaph
scrawled with doggrel rhymes, in on the grave of Edward Courtenay,
abuse of the Scotch nation. Hum- Earl of Devon, surnamed, from his
phry Clinker, ed. 1792, ii. 176. misfortune, the blind, from his vir-
3 To the kindness of Dr. Sykes of tues, the good earl. It inculcates
Doncaster I owe the following copy with much ingenuity a moral sen-
of the inscription. The tomb tence, which may however be abused
perished in the fire which destroyed by thoughtless generosity. The De-
the church in 1853. dine and Fall, ed. 1807, xi. 263.
I then
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
225
I then went to see the ruins of the Abbey, which was almost
vanished, and I remember nothing of them distinct.
The next visit was to the jail, which they call the Castle ; a
fabrick built lately, such is terrestrial mutability, out of the
materials of the ruined Abbey. The under jailor was very
officious to show his fetters, in which there was no contrivance.
The head jailor came in, and seeing me look I suppose fatigued,
offered me wine, and when I went away would not suffer his
servant to take money. The jail is accounted the best in the
kingdom, and you find the jailer deserving of his dignity r .
We dined at York, and went on to Northallerton, a place of
which I know nothing, but that it afforded us a lodging on
Monday night, and about two hundred and seventy years ago
gave birth to Roger Ascham 2 .
Next morning we changed our horses at Darlington, where
Mr. Cornelius Harrison, a cousin-german of mine, was perpetual
curate. He was the only one of my relations who ever rose in
fortune above penury, or in character above neglect 3 .
1 John Howard thus describes as well. The allowance of food for
each prisoner, whether debtor or
felon, was a sixpenny loaf on Tues
day and Friday. (Weight, Nov. 1774,
3 Ib. 2 oz.). Howard s Present State
of the Prisons, ed. 1777, pp. 24, 396.
2 Northallerton is 222 miles from
London. Johnson in his Life of
Ascham says that he was born in
the year 1515 at Kirby Wiske (or
Kirby Wicke) a village near Northal
lerton, of a family above the vulgar.
Works, vi. 504. Hume spent a
night here nearly three years after
York Gaol in 1774 : In the spacious
area of the Castle is a noble prison
for debtors which does honour to
the county. The rooms are airy and
healthy. The Felons court-yard is
down five steps ; it is too small and
has no water. The cells are in general
about 7^ feet by 6|, and 8| high ;
close and dark ; having only either
a hole over the door about four
inches by eight, or some perforations
in the door of about an inch dia
meter ; not any of them to the open
air, but into passages or entries. In
most of these cells hree prisoners
are locked up at night ; in winter for
fourteen to sixteen hours ; straw on
the stone floors ; no bedsteads. A
sewer in one of the passages often
makes these parts of the gaol very
offensive. The gaoler s pay de
pended chiefly on the fees, often
wrung from the prisoners, and on
the profits from the sale of spirituous
liquors, for every gaoler was a tapster
VOL. I. (
Johnson, on his last visit to London
shortly before his death. Letters of
Hume to Strahan, p. 320.
3 Darlington is 238 miles from
London. Cornelius Harrison was
appointed Perpetual Curate in 1727 ;
he died on October 4, 1748. Sur-
tees History of Drtrham, iii. 364,
and Gentleman s Magazine, 1748, p.
476. When Johnson was ten years
old he and his brother visited his
Uncle Harrison at Birmingham.
The
226 r fo Afrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
The church is built crosswise, with a fine spire, and might
invite a traveller to survey it, but I perhaps wanted vigour, and
thought I wanted time.
The next stage brought us to Durham, a place of which Mr.
Thrale bad me take particular notice. The Bishop s palace has
the appearance of an old feudal castle r , built upon an eminence,
and looking down upon the river, upon which was formerly
thrown a draw-bridge, as I suppose to be raised at night, lest
the Scots should pass it.
The cathedral has a massiness and solidity such as I have
seen in no other place ; it rather awes than pleases, as it strikes
with a kind of gigantick dignity, and aspires to no other praise
than that of rocky solidity and indeterminate duration. I had
none of my friends resident 2 , and therefore saw but little. The
library is mean and scanty.
At Durham, beside all expectation, I met an old friend : Miss
Fordyce is married there to a physician. We met, I think, with
honest kindness on both sides. I thought her much decayed,
and having since heard that the banker had involved her
husband in his extensive ruin 3 , 1 cannot forbear to think that I saw
in her withered features more impression of sorrow than of time.
Qua terra patet, fera regnat Erinnys 4 .
He did not much like us, nor did Bishop could sit in his purple robes
we like him. He was a very mean to pronounce sentence of death,
and vulgar man, drunk every night, He could coin money, hold courts
but drunk with little drink, very in his own name, and all writs went
peevish, very proud, very ostentatious, in his name. Tour in Scotland,
but luckily not rich. Annals, p. 28. ed. 1776, ii. 336. Romilly gives a
He had, I think, married the sister curious account of the grandeur
of Johnson s mother. Cornelius and magnificence and homage
Harrison s son, Cornelius, matricu- which he [Romilly] enjoyed as Chan-
lated at Trinity College, Oxford, on cellor of Durham. Life of Romilly,
April 28, 1761. Alumni Oxonienses. ed. 1840, ii. 112.
1 Durham is 256 miles from Lon- 2 I do not know who were John-
don. Pennant thus describes the son s friends in the Chapter. He
old powers of the Bishops: They knew Warburton and perhaps Lowth,
had power to levy taxes, make truces both of whom, though they were
with the Scots, to raise defensible Bishops, were also Prebendaries of
men within the bishopric from six- Durham. Le Neve s Fast. Eccl.
teen to sixty years of age. They Ang. iii. 309, 316.
could call a parliament, and create 3 See ante, p. 192, n. 3.
barons to sit and vote in it. The 4 Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 241.
He
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 227
He that wanders about the world sees new forms of human
misery, and if he chances to meet an old friend, meets a face
darkened with troubles.
On Tuesday night we came hither ; yesterday I took some
care of myself, and to-day I am quite polite. I have been taking
a view of all that could be shewn me, and find that all very near
to nothing r . You have often heard me complain of rinding
myself disappointed by books of travels 2 ; I am afraid travel
itself will end likewise in disappointment. One town, one
country, is very like another : civilized nations have the same
customs, and barbarous nations have the same nature: there
are indeed minute discriminations both of places and of manners,
which perhaps are not wanting of curiosity, but which a traveller
seldom stays long enough to investigate and compare. The dull
utterly neglect them, the acute see a little, and supply the rest
with fancy and conjecture.
I shall set out again to-morrow, but I shall not, I am afraid,
see Alnwick, for Dr. Percy is not there. I hope to lodge to
morrow night at Berwick, and the next at Edinburgh, where I
shall direct Mr. Drummond 3 , bookseller at Ossian s head, to take
care of my letters.
I hope the little dears are all well, and that my dear master and
mistress may go somewhither, but wherever you go do not forget,
Madam,
Your most humble servant,
I am pretty well. SAM : JOHNSON.
1 Newcastle is 271 miles from Tour in Scotland, ed. 1776, ii. 303.
London. Johnson had spent five Wesley who was in the town when
days on the journey, sleeping on the news reached it of the Young
Friday at Stilton, on Saturday at Pretender s victory at Prestonpans
Doncaster, on Sunday at York, and gives a curious account of the general
on Monday at Northallerton. Pen- alarm. Three of the gates were
nant, who visited Newcastle the year walled up, the walls were mounted
before Johnson, describes it as a with cannon, while most of the best
vast town. The lower street and houses in the street outside the
chares, or alleys, are extremely walls, in which he lodged, were left
narrow, dirty, and in general ill- without furniture or inhabitants,
built. The Keelmen are a mutinous Wesley s Journal, i. 518.
race, for which reason the town is 2 See ante, p. 165.
always garrisoned. In the upper 3 For old Mr. Drummond the
part are several handsome streets. bookseller see Life, ii. 26 ; v. 385.
Q 2 August 15.
228 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
August 15 .
Thus far I had written at Newcastle. I forgot to send it.
I am now at Edinburgh ; and have been this day running about.
I run pretty well.
319.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[Edinburgh], August 14, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 266.
320.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Edinburgh, August 17, 1773.
On the 1 3th, I left Newcastle, and in the afternoon came to
Alnwick, where we were treated with great civility by the Duke :
I went through the apartments, walked on the wall, and climbed
the towers 3 . That night we lay at Belford, and on the next
night came to Edinburgh. On Sunday (i.5th) I went to the
English chapel. After dinner, Dr. Robertson came in, and
promised to shew me the place. On Monday I saw their public
buildings : the cathedral, which I told Robertson I wished to
see because it had once been a church 4 , the courts of justice,
the parliament-house, the advocates library, the repository of
records, the college and its library, and the palace, particularly
the old tower where the king of Scotland seized David Rizzio in
the queen s presence. Most of their buildings are very mean ;
1 August 15, which was Sunday, the Grenville Papers, iii. 329, for a
is probably a mistake for the i6th, curious account of the way in which
Monday, on which day Johnson did Lord Chatham was compelled to
run about Edinburgh. Life, v. 39. give the Dukedom. Belford, John-
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 108. son s next halting-place, is 319 miles,
3 Alnwick is 304 miles from Lon- and Edinburgh 388 miles from Lon
don. See Life, iii. 271, for a scene don.
of too much heat between Dr. 4 Come (said Dr. Johnson jocu-
Johnson and Dr. Percy about Pen- larly to Principal Robertson) let me
nant s description of Alnwick. The see what was once a church. Life,
Duke was the first Duke of North- v. 41. St. Giles s was at this time
umberland, Sir Hugh Smithson, divided into four divisions ; the par-
who had married the great-grand- titions have in late years been swept
daughter of the eleventh and last away, so that Johnson would now
Earl of Northumberland, and had probably allow that it is once more
assumed the name of Percy. See a church.
and
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
229
and the whole town bears some resemblance to the old part of
Birmingham.
Boswell has very handsome and spacious rooms ; level with
the ground on one side of the house, and on the other four
stories high x .
At dinner on Monday were the Duchess of Douglas 2 , an old
lady, who talks broad Scotch with a paralytick voice, and is
scarce understood by her own countrymen ; the Lord Chief
Baron 3 , Sir Adolphus Oughton 4 , and many more. At supper
there was such a conflux of company that I could scarcely
support the tumult. I have never been well in the whole journey,
and am very easily disordered.
This morning I saw at breakfast Dr. Blacklock, the blind poet,
who does not remember to have seen light, and is read to, by
1 Boswell s house was in James s
Court. Hume had occupied a flat
in the same pile of building land
as it is called in Edinburgh up
to the spring of the previous year.
Life, v. 22 ; Letters of D. Hume to
Strahan, p. 1 1 8, and Footsteps of
Dr. Johnson in Scotland, p. 74.
2 Mrs. Sharpe of Hoddam, who
was one of the company, said that
the impression left on her mind of
Johnson was summed up in the
laconic verdict of Mrs. Boswell.
" He was a great brute." . The
Duchess of Douglas was there with
all her diamonds. She was notable
among those of her own rank for her
ostentation and her illiteracy. John
son reserved his attentions during
the whole evening almost exclusively
for her. The pity was that they did
not fall out. The Doctor missed her
rebuff and she could be uncommonly
vulgar. Mrs. Sharpe s most hu
morous recollections of the scene
were she says the efforts of Bos
well, as their go-between, to translate
the unintelligible gaucherie of her
lady-ship into palatable common
places for his guest s ear. Remi
niscences of Old Edinburgh by Sir
Daniel Wilson, ed. 1878, i. 255. See
Life, v. 43, n. 4.
3 Scotland had at this time a
Court of Exchequer with a Chief
Baron and four other Barons. The
chief Baron was named Ord. It was
his daughter who chalked on the
wall of Hume s house St. David s
Street, and so gave that new street its
name. Letters of Hume to Strahan,
p. 251.
4 Oughton was Deputy Com-
mander-in-Chief in Scotland. Life,
v. 45. On November 15 of this
year he presided at a general meet
ing of the Revolution Club, and
proposed that on purpose to cherish
in the minds of the people a just
sense of the advantages derived to
them from the glorious Revolution . .
the members of the Club should for
the future on the I5th of November
walk in procession to church, where
a sermon should be preached on
Revolution principles. This pro
posal was unanimously agreed to.
Scots Magazine, 1773, p. 613. In
less than twenty years, by the dis
orders in France, the word Revolu
tion in England was entirely to lose
its character.
a poor
230 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
a poor scholar, in Latin, Greek, and French. He was originally
a poor scholar himself. I looked on him with reverence z . To
morrow our journey begins ; I know not when I shall write
again. I am but poorly. j am &( ^
SAM: JOHNSON.
321.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Banff 3 , August 25, 1773.
It has so happened that though I am perpetually thinking
on you, I could seldom find opportunity to write ; I have in
fourteen days sent only one letter ; you must consider the fatigues
of travel, and the difficulties encountered in a strange country.
August 18th, I passed, with Boswell, the Frith of Forth, and
began our journey; in the passage we observed an island, which
I persuaded my companions to survey. We found it a rock
somewhat troublesome to climb, about a mile long, and half
a mile broad ; in the middle were the ruins of an old fort, which
had on one of the stones Maria Re. 1564. It had been only
a blockhouse one story high. I measured two apartments, of
which the walls were entire, and found them twenty-seven feet
long, and twenty-three broad 4 . The rock had some grass and
many thistles, both cows and sheep were grazing. There was
a spring of water. The name is Inchkeith. Look on your maps.
This visit took about an hour. We pleased ourselves with being
in a country all our own, and then went back to the boat, and
landed at Kinghorn, a mean town, and travelling through Kirk-
aldie 5 , a very long town meanly built, and Cowpar, which
1 Dr. Johnson received Dr. Black- he will set himself doggedly to it. "
lock with a most humane compla- Life, v. 109.
cency. " Dear Dr. Blacklock, I am 4 With the remains of the fort a
glad to see you." Life, v. 47. light-house was built. Life, v. 55.
Hume magnified him as the Pindar 5 In Kirkcaldy Adam Smith was
of Scotland. Burton s Hume, ii. 32. born on June 5, 1723. Hither he
2 Piozzi Letters, i. no. returned in 1766, and lived in great
3 We found at Banff but an in- retirement for nearly ten years with
different inn. Dr. Johnson wrote a study, as he said, for his business,
long letter to Mrs. Thrale. I won- and long solitary walks by the sea-
dered to see him write so much so side for his amusements. Here he
easily. He verified his own doctrine, wrote his Wealth of Nations. Let-
that " a man may always write when ters of Htune to Strahan, p. 353.
I could
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 231
I could not see because it was night, we came late to St.
Andrew s, the most ancient of the Scotch universities, and once
the see of the Primate of Scotland \ The inn was full, but
lodgings were provided for us at the house of the professor
of rhetorick, a man of elegant manners, who showed us, in the
morning, the poor remains of a stately cathedral, demolished in
Knox s reformation 2 , and now only to be imaged by tracing its
foundation, and contemplating the little ruins that are left.
Here was once a religious house. Two of the vaults or cellars
of the subprior are even yet entire. In one of them lives an old
woman, who claims an hereditary residence in it, boasting that
her husband was the sixth tenant of this gloomy mansion, in
a lineal descent, and claims by her marriage with this lord of the
cavern an alliance with the Bruces. Mr. Boswell staid a while
to interrogate her, because he understood her language ; she told
him, that she and her cat lived together ; that she had two sons
some where, who might perhaps be dead ; that when there were
quality in the town notice was taken of her, and that now she
was neglected, but did not trouble them. Her habitation con
tained all that she had ; her turf for fire was laid in one place,
and her balls of coal dust in another, but her bed seemed to
be clean. Boswell asked her if she never heard any noises, but
she could tell him of nothing supernatural, though she often
wandered in the night among the graves and ruins, only she had
sometimes notice by dreams of the death of her relations. We
then viewed the remains of a castle on the margin of the sea, in
which the archbishops resided, and in which Cardinal Beatoun
was killed.
The professors who happened to be resident in the vacation
made a publick dinner, and treated us very kindly and respect
fully. They shewed us their colleges, in one of which there
is a library that for luminousness and elegance may vie at least
1 Cupar is 30 miles, and St. a strong indignation, while he be-
Andrew s 37 miles, from Edinburgh. held the ruins of religious magnifi-
The Professor at whose house they cence. I happened to ask where
were lodged was Dr. Watson, the John Knox was buried. Dr. John-
author of a History of Philip II. son burst out, I hope in the high-
Life, v. 58. way. I have been looking at his
2 Dr. Johnson was affected with reformations." 1 Life, v. 61.
with
232 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
with the new edifice at Streatham . But learning seems not to
prosper among them ; one of their colleges has been lately
alienated, and one of their churches lately deserted. An experi
ment was made of planting a shrubbery in the church, but it did
not thrive 2 .
Why the place should thus fall to decay I know not ; for
education, such as is here to be had, is sufficiently cheap. Their
term, or, as they call it, their session, lasts seven months in
the year, which the students of the highest rank and greatest
expence may pass here for twenty pounds, in which are included
board, lodging, books, and the continual instruction of three
professors 3 .
2oth, We left St. Andrew s, well satisfied with our reception,
and, crossing the Frith of Tay, came to Dundee, a dirty, despi
cable town 4 . We passed afterwards through Aberbrothick,
famous once for an abbey, of which there are only a few
fragments left, but those fragments testify that the fabrick was
once of great extent, and of stupendous magnificence 5 . Two
of the towers are yet standing, though shattered ; into one of
1 It was the library of St. Mary s Leonard s College which had been
College which they saw. The lately alienated, and it was in one of
doctor by whom it was shewn hoped the buildings which had belonged to
to irritate or subdue my English it that Johnson and Boswell were
vanity by telling me that we had no lodged. The church which had been
such repository of books in England. lately deserted was the College chapel.
Johnson s Works, ix. 5. Round the 3 St. Andrew s seems to be a
library at Streatham were hanging place eminently adapted to study and
thirteen portraits by Reynolds of Mr. education. . . . The students, how-
and Mrs. Thrale and their friends. ever, are represented as, at this time,
It was in this room that the family not exceeding a hundred. I saw no
lived. It used to be the parlour, and reason for imputing their paucity to
there they breakfasted, &c. Nine the present professors. Johnson s
years later Johnson was to make his Works, ix. 4.
parting use of it, and in the prayer 4 Johnson in his published nar-
which he composed to mention the rative spares the feelings of the
comforts and conveniences which he citizens, for he merely says : We
had enjoyed in that place. Life, iv. stopped awhile at Dundee, where I
158, and Prior s M alone, p. 259. remember nothing remarkable. Ib.
2 Of the library of St. Salvator s p. 8.
College the key, says Boswell, 5 I should scarcely have re-
could not be found, for Professor gretted my journey, had it afforded
Hill, who was out of town, had taken nothing more than the sight of
it with him. Life, v. 65. It was St. Aberbrothick. Ib. p. 9.
them
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 233
them Boswell climbed, but found the stairs broken: the way
into the other we did not see, and had not time to search ;
I believe it might be ascended, but the top, I think, is open.
We lay at Montrose, a neat r place, with a spacious area for
the market, and an elegant town-house.
2 ist, We travelled towards Aberdeen, another University, and
in the way dined at Lord Monboddo s, the Scotch judge, who
has lately written a strange book about the origin of language,
in which he traces monkeys up to men, and says that in some
countries the human species have tails like other beasts. He
enquired for these long-tailed men of Banks, and was not well
pleased that they had not been found in all his peregrination.
He talked nothing of this to me, and I hope we parted friends ;
for we agreed pretty well, only we disputed in adjusting the
claims of merit between a shopkeeper of London, and a savage of
the American wildernesses. Our opinions were, I think, main
tained on both sides without full conviction ; Monboddo declared
boldly for the savage, and I, perhaps for that reason, sided with
the citizen 2 .
We came late to Aberdeen, where I found my dear mistress s
letter, and learned that all our little people were happily re
covered of the measles. Every part of your letter was pleasing 3 .
1 When last century a town was the savage equally, had any body else
called neat the force of praise was taken the side of the shopkeeper."
almost exhausted. What the term Life, v. 83. For Lord Monboddo s
meant is shown in Johnson s nar- strange opinions see ib. ii. 74; v.
rative where he describes Montrose 46, and Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in
as well-built, airy and clean. Ib. Scotland, p. 1 1 1 . Banks (afterwards
p. 9. Montrose by the direct road Sir Joseph Banks) had in 1768 ac-
was 70 miles from Edinburgh. companied Captain Cook in his first
Dr. Johnson was much pleased voyage round the world. Ib. v. 328,
with Lord Monboddo to-day. He n, 2.
said, he would have pardoned him 3 Aberdeen is 106 miles from
for a few paradoxes, when he found Edinburgh, and 494 from London,
he had so much that was good : but Thirteen years later the letters from
that, from his appearance in London, London to Aberdeen were six days
he thought him all paradox ; which on the road {Scottish Notes and
would not do. He observed that his Queries, i. 31) ; perhaps in 1773 they
lordship had talked no paradoxes to- were still longer. The next letters
day. " And as to the savage and the which Johnson received were at
London shopkeeper, (said he) I don t Glasgow, nearly ten weeks later,
know but I might have taken the side of
There
234
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
There are two cities of the name of Aberdeen : the old town,
built about a mile inland, once the see of a bishop, which
contains the King s College, and the remains of the cathedral,
and the new town, which stands, for the sake of trade, upon
a frith or arm of the sea, so that ships rest against the key 1 .
The two cities have their separate magistrates, and the two
colleges are in effect two universities, which confer degrees in
dependently on each other 2 .
New Aberdeen is a large town, built almost wholly of that
granite which is used for the new pavement in London 3 , which,
hard as it is, they square with very little difficulty. Here I first
saw the women in plaids 4 . The plaid makes at once a hood
and cloak, without cutting or sewing, merely by the manner of
1 Johnson in his Dictionary gives
the word both under Key and Qttay.
Down to the present year (1891) the
two cities have been distinct, each
having its own Town Council ; that
of the New Town elected by popu
lar vote, but that of the Old Town
the same self-elective body that, on
the Abolition of Episcopacy, re
placed the Bishop s Consistory Court.
The oldest charter either city can
show is one of 1189 granting right of
markets &c. to ( New ) Aberdeen.
Aberdeen on Don would be naturally
called the Old Town, when Aber
deen on Dee had been rebuilt after
its burning about 1330 by the Eng
lish a .
2 King s College and Marischal
College, which were each a Univer
sity in itself, were incorporated into
one body in 1860.
3 The paving of the streets of
London has enabled the owners of
some barren rocks on the coast of
Scotland to draw a rent from what
never afforded any before. Wealth
of Nations, ed. 181 1, i. 226. William
Hutton in his Joiirney to London in
1784 (p. 16), describing the improve-
a This information I owe to my friend Mr. John Wight Duff, B.A., of Pembroke
College, Oxford.
drawing
ments made in the previous thirty-
five years, says : Every street and
passage in the whole city and its
environs has been paved in one
regular and convenient style ; an ex
pense equal in value to the whole
dominions of some sovereign princes.
Pennant says that the small pieces
of granite for the middle of the
streets are put on board for seven
shillings per ton, the long stones at
tenpence per foot. Tour in Scot
land, ed. 1774, i. 125.
4 Ramsay of Ochtertyre says that
in 1747 when he first knew Edin
burgh, nine-tenths of the ladies there
still wore plaids. A few years later,
he adds, One could hardly see a
lady in that piece of dress. In the
course of seven or eight years the
very servant-girls were ashamed of
being seen in that ugly antiquated
garb. Scotland and Scotsmen in
the Eighteenth Century, ii. 88. John
son apparently thought that it was a
Highland dress only ; in his Diction
ary he defines plaid as an outer
loose weed worn much by the high-
landers in Scotland.
Aetat. 63.] To Mrs. Thrale. 235
drawing the opposite sides over the shoulders. The maids at
the inns run over the house barefoot, and children, not dressed
in rags, go without shoes or stockings. Shoes are indeed not
yet in universal use, they came late into this country. One
of the professors told us, as we were mentioning a fort built by
Cromwell, that the country owed much of its present industry to
Cromwell s soldiers. They taught us, said he, to raise cabbage
and make shoes. How they lived without shoes may yet be
seen ; but in the passage through villages, it seems to him that
surveys their gardens, that when they had not cabbage they had
nothing T .
Education is here of the same price as at St. Andrews, only
the session is but from the ist of November to the ist of April.
The academical buildings seem rather to advance than decline.
They shewed their libraries, which were not very splendid, but
some manuscripts were so exquisitely penned that I wished my
dear mistress to have seen them. I had an unexpected pleasure,
by finding an old acquaintance now professor of physick in the
King s College 2 : we were on both sides glad of the interview,
having not seen nor perhaps thought on one another for many
years ; but we had no emulation, nor had either of us risen
to the other s envy, and our old kindness was easily renewed.
I hope we shall never try the effect of so long an absence,
and that I shall always be,
Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
322.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, Inverness, Aug. 28, 1773.
August 23rd, I had the honour of attending the Lord
Provost of Aberdeen, and was presented with the freedom of the
city, not in a gold box, but in good Latin. Let me pay Scotland
one just praise ! there was no officer gaping for a fee ; this could
1 See Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 117.
Scotland, pp. 35, 44. Inverness by the road through
2 Sir Alexander Gordon. Life, Banff and Aberdeen is 221 miles
v. 86. from Edinburgh.
have
236 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
have been said of no city on the English side of the Tweed.
I wore my patent of freedom pro more in my hat, from the new
town to the old, about a mile \ I then dined with my friend the
professor of physick at his house, and saw the King s College.
Boswell was very angry that the Aberdeen professors would not
talk 2 . When I was at the English church in Aberdeen I hap
pened to be espied by Lady Di. Middleton 3 , whom I had
sometime seen in London ; she told what she had seen to Mr.
Boyd, Lord Errol s brother, who wrote us an invitation to Lord
Errol s house, called Slanes Castle. We went thither on the
next day (24th of August), and found a house, not old, except
but one tower, built upon the margin of the sea upon a rock,
scarce accessible from the sea; at one corner a tower makes
a perpendicular continuation of the lateral surface of the rock,
so that it is impracticable to walk round ; the house inclosed
a square court, and on all sides within the court is a piazza
or gallery two stories high 4 . We came in as we were invited to
dinner, and after dinner offered to go ; but Lady Errol sent
us word by Mr. Boyd, that if we went before Lord Errol came
home we must never be forgiven, and ordered out the coach
to shew us two curiosities. We were first conducted by Mr.
Boyd to Dunbuys, or the yellow rock. Dunbuys is a rock
Dr.^ Johnson was much pleased doubt, he used much in the sense
with this mark of attention, and given in Johnson s Dictionary-
received it very politely. There was splendid, magnificent, grand. For
a pretty numerous company as- Johnson s burgess-ticket see Life, v.
sembled. It was striking to hear all 90, n. 2, and Footsteps of Dr. John-
of them drinking "Dr. Johnson! son in Scotland, pp. 18, 116.
Dr. Johnson!" in the town-hall of 2 We had little or no conversation
Aberdeen, and then to see him with in the morning ; now [i. e. at dinner]
his burgess-ticket, or diploma, in his we were but barren. The professors
hat, which he wore as he walked seemed afraid to speak. Life, v.
along the street, according to the 92. The Glasgow professors were
usual custom. Life, v. 90. John almost as timid. Ib. p. 371.
Wesley, who a year earlier had been 3 She was, perhaps, of the family
made a freeman of Perth, in like of the Earl of Middleton who in
manner praised the Latinity of his 1693 threw in his lot with James II.
diploma. I doubt, he wrote, Mr. Boyd, Lord Errol s brother, was
whether any diploma from the City also a Jacobite, and had been out in
of London be more pompous or the 45. Ib. p. 99.
expressed in better Latin. Wesley s 4 The house has been rebuilt.
Journal, iii. 461. Pompous, no
consisting
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Tkralc.
237
consisting of two protuberances, each perhaps one hundred yards
round, joined together by a narrow neck, and separated from the
land by a very narrow channel or gully. These rocks are the
haunts of sea-fowl, whose clang, though this is not their season,
we heard at a distance. The eggs and the young are gathered
here in great numbers at the time of breeding. There is a bird
here called a coote, which though not much bigger than a duck
lays a larger egg than a goose. We went then to see the Buller
or Boulloir of Buchan : Buchan is the name of the district,
and the Buller is a small creek or gulf into which the sea flows
through an arch of the rock. We walked round it, and saw
it black at a great depth I . It has its name from the violent
ebullition of the water, when high winds or high tides drive it up
the arch into the bason. Walking a little further I spied some
boats, and told my companions that we would go into the Buller
and examine it. There was no danger ; all was calm : we went
through the arch, and found ourselves in a narrow gulf sur
rounded by craggy rocks, of height not stupendous, but to
a Mediterranean 2 visitor uncommon. On each side was a cave,
of which the fishermen knew not the extent, in which smugglers
hide their goods 3 , and sometimes parties of pleasure take a
dinner.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
I think I grow better.
1 We walked round this mon
strous cauldron. In some places,
the rock is very narrow ; and on
each side there is a sea deep enough
for a man of war to ride in ; so that
it is somewhat horrid to move along.
However, there is earth and grass
upon the rock, and a kind of road
marked out by the print of feet ; so
that one makes it out pretty safely :
yet it alarmed me to see Dr. John
son striding irregularly along. Ltfe,
v. 100. No man can see the Buller
of Buchan with indifference, who
has either sense of danger or delight
in rarity. . . . He that ventures to
look downward sees that, if his foot
should slip, he must fall from his
dreadful elevation upon stones on
one side or into the water on the
other. Johnson s Works, ix. 16.
Burns thus mentions the place in his
Epistle to Robert Graham :
The stubborn Tories dare to die ;
As soon the rooted oaks would fly
Before th approaching fellers :
The Whigs come on like Ocean s
roar,
When all his wintry billows pour
Against the Buchan Bullers.
2 Johnson in his Dictionary gives
as the second meaning of mediter
ranean, inland ; remote from the sea.
3 When I visited this spot nearly
To
2 3 8
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
323.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST MADAM, Skie > Sept. 6, 1773-
I am now looking on the sea from a house of Sir Alexander
Macdonald 2 in the isle of Skie. Little did I once think of
seeing this region of obscurity, and little did you once expect
a salutation from this verge of European life. I have now the
pleasure of going where nobody goes, and seeing what nobody
sees. Our design is to visit several of the smaller islands, and
then pass over to the south-west of Scotland.
I returned from the sight of Buller s Buchan to Lord Errol s,
and, having seen his library, had for a time only to look upon the
sea, which rolled between us and Norway 3 . Next morning,
August 25th, we continued our journey through a country not
uncultivated, but so denuded of its woods, that in all this journey
I had not travelled an hundred yards between hedges, or seen
five trees fit for the carpenter. A few small plantations may be
found, but I believe scarcely any thirty years old ; at least, as
I do not forget to tell, they are all posteriour to the Union 4 .
forty years ago I was told that it
was often called Lord Errol s
punch-bowl. The tradition ran that
one of the Earls had seized there a
smuggler s cargo of whisky and had
had the kegs emptied into the
water.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 120.
2 See post, pp. 244, 252.
3 From the windows the eye
wanders over the sea that separates
Scotland from Norway, and when
the winds beat with violence, must
enjoy all the terrifick grandeur of
the tempestuous ocean. I would
not for my amusement wish for a
storm ; but as storms, whether
wished or not, will sometimes hap
pen, I may say, without violation of
humanity, that I should willingly
look out upon them from Slanes
Castle. Johnson s Works, ix. 15.
The King of Denmark is Lord
Errol s nearest neighbour on the
north-east. Life, v. loo. The
latitude of Slains Castle is a very
little south of the northernmost point
of Denmark.
4 To vex the poor Scotch out of
mere malignity. Johnson was a real
true-born Englishman. He hated
the Scotch, the French, the Dutch,
the Hanoverians, and had the
greatest contempt for all other Eu
ropean Nations : such were his
early prejudices, which he never
attempted to conquer. BARETTI.
From the banks of the Tweed to
St. Andrews I had never seen a
single tree which I did not believe
to have grown up far within the
present century. Johnson s Works,
ix, 7. Dr. Johnson persevered in
his wild allegation, that he ques
tioned if there was a tree between
Edinburgh and the English border
older than himself. I assured him
he was mistaken, and suggested that
the proper punishment would be
that he should receive a stripe at
This
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. T/trale.
239
This day we dined with a country gentleman, who has in his
grounds the remains of a Druid s temple, which when it is
complete is nothing more than a circle or double circle of stones,
placed at equal distances, with a flat stone, perhaps an altar,
at a certain point, and a stone taller than the rest at the opposite
point. The tall stone is erected I think at the south. Of these
circles there are many in all the unfrequented parts of the island.
The inhabitants of these parts respect them as memorials of the
sepulture of some illustrious person. Here I saw a few trees T .
We lay at Banff.
August 26th, We dined at Elgin, where we saw the ruins
of a noble cathedral ; the chapter-house is yet standing 2 . A
great part of Elgin is built with small piazzas to the lower story.
We went on to Foris, over the heath where Macbeth met the
witches, but had no adventure 3 ; only in the way we saw for the
first time some houses with fruit trees about them. The improve
ments of the Scotch are for immediate profit, they do not yet
think it quite worth their while to plant what will not produce
something to be eaten or sold in a very little time. We rested
at Foris.
A very great proportion of the people are barefoot, and if one
may judge by the rest of the dress, to send out boys without
every tree above a hundred years
old, that was found within that
space. He laughed, and said, " I
believe I might submit to it for a
baubee /" Life, ii. 311.
1 We dined this day at the house
of Mr. Fraser of Strichen, who
showed us in his grounds some
stones yet standing of a druidical
circle, and what I began to think
more worthy of notice, some forest-
trees of full growth. Johnson s
Works, ix. 17.
2 Banff by the direct road was 44
miles from Aberdeen, and Elgin 33
miles from Banff. For the curious
suppression in Johnson s account of
the ruins at Elgin, see Life, vol. vi.
Addenda, p. xxxiv. At the inn at
Elgin they fared but ill ; Dr. John
son said that this was the first time
he had seen a dinner in Scotland
that he could not eat. Ib. v. 115.
See Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in
Scotland, p. 130, for the explanation
of this bad dinner.
3 Hannah More says that the fol
lowing year Johnson told her that
when he and Boswell stopt a night
at the spot (as they imagined) where
the Weird Sisters appeared to Mac
beth, the idea so worked upon their
enthusiasm, that it quite deprived
them of rest. However they learnt
the next morning, to their mortifica
tion, that they had been deceived,
and were quite in another part of
the country. H. More s Memoirs,
i. 50.
shoes
240
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
shoes into the streets or ways z ; there are however more beggars
than I have ever seen in England, they beg if not silently yet
very modestly 2 .
Next day we came to Nairn, a miserable town, but a royal
burgh, of which the chief annual magistrate is styled Lord
Provost 3 . In the neighbourhood we saw the castle of the old
Thane of Cawdor. There is one ancient tower with its battle
ments and winding stairs yet remaining ; the rest of the house is,
though not modern, of later erection 4 .
On the 28th, we went to Fort George, which is accounted the
most regular fortification in the island 5 . The major of artillery
walked with us round the walls, and shewed us the principles
upon which every part was constructed, and the way in which it
could be defended. We dined with the Governor Sir Eyre
Coote 6 and his officers. It was a very pleasant and instructive
day, but nothing puts my honoured Mistress out of my mind.
1 A writer in the Gentleman s
Magazine, 1802, p. mi, asks Mrs.
Piozzi to explain how this unintel
ligible passage stands in the original.
She replied that as the passage
stands in Murphy s edition of John
son s Works, the words are well
arranged, and the paragraph cleared
from all embarrassment. That
nevertheless in the original not a
particle could be found different from
her publication. Ib., 1803, p. 607.
Murphy prints the passage as fol
lows, having apparently conjecturally
emended it : A very great propor
tion of the people are barefoot ; shoes
are not yet considered as necessaries
of life. It is still the custom to send out
the sons of gentlemen without them
into the streets and ways. John
son s Works, ed. 1796, xii. 360.
2 In Edinburgh the proportion of
beggars is, I think, not less than in
London, and in the smaller places it
is far greater than in English towns
of the same extent. Works, ix. 9.
3 At Nairn we may fix the verge
of the Highlands ; for here I first
saw peat fires and first heard the
Erse language. Ib. p. 21. I am
informed that at each meeting of
the Convention of Royal Burghs the
Provost of Elgin formally claims to
be called the Lord Provost, but that
it is not known that Nairn has ever
put forward the claim.
4 Johnson passes over in silence
his visit to Cawdor Manse, where he
was entertained by Lord Macaulay s
great-uncle, and where he met the
Rev. Mr. Grant, the grandfather of
Colonel Grant who, with Captain
Speke, discovered the sources of the
Nile. Life, v. 118, and Footsteps of
Dr. Johnson in Scotland, p. 135.
5 Wolfe, who saw it in 1751, when
it was partly made, writes: I
believe there is still work for six or
seven years to do. When it is
finished one may venture to say
(without saying much) that it will be
the most considerable fortress, and
the best situated in Great Britain.
Wright s Life of Major - General
James Wolfe, p. 178.
6 Seven years later Coote com-
At
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
241
At night we came to Inverness, the last considerable town
in the north, where we staid all the next day, for it was
Sunday 1 , and saw the ruins of what is called Macbeth s
castle 2 . It never was a large house, but was strongly situated.
From Inverness we were to travel on horseback.
August 3Oth, we set out with four horses 3 . We had two High
landers to run by us, who were active, officious, civil, and hardy.
Our journey was for many miles along a military way made
upon the banks of Lough Ness, a water about eighteen miles
long, but not I think half a mile broad 4 . Our horses were not
bad, and the way was very pleasant ; the rock out of which the
road was cut was covered with birch trees, fern, and heath. The
manded the army which defeated
Hyder Ali at Porto Novo. Among
the native soldiers his name was
great and his influence unrivalled.
Nor is he yet forgotten by them.
Now and then a white-bearded old
sepoy may still be found who loves to
talk of Porto Novo and Pollilore. It
is but a short time since one of
those aged men came to present a
memorial to an English officer, who
holds one of the highest employ
ments in India. A print of Coote
hung in the room. The veteran re
cognised at once that face and figure
which he had not seen for more than
half a century, and forgetting his
salam to the living, halted, drew
himself up, lifted his hand, and with
solemn reverence paid his military
obeisance to the dead. Macaulay s
Essays, ed. 1843, iii. 385. It was to
Coote and his officers that Johnson,
as he afterwards owned to Boswell,
talked ostentatiously about granu
lating gunpowder, just as many
years later Johnson s editor, Mr.
Croker, talked about percussion caps
to the Duke of Wellington. John
son perhaps had picked up his
information in writing the article on
granulation in his Dictionary.
1 The Rev. Mr. Grant, who supped
VOL. I.
with the two travellers this Sun
day, used to relate that Johnson,
who was in high spirits, gave an
account of the kangaroo, which had
lately been discovered in New South
Wales, and volunteered an imitation
of the animal. The company stared ;
Mr. Grant said nothing could be
more ludicrous than the appearance
of a tall, heavy, grave-looking man
like Dr. Johnson standing up to
mimic the shape and motions of a
kangaroo. He stood erect, put out
his hands like feelers, and gathering
up the tails of his huge brown coat
so as to resemble the pouch of the
animal made two or three vigorous
bounds across the room. Boswell s
Journal, ed. by R. Carruthers, p. 96.
2 Of this building nothing re
mains.
3 We might have taken a chaise
to Fort Augustus, but, had we not
hired horses at Inverness, we should
not have found them afterwards : so
we resolved to begin here to ride.
We had three horses, for Dr. John
son, myself, and Joseph, and one
which carried our portmanteaus.
Life, v. 131.
Loch Ness is twenty -three
miles long, one and three -tenths
broad. Encyclo. Brit. xiv. 217.
R lake
242 To Mrs, Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
lake below was beating its bank by a gentle wind, and the rocks
beyond the water on the right stood sometimes horrid and wild,
and sometimes opened into a kind of bay, in which there was
a spot of cultivated ground yellow with corn. In one part of
the way we had trees on both sides for perhaps half a mile.
Such a length of shade perhaps Scotland cannot shew in any
other place.
You are not to suppose that here are to be any more towns or
inns. We came to a cottage which they call the general s hut ,
where we alighted to dine, and had eggs and bacon, and mutton,
with wine, rum, and whiskey. I had water.
At a bridge over the river, which runs into the Ness, the rocks
rise on three sides, with a direction almost perpendicular, to
a great height ; they are in part covered with trees, and exhibit
a kind of dreadful magnificence ; standing like the barriers of
nature placed to keep different orders of being in perpetual
separation. Near this bridge is the Fall of Fiers 2 , a famous
cataract, of which, by clambering over the rocks, we obtained
a view. The water was low, and therefore we had only the
pleasure of knowing that rain would make it at once pleasing
and formidable ; there will then be a mighty flood, foaming along
a rocky channel, frequently obstructed by protuberances and
exasperated by reverberation, at last precipitated with a sudden
descent, and lost in the depth of a gloomy chasm.
We came somewhat late to Fort Augustus, where the lieutenant
governor met us beyond the gates, and apologised that at that
hour he could not, -by the rules of a garrison, admit us otherwise
than at a narrow door which only one can enter at a time. We
were well entertained and well lodged, and next morning, after
having viewed the fort, we pursued our journey.
Our way now lay over the mountains, which are not to be
passed by climbing them directly, but by traversing 3 , so that as
we went forward we saw our baggage following us below in
It was called after General Hotel. Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in
Wade who had lodged there while Scotland, p. 150.
he superintended the works upon the 2 It is commonly written Foyers,
road. It was eighteen miles from 3 Johnson does not give traverse
Inverness, near the modern Foyers in this sense in his Dictionary.
a direction
Aetat. 63.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
243
a direction exactly contrary. There is in these ways much
labour but little danger, and perhaps other places of which very
terrifick representations are made are not in themselves more
formidable. These roads have all been made by hewing the
rock away with pickaxes, or bursting it with gunpowder ". The
stones so separated are often piled loose as a wall by the way
side. We saw an inscription importing the year in which one
of the regiments made two thousand yards of the road eastward 2 .
After tedious travel of some hours we came to what I believe
we must call a village, a place where there were three huts built
of turf, at one of which we were to have our dinner and our bed,
for we could not reach any better place that night. This place
is called Enock in Glenmorrison 3 . The house in which we
lodged was distinguished by a chimney, the rest had only a hole
for the smoke. Here we had eggs, and mutton, and a chicken,
and a -sausage, and rum. In the afternoon tea was made by
a very decent girl in a printed linen ; she engaged me so much,
that I made her a present of Cocker s arithmetick 4 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
following the course of the River
Moriston avoids the mountain.
3 Anoch or Aonach, in Glen-
moriston, nine miles from Fort Au
gustus and forty-one from Inverness.
One day, when we were dining
at General Oglethorpe s, I ventured
to interrogate Dr. Johnson. "But,
Sir, is it not somewhat singular that
you should happen to have Cocker s
Arithmetick about you on your
journey ? What made you buy such
a book at Inverness ? " He gave me
a very sufficient answer. " Why, Sir,
if you are to have but one book with
you upon a journey, let it be a book
of science. When you have read
through a book of entertainment,
you know it, and it can do no more
for you ; but a book of science is in
exhaustible." Life, v. 138. For
Johnson s fondness for calculation,
see ib. iii. 207.
1 To make this way the rock has
been hewn to a level with labour
that might have broken the persever
ance of a Roman legion. Works,
ix. 30.
2 Mr. G. J. Campbell of Inver
ness has kindly made enquiries for
me about the old road. It is known
to the people of the Glen as the
Turnings, and can still be traced.
The site of the soldiers camp can
even be distinguished. But of the
stone with the inscription on it no
thing is remembered by them. It was
probably used for building purposes,
or for a hearth-stone. An old shep
herd at Anoch remembers hearing
the old Bard that was living there
speak of the Green Officers Graves,
that is up a bit from our steading.
The new road, along which I drove
in the summer of 1889, starts from
Invermoriston on Loch Lomond, and
R 2
TO
244
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
324.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST MADAM, skie, Sept. 14, 1773.
The post, which comes but once a week into these parts, is
so soon to go that I have not time to go on where I left off in
my last letter. I have been several days in the island of Raarsa 2 ,
and am now again in the isle of Skie, but at the other end of it.
Skie is almost equally divided between the two great families
of Macdonald and Macleod, other proprietors having only small
districts. The two great lords do not know within twenty square
miles the contents of their own territories.
- 3 kept up but ill the reputation of Highland hospitality;
we are now with Macleod, quite at the other end of the island,
where there is a fine young gentleman and fine ladies 4 . The
ladies are studying Earse. I have a cold, and am miserably deaf
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 126. This
letter was written from Dunvegan
Castle, where Johnson was the guest
of Macleod of Macleod. The fol
lowing table of his movements in
Skye may be found convenient.
Life.
v. 147-156 ix. 45
Sept. 2-6.
Armidale .
Sept. 6-8.
Corrichata-
chin . .
Sept. 8-12.
Raasay . .
Sept. 12-13.
Portree and
Kings-
burgh
Sept. 13-21.
Dunvegan .
Sept. 21-23.
Ulinish . .
Sept. 23-25.
Talisker .
Sept. 25-28.
Corrichata-
chin . .
Sept. 28-Oct. I.
Ostig .
Oct. 1-3.
Armidale . 275-279
Works.
156-162
162-179
180-187
207-234
235-248
250-256
257-265
265-275
49
54-62
63
63-67
67
71
73
73
73
2 Johnson in his Journey calls the
island Raasay, as the name is now
written ; Boswell calls it Rasay.
Johnson in his letter was perhaps
following Buchanan, who spells it
Raarsa.
3 Sir Alexander Macdonald. For
his inhospitality, see Life, v. 148,
415, n. 4, and/tf-tf, p. 252.
4 Lady Macleod, who had lived
many years in England, was newly
come hither with her son and four
daughters, who knew all the arts of
southern elegance, and all the modes
of English economy. Johnson s
Works, ix. 63. The title which Lady
Macleod bore was one of courtesy.
Up to this time the wives of High
land lairds and also of Scotch judges
were commonly addressed as Lady.
Ramsay of Ochtertyre, speaking of
the year 1769, says that Somebody
asked Lord Auchinleck before his
second marriage if the lady was to
be called Mrs. Boswell, according to
the modern fashion. Scotland and
Scotsmen of the Eighteenth Century,
\. 173.
and
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Thrale. 245
and am troublesome to Lady Macleod ; I force her to speak loud,
but she will seldom speak loud enough.
Raarsa is an island about fifteen miles long and two broad,
under the dominion of one gentleman who has three sons and
ten daughters ; the eldest is the beauty of this part of the world,
and has been polished at Edinburgh T : they sing and dance, and
without expence have upon their table most of what sea, air, or
earth can afford. I intended to have written about Raarsa, but
the post will not wait longer than while I send my compliments
to my dear master and little mistresses.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
325.
To LORD ELIBANK;.
Skie, September 14, 1773. Published in the Life, v. 182.
326.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAREST MADAM, Skie, Sept. 21, 1773 3 .
I am so vexed at the necessity of sending yesterday so short
a letter, that I purpose to get a long letter beforehand by writing
something every day, which I may the more easily do, as a cold
makes me now too deaf to take the usual pleasure in conversa
tion. Lady Macleod is very good to me 4 , and the place at which
we now are, is equal in strength of situation, in the wildness of
r See/0.y/, p. 257, andLzfe, v. 178. when I visited Dunvegan. One day
2 Ptozzi Letters, i. 128. he had scolded the maid for not
1 The date no doubt, in accordance getting good peats, and had gone out
with Johnson s general custom, came in the rain to the stack to fetch in some
at the end of the letter. The opening himself. Lady Macleod went up to
lines show that he began to write on his room to see how he was, and
September 15 the day after his last found him in bed, with his wig turned
letter was posted. inside out, and the wrong end fore-
* September 1 6. Last night much most. On her return to the drawing-
care was taken of Dr. Johnson, who room she said, " I have often seen
was still distressed by his cold. He very plain people, but anything as
had hitherto most strangely slept ugly as Dr. Johnson, with his wig
without a night-cap. Miss Macleod thus stuck on, I never have seen."
made him a large flannel one. Life, Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in Scotland,
v. 214. The following anecdote I had p. 3.
from Lady Macleod s grand-daughter
the
246
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
the adjacent country, and in the plenty and elegance of the
domestick entertainment, to a castle in Gothick romance *. The
sea with a little island is before us ; cascades play within view.
Close to the house is the formidable skeleton of an old castle
probably Danish 2 , and the whole mass of building stands upon
a protuberance of rock, inaccessible till of late but by a pair of
stairs 3 on the sea side, and secure in ancient times against any
enemy that was likely to invade the kingdom of Skie.
Macleod has offered me an island 4 ; if it were not too far off
I should hardly refuse it : my island would be pleasanter than
Brighthelmstone, if you and my master could come to it ; but
I cannot think it pleasant to live quite alone.
Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis 5 .
That I should be elated by the dominion of an island to forget-
fulness of my friends at Streatham I cannot believe, and I hope
never to deserve that they should be willing to forget me.
It has happened that I have been often recognised in my
journey where I did not expect it. At Aberdeen I found one
of my acquaintance professor of physick 6 ; turning aside to dine
with a country gentleman, I was owned at table by one who
had seen me at a philosophical lecture 7 ; at Macdonald s I was
claimed by a naturalist, who wanders about the islands to pick
up curiosities 8 ; and I had once in London attracted the notice
of Lady Macleod. I will now go on with my account 9 .
The Highland girl made tea, and looked and talked not in
elegantly; her father was by no means an ignorant or a weak man ;
1 Gothick last century is often the
same in meaning as medieval this
century. Medieval is not in Johnson s
Dictionary.
2 It is so nearly entire that it
might have easily been made habit
able, were there not an ominous
tradition in the family that the owner
shall not long outlive the reparation.
Johnson s Works, ix. 64. See Life,
v. 233.
3 It seems odd to find this staircase
in Skye described as if it were in an
Oxford College or the Temple.
4 There is a beautiful little island
in the Loch of Dunvegan, called Isa.
M c Leod said, he would give it to
Dr. Johnson, on condition of his
residing on it three months in the
year ; nay one month. Life, v. 249.
5 Your friends forgetting, by your
friends forgot.
FRANCIS. Horace, Epis. I. xi. 9.
6 Ante, p. 235.
1 Life, v. 1 08 ; ante, p. 186.
8 Life, v. 149.
9 He takes it up from p. 243, at
Anoch.
there
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
247
there were books in the cottage, among which were some volumes
of Prideaux s Connection 1 : this man s conversation we were glad
of while we staid. He had been out, as they call it, in forty-five,
and still retained his old opinions. He was going to America,
because his rent was raised beyond what he thought himself able
to pay.
At night our beds were made, but we had some difficulty in
persuading ourselves to lie down in them, though we had put on
our own sheets ; at last we ventured, and I slept very soundly in
the vale of Glenmorrison, amidst the rocks and mountains. Next
morning our landlord liked us so well, that he walked some miles
with us for our company, through a country so wild and barren
that the proprietor does not, with all his pressure upon his tenants,
raise more than four hundred pounds a-year for near one hundred
square miles, or sixty thousand acres. He let us know that he
had forty head of black cattle, an hundred goats, and an hundred
sheep, upon a farm that he remembered let at five pounds a-year,
but for which he now paid twenty 2 . He told us some stories of
their march into England 3 . At last he left us, and we went for
ward, winding among mountains, sometimes green and sometimes
naked, commonly so steep as not easily to be climbed by the
greatest vigour and activity : our way was often crossed by little
rivulets, and we were entertained with small streams trickling
from the rocks, which after heavy rains must be tremendous
torrents.
About noon we came to a small glen, so they call a valley,
which compared with other places appeared rich and fertile ;
here our guides desired us to stop, that the horses might graze,
for the journey was very laborious, and no more grass would be
found. We made no difficulty of compliance, and I sat down to
take notes on a green bank, with a small stream running at my
1 Our landlord was a sensible
fellow ; he had learned his grammar,
and Dr. Johnson justly observed, that
" a man is the better for that as long
as he lives." Life, v. 135. See also
Johnson s Works, ix. 31.
2 Adam Smith shows that the
Union had raised the price of cattle,
and that this rise had raised the
value of all Highland estates.
Wealth of Nations, ed. 1811, i. 309.
3 As he narrated, writes Bos-
well, the particulars of that ill-
advised but brave attempt I could not
refrain from tears. Life, v. 140.
feet,
248 To Mrs. Tkrale. [A. D. 1773.
feet, in the midst of savage solitude, with mountains before me,
and on either hand covered with heath. I looked around me,
and wondered that I was not more affected, but the mind is not
at all times equally ready to be put in motion x ; if my mistress
and master and Queeney had been there we should have pro
duced some reflections among us, either poetical or philosophical,
for though solitude be the nurse of woe 2 , conversation is often the
parent of remarks and discoveries.
In about an hour we remounted, and pursued our journey.
The lake by which we had travelled for some time ended in a
river, which we passed by a bridge, and came to another glen,
with a collection of huts, called Auknashealds ; the huts were
generally built of clods of earth, held together by the intertexture
of vegetable fibres, of which earth there are great levels in Scot
land which they call mosses. Moss in Scotland is bog in Ireland,
and moss-trooper is bog-trotter 3 : there was, however, one hut
built of loose stones, piled up with great thickness into a strong
though not solid wall. From this house we obtained some great
pails of milk, and having brought bread with us, were very
liberally regaled. The inhabitants, a very coarse 4 tribe, ignorant
1 I sat down on a bank, such as a And seeks, as I have vainly
writer of romance might have de- done,
lighted to feign. I had, indeed, no Amusing thought ; but learns to
trees to whisper over my head ; but know
a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. That solitude s the nurse of
The day was calm, the air soft, and woe.
all was rudeness, silence, and solitude. PARNEJLL. A Hymn to Con-
Before me, and on either side, were tentment.
high hills, which, by hindering the Pope in his Satires of Donne, iv.
eye from ranging, forced the mind to 185, has wholesome solitude, the
find entertainment for itself. Whether nurse of sense.
I spent the hour well, I know not ; 3 Moss-trooper is not in Johnson s
for here I first conceived the thought Dictionary.
of this narration. Johnson s Works, 4 Johnson in his Dictionary gives
ix. 36. For my attempt to discover as the third meaning of coarse, rude,
this stream, see Footsteps of Dr. uncivil, rough of manners ; but he
Johnson in Scotland,^. 156. does not give any instance. It was
2 The silent heart, which grief also applied to weather at this time ;
assails, thus May 30, 1772, is described as a
Treads soft and lonesome o er gloomy, hot morning ; coarse after-
the vales, noon. Gentleman s Magazine, 1773,
Sees daisies open, rivers run, p. 158.
of
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Thrale. 249
of any language but Earse, gathered so fast about us, that if we
had not had Highlanders with us, they might have caused more
alarm than pleasure J ; they are called the Clan of Macrae.
We had been told that nothing gratified the Highlanders so
much as snuff and tobacco 2 , and had accordingly stored our
selves with both at Fort Augustus. Boswell opened his treasure,
and gave them each a piece of tobacco roll. We had more bread
than we could eat for the present, and were more liberal than
provident. Boswell cut it in slices, and gave them an opportunity
of tasting wheaten bread for the first time 3 . I then got some
halfpence for a shilling, and made up the deficiencies of Boswell s
distribution, who had given some money among the children.
We then directed that the mistress of the stone house should be
asked what we must pay her : she, who perhaps had never before
sold any thing but cattle, knew not, I believe, well what to ask,
and referred herself to us : we obliged her to make some de
mand, and one of the Highlanders settled the account with her
at a shilling. One of the men advised her, with the cunning
that clowns never can be without, to ask more ; but she said
that a shilling was enough. We gave her half a crown, and she
offered part of it again. The Macraes were so well pleased with
our behaviour, that they declared it the best day they had seen
since the time of the old Laird of Macleod, who, I suppose, like
us, stopped in their valley, as he was travelling to Skie.
We were mentioning this view of the Highlander s life at Mac-
donald s, and mentioning the Macraes with some degree of pity,
when a Highland lady informed us that we might spare our
tenderness, for she doubted not but the woman who supplied us
with milk was mistress of thirteen or fourteen milch cows.
I cannot forbear to interrupt my narrative. Boswell, with
some of his troublesome kindness, has informed this family and
1 I observed to Dr. Johnson, it upon with an evil eye. J. Knox s
was much the same as being with a Tour through the Highlands in 1786,
tribe of Indians. JOHNSON. " Yes, p. 255.
Sir ; but not so terrifying." Life,v. 3 So uncommon was wheaten bread
142, and Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in even a quarter of a century later that
Scotland, p. 162. Dr. Garnett, after leaving Inverary,
2 Knox recorded a few years later tasted none till he reached Inverness,
that any stranger who cannot take T. Garnett s Observations on a Tour
a pinch of snuff or give one is looked through the Highlands, 1800, ii. 12.
reminded
250 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
reminded me that the i8th of September is my birth-day . The
return of my birth-day, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts
which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape. I
can now look back upon threescore and four years, in which little
has been done, and little has been enjoyed ; a life diversified by
misery, spent part in the sluggishness of penury 2 , and part under
the violence of pain, in gloomy discontent or importunate dis
tress 3 . But perhaps I am better than I should have been if I
had been less afflicted. With this I will try to be content.
In proportion as there is less pleasure in retrospective con
siderations, the mind is more disposed to wander forward into
futurity; but at sixty-four what promises, however liberal, of
imaginary good can futurity venture to make? yet something
will be always promised, and some promises will always be
credited. I am hoping and I am praying that I may live better
in the time to come 4 , whether long or short, than I have yet
lived, and in the solace of that hope endeavour to repose. Dear
Queeney s day is next 5 , I hope she at sixty-four will have less to
regret.
I will now complain no more, but tell my mistress of my
travels.
After we left the Macraes we travelled on through a country
like that which we passed in the morning. The Highlands are
very uniform, for there is little variety in universal barrenness 6 ;
1 Before breakfast, Dr. Johnson And froze the genial current of
came up to my room to forbid me to the soul.
mention that this was his birth-day ; Gray s Elegy.
but I told him I had done it already ; 3 Poor Johnson ! All this was
at which he was displeased. Life, v. too true. BARETTI.
222. Johnson made the following 4 He means little more than that
record in his Diary : On last Satur- he shall pray more, and go oftener to
day was my sixty-fourth birthday. I church. BARETTI. On July 22 of
might perhaps have forgotten it had this year Johnson had recorded :
not Boswell told me of it ; and, what Whether I have not lived resolving
pleased me less, told the family at till the possibility of performance is
Dun vegan. Pr. and Med., p. 131. past, I know not. God help me, I
See Life, iii. 157, where Boswell four will yet try. Pr. and Med., p. 130.
years later again offended Johnson 5 She had kept hers the day before,
by recalling his birthday, and post, See Life, iii. 157, n. 3.
Letter of September 16, 1783. 6 An eye accustomed to flowery
2 Chill penury repressed their pastures and waving harvests is
noble rage, astonished and repelled by this wide
the
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs, Tkrale. 251
the rocks, however, are not all naked, some have grass on their
sides, and birches and alders on their tops, and in the vallies are
often broad and clear streams, which have little depth, and com
monly run very quick : the channels are made by the violence of
the wintry floods ; the quickness of the stream is in proportion
to the declivity of the descent, and the breadth of the channel
makes the water shallow in a dry season.
There are red deer and roebucks in the mountains, but we
found only goats in the road T , and had very little entertainment
as we travelled either for the eye or ear. There are, I fancy, no
singing birds in the Highlands 2 .
Towards night we came to a very formidable hill called Ratti-
ken 3 , which we climbed with more difficulty than we had yet
experienced, and at last came to Glenelg, a place on the sea-side
opposite to Skie. We were by this time weary and disgusted,
nor was our humour much mended by our inn, which, though it
was built of lime and slate, the Highlander s description of a
house which he thinks magnificent, had neither wine, bread,
eggs, nor any thing that we could eat or drink. When we were
taken up stairs, a dirty fellow bounced out of the bed where one
of us was to lie 4 . Boswell blustered, but nothing could be got.
extent of hopeless sterility. John- song of birds or the rustling of the
son s Works, ix. 35. Beattie de- leaves is not clear. Wesley, who
scribes the Highlands as a pictur- visited Inverness early in May,
esque, but in general a melancholy heard abundance of birds welcom-
country. Essays on Poetry and ing the return of spring. Wesley s
Music, p. 169. See Footsteps of Journal, iv. 275.
Dr. Johnson in Scotland, pp. 24-33. 3 Rattachan or Rattagan.
1 See Life, v. 144, for the attempt 4 Out of one of the beds on which
made by one of his guides to divert we were to repose started up at our
him by making the goats jump. entrance a man black as a Cyclops
2 It is odd that he should have from the forge. Johnson s Works,
looked for singing-birds on the first ix. 44. Macaulay says : It is
of September. Goldsmith twenty clear that Johnson himself did not
years earlier describing southern think in the dialect in which he
Scotland said : Every part of the wrote. The expressions which came
country presents the same dismal first to his tongue were simple, ener-
landscape. No grove nor brook lend getic, and picturesque. When he
their music to cheer the stranger, or wrote for publication, he did his sen-
make the inhabitants forget their tences out of English into Johnsonese,
poverty. Forster s Life of Goldsmith, His letters from the Hebrides to
i. 433. Whether the music was the Mrs. Thrale are the original of that
At
252 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D.m3.
At last a gentleman in the neighbourhood, who heard of our
arrival, sent us rum and white sugar. Boswell was now pro
vided for in part, and the landlord prepared some mutton chops,
which we could not eat, and killed two hens, of which Boswell
made his servant broil a limb, with what effect I know not We
had a lemon and a piece of bread, which supplied me with my
supper. When the repast was ended, we began to deliberate
upon bed ; Mrs. Boswell had warned us that we should catch
something, and had given us sheets for our security , for and
, she said, came back from Skie. so scratching themselves.
I thought sheets a slender defence against the confederacy with
which we were threatened, and by this time our Highlanders
had found a place where they could get some hay: I ordered
hay to be laid thick upon the bed, and slept upon it in my great
coat" : Boswell laid sheets upon his bed, and reposed in linen like
a gentleman. The horses were turned out to grass, with a man
to watch them. The hill Rattiken and the inn at Glenelg were
the only things of which we, or travellers yet more delicate, could
find any pretensions to complain.
Sept. 2nd, I rose rustling from the hay, and went to tea, which
I forget whether we found or brought. We saw the isle of Skie
before us, darkening the horizon with its rocky coast. A boat
was procured, and we launched into one of the straits of the
Atlantick ocean. We had a passage of about twelve miles to
the point where * resided, having come from his seat in the
middle of the island to a small house on the shore, as we believe,
that he might with less reproach entertain us meanly. If he
aspired to meanness, his retrograde ambition 2 was completely
gratified, but he did not succeed equally in escaping reproach.
He had no cook, nor I suppose much provision, nor had the
work of which the Journey to the Essay on Ambition: If ambitious
Hebrides is the translation ; and it men be checked in their desires they
is amusing to compare the two ver- become secretly discontent, and look
sions. Macaulay thereupon quotes upon men and matters with an evil
these two passages. Macaulay s eye, and are best pleased when
Essays, ed. 1843, i. 404. things go backward. . . Therefore it
1 Sir Alexander Macdonald. See is good for princes, if they use
ante, p. 244. ambitious men, to handle it so as
2 Johnson perhaps had in mind they be still progressive and not re-
the following passage in Bacon s trograde.
Lady
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Thrale. 253
Lady the common decencies of her tea-table : we picked up our
sugar with our fingers. Boswell was very angry, and reproached
him with his improper parsimony; I did not much reflect upon
the conduct of a man with whom I was not likely to converse as
long at any other time.
You will now expect that I should give you some account of
the isle of Skie, of which, though I have been twelve days upon
it, I have little to say. It is an island perhaps fifty miles long,
so much indented by inlets of the sea that there is no part of it
removed from the water more than six miles. No part that I
have seen is plain ; you are always climbing or descending, and
every step is upon rock or mire. A walk upon ploughed ground
in England is a dance upon carpets compared to the toilsome
drudgery of wandering in Skie. There is neither town nor village
in the island, nor have I seen any house but Macleod s, that is
not much below your habitation at Brighthelmstone. In the-
mountains there are stags and roebucks, but no hares, and few
rabbits x ; nor have I seen any thing that interested me as a
zoologist, except an otter, bigger than I thought an otter could
have been 2 .
You are perhaps imagining that I am withdrawn from the gay
and the busy world into regions of peace and pastoral felicity, and
am enjoying the reliques 3 of the golden age ; that I am survey
ing nature s magnificence from a mountain, or remarking her
minuter beauties on the flowery bank of a winding rivulet ; that
I am invigorating myself in the sunshine, or delighting my
imagination with being hidden from the invasion of human evils
and human passions in the darkness of a thicket ; that I am busy
in gathering shells and pebbles on the shore, or contemplative
*
1 That they have few or none of as England from wolves. The fund
either [i. e. hares and rabbits] in for these rewards is a tax of sixpence
Sky, they impute to the ravage of in the pound, imposed by the farmers
the foxes, and have therefore set, for on themselves, and said to be paid
some years past, a price upon their with great willingness. Johnson s
heads, which, as the number was Works, ix. 57.
diminished, has been gradually 2 See Johnson s Works, ix. 57.
raised, from three shillings and six- 5 Johnson in his Dictionary has
pence to a guinea, a sum so great in relicks but not reliques. Percy had
this part of the world, that in a short perhaps made the other spelling
time Sky may be as free from foxes, familiar by his Reliques.
on
254 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
on a rock, from which I look upon the water, and consider how
many waves are rolling between me and Streatham.
The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and
instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are T .
Here are mountains which I should once have climbed, but to
climb steeps is now very laborious, and to descend them danger
ous 2 ; and I am now content with knowing, that by scrambling
up a rock, I shall only see other rocks, and a wider circuit of
barren desolation. Of streams, we have here a sufficient number,
but they murmur not upon pebbles, but upon rocks. Of flowers, if
Chloris herself were here, I could present her only with the bloom
of heath 3 . Of lawns and thickets, he must read that would
know them, for here is little sun and no shade. On the sea I
look from my window, but am not much tempted to the shore ;
for since I came to this island, almost every breath of air has
been a storm, and what is worse, a storm with all its severity,
but without its magnificence, for the sea is here so broken into
channels that there is not a sufficient volume of water either for
lofty surges or a loud roar 4 .
On Sept. 6th, we left 5 to visit Raarsa, the island which
I have already mentioned. We were to cross part of Skie on
horseback ; a mode of travelling very uncomfortable, for the
road is so narrow, where any road can be found, that only one
can go, and so craggy that the attention can never be remitted ;
it allows, therefore, neither the gaiety of conversation, nor the
laxity of solitude ; nor has it in itself the amusement of much
variety, as it affords only all the possible transpositions of bog,
1 See his Works, ix. 35, where he 4 We had here more wind than
enlarges upon this. waves, and suffered the severity of a
2 Upon one of the precipices [on tempest, without enjoying its magni-
Rattachan] my horse, weary with the ficence. The sea being broken by
steepness of the rise, staggered a the multitude of islands, does not
little, and I called in haste to the roar with so much noise, nor beat
Highlander to hold him. This was the storm with such foamy violence,
the only moment of my journey in as I have remarked on the coast of
which I thought myself endangered. Sussex. Though, while I was in the
Johnson s Works, ix. 44. Hebrides, the wind was extremely
The modern traveller would turbulent, I never saw very high
think that having heath she would billows. Id. p. 65.
have had everything. 5 Armidale.
rock,
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
255
rock, and rivulet. Twelve miles, by computation, make a reason
able journey for a day.
At night we came to a tenant s house, of the first rank of
tenants, where we were entertained better than at the landlord s J .
There were books both English and Latin 2 . Company gathered
about us, and we heard some talk of the second sight 3 , and some
talk of the events of forty-five ; a year which will not soon be
forgotten among the islanders. The next day we were confined
by a storm. The company, I think, encreased, and our enter
tainment was not only hospitable but elegant. At night, a
minister s sister, in very fine brocade, sung Earse songs ; I
wished to know the meaning, but the Highlanders are not
much used to scholastick questions, and no translations could
be obtained 4 .
Next day, Sept. 8th, the weather allowed us to depart ; a good
boat was provided us, and we went to Raarsa under the conduct
of Mr. Malcolm Macleod, a gentleman who conducted Prince
Charles through the mountains in his distresses. The Prince,
he says, was more active than himself; they were, at least, one
night without any shelter 5 .
The wind blew enough to give the boat a kind of dancing
agitation 6 , and in about three or four hours we arrived at
1 Their host was Lachlan Mac-
kinnon, who lived at Corrichatachin,
near Broadford (Boswell calls the
place Broadfoot). We here en
joyed the comfort of a table plenti
fully furnished, the satisfaction of
which was heightened by a numerous
and cheerful company ; and we for
the first time had a specimen of the
joyous social manners of the inhabi
tants of the Highlands. Life, v.
157. On the ruins of Mackinnon s
house I saw his initials carved on
a stone over the door. Footsteps
of Dr. Johnson in Scotland, p. 169.
2 I never was in any house of the
islands where I did not find books in
more languages than one, if I staid
long enough to want them, except
one from which the family was re
moved. Johnson s Works, ix. 50.
He is speaking of the higher rank
of the Hebridians, for on p. 61
he says : The greater part of the
islanders make no use of books.
3 See ib. p. 104, and Life, v. 159.
4 Post, p. 260.
5 Life, v. 161, 191-2, 195.
6 After we were out of the shelter
of Scalpa, and in the sound between
it and Rasay, which extended about
a league, the wind made the sea very
rough. I did not like it. JOHNSON.
" This now is the Atlantick. If I
should tell at a tea table in London,
that I have crossed the Atlantick in
an open boat, how they d shudder,
and what a fool they d think me to
expose myself to such danger ! "
Ib. p. 163.
Raarsa,
256 To Mrs. Tkrale. [A.D. 1773.
Raarsa, where we were met by the Laird and his friends upon
the shore. Raarsa, for such is his title J , is master of two islands ;
upon the smaller of which, called Rona, he has only flocks and
herds. Rona gives title to his eldest son. The money which
he raises annually by rent from all his dominions, which contain
at least fifty thousand acres, is not believed to exceed two
hundred and fifty pounds ; but as he keeps a large farm in his
own hands, he sells every year great numbers of cattle, which
add to his revenue, and his table is furnished from the farm and
from the sea, with very little expence, except for those things
this country does not produce, and of those he is very liberal.
The wine circulates vigorously, and the tea, chocolate, and coffee,
however they are got 2 , are always at hand.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
We are this morning trying to get out of Skie 3 .
327.
TO MRS. THRALE 4 .
DEAR MADAM, Skie, Sept. 24, 1773 5 .
I am still in Skie. Do you remember the song ?
Ev ry island is a prison,
Strongly guarded by the sea.
1 It is usual to call gentlemen remained in his chamber writing a
in Scotland by the name of their letter, and it was long before we
possessions, as Raasay, Bernera, could get him into motion. He did
Loch Buy, a practice necessary in not come to breakfast, but had it
countries inhabited by clans, where sent to him. When he had finished
all that live in the same territory his letter, it was twelve o clock, and
have one name, and must be there- we should have set out at ten. When
fore discriminated by some addition. I went up to him, he said to me,
Johnson s Works, ix. 66. The Laird s " Do you remember a song which
name was John Macleod. begins,
3 There was no custom-house on
the island. Post, p. 271. Every island is a prison
s This was written on September Strongly guarded by the sea ;
, , j ., , r. r^ Kings and princes, for that reason,
21. on which day they left Dun- ,., ,
r . f Prisoners are, as well as we ?
vegan. Life, v. 232.
4 Piozzi Letters, i. 143.
5 It was on September 25 that The song is by Coffey, and is
this letter was written. Boswell re- given in Ritson s English Songs
cords on that day : Dr. Johnson (1813), ii. 122. It begins :
We
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. 7^/irale. 257
We have at one time no boat, and at another may have too
much wind ; but of our reception here we have no reason to
complain. We are now with Colonel Macleod, in a more
pleasant place than I thought Skie could afford 1 . Now to the
narrative.
We were received at Raarsa on the sea-side, and after clamber
ing with some difficulty over the rocks, a labour which the
traveller, wherever he reposes himself on land, must in these
islands be contented to endure, we were introduced into the
house, which one of the company called the Court of Raarsa,
with politeness which not the Court of Versailles could have
thought defective. The house is not large, though we were
told in our passage that it had eleven fine rooms, nor magni
ficently furnished, but our utensils were most commonly silver 2 .
We went up into a dining room, about as large as your blue
room 3 , where we had something given us to eat, and tea and
coffee.
Raarsa himself is a man of no inelegant appearance, and of
manners uncommonly refined. Lady Raarsa makes no very
sublime appearance for a sovereign, but is a good housewife,
and a very prudent and diligent conductress of her family. Miss
Flora Macleod is a celebrated beauty ; has been admired at
Edinburgh ; dresses her head very high ; and has manners so
Welcome, welcome, brother debtor, 2 Johnson seems to use utensils in
To this poor but merry place, much the same sense as Caliban does
Where no bailiff, dun, nor setter, when he speaks of Prospero s brave
Dares to show his frightful face. utensils. (The Tempest, Act iii.
Perhaps Coffey had read Burton, sc. 2.) In the Hebrides, he says,
who says in The Anatomy of Melan- they use silver on all occasions
choly (ed. 1660, p. 339), What I where it is common in England, nor
have said of servitude I say again of did I ever find a spoon of horn but
imprisonment. We are all prisoners. in one house. It was at Grissipol
What s our life but a prison ? We in Coll where the spoons were of
are all imprisoned in an island. horn. Works, ix. 53, 119.
Howell has the same thought in his 3 The drawing-room at Streat-
Letter of August 2, 1643 : Let the ham, writes Dr. Burney, if memory
English people flatter themselves as does not deceive me, was hung with
long as they will that they are free, plain bright sky-blue paper, orna-
yet they are in effect but prisoners, mented with a very gay border,
as all other islanders are. somewhat tawdry. Prior s Malone,
1 They were at Talisker ; frost, p. 259.
p. 268.
VOL. I. s lady
258
To Mrs, Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
lady like, that I wish her head-dress was lower 1 . The rest of
the nine girls are all pretty ; the youngest is between Oueeney
and Lucy. The youngest boy, of four years old, runs barefoot,
and wandered with us over the rocks to see a mill. I believe
he would walk on that rough ground without shoes ten miles
in a day.
The Laird of Raarsa has sometimes disputed the chieftainry
of the clan with Macleod of Skie, but being much inferior in
extent of possessions, has, I suppose, been forced to desist.
Raarsa and its provinces have descended to its present possessor
through a succession of four hundred years, without any increase
or diminution 2 . It was indeed lately in danger of forfeiture,
but the old Laird joined some prudence with his zeal, and when
Prince Charles landed in Scotland, made over his estate to his
son, the present Laird, and led one hundred men of Raarsa into
the field, with officers of his own family 3 . Eighty-six only came
1 At a very elegant masquerade
at Richmond a gentleman appeared
in women s clothes with a head-dress
four feet high, composed of greens
and garden stuff, and crowned with
tufts of endiff nicely blanched. The
force of the ridicule was felt by some
of the ladies. Gentleman s Maga
zine, 1776, p. 1 88. Later on in this
same year Foote as Lady Pentweazle
in Taste wore a head-dress stuck
full of feathers, in the utmost ex
travagance of the present mode,
being at least a yard wide. Their
Majesties, who were present, laughed
immoderately. The elegant, becom
ing manner in which her Majesty s
head was dressed was however the
severest satire on the present filthy
fashion. Ib. p. 334. See post,
Letter of August 27, 1777. The
fashion was not a new one, for on
February 10, 1767, Mrs. Osborn, of
Chicksands Priory, wrote of a young
lady : Her dress is the wonder of
the town, her head a yard high, and
filled or rather covered with feathers
to an enormous size, fitter for a mas
querade than a drawing-room. Poli
tical and Social Letters of a Lady
of the Eighteenth Century, p. 160.
According to J. T. Smith in his
Nollekens and his Times, i. 18, it
was in 1772 that the head-dress be
came preposterously high under the
fashionable leader of the day, D.
Ritchie, hair-dresser and dentist then
living in Rupert Street, two doors
from Coventry Street.
2 Macaulay, as I have shown (ante,
p. 251), charges Johnson with turning
the simple English of his Letters
into Johnsonese in his Joitrney. It
might be shown that the change was
sometimes to greater simplicity. Of
this we have an instance here, for he
thus paraphrases the above para
graph : The estate has not during
four hundred years gained or lost a
single acre. Works, ix. 55.
3 Johnson in }\\sjottrney thus de
licately alludes to this : Not many
years ago the late Laird led out one
hundred men upon a military ex
pedition. Works, ix. 59. See Life,
v. 171, 4.
back
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs . Tkrale. 259
back after the last battle. The Prince was hidden, in his distress,
two nights at Raarsa, and the king s troops burnt the whole
country, and killed some of the cattle.
You may guess at the opinions that prevail in this country ;
they are, however, content with fighting for their king ; they do
not drink for him T . We had no foolish healths. At night, un
expectedly to us who were strangers, the carpet was taken up ;
the fiddler of the family came up, and a very vigorous and
general dance was begun. As I told you, we were two-and-
thirty at supper 2 ; there were full as many dancers ; for though
all who supped did not dance, some danced of the young people
who did not sup. Raarsa himself danced with his children, and
old Malcolm, in his filibeg, was as nimble as when he led the
Prince over the mountains 3 . When they had danced them
selves weary, two tables were spread, and I suppose at least
twenty dishes were upon them. In this country some prepara
tions of milk are always served up at supper, and sometimes in
the place of tarts at dinner. The table was not coarsely heaped,
but [was] at once plentiful and elegant. They do not pretend
to make a loaf; there are only cakes, commonly of oats or
barley, but they made me very nice cakes of wheat flour. I
always sat at the left hand of Lady Raarsa, and young Macleod
of Skie, the chieftain of the clan 4 , sat on the right.
1 They disdain to drink for their interest when there was a possibility
principles, and there is no disaffec- of success, they betrayed no appre-
tion at their tables. Johnson s hension in celebrating the memory
Works, ix. 103. Johnson was think- of its last efforts amidst the tumult
ing of the English Jacobites. Smol- of a riot and the clamours of intem-
lett tells how on the Pretender s perance. He charges especially
march to England they were men living in the neighbourhood of
elevated to an insolence of hope Johnson s native city, Lichfield, with
which they were at no pains to con- folly of this kind. History of Eng-
ceal. Nevertheless, except a few land, iii. 170, 259.
that joined the Prince at Manchester, There is no mention of this
not a soul appeared in his behalf; before.
one would have imagined that all the 3 Raasay himself danced with
Jacobites of England had been an- as much spirit as any man, and
nihilated. Writing of them two years Malcolm bounded like a roe. Life,
later, he says : Though they in- v. 1 66.
dustriously avoided exposing their 4 Johnson in his Journey stated
lives and fortunes to the chance of that Macleod of Raasay acknow-
war in promoting their favourite ledged Macleod of Dunvegan as his
S 2 After
260 To Macleod of MacLeod. [A.D. 1773.
After supper a young lady, who was visiting, sung Earse
songs, in which Lady Raarsa joined prettily enough, but not
gracefully ; the young ladies sustained the chorus better. They
are very little used to be asked questions, and not well prepared
with answers. When one of the songs was over, I asked the
princess that sat next me, What is that about? I question if
she conceived that I did not understand it. For the entertain
ment of the company, said she. But, Madam, what is the
meaning of it ? It is a love song. This was all the intelligence
that I could obtain ; nor have I been able to procure the trans
lation of a single line of Earse T .
At twelve it was bed time. I had a chamber to myself 2 ,
which, in eleven rooms to forty people, was more than my
share. How the company and the family were distributed is
not easy to tell. Macleod the chieftain, and Boswell, and I,
had all single chambers on the first floor. There remained eight
rooms only for at least seven-and-thirty lodgers. I suppose
they put up temporary beds in the dining room, where they
stowed all the young ladies. There was a room above stairs
with six beds, in which they put ten men 3 . The rest in my next.
SAM: JOHNSON.
328.
To MACLEOD OF MACLEOD 4 .
DEAR SIR,
We are now on the margin of the sea, waiting for a boat
chief. For the correspondence which likeness. Footsteps of Dr. Johnson
this led to with Raasay see post, in Scotland, p. 176.
Letter of May 12, 1775, an d Life, 3 Sir Walter Scott, describing
v. 409. Scotland in general at this time,
1 It was not till October 16 that says : For beds many shifts were
he was able to find a translation. On made, and the prospect of a dance
that day he said of a Miss Maclean: in particular reconciled damsels to
She is the first person whom I sleep in the proportion of half-a-
have found that can translate Erse dozen to each apartment, while their
poetry literally. Life, v. 318. He gallant partners would be sometimes
mentions her in his Journey as the contented with an outhouse, a barn,
only interpreter of Erse poetry that or a hayloft. Quarterly Review,
he could ever find. Works, ix. 134. No. 71, p. 192.
See ante, p. 255. First published in Croker s Bos-
2 His chamber is still shown. On well, page 356.
one of the walls I saw hanging his I saw the original in the drawing-
and
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. 7^/irale. 261
and a wind. Boswell grows impatient ; but the kind treatment
which I find wherever I go, makes me leave, with some heavi
ness of heart, an island which I am not very likely to see again.
Having now gone as far as horses can carry us, we thankfully
return them. My steed will, I hope, be received with kindness ;
he has borne me, heavy as I am, over ground both rough and
steep, with great fidelity; and for the use of him, as for your
other favours, I hope you will believe me thankful, and willing,
at whatever distance we may be placed, to show my sense of
your kindness, by any offices of friendship that may fall within
my power.
Lady Macleod and the young ladies have, by their hospitality
and politeness, made an impression on my mind, which will not
easily be effaced. Be pleased to tell them, that I remember
them with great tenderness, and great respect-
I am,
Sir,
Your most obliged
and most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
We passed two days at Talisker very happily, both by the
pleasantness of the place and elegance of our reception.
Ostig, Sept. 28, 1773.
329.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST MADAM, Ostich 2 in skie, Sept. 30, 1773.
I am still confined in Skie. We were unskilful travellers,
and imagined that the sea was an open road which we could
pass at pleasure ; but we have now learned with some pain, that
we may still wait for a long time the caprices of the equinoctial
winds, and sit reading or writing as I now do, while the tempest
is rolling the sea, or roaring in the mountains. I am now no
room of Dunvegan Castle, endorsed * Piozzi Letters, i. 148.
Dr. Johnston s letter. By it was 2 Ostig, the residence of the
hung a small portrait of him by Minister of Slate. Life, v. 265.
Zoffany.
longer
262 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
longer pleased with the delay; you can hear from me but
seldom, and I cannot at all hear from you. It comes into my
mind that some evil may happen, or that I might be of use
while I am away r . But these thoughts are vain ; the wind is
violent and adverse, and our boat cannot yet come. I must
content myself with writing to you, and hoping that you will
sometime receive my letter. Now to my narrative.
Sept. 9th 2 : Having passed the night as is usual, I rose, and
found the dining room full of company; we feasted and talked,
and when the evening came it brought musick and dancing.
Young Macleod, the great proprietor of Skie and head of his
clan, was very distinguishable ; a young man of nineteen ; bred
a while at St. Andrews, and afterwards at Oxford ; a pupil of
G. Strahan 3 . He is a young man of a mind as much advanced
as I have ever known ; very elegant of manners, and very grace
ful in his person. He has the full spirit of a feudal chief; and
I was very ready to accept his invitation to Dunvegan. All
Raarsa s children are beautiful. The ladies, all except the
eldest, are in the morning dressed in their hair. The true
Highlander never wears more than a riband on her head till
she is married.
On the third day Boswell went out with old Malcolm to see
a ruined castle, which he found less entire than was promised,
but he saw the country. I did not go, for the castle was
perhaps ten miles off, and there is no riding at Raarsa 4 , the
1 Boswell records on this same zealously endeavoured to supply my
day : There was something not deficiency in Greek, and I made
quite serene in his humour to-night some progress ; but approaching now
after supper, for he spoke of hasten- to manhood, having got a tincture
ing away to London without stopping of more entertaining and pleasing
much at Edinburgh. Life, v. 272. knowledge, and a taste for the Latin,
He reproached Boswell later on for French, and English classics, I could
indulging in an uneasy apprehen- never sufficiently labour again as a
sion about his wife and children, schoolboy, which I now, and will for
who were at a distance. Ib. iii. 4. ever lament. He matriculated on
2 He returns to his account of his November 27, 1770, aged sixteen.
visit to Raasay. Alumni Oxon. p. 898. For George
3 In Croker s Boswell, ed. 1835, Strahan see ante, p. 113.
iv. 320, is an interesting fragment of 4 Boswell says that there were a
Macleod s autobiography. He says : good many horses which were used
My tutor, Mr. George Strahan, for works of husbandry, but that he
whole
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Thrale. 263
whole island being rock or mountain, from which the cattle
often fall and are destroyed. It is very barren, and maintains,
as near as I could collect, about seven hundred inhabitants,
perhaps ten to a square mile 1 . In these countries you are
not to suppose that you shall find villages or inclosures. The
traveller wanders through a naked desart, gratified sometimes,
but rarely, with the sight of cows, and now and then finds
a heap of loose stones and turf in a cavity between rocks,
where a being born with all those powers which education
expands, and all those sensations which culture refines, is
condemned to shelter itself from the wind and rain. Philoso
phers there are who try to make themselves believe that this
life is happy 2 ; but they believe it only while they are saying
it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind ; he,
whom want of words or images sunk into silence, still thought,
as he thought before, that privation of pleasure can never please,
and that content is not to be much envied, when it has no other
principle than ignorance of good.
This gloomy tranquillity, which some may call fortitude, and
others wisdom, was, I believe, for a long time to be very fre
quently found in these dens of poverty: every man was content
to live like his neighbours, and never wandering from home, saw
no mode of life preferable to his own, except at the house of the
laird, or the laird s nearest relations, whom he considered as a
superior order of beings, to whose luxuries or honours he had no
pretensions. But the end of this reverence and submission seems
now approaching ; the Highlanders have learned that there are
countries less bleak and barren than their own, where, instead of
working for the laird, every man may till his own ground, and
eat the produce of his own labour 3 . Great numbers have been
believed the people never rode. Life,v. 2 See Life, ii. 74, for his scorn for
173. For the old castle see ib. p. 172. the nonsense which Rousseau
1 The people had never been talked on this subject.
numbered, Johnson says. In his 3 The great business of insular
Journey he estimated the population policy is now to keep the people in
at nine hundred, basing his calcula- their own country. As the world
tion on the number of men who had has been let in upon them they
borne arms in 1745. Works, ix. 59. have heard of happier climates and
The population in 1881 was, I was less arbitrary government. Johnson s
told, 750. Works, ix. 128.
induced
264 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
induced by this discovery to go every year for some time past
to America. Macdonald and Macleod of Skie have lost many
tenants and many labourers, but Raarsa has not yet been for
saken by a single inhabitant 1 .
Rona is yet more rocky and barren than Raarsa, and though
it contains perhaps four thousand acres, is possessed only by a
herd of cattle and the keepers.
I find myself not very able to walk upon the mountains, but
one day I went out to see the walls yet standing of an ancient
chapel. In almost every island the superstitious votaries of the
Romish church erected places of worship, in which the drones of
convents or cathedrals performed the holy offices, but by the
active zeal of Protestant devotion, almost all of them have sunk
into ruin 2 . The chapel at Raarsa is now only considered as the
burying-place of the family, and I suppose of the whole island.
We would now have gone away and left room for others to
enjoy the pleasures of this little court, but the wind detained us
till the i2th, when, though it was Sunday, we thought it proper
to snatch the opportunity of a calm day. Raarsa accompanied
us in his six-oared boat, which he said was his coach and six.
It is indeed the vehicle in which the ladies take the air and pay
their visits, but they have taken very little care for accommoda
tions 3 . There is no way in or out of the boat for a woman, but
by being carried ; and in the boat thus dignified with a pompous
name, there is no seat but an occasional bundle of straw. Thus
we left Raarsa ; the seat of plenty, civility, and cheerfulness 4 .
1 Perhaps this was in part due to modations where we should say con-
the fact that on the large tract of veniencies.
land possessed as a common every 4 It is not clear in what sense
man put upon it as many cattle as he Johnson here uses civility, for with
chose. Life, v. 171. him that word included civilisation.
2 It has been for many years Civilization he would not admit into
popular to talk of the lazy devotion his Dictionary. Life, ii. 155. He
of the Romish clergy ; over the thus takes leave of Raasay in his
sleepy laziness of men that erected Journey : Raasay has little that
churches we may indulge our supe- can detain a traveller except the
riority with a new triumph, by com- Laird and his family ; but their
paring it with the fervid activity of power wants no auxiliaries. Such a
those who suffer them to fall. John- seat of hospitality amidst the winds
son s Works, ix. 61. and waters fills the imagination with
5 Johnson commonly says accom- a delightful contrariety of images.
We
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
265
We dined at a publick house at Port Re ; so called because
one of the Scottish kings landed there, in a progress through the
western isles 1 . Raarsa paid the reckoning privately 2 . We then
got on horseback, and by a short but very tedious journey came
to Kingsburgh, at which the same king lodged after he landed.
Here I had the honour of saluting 3 the far famed Miss Flora
Macdonald, who conducted the Prince, dressed as her maid,
through the English forces from the island of Lewes ; and, when
she came to Skie, dined with the English officers, and left her
maid below. She must then have been a very young lady; she
is now not old ; of a pleasing person, and elegant behaviour.
She told me that she thought herself honoured by my visit ; and
I am sure that whatever regard she bestowed on me was liberally
repaid 4 . If thou likest her opinions, thou wilt praise her virtue.
She was carried to London, but dismissed without a trial, and
came down with Malcolm Macleod, against whom sufficient
evidence could not be procured. She and her husband are poor,
and are going to try their fortune in America 5 .
Sic rerum volvitur orbis.
Without is the rough ocean and the
rocky land, the beating billows and
the howling storm ; within is plenty
and elegance, beauty and gaiety, the
song and the dance. In Raasay, if I
could have found an Ulysses, I had
fancied a Phaeacia. Works, ix. 62.
1 Portree has its name from King
James the Fifth having landed there
in his tour through the Western Isles,
Ree in Erse being King, as Re is in
Italian ; so it is Port Royal} Life,
v. 181.
2 Ib. v. 183.
3 By saluting Johnson, I believe,
meant kissing. In his Dictionary
he gives it as one of the meanings of
the word. Topham, writing in 1774,
says : The Scotch have still the
custom of salutation on introduction
to strangers. It very seldom happens
that the salute is a voluntary one,
and it frequently is the cause of dis
gust and embarrassment to the fair
sex. Letters from Edinburgh, pp.
33, 37-
Flora Macdonald was the wife of
Macdonald of Kingsburgh.
4 In his Journey he celebrates
her as a name that will be men
tioned in history, and if courage and
fidelity be virtues, mentioned with
honour. Works, ix. 63.
5 That after saving the Prince s
life she should be driven by poverty
to America seems incredible did we
not know his character. The Ja
cobite Dr. King, Principal of St.
Mary Hall, Oxford, tells us in his
Anecdotes (p. 201) that the most
odious part of the Prince s character
is his love of money. I have known
him with two thousand Louis-d ors
in his strong box pretend he was in
great distress, and borrow money
from a lady in Paris who was not in
affluent circumstances. His most
faithful servants, who had closely at-
At
266
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
At Kingsburgh we were very liberally feasted, and I slept in
the bed on which the Prince reposed in his distress ; the sheets
which he used were never put to any meaner offices, but were
wrapped up by the lady of the house, and at last, according to
her desire, were laid round her in her grave. These are not
Whigs.
On the 1 3th, travelling partly on horseback where we could
not row, and partly on foot where we could not ride, we came to
Dunvegan, which I have described already 1 . Here, though poor
Macleod had been left by his grandfather overwhelmed with
debts 2 , we had another exhibition of feudal hospitality. There
were two stags in the house, and venison came to the table every
day in its various forms. Macleod, besides his estate in Skie,
larger I suppose than some English counties, is proprietor of
nine inhabited isles ; and of his islands uninhabited I doubt if
he very exactly knows the number. I told him that he was
a mighty monarch. Such dominions fill an Englishman with
envious wonder ; but when he surveys the naked mountain, and
treads the quaking moor, and wanders over the wild regions of
gloomy barrenness, his wonder may continue, but his envy
ceases 3 . The unprofitableness of these vast domains can be
conceived only by the means of positive instances. The heir
tended him in all his difficulties,
were ill rewarded. Flora Macdonald
and her husband returned before the
end of the War of Independence.
On the way back she showed great
spirit when their ship was attacked
by a French man of war. Chambers s
Rebellion in Scotland, ii. 329.
1 Ante, p. 245.
2 Dr. Johnson was much pleased
with the Laird of Macleod, who is
indeed a most promising youth, and
with a noble spirit struggles with
difficulties, and endeavours to pre
serve his people. He has been left
with an incumbrance of forty thou
sand pounds debt, and annuities to
the amount of thirteen hundred
pounds a year. Dr. Johnson said,
"If he gets the better of all this.
he ll be a hero; and I hope he will."
Life, v. 176. Macleod, in his Auto
biography, says that his grandfather,
whom he succeeded as Laird, had
entered upon his inheritance in the
most prosperous condition. He
was the first of our family who was
led by the change of manners to
leave the patriarchal government of
the clan, and to mix in the pursuits
and ambition of the world. Hence
arose his indebtedness. Croker s
Boswell, ed. 1835, iv. 322.
3 When Mr. Edmund Burke
shewed Johnson his fine house and
lands near Beaconsfield, Johnson
coolly said, " Non equidem invideo ;
miror magis." Life, iii. 310. The
quotation is from Virgil s Eclogues,
i. ii.
of
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
267
of Col, an island not far distant, has lately told me how wealthy
he should be if he could let Rum, another of his islands, for two
pence half-penny an acre ; and Macleod has an estate, which the
surveyor reports to contain eighty thousand acres, rented at six
hundred pounds a-year 1 .
While we were at Dunvegan, the wind was high, and the rain
violent, so that we were not able to put forth a boat to fish in
the sea, or to visit the adjacent islands, which may be seen from
the house ; but we filled up the time as we could, sometimes by
talk, sometimes by reading 2 . I have never wanted books in the
isle of Skie.
We were visited one day by the Laird and Lady of Muck, one
of the western islands, two miles long, and three quarters of a
mile high 3 . He has half his island in his own culture, and upon
the other half live one hundred and fifty dependents, who not
only live upon the product, but export corn sufficient for the
payment of their rent.
Lady Macleod has a son and four daughters ; they have lived
long in England, and have the language and manners of English
ladies. We lived with them very easily. The hospitality of
this remote region is like that of the golden age. We have
1 It was not for many a year after
this that the game on an estate in
the Highlands added much to its
value. Lord Malmesbury speaking
of the year 1833 says : At that
time a stranger could fish and shoot
over almost any part of the High
lands without interruption, the letting
value of the ferae naturae being un
known to their possessors. Memoirs
of an Ex-Minister^ ed. 1885, p. 41.
2 It was wonderful how well
time passed in a remote castle, and
in dreary weather. . . . We were so
comfortably situated at Dunvegan
that Dr. Johnson could hardly be
moved from it. I proposed to him
that we should leave it on Monday.
" No, Sir, (said he,) I will not go
before Wednesday. I will have some
more of this good." Life, v. 221, 4.
3 Johnson must have written, or
have meant to write, not high but
broad. The Rev. John Sinclair,
Minister of Eigg, in whose parish
the island is, informs me that its
breadth is about three-quarters of a
mile, and its height 372 feet.
It was somewhat droll, writes
Boswell, to hear this Laird called
by his title. Muck would have
sounded ill ; so he was called Isle of
Muck, which went off with great
readiness. The name, as now writ
ten, is unseemly, but it is not so bad
in the original Erse, which is Mouach,
signifying the Sows Island. Buchanan
calls it INSULA PORCORUM. It is so
called from its form. Some call it
Isle of Monk. The Laird insists
that this is the proper name. Life,
v. 225.
found
268 To Mrs. Thrale.
found ourselves treated at every house as if we came to confer
a benefit.
We were eight days at Dunvegan, but we took the first oppor
tunity which the weather afforded, after the first days, of eoino-
J o o
away, and on the aist, went to Ulinish, where we were well en
tertained, and wandered a little after curiosities. In the after
noon 1 an interval of calm sunshine courted us out to see a cave
on the shore famous for its echo. When we went into the boat,
one of our companions was asked in Earse, by the boatmen, who
they were that came with him ? He gave us characters, I sup
pose, to our advantage, and was asked, in the spirit of the High
lands, whether I could recite a long series of ancestors 2 ? The
boatmen said, as I perceived afterwards, that they heard the cry
of an English ghost. This, Boswell says, disturbed him. We
came to the cave, and clambering up the rocks, came to an arch,
open at one end, one hundred and eighty feet long, thirty broad
in the broadest part, and about thirty high. There was no echo ;
such is the fidelity of report ; but I saw what I had never seen
before, muscles and whilks 3 in their natural state. There was
another arch in the rock, open at both ends.
Sept. 23rd : We removed to Talisker, a house occupied by
Mr. Macleod, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Dutch service 4 .
1 Of the 22nd. Life, v. 237. independent companies sent over
I can hardly tell who was my either in the reign of Elizabeth or
grandfather, Johnson once said to James VI. At present the common
Boswell. Ib. ii. 261. Of his men are but nominally national, for
father s father not even the Christian since the scarcity of men occasioned
name is known. It was not, says by the late war, Holland is no longer
Boswell, Ulinish s boatmen, but those permitted to draw her recruits out of
who rowed them from Sconser, three North Britain. But the officers are
days later, who asked about the all Scotch, who are obliged to take
genealogy. Croker s Boswell, p. 826. oaths to our government, and to
3 Johnson only gives this word in- qualify in presence of our ambassa-
cidentally in his Dictionary. Under dor at the Hague. Voyage to the
to welk he says, whilk is used for a Hebrides, ed. 1774, p. 289.
small shell-fish. Whelk he defines In the war which broke out be-
as (i) an inequality; a protuber- tween England and Holland in 1781,
ance; (2) a pustule. this curious system, which had sur-
1 Pennant, writing in the year vived the great naval battles between
1774, thus describes these Scotch the two countries in the seventeenth
regiments in the Dutch service : century, at last came to an end. In
They were formed out of some the Gentleman s Magazine for De-
Talisker
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
269
Talisker has been long in the possession of gentlemen, and
therefore has a garden well cultivated ; and, what is here very
rare, is shaded by trees : a place where the imagination is more
amused cannot easily be found x . The mountains about it are
of great height, with waterfalls succeeding one another so fast,
that as one ceases to be heard another begins. Between the
mountains there is a small valley extending to the sea, which is
not far off, beating upon a coast very difficult of access.
Two nights before our arrival two boats were driven upon
this coast by the tempest, one of them had a pilot that knew
the passage, the second followed, but a third missed the true
course, and was driven forward with great danger of being
forced into the vast ocean, but, however, gained at last some
other island. The crews crept to Talisker, almost lifeless with
wet, cold, fatigue, and terrour, but the lady took care of them.
She is a woman of more than common qualifications ; having
travelled with her husband, she speaks four languages.
You find that all the islanders, even in these recesses of life,
are not barbarous. One of the ministers who has adhered to us
almost all the time is an excellent scholar 2 . We have now with
us the young Laird of Col, who is heir, perhaps, to two hundred
square miles of land. He has first studied at Aberdeen, and
afterwards gone to Hertfordshire to learn agriculture, being
much impressed with desire of improvement 3 : he likewise has
cember, 1782, p. 595, we read, that
on the first of that month the
Scotch Brigade in the Dutch service
renounced their allegiance to their
lawful Sovereign, and took a new
oath of fidelity to their High Mighti
nesses. They are for the future to
wear the Dutch uniform, and not to
carry the arms of the enemy any
longer in their colours, nor to beat
their march. They are to receive
the word of command in Dutch, and
their officers are to wear orange-
coloured sashes, and the same sort of
spontoons as the officers of other
Dutch regiments. Colonel Macleod
used the experience he had gained in
Holland in draining the valley-bottom
and in making his garden.
1 Talisker is the place beyond all
that I have seen from which the gay
and the jovial seem utterly excluded ;
and where the hermit might expect
to grow old in meditation without
possibility of disturbance or interrup
tion. Johnson s Works, ix. 71.
2 The Rev. Donald M Queen.
Life, v. 224.
I saw not one pastor in the
islands whom I had reason to think
either deficient in learning or ir
regular in life. Johnson s Works,
ix. 1 02.
3 See Life, v. 293, and/0.y/, p. 277.
the
270 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
the notions of a chief, and keeps a piper. At Macleod s the
bagpipe always played while we were dining z .
Col has undertaken, by the permission of the waves and wind,
to carry us about several of the islands, with which he is ac
quainted enough to shew us whatever curious is given by nature
or left by antiquity ; but we grew afraid of deviating from our
way home, lest we should be shut up for months upon some
little protuberance of rock, that just appears above the sea, and
perhaps is scarcely marked upon a map.
You remember the Doge of Genoa, who being asked what
struck him most at the French court, answered, Myself 2 . I
cannot think many things here more likely to affect the fancy
than to see Johnson ending his sixty-fourth year in the wilder
ness of the Hebrides. But now I am here, it will gratify me
very little to return without seeing, or doing my best to see
what those places afford. I have a desire to instruct myself in
the whole system of pastoral life ; but I know not whether I
shall be able to perfect the idea. However, I have many
pictures in my mind, which I could not have had without this
journey, and should have passed it with great pleasure had you,
and Master, and Queeney been in the party. We should have
excited the attention and enlarged the observation of each other,
and obtained many pleasing topicks of future conversation. As
it is, I travel with my mind too much at home, and perhaps miss
many things worthy of observation, or pass them with transient
notice ; so that the images, for want of that re-impression
which discussion and comparison produce, easily fade away ; but
1 The solace which the bagpipes que le doge de Genes et quatre
can give they have long enjoyed. principaux senateurs vinssent im-
Johnson s Works, ix. loo. We had plorer sa clemence dans son palais
the musick of the bagpipe every day, de Versailles. . . Ce doge etait un
at Armidale, Dunvegan, and Col. homme de beaucoup d esprit. Tout
Dr. Johnson appeared fond of it, and le monde salt que le marquis de
used often to stand for some time Seignelai lui ayant demande ce qu il
with his ear close to the great drone. trouvait de plus singulier a Versailles,
Life, v. 315. il re pondit : C est de m y voir?
2 Genoa was besieged by the Voltaire, Sihle de Louis XIV,
French in 1684. Alors, il fallut ch. xiv. Johnson quotes^ this story
s humilier pour prevenir une ruine again in his Letter of April 26, 1784,
totale. Le roi [Louis XIV] exigea but substitutes Paris for Versailles.
Aetat. 64.1
To Mrs. Thrale.
271
I keep a book of remarks, and Boswell writes a regular journal
of our travels, which, I think, contains as much of what I say
and do as of all other occurrences together ; for such a faithful
chronicler as Griffith V
I hope, dearest Madam, you are equally careful to reposite
proper memorials of all that happens to you and your family,
and then when we meet we shall tell our stories. I wish you
had gone this summer in your usual splendour to Brighthelm-
stone.
Mr. Thrale probably wonders how I live all this time without
sending to him for money. Travelling in Scotland is dear enough,
dearer in proportion to what the country affords than in Eng
land, but residence in the isles is unexpensive. Company is, I
think, considered as a supply of pleasure, and a relief of that
tediousness of life which is felt in every place, elegant or rude 2 .
Of wine and punch they are very liberal, for they get them
cheap ; but as there is no custom-house on the island, they
can hardly be considered as smugglers 3 . Their punch is made
without lemons, or any substitute.
Their tables are very plentiful ; but a very nice man would
not be pampered. As they have no meat but as they kill it,
they are obliged to live while it lasts upon the same flesh 4 .
1 After my death I wish no other
herald,
No other speaker of my living
actions,
To keep mine honour from cor
ruption,
But such an honest chronicler as
Griffith.
SHAKSPEARE, Henry VIII, Act
IV. Sc. 2.
Boswell quotes this in the Life,
i. 24.
2 I was glad to go abroad, and,
perhaps, glad to come home ; which
is, in other words, I was, I am afraid,
weary of being at home, and weary
of being abroad. Is not this the
state of life ? But, if we confess this
weariness, let us not lament it, for
all the wise and all the good say,
that we may cure it. Life, ii. 382.
3 Sir Walter Scott, describing
Scotland in general at a period a few
years earlier than this time, says :
French wine and brandy were had
at a cheap rate, chiefly by infractions
of the revenue laws, at which the
Government were contented to wink
rather than irritate a country in
which there was little money and
much disaffection. Quarterly Re
view, No. 71, p. 192. In 1786 Knox
found a custom-house at Oban. J.
Knox, Tour through the Highlands,
p. 44.
4 Johnson describing the petty
peasants and the tenants says :
They seldom taste the flesh of land
animals ; for here are no markets.
What each man eats is from his own
They
272 To Mrs, Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
They kill a sheep, and set mutton boiled and roast on the table
together. They have fish both of the sea and of the brooks ;
but they can hardly conceive that it requires any sauce. To
sauce in general they are strangers ; now and then butter is
melted, but I dare not always take, lest I should offend by dis
liking it. Barley-broath is a constant dish, and is made well in
every house. A stranger, if he is prudent, will secure his share,
for it is not certain that he will be able to eat any thing else 1 .
Their meat being often newly killed is very tough, and as
nothing is sufficiently subdued by the fire, is not easily to be
eaten. Carving is here a very laborious employment, for the
knives are never whetted. Table-knives are not of long sub
sistence in the Highlands ; every man, while arms were a re
gular part of dress, had his knife and fork appendant to his
dirk. Knives they now lay upon the table 2 , but the handles
are apt to shew that they have been in other hands, and the
blades have neither brightness nor edge.
Of silver there is no want ; and it will last long, for it is
never cleaned. They are a nation just rising from barbarity;
long contented with necessaries, now somewhat studious of con
venience, but not yet arrived at delicate discriminations. Their
linen is, however, both clean and fine. Bread, such as we mean
by that name, I have never seen in the isle of Skie. They have
ovens, for they bake their pies, but they never ferment their
meal, nor mould a loaf. Cakes of oats and barley are brought
to the table, but I believe wheat is reserved for strangers. They
are commonly too hard for me, and therefore I take potatoes to
my meat, and am sure to find them on almost every table.
stock. The great effect of money before." JOHNSON. " No, Sir; but
is to break property into small parts. I don t care how soon I eat it
In towns, he that has a shilling may again." Life, v. 87.
have a piece of meat ; but where 2 Dr. Alexander Carlyle, in the
there is no commerce, no man can year 1742, notices as a sign of in-
eat mutton but by killing a sheep. creasing refinement, that at the
Works, ix. 98. tavern in Haddington, where the
1 At dinner [at Aberdeen] Dr. Presbytery dined, knives and forks
Johnson ate several plate-fulls of were provided for the table. A. Car-
Scotch broth, with barley and peas lyle s Autobiography, p. 64. See
in it, and seemed very fond of the Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in Scotland,
dish. I said, " You never ate it pp. 43, 252.
They
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 273
They retain so much of the pastoral life, that some preparation
of milk is commonly one of the dishes both at dinner and supper.
Tea is always drunk at the usual times ; but in the morning the
table is polluted with a plate of slices of strong cheese. This is
peculiar to the Highlands ; at Edinburgh there are always honey
and sweet-meats on the morning tea-table .
Strong liquors they seem to love. Every man, perhaps woman,
begins the day with a dram ; and the punch is made both at
dinner and supper 2 .
They have neither wood nor coal for fuel, but burn peat or
turf in their chimnies. It is dug out of the moors or mosses,
and makes a strong and lasting fire, not always very sweet, and
somewhat apt to smoke the pot.
The houses of inferior gentlemen are very small, and every
room serves many purposes. In the bed-rooms, perhaps, are
laid up stores of different kinds ; and the parlour of the day
is a bed-room at night. In the room which I inhabited last,
about fourteen feet square, there were three chests of drawers,
a long chest for larger clothes, two closet cupboards, and the
bed. Their rooms are commonly dirty, of which they seem
to have little sensibility, and if they had more, clean floors
would be difficultly kept, where the first step from the door
is into the dirt 3 . They are very much inclined to carpets,
1 Tea-table had not yet come to earliest Gaelic Dictionary, published
mean necessarily the table for the by W. Shaw in 1780, this word is
afternoon or evening meal. Addison spelt sgailc, a bumper of whisky
in The Spectator, No. X, boasts that in a morning. A Highland friend
he had brought philosophy out of writes to me : The practice of the
colleges to dwell at tea-tables, and morning dram is dying out very
goes on to advise that every morning much, but I believe it still not un-
his paper should be looked upon as common among farmers, who keep
a part of the tea equipage. their " keg " very often in the glens,
2 A man of the Hebrides, for of duty unpaid.
the women s diet I can give no 3 With want of cleanliness it
account, as soon as he appears in were ingratitude to reproach them,
the morning, swallows a glass of The servants having been bred upon
whisky ; yet they are not a drunken the naked earth, think every floor
race, at least I never was present at clean, and the quick succession of
much intemperance ; but no man is guests, perhaps not always over-
so abstemious as to refuse the morn- elegant, does not allow much time for
ing dram, which they call a skalk! adjusting their apartments. John-
Johnson s Works, ix. 51. In the son s Works, ix. 97.
VOL. I. T and
274 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
and seldom fail to lay down something under their feet, better
or worse as they happen to be furnished.
The Highland dress, being forbidden by law, is very little
used ; sometimes it may be seen T , but the English traveller is
struck with nothing so much as the nudite des pieds of the
common people.
Skie is the greatest island, or the greatest but one, among
the Hebrides 2 . Of the soil I have already given some account,
it is generally barren, but some spots are not wholly unfruitful.
The gardens have apples and pears, cherries, strawberries, rasp
berries, currants, and gooseberries, but all the fruit that I have
seen is small. They attempt to sow nothing but oats and barley.
Oats constitute the bread corn of the place. Their harvest is
about the beginning of October; and being so late, is very much
subject to disappointments from the rains that follow the equi
nox. This year has been particularly disastrous. Their rainy
season lasts from Autumn to Spring. They have seldom very
hard frosts ; nor was it ever known that a lake was covered with
ice stong enough to bear a skater. The sea round them is
always open. The snow falls but soon melts; only in 1771,
they had a cold Spring 3 in which the island was so long covered
with it, that many beasts, both wild and domestick, perished,
and the whole country was reduced to distress, from which I
know not if it is even yet recovered.
The animals here are not remarkably small ; perhaps they
1 I have seen only one gentleman Geo. II. Pitt (Earl of Chatham),
completely clothed in the ancient when he raised the Highland regi-
habit, and by him it was worn only ments to allure men into the army,
occasionally and wantonly. Works,\K. allowed the soldiers to wear the
47. This gentleman was Macdonald national dress. Johnson s Works,
of Kingsburgh. Life, v. 184. After ix. 94, and Footsteps of Dr. Johnson
the Rebellion of 1745 it had been in Scotland, p. 171.
enacted that no person whatsoever 2 Sky is the largest of the Inner
should wear the Highland dress. Hebrides, and contains 41 1,703 acres.
Any offender not being a landed Lewis and Harris is the largest of
man, or the son of a landed man, the Outer Hebrides, and contains
was to be tried before a justice of 492,800 acres. Encyclo. Brit., 9th
the peace in a summary way, and ed., xiv. 492 ; xxii. 127.
delivered over to serve as a soldier. 3 It was remembered by the name
An Act to Amend the Disarming Act of the Black Spring. Johnson s
of the 1 9 Geo. //, made in the 2 1 Works, ix. 74.
recruit
Aetat. 64.]
To Henry Titrate.
275
recruit their breed from the main land. The cows are some
times without horns *. The horned and unhorned cattle are not
accidental variations, but different species, they will however
breed together.
October 3d : The wind is now changed, and if we snatch the
moment of opportunity, an escape from this island is become
practicable 2 ; I have no reason to complain of my reception,
yet I long to be again at home.
You and my master may perhaps expect, after this descrip
tion of Skie, some account of myself. My eye is, I am afraid,
not fully recovered 3 ; my ears are not mended ; my nerves seem
to grow weaker, and I have been otherwise not as well as I
sometimes am, but think myself lately better. This climate per
haps is not within my degree of healthy latitude.
Thus I have given my most honoured mistress the story of
me and my little ramble. We are now going to some other
isle, to what we know not, the wind will tell us.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Compliments to Queeney, and Jack 4 , and Lucy, and all.
330.
To HENRY THRALE S .
DEAR SIR, isle of Mull, Oct. 15, 1773.
Since I had the honour of writing to my mistress, we have
been hindered from returning, by a tempest almost continual.
1 Life, v. 380.
They embarked on a small ship
in the hope of reaching lona that
night, but they were carried by a
storm to the island of Coll. Ib.
v. 279.
3 Ante, p. 219, n. 2.
Jack, I conjecture, was Thrale s
nephew, John Lade, that rich, ex
travagant young gentleman on whose
coming of age Johnson wrote some
spirited lines. Life, iv. 413.
5 Piozzi Letters, i. 166.
This letter was written at the house
of Dr. Maclean, who lived near
Tobermory, a small harbour in the
Isle of Mull. Boswell, writing on the
same day, says : We this morn
ing found that we could not proceed,
there being a violent storm of wind
and rain, and the rivers being im
passable. When I expressed my
discontent at our confinement, Dr.
Johnson said, " Now that I have had
an opportunity of writing to the
main land, I am in no such haste."
I was amused with his being so
easily satisfied ; for the truth was,
that the gentleman who was to con
vey our letters, as I was now in-
2 We
276
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1773.
We tried eight days ago to come hither, but were driven by the
wind into the Isle of Col, in which we were confined eight days.
We hired a sloop to bring us hither, and hope soon to get to
Edinburgh.
Having for many weeks had no letter, my longings are very
great to be informed how all things are at home, as you and
mistress allow me to call it \ A letter will now perhaps meet
me at Edinburgh, for I shall be expected to pass a few days at
Lord Auchinleck s, and I beg to have my thoughts set at rest
by a letter from you or my mistress.
Be so kind as to send either to Mrs. Williams or Mr. Levett 2 ,
and if they want money, advance them ten pounds.
I hope my mistress keeps all my very long letters, longer than
I ever wrote before. I shall perhaps spin out one more before I
have the happiness to tell you at home that I am
Your obliged humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
331.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, Mull, Oct. 15, 1773.
Though I have written to Mr. Thrale, yet having a little
more time than was promised me, I would not suffer the mes
senger to go without some token of my duty to my mistress,
who, I suppose, expects the usual tribute of intelligence, a tribute
which I am not now very able to pay.
October 3d : After having been detained by storms many
days at Skie, we left it, as we thought, with a fair wind ; but
a violent gust, which Bos. 4 had a great mind to call a tempest,
forced us into Coll, an obscure island ; on which
formed, was not to set out for
Inverary for some time ; so that it
was probable we should be there as
soon as he : however, I did not un
deceive my friend, but suffered him
to enjoy his fancy. Life, v. 314.
1 Ante, p. 129.
2 The obscure practiser in physic
to whom he gave lodging for many
years. Life, i. 243.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 167.
Johnson had a way of contract
ing the names of his friends ; as
Beauclerk, Beau ; Boswell, Bozzy ;
Langton, Lanky ; Murphy, Mur ;
Sheridan, Sherry. Life, ii. 258.
nulla
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
277
nulla campis
Arbor sestiva recreatur aura T .
There is literally no tree upon the island 2 , part of it is a sandy
waste, over which it would be really dangerous to travel in dry
weather and with a high wind 3 . It seems to be little more than
one continued rock, covered from space to space with a thin
layer of earth. It is, however, according to the Highland notion,
very populous 4 , and life is improved beyond the manners of
Skie ; for the huts are collected into little villages, and every
one has a small garden of roots and cabbage. The laird has a
new house built by his uncle, and an old castle inhabited by his
ancestors. The young laird entertained us very liberally ; he is
heir, perhaps, to three hundred square miles of land, which, at
ten shillings an acre, would bring him ninety-six thousand
pounds a-year. He is desirous of improving the agriculture
of his country ; and, in imitation of the Czar, travelled for im
provement, and worked with his own hands upon a farm in
Hertfordshire, in the neighbourhood of your uncle, Sir Thomas
Salusbury. He talks of doing useful things, and has introduced
turnips for winter fodder 5 . He has made a small essay towards
a road.
1 never summer breeze
Unbinds the glebe or warms the
trees.
FRANCIS. HORACE, Odes, I. xxii. 17.
2 Perhaps in the whole island
nothing has ever yet grown to the
height of a table. Johnson s Works,
ix. 121. We walked a little in the
laird s garden, in which endeavours
have been used to rear some trees ;
but, as soon as they got above the
surrounding wall, they died. Life,
v. 293.
3 We passed close by a large
extent of sand-hills, near two miles
square. Dr. Johnson said, "he never
had the image before. It was horrible,
if barrenness and danger could be so."
I heard him, after we were in the
house of Breacacha, repeating to
himself, as he walked about the room,
And smother d in the dusty whirl
wind, dies."
[Cato, Act ii. sc. 6]. Ib. p. 291.
1 The population was estimated at
a thousand. Johnson s Works, ix. 123.
5 Col and I rode out this morning,
and viewed a part of the island. In
the course of our ride, we saw a
turnip-field, which he had hoed with
his own hands. He first introduced
this kind of husbandry into the
Western islands. Life, v. 293. Even
in the South of Scotland the turnip
had only lately been introduced.
Mr. Drummond, of Blair, sent over
one of his ploughmen to learn drill
husbandry, and the culture of turnips
from Lord Eglinton s English ser
vants. The very next year he raised
a field of turnips, which were the first
in the country. About the year 1771
Coll
278 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
Coll is but a barren place. Description has here few oppor
tunities of spreading her colours. The difference of day and
night is the only vicissitude. The succession of sunshine to rain,
or of calms to tempests, we have not known ; wind and rain
have been our only weather.
At last, after about nine days, we hired a sloop ; and having
lain in it all night, with such accommodations as these miserable
vessels can afford, were landed yesterday on the isle of Mull ;
from which we expect an easy passage into Scotland. I am sick
in a ship, but recover by lying down.
I have not good health ; I do not find that travelling much
helps me. My nights are flatulent, though not in the utmost
degree, and I have a weakness in my knees, which makes me
very unable to walk J .
Pray, dear Madam, let me have a long letter.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
332.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
HONOURED MISTRESS, Inverary, Oct. 23, 1773.
My last letters to you and my dear master were written
from Mull, the third island of the Hebrides in extent 3 . There
is no post, and I took the opportunity of a gentleman s passage
to the main land.
In Mull we were confined two days by the weather ; on
the third we got on horse-back, and after a journey difficult
our tenants were well-disposed to the walking-stick, I could not persuade
culture of turnips. They begin to have him, writes Boswell, out of a sus-
an idea of property in winter as well picion that it had been stolen. " No,
as in summer. Scotland and Scots- no, my friend (said he), it is not to be
men of the Eighteenth Century , ii. expected that any man in Mull, who
231, 272, 277. See Footsteps of has got it, will part with it. Consider,
Dr. Johnson in Scotland, p. 34. Sir, the value of such apiece of timber
1 Ever since his last illness in 1 766, here!" Life, v. 318.
he has had a weakness in his knees, 2 Piozzi Letters, \. 170.
and has not been able to walk easily. 3 Mull contains about 235,000
It was this weakness which made him acres, of which only about 13,000
complain so bitterly, the day after he are arable. Encyclo. Brit., gth ed.,
wrote this letter, of the loss of his xvii. 16.
and
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
279
and tedious, over rocks naked and valleys untracked, through
a country of barrenness and solitude, we came, almost in the
dark, to the sea side, weary and dejected, having met with
nothing but water falling from the mountains that could raise
any image of delight 1 . Our company was the young Laird of
Col and his servant. Col made every Maclean open his house
where we came, and supply us with horses when we departed ;
but the horses of this country are small, and I was not mounted
to my wish.
At the sea side we found the ferry-boat departed 2 ; if it had
been where it was expected, the wind was against us, and the
hour was late, nor was it very desirable to cross the sea in dark
ness with a small boat. The captain of a sloop that had been
driven thither by the storms, saw our distress, and as we were
hesitating and deliberating, sent his boat, which, by Col s order,
transported us to the isle of Ulva. We were introduced to Mr.
Macquarry, the head of a small clan, whose ancestors have
reigned in Ulva beyond memory, but who has reduced himself,
by his negligence and folly, to the necessity of selling this vener
able patrimony 3 .
On the next morning we passed the strait to Inch Kenneth,
an island about a mile in length, and less than half a mile broad ;
in which Kenneth, a Scottish saint, established a small clerical
college, of which the chapel walls are still standing 4 . At this
place I beheld a scene which I wish you and my master and
Queeney had partaken.
1 Dr. Johnson said it was a dreary
country, much worse than Sky. I
differed from him. " O, Sir (said he),
a most dolorous country." Life, v.
318. He had in mind the march of
the adventurous bands in Paradise
Lost, Bk. ii. 1. 618:
Through many a dark and dreary
vale
They passed, and many a region
dolorous.
In his Journey he speaks of this
tract as this gloom of desolation.
Works, ix. 136.
2 They had hoped to cross over to
Inch Kenneth, where they were to
stay a night on their way to lona. It
was in the Sound of Ulva that poor
Col was drowned on September 25
of the following year. Post, p. 331,
and Life, v. 331.
3 Life, iii. 126,7; V.SIQ.
4 Inch Kenneth was once a
seminary of ecclesiastics, subordinate,
I suppose, to Icolmkill. Sir Allan
had a mind to trace the foundations
of the college, but neither I nor Mr.
Boswell, who bends a keener eye on
vacancy, were able to perceive them.
Johnson s Works, ix. 141.
The
280 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
The only family on the island is that of Sir Allan, the chief of
the ancient and numerous clan of Maclean ; the clan which
claims the second place, yielding only to Macdonald in the
line of battle \ Sir Allan, a chieftain, a baronet, and a soldier,
inhabits in this insulated desart a thatched hut with no cham
bers 2 . Young Col, who owns him as his chief, and whose cousin
was his lady, had, I believe, given him some notice of our visit ;
he received us with the soldier s frankness and the gentleman s
elegance, and introduced us to his daughters, two young ladies
who have not wanted education suitable to their birth, and who,
in their cottage, neither forgot their dignity, nor affected to re
member it. Do not you wish to have been with us ?
Sir Allan s affairs are in disorder by the fault of his ancestors,
and while he forms some scheme for retrieving them, he has re
treated hither 3 .
When our salutations were over, he showed us the island. We
walked uncovered into the chapel, and saw in the reverend ruin
the effects of precipitate reformation. The floor is covered with
ancient grave-stones, of which the inscriptions are not now legible ;
and without some of the chief families still continue the right of
sepulture 4 . The altar is not yet quite demolished ; beside it, on
the right side, is a bas-relief of the Virgin with her child, and an
angel hovering over her. On the other side still stands a hand-
1 Johnson wrote to Boswell on lively left the field unassailed and un-
November 27 of this year : broken. Life, ii. 269.
Enquire, if you can, the order 2 By chambers he means, I con-
of the Clans : Macdonald is first, jecture, rooms on an upper floor.
Maclean second ; further I cannot Boswell describes the place as a
go. Boswell replied: You shall commodious habitation, though it
have what information I can procure consisted but of a few small buildings,
as to the order of the Clans. A only one story high. He mentions
gentleman of the name of Grant tells little apartments. Ib. v. 323.
me, that there is no settled order 3 Ib. v. 343, n. 3.
among them. Sir Walter Scott in 4 What Johnson means by -with-
a note on this passage says : The out in this passage, which at first sight
Macdonalds always laid claim to be is perhaps not clear, is shown in
placed on the right of the whole Clans, his Journey where he says: The
and those of that tribe assign the ground round the chapel is covered
breach of this order at Culloden as with grave-stones of chiefs and ladies;
one cause of the loss of the day. and still continues to be a place of
The Macdonalds, placed on the left sepulture. Works, ix. 141.
wing, refused to charge, and posi-
bell,
Aetat. 64.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
281
bell, which, though it has no clapper, neither Presbyterian bigotry
nor barbarian wantonness has yet taken away. The chapel is
thirty-eight feet long, and eighteen broad T . Boswell, who is very
pious, went into it at night to perform his devotions, but came
back in haste, for fear of spectres. Near the chapel is a fountain,
to which the water, remarkably pure, is conveyed from a distant
hill, through pipes laid by the Romish clergy, which still perform
the office of conveyance, though they have never been repaired
since Popery was suppressed 2 .
We soon after went in to dinner, and wanted neither the com
forts nor the elegancies of life. There were several dishes, and
variety of liquours. The servants live in another cottage; in
which, I suppose, the meat is dressed.
Towards evening, Sir Allan told us that Sunday never passed
over him like another day. One of the ladies read, and read
very well, the evening service ; and Paradise was opened in the
wild 3 .
Next day, i8th, we went and wandered among the rocks on
the shore, while the boat was busy in catching oysters, of which
there is a great bed. Oysters lie upon the sand, one I think
sticking to another, and cockles are found a few inches under
the sand.
We then went in the boat to Sondiland, a little island very near.
We found it a wild rock, of about ten acres 4 ; part naked, part
covered with sand, out of which we picked shells ; and part
clothed with a thin layer of mould, on the grass of which a few
sheep are sometimes fed. We then came back and dined. I
passed part of the afternoon in reading, and in the evening one
1 In his Journey he makes it about
sixty feet in length, and thirty in
breath. Works, ix. 141.
2 In the summer of 1889 I saw the
fountain still running with a pure
stream.
3 You raised these hallowed
walls ; the desert smil d,
And Paradise was open d in
the wild.
POPE. Eloisa to Abelard, 1. 134.
Dr. Johnson said that it was the
most agreeable Sunday he had ever
passed. Life, v. 325. See ib. for
his Latin verses on Inch Kenneth.
4 Even Inch Kenneth has a sub
ordinate island, named Sandiland,
I suppose in contempt, where we
landed, and found a rock with a sur
face of perhaps four acres. John
son s Works, ix. 141. The boatman,
who took me to the island, called it,
so far as I could catch the sound,
Saineilan.
of
282 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
of the ladies played on her harpsichord, and Boswell and Col
danced a reel with the other.
On the 1 9th, we persuaded Sir Allan to launch his boat again,
and go with us to Icolmkill 1 , where the first great preacher of
Christianity to the Scots built a church, and settled a monastery.
In our way we stopped to examine a very uncommon cave on
the coast of Mull 2 . We had some difficulty to make our way
over the vast masses of broken rocks that lie before the entrance,
and at the mouth were embarrassed with stones, which the sea
had accumulated, as at Brighthelmstone ; but as we advanced,
we reached a floor of soft sand, and as we left the light behind
us, walked along a very spacious cavity, vaulted over head
with an arch almost regular, by which a mountain was sustained,
at least a very lofty rock. From this magnificent cavern went
a narrow passage to the right hand, which we entered with a
candle, and though it was obstructed with great stones, clam
bered over them to a second expansion of the cave, in which
there lies a great square stone, which might serve as a table.
The air here was very warm, but not oppressive, and the flame
of the candle continued pyramidal. The cave goes onward to
an unknown extent, but we were now one hundred and sixty
yards under ground ; we had but one candle, and had never
heard of any that went further and came back ; we therefore
thought it prudent to return.
Going forward in our boat, we came to a cluster of rocks,
black and horrid, which Sir Allan chose for the place where
he would eat his dinner. We climbed till we got seats. The
stores were opened, and the repast taken 3 .
We then entered the boat again ; the night came upon us ;
the wind rose ; the sea swelled ; and Boswell desired to be set
on dry ground : we, however, pursued our navigation, and passed
by several little islands, in the silent solemnity of faint moon
shine, seeing little, and hearing only the wind and the water.
1 lona. some rum or brandy for our boatmen
2 Mackinnon s Cave. Life, v. 331, and servants, from a publick-house
Johnson s Works, ix. 142, and Foot- near where we landed ; but unfor-
steps of Dr. Johnson in Scotland, p. tunately a funeral a few days before
225. had exhausted all their store. Life,
3 We hoped to have procured v. 332.
At
Aetat. 64.]
To Henry Thrale.
28 3
At last we reached the island ; the venerable seat of ancient
sanctity ; where secret piety reposed, and where fallen greatness
was reposited T . The island has no house of entertainment, and
we manfully made our bed in a farmer s barn. The description
I hope to give you another time 2 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
333.
To HENRY THRALE 3 .
DEAR SIR, Inverary, Oct. 23, 1773.
We have gotten at last out of the Hebrides. Some account
of our travels I have sent to my mistress ; and have inclosed an
ode which I wrote in the isle of Skie.
Yesterday we landed, and to-day came hither. We purpose
to visit Auchinleck, the seat of Mr. Boswell s father, then to
pass a day at Glasgow 4 , and return to Edinburgh.
About ten miles of this day s journey were uncommonly
amusing 5 . We travelled with very little light, in a storm of
wind and rain ; we passed about fifty-five streams that crossed
our way, and fell into a river that, for a very great part of our
road, foamed and roared beside us ; all the rougher powers of
nature, except thunder, were in motion, but there was no danger.
I should have been sorry to have missed any of the incon-
veniencies. to have had more light or less rain, for their co-opera
tion crowded the scene and filled the mind 6 .
I beg, however, to hear from you, and from my mistress. I
1 For the fine passage in which he
describes the thoughts which stirred
him as he trod that illustrious island,
see his Works, ix. 145, and Life, v.
334-
2 If the description was given the
letter must have been lost.
3 Piozzi Letters, \. 177.
4 He was not aware apparently
that he would have to pass through
Glasgow on his way to Auchinleck.
5 Johnson uses amusing in the
same sense as Parnell in the passage
quoted, ante, p. 248. In his Dictionary
he defines it, to entertain with tran
quillity ; to fill with thoughts that en
gage the mind without distracting it.
See post, Letter of April 12, 1781,
where writing of his affliction at Mr.
Thrale s death, he says : I give my
uneasiness little vent and amuse it
as I can.
6 The wind was loud, the rain was
heavy, and the whistling of the blast,
the fall of the shower, the rush of the
cataracts, and the roar of the torrent
made a nobler chorus of the rough
music of nature than it had ever been
my chance to hear before. Johnson s
Works, ix. 155.
have
284 To Henry Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
have seen nothing that drives you from my thoughts, but con
tinue in rain and sunshine, by night and day, dear Sir,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
ODE 1
Inclosed in the preceding Letter.
Permeo terras, ubi nuda rupes
Saxeas miscet nebulis ruinas,
Torva ubi rident steriles coloni
Rura labores.
Pervagor gentes hominum ferorum,
Vita ubi nullo decorata cultu
Squallet informis, tugurique fumis
Foeda latescit
Inter erroris salebrosa longi,
Inter ignotae strepitus loquelae,
Quot modis mecum, quid agat, requiro,
Thralia dulcis.
Seu viri curas, pia nupta, mulcet,
Seu fovet mater sobolem benigna,
Sive cum libris novitate pascit
Sedula mentem ;
Sit memor nostri, fideique merces
Stet fides constans, meritoque blandum
Thraliae discant resonare nomen
Littora Skiae.
Scriptum in Skia, Sept. 6.
334.
To HENRY THRALE 2 .
DEAR SIR, Inverary, Oct. 26, 1773.
The Duke kept us yesterday, or we should have gone for
ward. Inverary is a stately place 3 . We are now going to
Edinburgh by Lochlomond, Glasgow, and Auchinleck.
I wrote to you from Mull, to send for Mr. Levett or Mrs.
Williams, and let them have ten pounds, if it was wanted 4 . I
1 The original manuscript of this 2 Piozzi Letters, i. 181.
Ode with corrections was sold by 3 What I admire here, said John-
Messrs. Sotheby & Co., on April 8, son, is the total defiance of expense.
1891, for .19 5-y. Life, v. 355. 4 Ante, p. 276.
find
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Thrale. 285
find that the passage of these insular letters is not very certain,
and therefore think it necessary now to write again.
I do not limit them to ten pounds ; be pleased to let them
have what is necessary.
I have now not heard from London for more than two
months 1 ; surely I shall have many letters in Edinburgh. I
hope my dear mistress is well, with all her tribe.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
335.
To THE DUKE OF ARGYLE.
Rosedow, Lochlomond, October 27, 1773. Published in the Life, v.
3 6 3-
This letter is misdated by Boswell, October 29. It was written either
on the 26th or 27th.
336.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Glasgow, Oct. 28, 1773.
I have been in this place about two hours. On Monday,
25th, we dined with the Duke and Duchess of Argyle, and the
Duke lent me a horse for my next day s journey 3 .
26th : We travelled along a deep valley between lofty moun
tains, covered only with barren heath ; entertained with a suc
cession of cataracts on the left hand, and a roaring torrent
on the right 4 . The Duke s horse went well ; the road was
1 Dr. Percy wrote from Alnwick Friend till next sum r releases him.
on October 15 of this year to Sir From the original in the possession
Robert Chambers : By a gentle- of Mr. W. R. Smith, of Greatham
man who called here last week in his Moor, West Liss.
return out of the Highlands I am in- 2 Piozzi Letters, i. 182.
formed that our friend, Dr. Johnson, 3 The Duke was obliging enough
together with his conductor, Mr. to mount Dr. Johnson on a stately
Boswell, are detained prisoners in steed from his grace s stable. My
the Isle of Sky, and have their return friend was highly pleased, and
cut off by the Torrents, &c., and that Joseph said, "He now looks like a
Sir Alexander Macdonald and his bishop." Life, v. 362.
Lady (at whose house our Friend is 4 The valley was Glen Croe,
a captive) had made their escape through which a military road had
before the floods cut off their Retreat ; been made,
so that possibly we may not see our
good :
286 To Mrs. Thrale.
good ; and the journey pleasant ; except that we were incom
moded by perpetual rain. In all September we had, according
to Boswell s register, only one day and a half of fair weather ;
and October perhaps not more x . At night we came to the
house of Sir James Cohune 2 , who lives upon the banks of Loch-
lomond ; of which the Scotch boast, and boast with reason.
27th : We took a boat to rove upon the lake, which is in
length twenty-four miles, in breadth from perhaps two miles
to half a mile 3 . It has about thirty islands, of which twenty
belong to Sir James. Young Cohune went into the boat with
us, but a little agitation of the water frighted him to shore 4 .
We passed up and down, and landed upon one small island, on
which are the ruins of a castle ; and upon another much larger,
which serves Sir James for a park, and is remarkable for a large
wood of eugh trees 5 .
We then returned, very wet, to dinner, and Sir James lent us
his coach to Mr. Smollet s, a relation of Dr. Smollet 6 , for whom
he has erected a monumental column on the banks of the Leven,
a river which issues from the Loch. This was his native place 7 .
I was desired to revise the inscription.
When I was upon the deer island, I gave the keeper who
1 In London that year rain fell on more favours the easier othography
eighteen days in September, and on of yew, I have referred it thither.] A
thirteen in October. Gentleman s tree. Johnson s Dictionary. These
Magazine, 1774, pp. 338, 394. yew trees were planted, it was said,
- Johnson writes the name as it is on the advice of King Robert Bruce,
pronounced. It is spelt Colquhoun. in order to furnish the Lennox men
Its length is twenty miles, and its with bows. Irving s Book of Ditm-
greatest breadth four miles. Encyclo. bartonshire, i. 347.
Brit., Qth ed., xiv. 217. 6 Baretti has this curious note
4 Just one hundred years later, on on Smollett: A Scotch wit, who
the night of December 18, 1873, that had some name in his day. For
very fate befell one of his descend- Johnson s revision of the inscription,
ants which the young Colquhoun see Life, v. 367. The copy with the
dreaded for himself. His boat was corrections in his handwriting is pre-
upset as he was coming home from served at Cameron, the seat of the
Yew Island, and he was drowned Smolletts. Irving s Book of Dum-
with three of his gamekeepers and a bartonshire, ii. 200.
boy. 7 For Smollett s Ode to Leven-
5 Eugh. [This word is so written Water, see Campbell s British Poets,
by most writers, but since the ed. 1845, p. 514.
original ip Saxon, or Welsh ywen
attended
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 287
attended me a shilling, and he said it was too much. Boswell
afterwards offered him another, and he excused himself from
taking it, because he had been rewarded already.
This day I came hither, and go to Auchinleck on Monday.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
337.
To MRS. THRALE .
HONOURED MISTRESS, Auchinleck, NOV. 3, 1773.
At Glasgow I received six letters, of which the first was
written August 23d 2 . I am now at leisure to answer them in
order.
August 23d. Mrs. B 3 has the mien and manners of a
gentlewoman ; and such a person and mind as would not be in
any place either admired or contemned. She is in a proper
degree inferior to her husband : she cannot rival him ; nor can
he ever be ashamed of her.
Little Miss, when I left her, was like any other Miss of seven
months 4 . I believe she is thought pretty; and her father and
mother have a mind to think her wise.
Your letter brought us the first certain intelligence of Dr.
Beattie s pension 5 . He will now be a great man at Aberdeen,
where every one speaks well of him.
August 25th. I am obliged to dear Queeney for her letter,
and am sorry that I have not been able to collect more for her
cabinet 6 , but I shall bring her something.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 194. the sight of so much applause as we
2 He had not received a single all bestow upon him. Did he not
letter since he left Aberdeen on tell us so himself, who could believe
August 24. he was so amazingly ill-natured ?
3 Mrs. Boswell. She was alive Piozzi Letters, i. 186. Goldsmith,
when this was published by Mrs. with immeasurably superior merit and
Piozzi. greater need, received no pension.
4 No doubt Boswell s daughter He was indignant moreover at the
Veronica ; but she was only about absurd praise bestowed on Beattie as
four months old when Johnson saw if he had overcome Hume. Life, v.
her. Life, v. 26. 273, n. 4. For the pension see ib. ii.
5 She had written to him : Every 264, n. 2 ; v. 360. Beattie was Pro-
body rejoices that the Doctor will get fessor of Moral Philosophy at Aber-
his pension ; every one loves him but deen.
Goldsmith, who says he cannot bear 6 Ante, p. 196.
What
288 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
What should * * * J and his wife do at the wrong end of the
town, whither they can carry nothing that will not raise con
tempt, and from which they can bring nothing that will not
excite aversion. He is not to be either wit or statesman ; his
genius, if he follow his direction, will bid him live in Lothbury,
and measure brandy 2 .
Sept. 8th. I first saw the account of Lord Littelton s death
in the isle of Raarsa, and suspected that it had been hastened by
the vexation which his son has given him. We shall now see
what the young man will do, when he is left to himself 3 .
I am at a loss what to judge of Sir * * * . To doubt whether
six thousand pounds have or have not been paid, as was directed,
is absurd and childish ; he to whom they were due can answer
the question ; and he by whom they were remitted can confirm
or confute the answer. You should surely write to Mr. B .
Of Sir * * * you had not left me any high notions ; but I
supposed him to be at least commercially honest, and incapable
of eluding his own bond by fraudulent practices, yet I think Mr.
T s suspicion not to be slighted. Principles can only be
strong by the strength of understanding, or the cogency of
religion.
I do not see how you can much offend by putting Harry s life
1 Rice. BARETTI. Ante, p. 219. has added so much to his mass of
2 Mrs. Piozzi publishes a letter of character by histories too opprobrious
hers written apparently before John- to be entertaining, that even this age
son s, in which she says ; **** has the grace to shun him ; but then
and her husband set out very prettily, he is neither a monarch nor a nabob.
and will, I hope, stick to the city. Letters, v. 499. He was commonly
Lothbury, as you say. How in the known as the wicked Lord Lyttel-
world came you to think of Loth- ton. See Life, iv. 298, n. 3. Samuel
bury? Piozzi Letters, i. 186. This Rogers thus described one of the
passage clearly seems an answer to tricks which he used to play in his
Johnson s letters. If hers is in any boyhood. When he knew that the
sense genuine, it is, I conjecture, larder at Hagley happened to be ill-
made up of two or three letters supplied, he would invite, in his
written at different times. father s name, a large party to dinner ;
3 Lord Lyttelton died on August and as the carriages drove up the
22. Gentleman s Magazine, 1773, p. avenue, the old Lord (concealing his
414. Johnson was at Raasay from vexation as much as possible) would
September 8-12. Horace Walpole stand bowing in the hall, to welcome
wrote on September 2 : Lord his unwelcome guests. Table Talk
Lyttelton is dead. His worthy son of Samuel Rogers, p. 118.
into
Aetat. 64.] 7~0 Mrs. Thrale. 289
into the lease, it puts no life out, and therefore does not lessen
Sir * * * s interest I . I believe, however, you may depend better
for peace upon the indifference of his indolence, than the
approbation of his judgment. I think it should not be
neglected.
Sept. 1 4th : I take great delight in your fifteen thousand trees ;
the greater, for having been so long in a country where trees and
diamonds are equal rarities.
Poor V ! There are not so many reasons as he thinks
why he should envy me, but there are some ; he wants
what I have, a kind and careful mistress ; and wants likewise
what I shall want at my return. He is a good man ; and, when
his mind is composed, a man of parts 2 .
Sept. 28th : When I wrote an account of my intention to
return, I little thought that I should be so long the plaything
of the wind. Of the various accidents of our voyage I have
been careful to give you an account, and hope you have received
it. My deafness went away by degrees. Miss Macleod made
me a great flannel night-cap, which perhaps helped to set me
right.
If Sir * * * 3 goes to Bath, it may deserve consideration
whether you should not follow him. If you go, take two foot
men, and dress in such a manner as he may be proud to see.
1 On October 7 Mrs. Thrale wrote with the flea in the story to which she
to Johnson : Harry s life is put in here alludes, see Life, ii. 194, n. 2.
the lease ; may he hold it, as my 3 Her uncle, Sir Thomas Salus-
father s mother did, for seventy-three bury. BARETTI. See ante, p. 193.
years ! Piozzi Letters, i. 193. He On the death of his first wife, Mrs.
died in two years and a half from Piozzi writes, he said he had no
this time. Life, ii. 468. kindness but for me. I think /did
2 V , says Baretti, was Van- share his fondness with his stud ;
sittart. See Life, i. 348 ; v. 460. John- our stable was the first for hunters of
son is answering the following pas- enormous value. He yielded how-
sage in Mrs. Thrale s letter : Mean- ever to the blandishments of a
time I have seen little except the widow, the Hon. Mrs. King, whom
man that saw the mouse. He seems he married, and then scarce ever
very ill, and very wild ; I fancy he saw or wrote to me or my husband.
wants a governess; your merits, as Hayward s Piozzi, 1.250-4. He was
usual, were talked of ; and he made no doubt going to Bath for his health,
choice of your health as the subject He died on the following October
of his eulogium. Piozzi Letters, i. 30. Gentleman s Magazine, 1773,
185. For her confusion of the mouse p. 581.
VOL. I. U The
2QO
To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1773.
The money that you stake is no great venture, nor will the want
of it be felt, whether you gain or lose the purpose of your
journey.
My poor little Lucy is, I hope, now quite recovered * ; for I
have brought no little maiden from the Highlands, though I
might perhaps have had one of the princesses of Raarsa, who
are very pretty people, and in that wilderness of life put me in
mind of your little tribe, by the propriety of their behaviour.
Oct. yth. This is the last letter. I have done thinking of
* * * 2 whom we now call Sir Sawney ; he has disgusted all
mankind by injudicious parsimony, and given occasion to so
many stories, that * * * has some thoughts of collecting them,
and making a novel of his life 3 . Scrambling I have not willingly
left off ; the power of scrambling has left me 4 ; I have however
been forced to exert it on many occasions. I am, I thank
God, better than I was. I am grown very much superior to
wind and rain ; and am too well acquainted both with mire and
with rocks, to be afraid of a Welch journey 5 . I had rather
have Bardsey than Macleod s island, though I am told much of
the beauty of my new property, which the storms did not suffer
me to visit 6 . Boswell will praise my resolution and perseverance ;
1 She was his god-daughter. Mrs. 5 Mrs. Thrale on the death of
Thrale had written to him : < What her uncle would become possessed
ails dear Lucy I cannot guess, but of the Welsh estates of her family,
her ear is affected sure enough, and Hayward s Piozzi, i. 254. In the
she goes about with her head on one following summer Johnson accom-
side. Piozzi Letters, i. 188. panied her and Mr. Thrale when they
2 Sir Alexander Macdonald. Ante, went to Wales to take possession.
p. 244. He was alive when these Let- Life, ii. 281 ; v. 427.
ters were published. It is probable 6 Mrs. Thrale had written :
that Johnson wrote, not thinking #/", When you sigh for an island of
but thinking on. your own, remember that Rasselas
3 * * * * i Sj no doubt, Boswell, could never settle the limits of his
who records on October 15 : The imaginary dominion, but when I am
penurious gentleman of our acquaint- grown rich, we will buy Bardsey for
ance, formerly alluded to, afforded us you ; perhaps a sight of Wales in
a topick of conversation to-night. the mean time may not be amiss.
Dr. Johnson said, I ought to write Piozzi Letters, i. 190. Bardsey Island
down a collection of the instances of lies off that part of Carnarvonshire
his narrowness, as they almost ex- where she was born. Life, v. 449.
ceeded belief. Life, v. 315. For Johnson s island see ante, p.
4 Ante, p. 254 246.
and
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Thrale. 291
and I shall in return celebrate his good humour and perpetual
cheerfulness. He has better faculties than I had imagined ; more
justness of discernment ; and more fecundity" of images. It is
very convenient to travel with him, for there is no house where
he is not received with kindness and respect T .
I wish B success in his new mine, and hope that the vein
will be as rich as his wants prompt him to wish it 2 . I con
gratulate you likewise on the rising reputation of the brewery ;
and hope that the sweets of doing right will so much engage us,
that we shall never more allow ourselves to do wrong. Forty
shillings is a frightful price for malt, but we must brew on and
brew well, and hold out to better times 3 .
Thus, Dear Madam, I have answered your six letters, in part
too late to be of any use. The regard which you are pleased to
express, and the kindness which you always show, I do not
pretend to return otherwise than by warm wishes for your
happiness.
I will now continue my narrative.
Oct. 2pth was spent in surveying the city and college of
Glasgow. I was not much pleased with any of the professors 4 .
The town is opulent and handsome 5 .
3oth : We dined with the Earl of Loudon, and saw his mother
the Countess ; who, at ninety-three, has all her faculties, helps at
table, and exerts all the powers of conversation that she ever
had 6 . Though not tall, she stoops very much. She had lately
a daughter, Lady Betty, whom, at seventy, she used to send
1 See Johnson s Works, ix. i ; 4 The general impression upon
Life, v. 52, and post, Letter of June my memory, writes Boswell, is that
23, 1784. we had not much conversation at
2 She had written to him on Glasgow, where the professors, like
October 7: Our old friend B , their brethren at Aberdeen, did not
by the way, has found a vein of lead venture to expose themselves much to
ore on his estate, and I feel very glad the battery of cannon which they knew
to hear it somehow. You used to hate might play upon them. Life, v. 37 1 .
that poor fellow, because he could 5 Dr. Johnson told me, that one
not wait for his dinner till four day in London, when Dr. Adam
o clock, but he may have it now to a Smith was boasting of Glasgow, he
minute, and I doubt not but the wild turned to him and said, " Pray, Sir,
fowl will be done to a turn? Piozzi have you ever seen Brentford ?" Ib.
Letters, i. 192. p. 369.
3 Ante, p. 194. 6 Life, iii. 366 ; v-371.
U 2 after
292 To Mrs. Thrale, [A.D. 1773.
after supper early to bed, for girls must not use late hours, while
she sat up to entertain the company.
3ist, Sunday, we passed at Mr. Campbell s, who married Mr.
Boswell s sister *.
Nov. ist : We paid a visit to the Countess of Eglington, a lady
who for many years gave the laws of elegance to Scotland. She
is in full vigour of mind, and not much impaired in form. She
is only eighty-three. She was remarking that her marriage was
in the year eight ; and I told her my birth was in nine. Then,
says she, I am just old enough to be your mother, and I will take
you for my son. She called Boswell the boy: yes, Madam,
said I, we will send him to school. He is already, said she, in a
good school ; and expressed her hope of his improvement. At
last night came, and I was sorry to leave her 2 .
2nd : We came to Auchinleck. The house is like other houses
in this country built of stone, scarcely yet finished, but very
magnificent and very convenient. We purpose to stay here some
days ; more or fewer as we -are used 3 . I shall find no kindness
such as will suppress my desire of returning home.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
338.
To MRS. THRALE 4 .
DEAREST MADAM, Edinburgh, NOV. 12, 1773.
Among the possibilities of evil which my imagination sug
gested at this distance, I missed that which has really happened.
I never had much hope of a will in your favour, but was willing
to believe that no will would have been made. The event is
now irrevocable, it remains only to bear it 5 . Not to wish it had
1 He had married Mrs. Boswell s Johnson says as we are used, being
sister. Life, v. 372. well aware that Boswell himself never
2 Ib. v. 374, 401. was at his ease with his father. Ib. ii.
3 Boswell, after stating the great 382, n. i ; iii. 93, n. i.
differences in character and opinion 4 Piozzi Letters, i. 201.
between Dr. Johnson and his father, In the Table of Contents she
adds : Knowing all this, I should describes this letter as a letter of
not have ventured to bring them consolation on her uncle s having
together, had not my father, out of bequeathed his estate to another.
kindness to me, desired me to invite 5 We had once expected, writes
Dr. Johnson to his house. Ib. v. 376. Mrs. Piozzi, Offley Place in Hertford-
been
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs, Tkrale. 293
been different is impossible ; but as the wish is painful without
use, it is not prudent, perhaps not lawful, to indulge it. As life,
and vigour of mind, and sprightliness of imaginatoin, and flexi
bility of attention, are given us for valuable and useful purposes,
we must not think ourselves at liberty to squander life, to ener
vate intellectual strength, to cloud our thoughts, or fix our atten
tion, when by all this expence we know that no good can be
produced. Be alone as little as you can ; when you are alone, do
not suffer your thoughts to dwell on what you might have done,
to prevent this disappointment. You perhaps could not have
done what you imagine, or might have done it without effect.
But even to think in the most reasonable manner, is for the
present not so useful as not to think 1 . Remit yourself solemnly
into the hands of God, and then turn your mind upon the busi
ness and amusements which lie before you. All is best, says
Chene, as it has been, excepting the errours of our own free
will 2 . Burton concludes his long book upon melancholy with
this important precept, Be not solitary; be not idle 3 . Re
member Chene s position and observe Burton s precept.
We came hither on the ninth of this month 4 . I long to come
under your care, but for some days cannot decently get away.
They congratulate our return as if we had been with Phipps or
Banks; I am ashamed of their salutations 5 .
shire and all its wide domain. Hay- 4 Boswell records on this day :
ward s Piozzi, \. 293. In Chauncy s We arrived this night at Edinburgh,
History of Hertfordshire, ed. 1 700, p. after an absence of eighty-three days.
407, is a curious print of the old house. For five weeks together, of the tem-
It is situated, writes Chauncy, on pestuous season, there had been no
the great ledge of hills which crosses account received of us. I cannot
the northerly part of that County, express how happy I was on finding
called by some the Alps of England. myself again at home. Life, v. 385.
See also Cussan s History of Hert- 5 Every body had accosted us
fordshire, ii. 96. According to with some studied compliment on
Baretti, Sir T. Salusbury disin- our return. Dr. Johnson said, " I
herited Mrs. Thrale on account of am really ashamed of the congratu-
her superlative impertinence to his lations which we receive. We are
wife. addressed as if we had made a
1 Life, iii. 136, n. 2. voyage to NovaZembla, and suffered
2 See ib. v. 154 for another quota- five persecutions in Japan." Life, v.
tion from Dr. Cheyne. 392. For Phipps, see ante, p. 210,
3 Ib. iii. 415, and post, Letter of and Banks, Life, ii. 144.
March 30, 1776.
I have
294 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D.ms.
I have been able to collect very little for Queeney s cabinet ;
but she will not want toys 1 now, she is so well employed. I wish
her success ; and am not wdthout some thought of becoming her
school-fellow. I have got an Italian Rasselas.
Surely my dear Lucy will recover ; I wish I could do her
good. I love her very much ; and should love another god
child, if I might have the honour of standing to the next
baby.
I am, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
339.
To MRS. THRALE 2 .
MY DEAREST MISTRESS, Edinburgh, Nov. 18, 1773.
This is the last letter that I shall write ; while you are
reading it, I shall be coming home.
I congratulate you upon your boy 3 ; but you must not think
that I will love him all at once as well as I love Harry, for
Harry you know is so rational. I shall love him by degrees.
Poor, pretty, dear Lucy ! Can nothing do her good ? I am
sorry to lose her. But if she must be taken from us, let us
resign her with confidence into the hands of Him who knows,
and who only knows, what is best both for us and her.
Do not suffer yourself to be dejected 4 . Resolution and dili
gence will supply all that is wanting, and all that is lost. But
if your health should be impaired, I know not where to find a
1 By toys he does not mean play- born on November 8. He died
things, but the curiosities of her within the year of the inoculated
cabinet. She had probably begun small-pox, during which the mother
the study of Italian under Baretti, used to wash him in cold water in
and perhaps Johnson means to say consequence of her great skill in
that he will take lessons with her. physick. BARETTI. He lived a year
Baretti has the following note on the and eight or nine months, and does
Italian Rasselas : And a damned not seem to have died of inoculation,
one it is, by a foolish fellow who Post, Letters of July 6, 13, 20, 1775.
called himself Cavalier Mei. I knew 4 She was not at all dejected at
him a beggar at Padua. He neither poor Lucy s death, and in a day or
knew English, nor Italian, though a two thought no more of her than she
Tuscan by birth. would of a puppy-dog. BARETTI.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 206. The child was buried on the day on
3 Her second son, Ralph, was which Johnson arrived in London.
substitute.
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Montagu. 295
substitute. I shall have no mistress ; Mr. Thrale will have no
wife ; and the little flock will have no mother.
I long to be home, and have taken a place in the coach for
Monday ; I hope therefore to be in London on Friday the 26th,
in the evening *. Please to let Mrs. Williams know.
I am, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
340.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], November 27, 1773. Published in the Life, ii. 268.
341.
To MRS. MONTAGU 2 .
MADAM, Jan. n, 1774-
Having committed one fault by inadvertency, I will not
commit another by sullenness. When I had the honour of your
card, I could not comply with your invitation, and must now
suffer the shame of confessing that the necessity of an answer
did not come into my mind.
This omission, Madam, you may easily excuse, as the con
sciousness of your own character must secure you from suspect
ing that the favour of your notice can never miss a suitable
return, but from ignorance or thoughtlessness ; and to be igno
rant of your eminence is not easy, but to him who lives out of
the reach of the public voice.
I am, Madam,
Your most obedient and most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
1 On Saturday the 27th he wrote to description of him was written this
Boswell : I came home last night, year: As to his person he is full
without any incommodity, danger, or six feet high, of an athletic make, but
weariness, and am ready to begin a stoops as he walks, which diminishes
new journey. I shall go to Oxford on his stature. He is rather of a sallow
Monday. Life, ii. 268. complexion, with a cast in his eye,
2 First published in Croker s Bos- and appears wrapt in contemplation.
well, page 410. He is above sixty years of age ; but
For Mrs. Montagu see Life, ii. time does not seem as yet to have
88 ; iv. 275. made any depredations on his con-
In the first page of a copy of stitution. He is very communicative
Johnson s Dictionary the following in company, and without any affecta-
To
296 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1774.
342.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR .
DEAR SIR,
When I was at Edinburgh I had a letter from you, telling
me that in answer to some enquiry you were informed that I
was in the Sky. I was then I suppose in the western islands
of Scotland ; I set out on the northern expedition August 6,
and came back to Fleet Street, November 26. I have seen
a new region.
I have been upon seven of the islands 2 , and probably should
have visited many more, had we not begun our journey so late
in the year, that the stormy weather came upon us, and the
storms have I believe for about five months hardly any inter
mission.
Your Letter told me that you were better. When you write
do not forget to confirm that account. I had very little ill
health while I was on the journey, and bore rain and wind
tolerably well. I had a cold and deafness only for a few days,
and those days I passed at a good house 3 . I have traversed
the east coast of Scotland from south to north, from Edinburgh
to Inverness, and the west coast from north to south, from the
Highlands to Glasgow, and am come back as I went,
Sir,
Your affectionate humble servant,
Jan. 15, 1774. SAM : JOHNSON.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor, in Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
343.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], January 29, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 271.
tion of pedantry. He is a widower, the Life, volume v, page 405, from
and will probably remain in that the original in the possession of Mr.
state. Add to this that his manner of M. M. Holloway of Hillbrow, Streat-
speaking in conversation is slow, ham. For a fac-simile of this Letter,
but nervous in delivery, and per- see Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in Scot-
fectly correct and elegant in diction. land, page 308.
Quoted in the Gentleman s Magazine 2 Sky, Raasay, Coll, Mull, Ulva,
for 1849, i. 247. Inchkenneth and lona.
1 First published in my edition of 3 Dunvegan Castle. Ante, p. 245.
To
Aetat. 64.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 297
344.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, February 7, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 272.
345.
To GEORGE STEEVENS.
[London], February 7, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 273.
346.
To GEORGE STEEVENS.
[London], February 21, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 273.
347.
To GEORGE STEEVENS.
[London], March 5, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 273.
348.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], March 5, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 274.
349.
To [? WILLIAM STRAHAN].
March 7, 1774.
In Messrs. Puttick and Simpson s Auction Catalogue of July 30,
1886, Lot 1109 is a letter of Johnson s, four pages quarto, dated March
7, 1774. Containing his ideas as to the laws of literary copyright.
This use of the word ideas Johnson would have censured. Life, iii. 196.
For copyright see ib. i. 437; ii. 259, and Hume s Letters to Strahan,
pp. 176, 274-281.
360.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
MADAM, March u, 1774.
Our master is a very good man, and contrives well for me.
I have now a reason for doing on Monday what I might have
been persuaded against my will to have delayed till Tuesday. I
hope on Monday to be your slave in the morning, and Mrs.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 208.
Smith s
298
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1774.
Smith s 1 in the evening, and then fall again to my true mistress,
and be the rest of the week,
Madam,
Your most obedient,
SAM : JOHNSON.
351.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
MADAM, Thursday.
Master is very kind in being very angry ; but he may spare
his anger this time. I have done exactly as Dr. Lawrence
ordered, and am much better at the expence of about thirty-six
ounces of blood 3 . Nothing in the world ! For a good cause I
have six-and-thirty more. I long though to come to Streatham,
and you shall give me no solid flesh for a week ; and I am to
take physick. And hey boys, up go we, I was in bed all last
night, only a little sitting up 4 . The box goes to Calcutta 5 .
I am,
Dearest, dearest Madam,
Yours, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
Let me come to you to-morrow.
352.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], about March 15, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 276.
353.
To WARREN HASTINGS.
[London], March 30, 1774. Published in the Life, iv. 68.
1 Perhaps the Mrs. Smith whom
Miss Burney describes two years later
as very little, ugly, and terribly de
formed, but quick, clever, and enter
taining. Early Diary of Frances
Burney, ii. 138.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 209. In Mrs.
Piozzi s volume this letter follows
the last, and therefore I insert it here.
3 For Dr. Lawrence, see Life, ii.
296, and for bleeding, ib. iii. 152.
4 He sat up when he was oppressed
by asthma.
5 Johnson writing to Warren Hast
ings on March 30, 1774, says that he
is sending him a book. Ib. iv. 69.
To
Aetat. 64.] To James Boswell. 299
354.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], May 10, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 277.
355.
To [JAMES BOSWELL] *.
[May 27, 1774.]
* * * The Lady being interested in some suits desires a
letter of introduction to you. That which you have received
without understanding it was written for her, and by mistake
given to the post.
She flatters me by telling me that when you know that I wish
her well, you will be more zealous in her causes. I know that
you need no incitements to zeal or fidelity, but are willing to do
[rest missing].
356.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
Streatham, June 21, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 278.
357.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], July 4, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 279.
358.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], July 5, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 280,
359.
To ROBERT LEVETT.
Llewenny, August 16, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 282,
From the original fragment in the the letter which the lady ought to
possession of Mr. G. J. Campbell, of have delivered, but which by mis-
12 Lombard Street, Inverness. At take was given to the post. There
the foot of the letter is written in a can be little doubt that this second
last-century hand, original letter and letter was never delivered, for had
writing of Dr. Samuel Johnson, May Boswell received it he would have
27, 1774- published it.
In the Life of Johnson, ii. 277, is
To
3 To William Strahan. [A.D. 1774.
360.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, October i, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 284.
361.
To PERKINS.
[London], October 25, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 286.
362.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, October 27, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 287.
363.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], November 26, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 288.
364.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN .
SIR,
I waited on you this morning having forgotten your new
engagement ; for this you must not reproach me, for if I
had looked upon your present station with malignity I could
not have forgotten it 2 . I came to consult you upon a little
matter that gives me some uneasiness. In one of the pages
there is a severe censure of the clergy of an English Cathedral
which I am afraid is just, but I have since recollected that from
me it may be thought improper, for the Dean did me a kindness
about forty years ago. He is now very old, and I am not young.
Reproach can do him no good, and in myself I know not
1 First published in my edition of for Malmesbury in the new Parlia-
the Life, vol. vi. Addenda, p. xxxiii, ment which met on November 29,
from the original in the possession of 1774. Johnson was so far from look-
Messrs. Pearson Co., 46 Pall Mall. ing on his station with malignity
2 Strahan, to quote Hume s words that he always employed him to
( Hume s Letters to Strahan, p. 287), frank his letters to Scotland, that he
the day before Johnson s letter was might have the consequence of ap-
written, had ceased to be a specula- pearing a Parliament-man among his
tive politician, and become a practical countrymen. Life, iii. 365.
one. He had been chosen member
whether
Aetat. 65.]
To William Strahan.
whether it is zeal or wantonness. Can a leaf be cancelled with
out too much trouble ? tell me what I shall do. I have no
settled choice, but I would not wish to allow the charge. To
cancel it seems the surer side x . Determine for me.
I am, Sir, Your most humble servant,
Nov. 30, 1774. SAM-. JOHNSON.
Tell me your mind : if you will cancel it I will write some
thing to fill up the vacuum. Please to direct to the borough 2 .
1 The leaf which Johnson cancelled
contained pages 47, 48 in the first
edition of \i\sjourney to the Western
Islands. It corresponds with pages
19-20 in vol. ix. of Johnson s Works
(ed. 1825), beginning with the words
could not enter, and ending im
perfect constitution. The excision is
marked by a ridge of paper, which
was left that the revised leaf might be
attached to it. Johnson describes
how the lead which covered the
cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen
had been stripped off by the order of
the Scottish Council, and shipped to
be sold in Holland. He continues :
* Let us not however make too much
haste to despise our neighbours. Our
own cathedrals are mouldering by
unregarded dilapidation. It seems
to be part of the despicable philo
sophy of the time to despise monu
ments of sacred magnificence, and
we are in danger of doing that de
liberately, which the Scots did not
do but in the unsettled state of an
imperfect constitution.
In the copy of the first edition in
the Bodleian Library, which had be
longed to Gough the antiquary, there
is written in his hand, as a foot-note
to neighbours : There is now, as I
have heard, a body of men not less
decent or virtuous than the Scottish
Council, longing to melt the lead of
an English Cathedral. What they
shall melt, it were just that they
should swallow. It can scarcely be
doubted that this is the suppressed
passage. The English cathedral to
which Johnson refers was Lichfield.
The roof, says Harwood (History
of Lichfield, p. 75), was formerly
covered with lead, but now with
slate. That Addenbroke, who had
been Dean since 1745, had at a still
earlier date done Johnson a kindness,
I have learnt from a letter of his
published in Notes and Queries, 6th
S., x. 421. It is dated Stafford (of
which town he was Rector), May 10
(the year is not given), and is ad
dressed to Thomas Whitby of Hey-
wood, to whom he recommended
Johnson as tutor to his son. His
services had been required for half a
year, but, wrote Addenbroke, his
affairs won t give him leave to be
with your son so long. ... I can only
say that if Mr. Johnson will do what
He is capable of doing in that time
He will be of more service to your
son than a year spent in the usual
way at the University. In a note to
this letter, dated November 18, 1824,
Mr. T. Whitby, of Creswell Hall,
says : I have frequently heard
Mrs. Wells, my father s youngest
sister, say, that she remembered Mr.
Johnson being at Heywood as tutor to
her brother, and that he frequently in
structed her in the English language.
For an anecdote of Addenbroke and
Bentley see Monk s Life of Bentley,
ii. 212. See ante, p. 185.
2 Johnson was staying at Thrale s
To
3 2 To - - Hollyer. [A.D. 1774.
365.
To HOLLYER x .
SIR,
I take the liberty of writing to you, with whom I have no
acquaintance, and whom I have therefore very little right to
trouble; but as it is about a man equally or almost equally
related to both of us, I hope you will excuse it.
I have lately received a letter from our cousin Thomas
Johnson complaining of great distress. His distress, I suppose,
is real; but how can it be prevented? In 1772, about Christ
mas, I sent him thirty pounds, because he thought he could do
something in a shop : many have lived who began with less. In
the summer 1773 I sent him ten pounds more, as I had pro
mised him. What was the event? In the spring 1774 he wrote
me, and 2 that he was in debt for rent, and in want of clothes.
That is, he had in about sixteen months consumed forty pounds,
and then writes for more, without any mention of either miscon
duct or misfortune. This seems to me very strange, and I shall
be obliged to you if you can inform me, or make him inform me,
how the money was spent ; and give your advice what can be
done for him with prudence and efficacy.
He is, I am afraid, not over sensible of the impropriety of his
management, for he came to visit me in the summer. I was in
the country, which, perhaps, was well for us both : I might have
used him harshly, and then have repented.
I have sent a bill for five pounds, which you will be so kind
to get discounted for him, and see the money properly applied,
and give me your advice what can be done.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
Dec. 6, 1774. SAM : JOHNSON.
To Mr. Hollyer of Coventry.
town-house in the Borough of South- letter however is not that of a man
wark. who is writing to so near a relation
1 First published in Croker s Bos- as his first cousin. For Thomas
well, page 427. Johnson see ante, p. 154, n. 3.
According to Mr. Croker, Hollyer 2 Perhaps for and we should read
was the son of one of the sisters of word.
Johnson s mother. The tone of the
To
Aetat. 65.]
To William Strahan.
366.
To JOHN HOOLE.
[London], December 19, 1774. Published in the Life, ii. 289.
367.
To WARREN HASTINGS.
London, December 20, 1774. Published in the Life, iv. 69.
368.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN
SIR,
When we meet we talk, and I know not whether I always
recollect what I thought I had to say.
You will please to remember that I once asked you to receive
an apprentice, who is a scholar, and has always lived in a clergy
man s house, but who is mishapen, though I think not so as to
hinder him at the case 2 . It will be expected that I should
answer his Friend who has hitherto maintained him, whether I
can help him to a place. He can give no money, but will be
kept in cloaths.
I have another request which it is perhaps not immediately in
your power to gratify. I have a presentation to beg for the
blue coat hospital. The boy is a non-freeman, and has both his
parents living. We have a presentation 3 for a freeman which
1 First published in my edition of
the Life, vol. vi. Addenda, p. xxxv,
from the original in the possession of
Messrs. Robson and Kerslake, 25
Coventry Street, Haymarket.
2 The apprentice was young
William Davenport, the orphan son
of a clergyman. His friend was the
Rev. W. Langley, the master of Ash-
bourne School. Strahan received him
as an apprentice. Life, ii. 324, n. I.
See also Nichols s Literary Anec
dotes, vol. iii. p. 287.
The case is the frame contain
ing boxes for holding type.
3 In the original Johnson divides
this word presentati-on. I am in
formed by Mr. W. Lempriere, of
Christ s Hospital, that in 1774 the
Governors were allowed (by Order of
Court of the Governors, 1760) to
exercise one Presentation in three
in favour of a child whose father was
not a Freeman of London. Clergy
men s children were however ac
counted free, by Order of Court, 28
March, 1765. The restriction as to
Freemen s children has long since
been removed. Boswell writing to
Temple in 1789 about another child
says, I am very sorry to find that it
is the most difficult thing you can
imagine to get a boy, not the son
of a citizen, into Christ s Hospital.
Letters of Boswell, p. 269. Coleridge
and Lamb obtained presentations in
1782.
we
304 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1774.
we can give in exchange. If in your extensive acquaintance
you can procure such an exchange, it will be an act of great
kindness. Do not let the matter slip out of your mind, for
though I try others I know not any body of so much power
to do it.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
Dec. 22, 1774. SAM : JOHNSON.
369.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR r .
DEAR SIR,
I have upon me in some measure the care of getting a boy
into the Bluecoat Hospital, and beg your interest with Mr.
Harley 2 or any other man. Our boy is a non-freeman whose
parents are both living. We have a presentation for a freeman
which we can give in exchange.
Charles Congreve 3 is here, in an ill state of health, for advice.
How long he has been here I know not. He sent to me one
that attends him as an humble friend, and she left me a
direction. He told me he knew not how to find me. He is in
his own opinion recovering, but has the appearance of a man
much broken. He talked to me of theological points, and is
going to print a sermon, but I thought he appeared neither very
acute nor very knowing. His room was disordered and oppres
sive, he has the appearance of a man wholly sunk into that
1 From the original in the pos- 3 He had been in the same form
session of Mr. Alfred H. Huth, of as Johnson at Lichfield School. Life,
Bolney House, Ennismore Gardens, i. 45. Johnson gave the following
London. account of him a year or so later :
2 Harley was an Alderman of He has an elderly woman, whom he
London. He had been Lord Mayor calls cousin, who lives with him, and
in 1768, and had acted with great jogs his elbow when his glass has
spirit against Wilkes. Horace Wai- stood too long empty, and encourages
pole called him another Sir William him in drinking, in which he is very
Walworth. Letters, iv. 142 ; v. 92. willing to be encouraged ; not that
Junius, writing on July 9, 1771, says he gets drunk, for he is a very pious
that the whole interest of govern- man, but he is always muddy. He
ment in the City was committed to confesses to one bottle of port every
his conduct. For the Bluecoat day, and he probably drinks more.
Hospital see last letter. Ib. ii. 460.
sordid
Aetat. 65.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 305
sordid self-indulgence which disease, real or imaginary, is apt to
dictate r . He has lived, as it seems, with no great frequency of
recollection. He asked me, and told me he had forgot, whether
I was bred at Oxford or at Cambridge. The mind that leaves
things so fast behind it, ought to have gone forward at no
common rate. I believe he is charitable, yet he seems to have
money much in his thoughts ; he told me that this ilness [sic]
would cost him fifty pound [sic], and told it with some appear
ance of discontent : he seemed glad to see me, and I intend to
visit him again. I rather wonder that he sent to me. I men
tioned Hector 2 to him whom I saw about ten weeks ago, but he
heard the name without emotion or enquiry, nor has ever spoken
of any old companions or past occurrences. Is not this an odd
frame of understanding ? I asked him how long it was since we
had seen one another, and he answered me roundly, fifty years.
The greatest pleasure that I have had from him is to find him
pious and orthodox ; yet he consorts with John Wesley 3 .
You and I have had ill health, yet in many respects we bear
time better than most of our friends 4 . I sincerely wish that you
may continue to bear it with as little diminution as is possible
either of body or mind, and I think, you return the wish to
Dear Sir,
Your most humble servant,
London, Dec. 22, 1774. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
1 For Johnson s dislike of the always obliged to go at a certain
character of a valetudinarian, see Life, hour. This is very disagreeable to
iii. 152. He had Charles Congreve a man who loves to fold his legs and
in his mind when he said : There have out his talk, as I do. Ib. iii.
is nothing against which an old man 230.
should be so much upon his guard as 4 On his birth-day in 1780 he re-
putting himself to nurse. Ib. ii. 474. corded in his Diary :
2 It was to Hector that Johnson I am now beginning the seventy-
gave the account of Congreve quoted second year of my life, with more
above. strength of body, and greater vigour
3 Johnson liked Wesley s society. of mind, than I think is common at
His conversation, he said, is good, that age. Life of Johnson, iii. 440.
but he is never at leisure. He is
VOL. I. X TO
;o6
To Henry Thrale.
[A. D. 1775.
370.
To HENRY THRALE I .
DEAR SIR, Jan. 2, 1775.
I have taken the liberty of enclosing a letter, which contains
a request of which I cannot know the propriety. Nothing, I
suppose, can be done till the present master of the tap 2 has
given notice of his resignation ; and whether even then it is fit
for you to recommend, there may be reason to doubt. I shall
tell Heely 3 , that I have laid his letter before you, and that he
must inform you when he is certain of the intended resignation.
You will then act as you judge best. There seems to be nothing
unreasonable in Heely s desire. He seems to have a genius for
an alehouse, and if he can get this establishment, may thank his
friend that sent him to the Marshalsea 4 .
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 210.
The date of this letter is there
given as June 2. It is however
printed earlier than the letter dated
February 3. On June 2 moreover
Johnson was in Oxford, and. not at
home. It seems likely that June is
a misprint tor Jan.
- At Ranelagh House, as we are
told by Mrs. Piozzi in a note. Heely,
writes Hawkins, was by Sir Thomas
Robinson made keeper of the Tap at
Ranelagh, but was not able to endure
the capricious insolence with which
he was treated. Hawkins s Johnson,
p. 601. Hawkins merely repeats
Heely s own account. Horace Wai-
pole wrote on April 22, 1742: I
have been breakfasting this morning
at Ranelagh Gardens ; they have
built an immense amphitheatre with
balconies full of little alehouses.
Letters, i. 158. On June 29, 1744,
he wrote, Every night constantly I
go to Ranelagh, which has totally
beat Vauxhall. . . . My Lord Chester
field is so fond of it, that he says he
has ordered all his letters to be
directed thither. Ib. p. 309. The
tap would not be very profitable if
we can trust the account given of
Ranelagh in 1761 in Dodsley s En
virons, v. 244, where it is stated that
the regale is tea and coffee.
3 Heely s first wife was Johnson s
near relation a first cousin. Life
of Johnson, ii. 30 ; iv. 370. He had
married a second time. Nevertheless
Hawkins calls him Johnson s rela
tion, and speaks of the neglect with
which he was treated. Hawkins s
Johnson, p. 599.
4 The Marshalsea was on St.
Margaret s Hill, Southwark, near to
Thrale s Brewery. It was a prison
for debtors, and for persons who had
committed crimes at sea, as pirates.
Debtors within twelve miles of West
minster (the City of London excepted)
might be carried to this prison for a
debt of forty shillings. Dodsley s
Environs of London, iv. 265. Wesley
described it as a picture of hell
upon earth. Journal, ii. 267. Heely s
gratitude was, I suppose, due to the
creditor who had arrested him, be
cause he had brought him so near
Thrale s house that some interest was
taken in his fate.
This,
Aetat. es.] To James Mdcpkerson. 307
This, I know, is a happy week ; you will revel with your con
stituents in plenty and merriment r ; I must be kept at home by
my wicked mistress, out of the way of so much happiness. You
shall however have my good wishes. I hope every man will go
from your table more a friend than he came.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
371.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], January 14, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 290.
372.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR.
[London], January 14, 1775.
In Messrs. Sotheby and Co. s Auction Catalogue of June 14, 1870,
Lot 471 is a Letter of Johnson to Taylor, dated January 14, 1775.
Offers to send him his Journey to the Western Islands- mentions his
having been to see Congreve, whom he did not find at home. On the
same day Johnson wrote to Boswell about his Journey ; Life, ii. 290.
For Congreve see ante, p. 304.
373.
To JAMES MACPHERSON.
[London], January 20, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 298.
The Letter published by Boswell was dictated to him from memory
by Johnson, who added : - This, I think, is a true copy. The original
was sold for ^50, on May 10, 1875, at the great sale of Mr. Lewis
Pocock s Johnsoniana, by Messrs. Sotheby & Co. It is dated January
20, 1775. In the Catalogue the opening sentence is quoted. It is as
follows :
Mr. James Macpherson, I received your foolish and impudent note.
Whatever insult is offered me, I will do my best to repel, and what I
cannot do for myself the law shall do for me. I will not desist from
detecting what I think a cheat from any fear of the menaces of a
Ruffian.
In the Life it stands thus :
MR. JAMES MACPHERSON,
I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered
1 Ante, p. 206.
X 2 me
308 To Henry Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
me I shall do my best to repel ; and what I cannot do for myself, the
law shall do for me. I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting
what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian.
374.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], January 21, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 292.
375.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], January 28, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 294.
376.
To MRS. THRALE T .
MADAM, February 3, 1775.
So many demands are made upon me, that if you give leave
I will stay here till Tuesday. My pamphlet has not gone on at
all 2 . Please to send by the bearer the papers on my table ; and
give my love to my brother and sisters 3 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
377.
To DR. LAWRENCE.
[London], February 7, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 296.
378.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], February 7, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 296.
379.
To HENRY THRALE 4 .
DEAR SIR, [London, end of February, 1775.]
I beg that you will be pleased to send me an attestation to
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 211. 3 Whom he means I cannot guess.
2 A fortnight earlier he had told BARETTI. Perhaps he playfully
Boswell that he was going to write alludes to Harry Thrale and his
about the Americans. Life of John- sisters.
son, ii. 292. The pamphlet was 4 Piozzi Letters, i. 224. This
Taxation no Tyranny. See post, letter is clearly misplaced in that
p. 309, n. 4, for one cause of delay in collection. I have restored it to its
its production. proper place.
Mr. Carter s
Aetat. 65.]
To William Strahan.
309
Mr. Carter s merit z . I am going to-morrow ; and shall leave
the pamphlet to shift for itself 2 .
You need only say, that you have sufficient knowledge of Mr.
Carter to testify that he is eminently skilful in the art which he
professes, and that he is a man of such decency and regularity of
manners, that there will be no danger from his example to the
youth of the colleges ; and that therefore you shall consider it as
a favour if leave may be obtained for him to profess horseman
ship in the University.
I am, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
Please to free 3 this letter to Miss Lucy Porter in Lichfield.
380.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], February 25, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 309.
SIR,
381.
To WILLIAM STRAHAN 4 .
I am sorry to see that all the alterations proposed are
Mr. Carter or his affairs are
mentioned in the Letters of March 3,
April I, June i, 6, 7, 11, 23, July 13,
and August I of this year, and also
in the Life, ii. 424. Earetti describes
him as a poor riding-master in the
Borough of Southwark. Viscount
Cornbury, Lord Hyde, who died in
1753 (Chester, Westminster Abbey Re
gisters, p. 385), left by his will divers
MSS.ofhisgreat-grandfather,Edward
Earl of Clarendon, to Trustees, with
a direction that the money to arise
from the sale or publication thereof,
should be employed as a beginning
of a fund for supporting a Manage
or Academy for riding and other
useful exercises in Oxford. As he
died before his father, this bequest
did not take effect. His sister, the
Dowager Duchess of Queensberry,
whose property these MSS. became,
complied with his wishes. It was
found however that the scheme was
not likely to be soon carried into
execution, the profits arising from the
Clarendon Press being from some
mismanagement very scanty. This
set Johnson in his zeal to attempt
the reformation of the Press. The
scheme for the riding-school dropped
through, and the money derived
from the publication of the MSS.
was allowed to accumulate. By
1860 it amounted to ,10,000. In
1872 it was spent in adding the
Clarendon Laboratory to the Uni
versity Museum. See Life of John
son, ii. 424 ; vi. Addenda, p. 1, and
Collectanea, First Series, i. 305.
2 It was to Oxford that he was
going.
3 Johnson does not in his Dic
tionary give to free, used in this
sense, though he does give to frank,
4 First published in my edition
evidences
310 To William Strahan. [A.D. 1775.
evidences of timidity. You may be sure that I do [? not] wish
to publish, what those for whom I write do not like to have
published. But print me half a dozen copies in the original
state, and lay them up for me. It concludes well enough as it is.
When you print it, if you print it, please to frank one to
me here, and frank another to Mrs. Aston at Stow Hill, Lichfield.
The changes are not for the better, except where facts were
mistaken. The last paragraph was indeed rather contemptuous,
there was once more of it which I put out myself.
I am, Sir, your humble Servant.
[Oxford], March i, 1775. SAM: JOHNSON.
382.
SIR, To WILLIAM STRAHAN .
Our post is so unskilfully managed that we can very rarely,
if ever, answer a letter from London on the day when we receive
it. Your pages were sent back the next post, for there was
nothing to do. I had no great difficulty in persuading myself
to admit the alterations, for why should I in defense 2 of the
ministry provoke those, whom in their own defense they dare
of Boswell s Life of Johnson, vol. vi. by for him in the state in which he
Addenda, p. xxxvi, from the original had wished to publish it. It seems
in the possession of Mr. Frank T. that the last paragraph had been
Sabin, of 10 and 12, Garrick Street, struck out by the reviser, for John-
Covent Garden. This letter refers son says it was rather con-
to Taxation no Tyranny, which was temptuous. He does not think it
published before March 2 1, 1775, the needful to supply anything in its
date of Boswell s arrival in London. place, for he says it concludes well
Life, ii. 311. Boswell says that he enough as it is. I do not know
had in his possession a few proof whether any of these six copies are
leaves of it marked with corrections in existence. Boswell had only seen
in Johnson s own hand-writing. Ib. a few proof-leaves with corrections
p. 313. Johnson, he says, owned to in Johnson s hand -writing. A copy
me that it had been revised and cur- might be found in the possession of
tailed by some of those who were one of Strahan s descendants,
then in power. When Johnson J From the original in the posses-
writes when you print it, if you sion of Mr. Alfred Morrison, of Font-
print it, he uses, doubtless, print hill House.
in the sense of striking off copies. It was no doubt written to William
The pamphlet was, we may assume, Strahan, and refers to the corrections
in type before it was revised by in Taxation no Tyranny.
those in power. The corrections 2 Johnson in his Dictionary spells
had been made in the proof-sheets. this word defence.
Johnson asks to have six copies laid
not
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
not provoke. But are such men fit to be the governours of
kingdoms T ?
They are here much discouraged by the last motion, and
undoubtedly every man s confidence in Government must be
diminished, yet if Lives can be saved, some deviation from rigid
policy may be excused 2 .
I expect to return some time in the next week, perhaps not
till the latter end.
Do not omit to have the presentation pamflets \sic\ done and
sent to Mrs. Williams, and lay by for me the half dozen
which you print without correction, and please to send me one
by the post of the corrected books.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
March 3, 1775. SAM: JOHNSON.
University College, [Oxford].
You will send to Mr. Cooper 3 and such as you think proper
either in my name or your own.
383.
TO MRS. THRALE 4 .
DEAR MADAM, University College, [Oxford], March 3, 1775.
I am afraid that something has happened to occupy your
1 For his contempt of Lord
North s Ministry see Life.\\\. i; iv.139-
2 The last motion was Lord
North s Propositions for Conciliating
the Differences with America, debated
on February 20 and 27. He, said
Fox, who has been hitherto all
violence and war is now treading
back his steps to peace. Parl.
Hist, xviii. 329. Horace Walpole
wrote on February 18: The war
with America goes on briskly, that
is as far as voting goes. A great
majority in both Houses is as brave
as a mob ducking a pickpocket.
Letters, vi. 191. On the 28th he
wrote :- The gates of Janus s temple
are open and shut every other day ;
the porter has a sad time of it, and
deserves a reversion for three lives.
We are sending the Americans a
sprig of olive, lapped up in an Act
for a famine next year ; for we are as
merciful as we are stout. Ib. The
Act for a famine was a Bill to re
strain the Trade andCommerceof the
New England Colonies, debated on
February 24. Parl. Hist, xviii. 379.
3 Perhaps Grey Cooper, Joint
Secretary of the Treasury. Court
and City Register, 1775, p. 93.
4 Piozzi Letters, \. 212.
Dr. William Scott (afterwards
Lord Stowell), who had been John-
mind
312 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
mind disagreeably, and hinder you from writing to me, or think
ing about me.
The fate of my proposal for our friend Mr. Carter will be
decided on Monday. Those whom I have spoken to are all
friends. I have not abated any part of the entrance or payment,
for it has not been thought too much, and I hope he will have
scholars.
I am very deaf ; and yet cannot well help being much in com
pany, though it is often very uncomfortable. But when I have
done this thing, which I hope is a good thing, or find that I can
not do it, I wish to live a while under your care and protection.
The imperfection of our post makes it uncertain whether we
shall receive letters, sooner than we must send them ; this is
therefore written while I yet do not know whether you have
favoured me or no. I was sufficiently discontented that I heard
nothing yesterday. But sure all is well. I am, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
384.
To [? WILLIAM STRAHAN].
[Oxford], March 6, 1775.
In Messrs. Puttick and Simpson s Auction Catalogue of July 30,
1886, Lot ii ii is a Letter of Johnson, one page quarto, dated March
6, 1775, written, I believe, to William Strahan.
385.
To THE REVEREND DR. THOMAS FOTHERGILL.
[London], March 26, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 333.
386.
To MRS. THRALE .
MADAM, [Johnson s Court, London], April I, 1775.
I had mistaken the day on which I was to dine with Mr.
son s companion from Newcastle to He had lost his fellowship by his
Edinburgh, was at this time the marriage, and was generally residing
senior of the two tutors at University during this period in New Inn Hall.
College. His younger brother, John Twiss sZz/*? of Lord Eldon, ed. 1846,
Scott (afterwards Earl of Eldon), was i. 63-67.
giving lectures on law in the College. I Piozzi Letters, i. 213.
Bruce,
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
313
Bruce, and hear of Abissinia, and therefore am to dine this day
with Mr. Hamilton 1 .
The news from Oxford is, that no tennis-court can be hired at
any price ; and that the Vice-Chancellor will not write to the
Clarendon trustees without some previous intimation that his
request will not be unacceptable. We must therefore find some
way of applying to Lord Mansfield, who with the Archbishop of
York and the Bishop of Chester holds the trust. Thus are we
thrown to a vexatious distance. Poor * * * 2 ! do not tell him.
The other Oxford news is, that they have sent me a degree
of Doctor of Laws, with such praises in the diploma as, perhaps,
ought to make me ashamed ; they are very like your praises.
I wonder whether I shall ever shew them to vou 3 .
/
Boswell will be with you 4 . Please to ask Murphy the way to
Lord Mansfield 5 . Dr. Wetherell 6 , who is now here, and will be
1 James Bruce had returned to
England in June, 1774, after an
absence of twelve years. He did
not publish his Travels till 1790.
The stories which he told of Abys
sinia were often disbelieved. Horace
Walpole says that in the spring of
1775 George Selwyn met Bruce at
dinner. Somebody asked him if
the Abyssinians had any musical
instruments. "Musical instruments !"
said he, and paused " yes, I think I
remember one lyre." George Sel
wyn whispered his neighbour, " I am
sure there is one less since he came
out of the country." : Walpole s
Letters, vi. 314. Baretti in a note
describes him as a Scotch impostor,
who pretended to have been in
Abissinia, of which he gave such
accounts as soon to convince every
body that he was nothing but an in
judicious and impudent Liar. John
son met him at dinner and in the
evening gave an account of him to
Boswell. Life, ii. 333. Miss Burney
described him about a month earlier
as one of the most imperious of
men. He entered the room like a
monarch, so grand and so pompous.
He could soften however. Early
Diary of Fanny Burney, ii. 14, 21.
2 Carter. See ante, p. 309.
3 He had received his diploma
that morning. The original, writes
Boswell, is in my possession. He
shewed me it, and allowed me to
read it, but would not consent to my
taking a copy of it, fearing perhaps
that I should blaze it abroad in his
life-time. His objection to this ap
pears from his 99th letter to Mrs.
Thrale, whom in that letter he thus
scolds for the grossness of her flattery
of him. 5 Hereupon Boswell quotes
the passage in the text. Life, ii. 332,
n. i.
A degree by diploma differs from
an honorary degree as it confers
immediate and full academical privi
leges. Cox s Recollections of Ox
ford, p. 6. See ante, p. 137, n. 5.
k Perhaps this refers to that day
week when Boswell dined at Mr.
Thrale s. Life, ii. 349.
5 Murphy, as a barrister, was
likely to know the best way of ap
proaching Lord Mansfield.
6 The Master of University Col
lege, Oxford. Ib. ii. 356.
here
314 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1775.
here for some days, is very desirous of seeing the brewhouse ; I
hope Mr. Thrale will send him an invitation. He does what he
can for Carter.
To-day I dine with Hamilton ; to-morrow with Hoole * ; on
Monday with Paradise 2 ; on Tuesday with master and mis
tress 3 ; on Wednesday with Dilly 4 ; but come back to the
Tower 5 .
Sic nunquam rediturus labitur annus.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Poor Mrs. Williams is very bad, worse than I ever saw her.
387.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR 6 .
DEAR SIR,
When shall I come down to you ? I believe I can get
away pretty early in May, if you have any mind of me 7 ; If you
have none, I can move in some other direction. So tell me what
I shall do.
I have placed young Davenport in the greatest printing house
in London, and hear no complaint of him but want of size, which
will not hinder him much. He may when he is a journeyman
always get a guinea a week 8 .
The patriots pelt me with answers. Four pamflets \sic~\. I
1 Boswell was one of the guests. 4 Boswell was one of the guests.
Life, ii._334- Life, ii. 338.
2 Ib. iv. 364, n. 2. Strange words s Mrs. Piozzi says in a note:
were sometimes heard at Mr. Para- The Tower was a separate room at
dise s table. Nothing could be Streatham, where Dr. Johnson slept.
more elegant or refined than Mrs. On this Baretti remarks : She
Paradise s whole exterior ; her voice dreamt when she wrote this note,
was gentle and her manner de- The Tower was a part of the house
liberate. At the head of her table, in the Borough, and at Streatham
with a large dinner-party, perceiving there is no Tower.
that a plate before her was not quite 6 First published in Notes and
clean, she beckoned the servant, and Queries, 6th S., v. 422.
said to him in an audible whisper : Johnson does not give in his
" If you bring me a dirty plate again Dictionary any instance of this idiom.
I will break your head with it." : 8 Ante, p. 303. Johnson had seen
Miss Hawkins s Memoirs, i. 72. the lad a few days before and had
3 Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. given him a guinea. Life, ii. 323.
think.
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
think, already, besides newspapers and reviews, have been dis
charged against me. I have tried to read two of them, but did
not go through them r .
Now and then I call on Congreve 2 , though I have little or no
reason to think that he wants or wishes to see me. I sometimes
dispute with him, but I think he has not studied.
He has really ill health, and seems to have given way to that
indulgence which sickness is always in too much haste to claim.
He confesses a bottle a day.
I am. Sir,
Your humble Servant,
Aprils, 1775. SAM: JOHNSON.
To the Rev d Dr. Taylor at Ashborne, Derbys.
388.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], April 17, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 361.
389.
To THE LAIRD OF RASAY.
London, May 6, 1775. Published in the Life, v. 412.
390.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
May 12, 1775.
And so, my dearest Mistress, you lie a bed hatching sus
picions. I did not mean to reproach you, nor meant any thing
but respect, and impatience to know how you did.
I wish I could say or send any thing to divert you ; but I have
done nothing and seen nothing. I dined one day with Paoli 4 ,
1 Boswell records on April 2 :
His Taxation no Tyranny being
mentioned, he said, " I think I have
not been attacked enough for it.
Attack is the re-action ; I never
think I have hit hard, unless it re
bounds." BOSWELL. " I don t know,
Sir, what you would be at. Five or
six shots of small arms in every
newspaper, and repeated cannonad
ing in pamphlet, might, I think,
satisfy you." Life, ii. 335.
2 Ante, p. 304.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 215.
Mrs. Thrale eight days earlier had
given birth to a daughter, Frances
Anna, who only lived seven months.
4 For an account of General Paoli,
the Corsican patriot, see Life, ii.
71-
and
316
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
and yesterday with Mrs. Southwells r , and called on Congreve.
Mr. Twiss, hearing that you talked of despoiling his book of the
fine print, has sent you a copy to frame 2 . He is going to
Ireland, and I have given him letters to Dr. Leland 3 and Mr.
Falkner 4 .
Mr. M 5 is so ill that the Lady is not visible; but yester
day I had I know not how much kiss of Mrs. Abington 6 , and
very good looks from Miss * * * the maid of honour.
Boswell has made me promise not to go to Oxford till he leaves
London ; I had no great reason for haste, and therefore might
as well gratify a friend. I am always proud and pleased to have
my company desired. Boswell would have thought my absence
a loss, and I knew not who else would have considered my
presence as profit. He has entered himself at the Temple, and
I joined in his bond. He is to plead before the Lords, and
hopes very nearly to gain the cost of his journey 7 . He lives
1 A misprint, no doubt, for South
well. Ante, p. 205.
2 An Ideot [sic] who wrote his
Travels in Spain, wherein there was
a print by Cypriani and Bartolozzi ;
very fine, the only thing valuable in
that book. BARETTI. Johnson had
been lately reading the book. Life,
ii. 345. From one of the two copies
in the Bodleian this fine print has
been stolen or at least removed.
For a lively account of Twiss see the
Early Diary of Fanny Burney, \.
279-294.
3 See Life, i. 489.
4 George Faulkner, whom Swift
more than forty years earlier had de
scribed as the prince of Dublin
printers. Swift s Works, ed. 1803,
xviii. 288. He died in the following
August.
Twiss published in 1776 A Tour
to Ireland. In it he mentions (p.
180) that when he visited Voltaire
at Ferney, the talk fell on travelling.
Voltaire gave him the following line
in his own handwriting : An Eng
lishman who goes to Italy leaves
men to see pictures.
5 Perhaps the gentleman described
in the following passage in one of
Mrs. Thrale s letters to Johnson :
Mr. M was robbed, going home
two nights ago, and had a comical
conversation with the highwayman,
about behaving like a gentleman. He
paid four guineas for it. Piozzi
Letters, i. 185.
6 A month earlier he had supped
at this actress s house with some
fashionable people ; and he had
seemed much pleased with having
made one in so elegant a circle.
Life, ii. 349. See Walpole s Letters,
v. 329, for a letter to her full of
compliments. Northcote described
her as the Grosvenor Square of
comedy. Conversations of North-
cote, p. 298.
7 To the kindness of Mr. H. W.
Lawrence, Sub-Treasurer of the Inner
Temple, I owe the following copy of
the entries of BoswelPs Bonds on ad
mission and call :
much
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
317
much with his friend Paoli, who says, a man must see Wales to
enjoy England x .
The book which is now most read, but which, as far as I have
gone, is but dull, is Gray s letters, prefixed by Mr. Mason to his
poems. I have borrowed mine, and therefore cannot lend it,
and I can hardly recommend the purchase 2 .
Delivered up on
Call Hilary T. 1786.
Reced Mr. BosivelFs
Bond July 26th 1799
T. D. Bosweli:
T. D. Bosweli was James Boswell s
brother David, who, when he estab
lished himself as a merchant at
Valencia, assumed the Christian
name of Thomas, on account of the
Spaniards being prejudiced against
the name of David, as of Jewish
origin. Rogers s Boswelliana, p. 5.
For Boswell s entering himself at
the Inner Temple, see Life, ii. 377, n.
I, and iii. 178. Baretti in a marginal
note says : I don t think he will do
much there, as he is not quite right-
headed in my humble opinion. It
was in a Scotch appeal case that Bos-
well was this year to plead before the
Lords. His fees in all amounted to
forty-two guineas, as is shown in
Johnson s Letter of May 22.
On the day on which the letter in the
text was written Bosweli, for the first
time, took possession of the room
which Johnson had assigned him in
his house. Life, ii. 375.
1 Bosweli wrote to his friend
Temple on June 6 : For the last
fortnight that I was in London I lay
at Paoli s house, and had the com
mand of his coach. ... I felt more
dignity when I had several servants
at my devotion, a large apartment,
and the convenience and state of a
Bond on Admission ^50
Principals Securities
Bosweli, James Johnson, Samuet
Bond on Call 100
Principals Securities
Bosweli, James M alone, Edmd
Dates
May 1775
Dates
\\th Febry 1786.
coach. Letters of Bosweli, p. 200.
Paoli had met Johnson and the
Thrales the summer before at Car
narvon. Life, v. 448. He looked
upon Wales as Johnson looked upon
Scotland, who said : Seeing Scot
land is only seeing a worse England.
It is seeing the flower gradually fade
away to the naked state. Ib. iii. 248.
2 Bosweli wrote to Temple on May
10 : Dr. Johnson does not like the
book ; he however says that one
should consider these letters were
written in a long series of years, and
so might do very well at the time.
Letters of Bosweli, p. 192. Johnson
a year later said of the book : I
forced myself to read it, only because
it was a common topick of conversa
tion. I found it mighty dull ; and as
to the style, it is fit for the second
table. Life, iii. 31. When he wrote
Gray s Life he thought more favour
ably, at all events, of the early letters.
They contain, he says, a very
pleasing account of many parts of
their journey. Works, viii. 476.
Cowper, when he had read half
way through them wrote : I once
thought Swift s letters the best that
could be written ; but I like Gray s
better. H is later Epistles, he adds,
I have
-1
1 8 7^o Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
I have offended ; and, what is stranger, have justly offended
the nation of Rasay. If they could come hither, they would be
as fierce as the Americans J . Rasay has written to Boswell an
account of the injury done him, by representing his house as
subordinate to that of Dunvegan. Boswell has his letter, and I
believe copied my answer. I have appeased him, if a degraded
chief can possibly be appeased ; but it will be thirteen days,
days of resentment and discontent, before my recantation can
reach him. Many a dirk will imagination, during that interval,
fix in my heart. I really question if at this time my life would
not be in danger, if distance did not secure it 2 .
Boswell will find his way to Streatham before he goes, and
will detail this great affair 3 . I would have come on Saturday,
but that I am engaged to do Dr. Lawrence 4 a little service on
Sunday. Which day shall I come next week ? I hope you will
be well enough to see me often. I am, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
391.
To THE REVEREND DR. THOMAS LELAND.
[London], May, 1775.
A Letter introducing Mr. Richard Twiss. See the Letter of May 12.
392.
To GEORGE FAULKNER.
[London], May, 1775. A Letter introducing Mr. Richard Twiss.
See the Letter of May 12.
I think are worth little as such} mined, it will not be long before we
Cowper s Works, xv. 38. hear of the overt acts of war. Letters,
Baretti in a note on Mason s name vi. 208. The Battle of Bunker s Hill
says: Poor Mason has much abused was fought on the following June 17.
Johnson since his death, for the great ! For the injury done to Macleod
reason that Johnson always looked of Raasay, see Life, ii. 382 ; v. 410,
on him as a pigmy poet. and ante, p. 259, n. 4.
1 Horace VYalpole had written five 3 Boswell wrote to Temple on May
days earlier: All the late letters 17: I am now at Mr. Thrale s
from America are as hostile as villa at Streatham, a delightful spot.
possible ; and unless their heads are Letters of Boswell, p. 193.
as cool as their hearts seem deter- 4 Ante, p. 47, n. 2.
TO
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
393.
To MRS. THRALE T .
DEAR MADAM, May 20, 1775.
I will try not to be sullen, and yet when I leave you how
shall I help it. Bos. goes away on Monday ; I go in a day or
two after him, and will try to be well, and to be as you would
have me. But I hope that when I come back you will teach me
the value of liberty.
Nurse tells me that you are all well, and she hopes all growing
better. Ralph z , like other young gentlemen, will travel for im
provement.
I have sent you six guineas and an half; so you may laugh at
neglect and parsimony. It is a fine thing to have money. Peyton
and Macbean 3 are both starving, and I cannot keep them.
Must we mourn for the Queen of Denmark 4 ? How shall I
do for my black cloaths which you have in the chest ?
Make my compliments to every body.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
I dined in a large company at a dissenting bookseller s
yesterday, and disputed against toleration with one Doctor
Meyer 5 .
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 218.
2 Her second son, who died two
months later. Post, p. 353.
Two of Johnson s amanuenses
when he was writing his Dictionary.
Life, i. 187. The following day he
wrote to Bennet Langton : I have
an old amanuensis in great distress.
I have given what I think I can give,
and begged till I cannot tell where
to beg again. I put into his hands
this morning four guineas. If you
could collect three guineas more, it
would clear him from his present
difficulty. Ib. ii. 379. See post,
Letters of April I, 1776, and June
26, 1784. Peyton was a fool and a
drunkard. I never saw so nauseous
a fellow. BARETTI. See post, p.
385-
4 She was the youngest sister of
George III. Horace Walpole wrote
on the 22nd: Our papers will tell
you that the Queen of Denmark is
dead happily for her, I think, if she
had any feeling. Letters, vi. 215.
For an account of the plot to restore
her to the throne, which was thwarted
by her death, see Wraxall s Memoirs,
ed. by H. B. Wheatley, iv. 176-210.
5 Johnson would have made an
excellent Spanish Inquisitor. To his
shame be it said, he always was
tooth and nail against toleration. -
BARETTI. For Dr. Meyer, see Life,
ii. 253, n. 2.
To
320
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
394.
To BENNET LANGTON.
[London], May 21, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 379.
395.
DEAREST LADY, To MRS " THRALE
One thing or other still hinders me, besides what is perhaps
the great hindrance, that I have no great mind to go. Boswel
went away at two this morning. Langton I suppose goes this
week. Boswel got two-and-forty guineas in fees while he was
here 2 . He has, by his Wife s persuasion and mine, taken down
a present for his Mother-in-law 3 .
Pray let me know how the breath does. I hope there is no
lasting evil to be feared. Take great care of yourself. Why did
you take cold ? Did you pump into your shoes ?
I am not sorry that you read Boswel s journal 4 . Is it not
a merry piece ? There is much in it about poor me. Miss, I
hear, mentions me sometimes in her memoirs 5 .
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 219. Corrected
by me from the original in the posses
sion of Mr. Alfred Morrison. The
blanks which Mrs. Piozzi had left I
have filled up.
~ Langton left for Lincolnshire on
the 26th. Life, ii. 379. Boswell
wrote to Temple from Grantham
on the evening of the day he left
London : Mr. Johnson accom
panied me to Billy s [the bookseller],
where we supped ; and then he went
with me to the inn in Holborn, where
the Newcastle Fly sets out ; we were
warmly affectionate. Letters of Bos-
well, p. 196. The Newcastle Fly ran
six times a week, starting, or pro
fessing to start, from London an hour
after midnight. It took three days to
Newcastle. Grantham, the end of the
first day s journey, is no miles from
London. Footsteps of Dr. Johnson in
Scotland, i. 59. Boswell wrote in a
second letter : My father harps on
my going over Scotland with a brute
(think, how shockingly erroneous !)
and wandering (or some such phrase)
to London. In vain do I defend my
self; even the circumstance that my
last jaunt to London did not cost me
.20 as I got forty-two guineas in
London does not affect him. Letters
of Bo swell, p. 207.
3 Johnson, I suspect, means his
step-mother, with whom Boswell was
on bad terms. Life, iii. 95, n. I.
Johnson calls his own step-daughter,
Lucy Porter, his daughter-in-law. Ib.
i. 370.
4 On August 27 he wrote to Bos
well : Mrs. Thrale was so enter
tained with your Journal that she
almost read herself blind. She has
a great regard for you. Ib. ii. 383.
The words Boswel s Journal had
been completely effaced in the ori
ginal, but had been written in again
before the Letter was sent to the
printer.
5 Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson a
I shall
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
321
I shall try at Oxford what can be done for Mr. Carter 1 . What
can be done for his daughter it is not easy to tell. Does her
mother know her own distress, or is she out of her wits with
pride, or does Betsy a little exaggerate? It is strange be
haviour.
The mourning it seems is general 2 . I must desire that you will
let somebody take my best black cloaths out of the chest, and
send them. There is nothing in the chest but what may be
tumbled. The key is the newest of those two that have the
wards channelled. When they are at the borough, my man can
fetch them.
But all this while, dear and dear lady, take great care of
yourself.
Do not buy Chandler s travels 3 , they are duller than Twiss s 4 .
Wraxal 5 is too fond of words, but you may read him. I shall
take care that Adair s account of America 6 may be sent you, for
I shall have it of my own.
Beattie has called once to see me. He lives grand at the
Archbishop s 7 .
few weeks later : I will keep the
story of the fourteen thousand pounds
till we meet ; so I will all family con
cerns, unless little Oueeney sends her
country post, as usual, to give in
formation of a new sail of ducks, or
some such important intelligence,
which will not greatly interfere with
my project. Piozzi Letters, i. 269.
1 Ante, p. 309.
2 For Johnson s compliance with a
direction for court mourning see Life,
iv. 325.
3 Dr. Richard Chandler s Travels
in Asia Minor. Horace Walpole,
writing of Chandler s Travels in
Greece, says the book is ill- written
and unsatisfactory ; and yet he re
vived my visions towards Athens, and
made me wish I was a great king, and
could purchase to restore it : a great
king probably would hold it cheaper
to conquer it. Letters, vi. 322.
VOL. I. Y
4 Ante, p. 316.
5 Nathaniel Wraxall published this
year his Cursory Remarks made in a
Tour through some of the Northern
Parts of Europe.
6 James Adair s History of the
American Indians, London, 1775-
He was a trader with the Indians of
the southern states, and resided in
their country forty years. In his
elaborate book he attempted to prove
that they were descended from the
Jews. Rose s Biog. Diet. \. 85.
7 I find no mention in Beattie s
Life of his being at the Archbishop s.
In this visit to London, I lodged,
he writes, the greatest part of the
time with my friend, Dr. Porteus, at
Lambeth. Porteus was Rector of
Lambeth ; afterwards Bishop, first,
of Chester, and then of London. Life
of Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 218.
Dear
322 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
Dear lady do not be careless, nor heedless, nor rash, nor
giddy ; but take care of your health.
I am, dearest Madam,
Your most humble servant,
May 22, 1775. SAM: JOHNSON.
Dr. Talbot, which I think I never told you, has given five
hundred pounds to the future infirmary.
To Mrs. Thrale.
396.
To MRS. THRALE.
[London], May 24, 1775.
In Messrs. Sotheby and Co. s Auction Catalogue of May 10, 1875,
Lot 92 is a Letter of Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, dated May 24, 1775, two
pages quarto. Asking her to send him his " black cloaths," of which
he says : do send the cloaths if you send them in a wheelbarrow.
Mentions the reason of the delay in his departure indulges in some
playful remarks, and in the superscription calls her Dearest of all dear
Ladies. It was sold for 6 6s.
397.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST LADY, May 25, 1775.
The fit was a sudden faintness, such as I have had I know
not how often ; no harm came of it, and all is well. I cannot
go till Saturday; and then go I will, if I can. My cloaths,
Mr. Thrale says, must be made like other people s, and they are
gone to the taylor. If I do not go, you know, how shall I come
back again ?
I told you, I fancy, yesterday, that I was well, but I thought
so little of the disorder, that I know not whether I said any thing
about it.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
398.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], May 27, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 379.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 222.
To
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 323
399.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, [University College, Oxford], June I, 1775.
I know well enough what you think, but I am out of your
reach. I did not make the epitaph before last night ; and this
morning I have found it too long. I send you it as it is to
pacify you, and will make it shorter. It is too long by near half.
Tell me what you would be most willing to spare 2 .
Dr. Wetherell went with me to the Vice Chancellor, to whom
we told the transaction with my Lord of Chester, and the Vice
Chancellor promised to write to the Archbishop. I told him
that he needed have no scruples ; he was asking nothing for
himself; nothing that would make him richer, or them poorer;
and that he acted only as a magistrate, and one concerned
for the interest of the University. Dr. Wetherell promises to
stimulate him 3 .
Don t suppose that I live here as we live at Streatham. I
went this morning to the chapel at six 4 , and if I was to stay
would try to conform to all wholesome rules. Pray let Harry
have the penny which I owe him for the last morning.
Mr. Colson 5 is well, and still willing to keep me, but I delight
not in being long here. Mr. Smollett of Lochlomond and his
Lady have been here. We were very glad to meet 6 .
1 Piozzi Letters, \. 223. I was surprised to find a freshman
2 The epitaph was for the grave of of Queen s College recording on
Mrs. Thrale s mother in Streatham November 21, 1778: From the
Church. Post, p. 327. convenient and ready breakfast I eat
3 The Vice-Chancellor was Dr. of milk, I am able to sit down to
Fothergill, Provost of Queen s College, study seriously at nine o clock, at
known as Old Customary. The least half an hour sooner than any
night of the great fire in Queen s in body else. Letters of Radcliffe and
1778, though he and his family James, p. 50. In the early part of
escaped with difficulty he contrived last century chapel at Trinity College,
nevertheless to get on his wig and Cambridge, apparently was at six in
gown, minus which he would not the morning all the year round,
have been seen abroad for a duke- Monk s Life of Sent ley, ii. 247, n. 2.
dom. Letters of Radcliffe and James, 5 Rev. John Coulson, one of the
p. 269. Fellows of University College.
4 In the winter no doubt the hour 6 Johnson had visited them at their
for chapel was later. Nevertheless house on Loch Lomond. Ante, p. 286.
Y 2 Pray
324
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
Pray let me know how you do, and play no more tricks ; if
you do, I can yet come back and watch you.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
400.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
MADAME, [Oxford], June 5, 1775.
Trois jours sont passes sans que je re9oive une lettre ; point
de nouvelles, point d amitie, point de querelles. Un silence si
rare, que veut-il? je vous ai envoye 1 epitaphe, trop longue a la
verite, mais on la raccourcira sans beaucoup de peine. Vous
n en avez pas dit un mot. Peutetre que je serai plus heureux
ce soir.
J ai epuise ce lieu, ou je n e"tudie pas 2 , et ou si on ote 1 etude,
il n y a rien, et je ne trouve guere moyen d echaper. Les voitures
qui passent par cy, passent dans la nuit 3 ; les chaises de poste
me couteront beaucoup. J envoye querir un passage plus com
mode.
Je dinerai demain chez le Vice Chancelier 4 , j espere de trouver
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 225.
A poor French letter, and written
in a hurry. Johnson never wrote to
me French, but when he translated
for me the first paragraph of his
Rasselas. BARETTI. Baretti told
Malone that he never could satisfy
himself with the translation of the
first sentence, which is uncommonly
lofty. Mentioning this to Johnson,
the latter said, after thinking two or
three minutes, "Well, take up the
pen, and if you can understand my
pronunciation, I will see what I can
do." He then dictated the sentence
to the translator, which proved
admirable, and was immediately
adopted. Prior s Life of Malone, p.
161. There is no copy of Baretti s
Rasselas in the British Museum,
Bodleian, or the National Library at
Paris, neither can I find any other
mention of it. He published in 1772
An Introdtiction to the most tiseful
Ezeropean languages (in which by
the way German is not included), and
in it he gave translations in French,
Italian and Spanish of six chapters
of Rasselas, but the first chapter is
not among them.
1 Twenty-one years earlier, when
he was writing his Dictionary, he had
gone to Oxford to visit the libraries.
But though he stayed about five
weeks he collected nothing in the
libraries for that work. Life, i.
270.
3 Johnson wanted a place in a
coach going from London to Bir
mingham. William Hutton, nine
years later, returning from London
found all the places taken for two
days to come. He left in the evening
of a December day. Hutton s Journey
to London, p. 132.
4 The dinner was likely to be dull,
for the Vice-Chancellor is described
as a very bashful man. His con
versation was pithless and insipid.
In his old age he took to himself a
des
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 325
des choses un peu favorables a notre ami mfortune I , mais je n ai
nulle confiance. Je suis,
Madame,
Votre tres obeissant serviteur,
SAM: JOHNSON 2 .
401.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
MADAM, [Oxford], June 6, 1775.
Such is the uncertainty of all human things, that Mr. C 4
has quarrelled with me. He says, I raise the laugh upon him,
and he is an independent man, and all he has is his own, and he
is not used to such things. And so I shall have no more good of
C , of whom I never had any good but flattery, which my
dear mistress knows I can have at home.
That I had no letters yesterday I do not wonder ; for yester
day we had no post s . I hope something will come to-day. Our
post is so ill-regulated that we cannot receive letters and answer
them the same day.
Here I am, and how to get away I do not see ; for the power
of departure otherwise than in a post-chaise depends upon acci
dental vacancies in passing coaches, of which all but one in a
week pass through this place at three in the morning. After
wife, and it was the general wonder- talking of it with pomp. Johnson
ment that he had found courage to chose to imagine his becoming an
ask anybody to marry him. Bent- archdeacon, and made himself merry
ham s Works, x. 37. at his expense. At last they got to
1 Mr. Carter. Ante, p. 309. warm words, and Johnson concluded
2 On the day on which Johnson the debate by exclaiming emphati-
wrote this letter, Horace Walpole, cally "Sir, having meant you no
sending Sir Horace Mann news of offence, I will make you no apology."
the fight at Lexington on April 19, Croker s Boswell, p. 458.
where the first blood was shed in the 5< Yesterday was Monday. No
war with our Colonies, continues : post left London on Sunday night.
So here is this fatal war commenced ! A letterposted in London on Monday
The child that is unborn shall rue would be delivered in Oxford on
The hunting of that day. Tuesday ; the answer to it would
Walpole s Letters, vi. 219. leave by the Wednesday post and be
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 226. delivered in London on Thursday.
4 Mr. Coulson. An eye-witness At the present day a letter posted in
told Mr. Croker that Coulson was the morning receives its answer in the
going out on a country living, and evening.
that
326 To Mrs. Tkrale. [A.D. 1775.
that one I have sent, but with little hope ; yet I shall be very
unwilling to stay here another week.
I supped two nights ago with Mr. Bright T , who enquired
after Harry and Queeney, to whom I likewise desire to be
remembered.
Suppose I should grow like my mistress, and when I am to
go forward, think eagerly how and when I shall come back, would
that be a strange thing ? Love and reverence have always had
some tendency to produce conformity.
Where is Mr. Baretti? Are he and Queeney plague and
darling as they are used to be 2 ? I hope my sweet Queeney
will write me a long letter, when I am so settled that she knows
how to direct to me, and if I can find any thing for her cabinet,
I shall be glad to bring it.
What the Vice Chancellor says respecting Mr. Carter, if he
says any thing, you shall know to-morrow, for I shall probably
leave him too late for this day s post.
If I have not a little something from you to-day, I shall think
something very calamitous has befallen us. This is the natural
effect of punctuality. Every intermission alarms. Dearest dear
Lady, take care of yourself. You connect us, and rule us, and
vex us, and please us. We have all a deep interest in your health
and prosperity.
I am, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
402.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAREST MADAM, [Oxford], June 7, 1775.
What can be the reason that I hear nothing from you or
from your house ? Are you well ? Yet while I am asking the
question, I know not when I shall be able to receive your answer,
for I am waiting for the chance of a place in a coach which will
probably be come and gone in an hour.
1 Probably the Abingdon School- For these Dialogues see Life, ii. 449,
master. Ante, p. 157. n. 2.
- From the Dialogues I wrote for 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 263.
that same Queeny a true idea may This letter is dated by Mrs. Piozzi,
be formed how we were plague and July 7, but it was certainly written on
darling to each other. BARETTI. June 7.
- Yesterday
Aetat. as.] To Mrs. Thrale. 327
Yesterday the Vice-Chancellor told me, that he has written to
the Archbishop of York. His letter, as he represented it to me,
was very proper and persuasive. I believe we shall establish
Mr. Carter the riding master of Oxford.
Still I cannot think why I hear nothing from you.
The coach is full. I am therefore at full leisure to continue
my letter ; but I have nothing more to say of business, but that
the Vice-Chancellor is for adding to the riding-school a house
and stable for the master. Nor of myself but that I grieve and
wonder, and hope and fear about my dear friends at Streatham.
But I may have a letter this afternoon Sure it will bring me no
bad news *. You never neglected writing so before. If I have
a letter to-day I will go away as soon as I can ; if I have none,
I will stay till this may be answered, if I do not come back to
town.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
403.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAREST LADY, [Oxford], June 7, 1775-
Your letter which ought to have come on Tuesday came
not till Wednesday. Well, now I know that there is no harm,
I will take a chaise and march away towards my own country.
You are but a goose at last. Wilton told you, that there is
room for three hundred and fifty letters, which are equivalent to
twelve lines. If you reckon by lines, the inscription has seven
teen : if by letters, five hundred and seventy-nine ; so that one
way you must expel five lines, the other two hundred and twenty-
nine letters. This will perplex us ; there is little that by my
own choice I should like to spare ; but we must comply with the
stone 3 .
C 4 and I are pretty well again. I grudge the cost of
1 Ante, p. 262. post for London had left.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 229. The stone of her mother s monu-
This letter was evidently written ment. Ante, p. 323. The inscrip-
on the same day as the last Wed- tion was cut down to 546 letters,
nesday, June 7 after the post from Johnson s Works, \. 152.
London had come in, and after the 4 Coulson.
going
328
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
going to Lichfield, Frank and I in a post-chaise T ; yet I think
of thundering away to-morrow; so you will write your next dear
letter to Lichfield.
This letter is written on Wednesday after the receipt of yours,
but will not be delivered to the post till to-morrow. I wish
Ralph better, and my master and his boys well 2 . I have pretty
good nights.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
404.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, [Lichfield], June 10, 1775.
On Thursday morning I took a post-chaise, and intended
to have passed a day or two at Birmingham, but Hector 4 had
company in his house, and I went on to Lichfield, where I know
not yet how long I shall stay, but think of going forward to Ash-
bourne in a short time.
Neither your letters nor mine seem to have kept due time ; if
you see the date of the letter in which the epitaph was inclosed,
you will find that it has been delayed. I shall adjust the epitaph
some way or other. Send me your advice.
Poor Miss Porter has been bad with the gout in her hand. She
cannot yet dress herself.
I am glad that Ralph is gone ; a new air may do him good.
I hope little Miss promises well.
I will write you a longer letter on Monday, being just now
called out according to an appointment which I had forgotten.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
pikes. See Mostyn Armstrong s
Actual Survey, &c., p. 4 ; and Pater-
son s British Itinerary, vol. i, pre
face, p. vii. Frank was Johnson s
black servant.
2 Ralph was one of Mr. Thrale s
two sons. Who are meant by his
boys I do not know.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 230.
4 Ante, p. 41.
To
/, Letter of June 24, 1779,
where he says that to go from London
to Lichfield had cost him seven
guineas. The charge for a chaise
and pair was ninepence a mile ; in
some districts more. There was a
duty on each horse of one penny per
mile. The driver expected at least a
shilling or eighteen pence for each
stage of ten or twelve miles. There
were heavy tolls to be paid at the turn
Aatat. 65.]
To Mrs. Tkrale.
.I 2 9
405.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST LADY, [Lichfidd], June n, 1775.
I am sorry that my master has undertaken an impracticable
interest ; but it will be forgotten before the next election. I
suppose he was asked at some time when he could not well
refuse.
Lady Smith 2 is settled at last here, and sees company at her
new house. I went on Saturday. Poor Lucy Porter has her
hand in a bag, so disabled by the gout that she cannot dress
herself. She does not go out. All your other friends are
well.
I go every day to Stowhill : both the sisters are now at home 3 .
I sent Mrs. Aston a Taxation, and sent it nobody else, and Lucy
borrowed it. Mrs. Aston since that enquired by a messenger
when I was expected. I can tell nothing about it, answered
Lucy ; when he is to be here I suppose she ll know 4 .
Every body remembers you all. You left a good impression
behind you. I hope you will do the same at ***** 5 . Do not
make them speeches. Unusual compliments, to which there is
no stated and prescriptive answer, embarrass the feeble, who
know not what to say, and disgust the wise, who knowing them
to be false, suspect them to be hypocritical 6 . Did I think when
I sat down to this paper that I should write a lesson to my
mistress, of whom I think with so much admiration?
As to Mr. Carter, I am inclined to think that our project will
succeed. The Vice-Chancellor is really in earnest. He remarked
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 231.
Mrs. Thrale had spent three days
at Lichfield in the summer of the
year before. She would know the
people and places mentioned. Life,
v. 428.
2 She is mentioned, post, p. 335,
and in the Letter of May 29, 1779.
3 Mrs. Gastrell and Mrs. Aston.
Ante, p. 1 60, n. 4.
4 She is Mrs. Aston, of whom
Lucy Porter was jealous on account
of her copy of Taxation no Tyranny.
5 Probably Lewes, post, p. 332,
n. I.
6 Johnson recorded in his Diary of
a Journey into Wales : August 3.
Talk with Mistress about flattery.
On this Mrs. Piozzi has the following
MS. note : He said I flattered the
people to whose houses we went. I
was saucy, and said I was obliged to
be civil for two, meaning himself and
me. He replied nobody would thank
me for compliments they did not
understand. Life, \. 440.
to
\o
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
to me how necessary it must be to provide in places of education
a sufficient variety of innocent amusements, to keep the young
men from pernicious pleasures J .
When I did not hear from you, I thought whether it would
not be proper to come back and look for you. I knew not what
might have happened.
Consider the epitaph, which, you know, must be shortened,
and tell what part you can best spare. Part of it, which tells
the birth and marriage, is formulary 2 , and can be expressed only
one way; the character we can make longer or shorter; and
since it is too long, may choose what we shall take away. You
must get the dates for which you see spaces left.
You never told me, and I omitted to enquire, how you were
entertained by Boswell s Journal. One would think the man had
been hired to be a spy upon me 3 . He was very diligent, and
caught opportunities of writing from time to time. You may
now conceive yourself tolerably well acquainted with the expe
dition. Folks want me to go to Italy 4 , but I say you are not
for it. However write often to, Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Jeremy Bentham, who entered
Queen s College, Oxford, in 1760,
sometimes went to fish as a relief
from the weary monotony of existence.
To catch a minnow was an interrup
tion to the dulness of the day. But
even the fishing sports partook of the
system of neglect with which all
education was conducted. Generally
a poacher was hired to go with a
casting-net. He caught the fish, and
the youths went and got it dressed
at a neighbouring inn. Bentham s
Works, x. 40. Burke talking about
games said that as there are so few
who will exercise their minds by the
study of books, it is better they should
employ it [sic] this way than let it get
no energy or exercise at all ; for all
games are regular, and require some
reflection or combination of thought.
Education should ever be considered
in the light of mitigated and moderate
restraint. Burke s Table Talk. Mis
cellanies of the Philobiblon Society,
vii. 22.
2 Formulary as an adjective is
not in Johnson s Dictionary.
3 It seems very improbable that
Johnson wrote this.
4 The following year all was
arranged for a journey to Italy with
the Thrales, when it was cut short
by young Henry Thrale s sudden
death. Life, iii. 19, 27.
To
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Tkrale.
406.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST LADY, Lichfieid, June 13, 1775.
I now write at Mr. Cobb s 2 , where I have dined and had
custard. She and Miss Adey send their compliments. Nothing
considerable has happened since I wrote, only I am sorry to see
Miss Porter so bad ; and I am not well pleased to find that after
a very comfortable intermission, the old flatulence distressed me
again last night. The world is full of ups and downs, as I think
I once told you before.
Lichfieid is full of box-clubs 3 . The ladies have one for their
own sex. They have incorporated themselves under the appella
tion of the Amicable Society ; and pay each twopence a week to
the box. Any woman who can produce the weekly twopence is
admitted to the society; and when any of the poor subscribers
is in want, she has six shillings a week ; and I think when she
dies five pounds are given to her children. Lucy is not one, nor
Mrs. Cobb. The subscribers are always quarrelling ; and every
now and then a lady in a fume withdraws her name ; but they
are an hundred pounds before hand.
Mr. Green 4 has got a cast of Shakespeare, which he holds to
be a very exact resemblance.
There is great lamentation here for the death of Coll 5 . Lucy
is of opinion that he was wonderfully handsome.
Boswell is a favourite, but he has lost ground since I told them
that he is married, and all hope is over 6 .
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 234. of opinion that they were not a legal
2 A misprint for Mrs. Cobb s. She society, and therefore could neither
was a widow lady; Miss Adey was sue nor be sued. See ib. for 1770,
her niece. Life, ii. 466. pp. 422, 524, for the formation of a
3 Friendly or Provident Societies. Provident Society open to all persons
In the Gentleman s Magazine for of either sex, Jews excepted? I was
1736, p. 353, is the following entry: told in Lichfieid that when a man is
The demurrer to a bill filed by a sick it is still commonly said that he
Society of Weavers in Spittle-fields, goes upon the box.
against Mr. Sutton, landlord of the 4 The owner of the Lichfieid
house where their club was kept, for Museum. Ante, p. 161.
a sum of ,30 lent him out of the box, 5 Ante, p. 279, n. 2.
was argued before the Barons of 6 Boswell had been married nearly
the Exchequer, when the Court were six years. Life, ii. 140, . i.
Be
332
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
Be so kind as to let me know when you go to Lewes x , and
when you come back, that I may not fret for want of a letter, as
I fretted at Oxford. Pay my respects to my dear master.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
407.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfieid, June 17, 1775.
Write to me something every post, for on the stated day
my head runs upon a letter 3 . I will answer Queeney. Bad
nights came again ; but I took mercury, and hope to find good
effects. I am distressfully and frightfully deaf. Querelis jam
satis datum.
So we shall have a fine house in the winter, as we already
have in the summer 4 . I am not sorry for the appearance of a
little superfluous expence. I have not yet been at Ashbourne,
and yet I would fain flatter myself that you begin to wish me
home ; but do not tell me so, if it be not true, for I am very well
at Stowhill.
Mrs. Porter will be glad of a memorial from you, and will
keep the work-bag carefully, but has no great use for it ; her
present qualifications for the niceties of needlework being dim
eyes and lame fingers.
1 They knew Dr. Delap the Rector
of Lewes. Mrs. Piozzi describes how
one morning in the year 1766, when
Johnson was suffering from melan
choly, she and Mr. Thrale heard
him in the most pathetic terms beg
the prayers of Dr. Delap, who had
left him as we came in. I felt exces
sively affected with grief, and well
remember my husband involuntarily
lifted up one hand to shut his mouth,
from provocation at hearing a man so
wildly proclaim what he could at last
persuade no one to believe ; and
what, if true, would have been so
very unfit to reveal. Piozzi Anec
dotes, p. 127, and Murphy s Johnson,
p. 99.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 236.
On the morning of the day on
which this letter was written the
Battle of Bunker s Hill was fought.
3 Lichfieid is not in the list of the
towns to which mails were sent every
night but Sunday. On Tuesday,
Thursday, and Saturday, mails were
sent to all parts of England. Dodsley s
Environs of London, v. 221.
4 Mr. Thrale was going to build,
as is shown in the next paragraph
but one.
the
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
333
Of the harvest about us it is said that much is expected from
the wheat, more indeed than can be easily remembered. The
barley is promising enough, but not uncommonly exuberant.
But this is of itself a very good account, for no grain is ever
dear, when wheat is cheap. I hope therefore that my master
may without fear or danger build this year, and dig the next.
I do not find that in this part of the country rain has been much
wanted.
If you go with Mrs. D - T , do not forget me amidst the
luxuries of absolute dominion, but let me have kind letters full
of yourself, of your own hopes, and your own fears, and your
own thoughts, and then go where you will. You will find
your journey however but a barren business ; it is dull to live
neither scolding nor scolded, neither governing nor governed.
Now try.
I expected that when the interest of the county had been
divided, Mawbey would have had very little difficulty, and am
glad to find that Norton opposes him with so much efficacy;
pray send me the result 2 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Perhaps the wife of Dr. Delap
(ante, p. 332, n. i) or a Mrs. Davenant,
who, as Mrs. Thrale s letter of June
24 shows, accompanied her to the
Regatta. Piozzi Letters, i. 248. See
Mme. D Arblay s Diary, ed. 1842,
ii. 41. She was by birth a Cotton,
as was Mrs. Thrale s mother. Early
Diary of Fanny Burney, ii. 266, n. I.
2 Sir Joseph Mawbey had been
Thrale s colleague for Southwark in
the last parliament. Parl. Hist. xvi.
443. A vacancy having occurred in
Surrey this year he had stood, and
had been elected two days before
Johnson s letter was written. Gentle-
maris Magazine, 1775, p. 301. On
August 17 an action was brought
against him by a Guildford shop
keeper for the sum of ^117 6s. for
ribbons at the last general election.
He paid ^30 into Court, and the
jury gave a verdict for ^29 only. Ib.
p. 404. He is the Sir Joseph of
the following lines from the Rolliad
in the description of the Speaker :
There Cornevvall sits, and oh ! un
happy fate !
Must sit for ever through the long
debate.
Painful pre-eminence ! he hears, tis
true,
Fox, North, and Burke, but hears
Sir Joseph too.
I thought when I saw my friend
Mr. Leonard H. Courtney, sitting
as Chairman of Committees, that
to him, as Member for a division
of Cornwall, these lines might be
aptly applied.
To
334
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
408.
To MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfieid, June 19, 1775.
I hope it is very true that Ralph mends, and wish you were
gone to see him, that you might come back again.
Queeney revenges her long task upon Mr. Baretti s hen, who
must sit on duck eggs a week longer than on her own. I hope
she takes great care of my hen, and the Guinea hen, and her
pretty little brood 2 .
I was afraid Mawbey would succeed, and have little hope from
the scrutiny. Did you ever know a scrutiny change the account ?
Miss A 3 does not run after me, but I do not want her,
here are other ladies.
Invenies alium, si te hie fastidit Alexis 4 .
Miss * * * * grows old, and Miss Vyse 5 has been ill, but I
believe she came to me as soon as she got out. And I can
always go to Stowhill. So never grieve about me. Only flatu
lencies are come again.
Your dissertation upon Queeney is very deep. I know not what
to say to the chief question. Nature probably has some part in
human characters, and accident has some part ; which has most
we will try to settle when we meet 6 .
Small letters will undoubtedly gain room for more words, but
words are useless if they cannot be read 7 . The lines need not
all be kept distinct, and some words I shall wish to leave out,
though very few. It must be revised before it is engraved. I
always told you that Mr. Thrale was a man, take him for all in
all, you ne er will look upon his like 8 ; but you never mind him
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 238.
2 It was one of the Streatham
whims to call the cocks and hens by
the name of some acquaintance or
other of the family, and so we roasted
Johnson to-day and boiled Baretti or
somebody else to-morrow. BARETTI.
3 Perhaps Miss Adey. Ante,
p. 331, n. 2.
4 VIRGIL. Eclogues, ii. 73.
And find an easier love though
not so fair. DRYDEN.
5 Life, iii. 124.
6 For the original difference in
minds and the influence of educa
tion, see ib. ii. 436.
7 He is speaking of the epitaph to
Mrs. Thrale s mother. Ante, p. 323.
8 He was a man, take him for all
in all,
I shall not look upon his like
again.
Hamlet, Act i. sc. 2.
nor
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 335
nor me, till time forces conviction into your steely bosom. You
will, perhaps, find all right about the house and the windows.
Pray always suppose that I send my respects to Master, and
Queeney, and Harry, and Susey, and Sophy.
Poor Lucy mends very slowly, but she is very good-humoured,
while I do just as she would have me.
Lady Smith has got a new post-chaise, which is not nothing
to talk on at Lichfield. Little things here serve for conversation.
Mrs. Aston s parrot pecked my leg, and I heard of it some time
after at Mrs. Cobb s.
We deal in nicer things
Than routing armies and dethroning kings.
A week ago Mrs. Cobb gave me sweetmeats to breakfast, and I
heard of it last night at Stowhill.
If you are for small talk :
Come on, and do the best you can,
I fear not you, nor yet a better man.
I could tell you about Lucy s two cats, and Brill her brother s
old dog, who is gone deaf; but the day would fail me, Siia-
dentque cadentia sidera somnum I . So said ^Eneas. But I have
not yet had my dinner. I have begun early, for what would
become of the nation if a letter of this importance should miss
the post ? Pray write to, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
409.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield, June 21, 1775.
Now I hope you are thinking, shall I have a letter to-day
from Lichfield ? Something of a letter you will have ; how else
can I expect that you should write ? and the morning on which
I should miss a letter would be a morning of uneasiness, not
withstanding all that would be said or done by the sisters of
1 somnos. VIRGIL, ^Eneid, ii. 9 The setting stars to kindly rest
and iv. 81. invite. DRYDEN.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 241.
Stowhill
336
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
Stowhill z , who do and say whatever good they can. They give
me good words, and cherries, and strawberries. Lady * * * * 2
and her mother and sister were visiting there yesterday, and
Lady * * * * took her tea before her mother.
Mrs. Cobb is to come to Miss Porter s this afternoon. Miss
A comes little near me. Mr. Langley of Ashbourne was
here to-day, in his way to Birmingham, and every body talks
of you 3 .
The ladies of the Amicable Society are to walk, in a few days,
from the town-hall to the cathedral in procession to hear a ser
mon. They walk in linen gowns, and each has a stick with an
acorn, but for the acorn they could give no reason, till I told
them of the civick crown 4 .
I have just had your sweet letter, and am glad that you are
to be at the regatta 5 . You know how little I love to have you
1 Mrs. Gastrell and Mrs. Aston.
2 Lady Smith. BARETTI. Mrs.
Thrale replied : Lady * * * should
not have taken the tea before her
mother, that s certain, as her husband
is dead, and all pretence of support
ing the rank he had given her is past.
I can find no excuse for her conduct
except too attentive an observation
to dear Mr. Johnson s odd speeches
against parental authority. Piozzi
Letters, i. 247.
3 There is an omission here, as is
shown both by the structure of the
sentence, and also by Mrs. Thrale s
reply, where she refers to a compli
ment paid her by some pedantic
gentleman. Piozzi Letters, ii. 246.
Mr. Langley was the Master of Ash-
bourne School. Ante, p. 189.
4 For the Amicable Society see
ante, p. 331. Within the last ten years
the women s club in Lichfield used to
go to church on an appointed day ; in
Stafford till very lately they carried
staves in their procession to church.
5 March 24, 1775. Tne Savoir
vivre Club are going to give quite a
new thing on the Thames ; all the
river from Blackfriars Bridge to some
way above Westminster Bridge is to
be filled with gondolas, barges, &c.,
leaving a space as wide as the centre
arch of Westminster Bridge quite
clear for a boat-race, and all the
company are to go by water to Rane-
lagh to dine, and to sup at Vauxhall.
Letters of the First Earl of Malmes-
bury, i. 298. See also ib. p. 311.
June 23, 1775. An entertain
ment called a Regatta, borrowed
from the Venetians, was exhibited
partly on the Thames and partly at
Ranelagh. Annual Register, 1775,
i. 133. It was beautiful, writes
Horace Walpole, to see the Thames
covered with boats, barges, and
streamers, and every window and
house-top loaded with spectators. I
suppose so many will not meet again
till the day of judgment, which was not
to-day. In the middle of the river
was a street of lighters and barges
covered with pent-houses like a
carpenter s yard, which totally pre
vented all the other millions seeing
anything. The rowers passed through
this street, and so we never beheld
them at all Walpole sZ>/A?r.y,vi.223.
See also Walpole s Journal of the
left
Aetat. es] To Mrs. Thrale . 33 7
left out of any shining part of life. You have every right to
distinction, and should therefore be distinguished. You will see
a show with philosophick superiority, and therefore may see it
safely. It is easy to talk of sitting at home contented, when
others are seeing or making shows. But not to have been where
it is supposed, and seldom supposed falsely, that all would go if
they could ; to be able to say nothing when every one is talking ;
to have no opinion when every one is judging ; to hear exclama
tions of rapture without power to depress ; to listen to falsehoods
without right to contradict, is, after all, a state of temporary in
feriority, in which the mind is rather hardened by stubbornness,
than supported by fortitude . If the world be worth winning,
let us enjoy it 2 ; if it is to be despised, let us despise it by con
viction. But the world is not to be despised but as it is compared
with something better. Company is in itself better than solitude,
and pleasure better than indolence. Ex nihilo nihil fit, says the
moral as well as natural philosopher. By doing nothing and by
knowing nothing no power of doing good can be obtained. He
must mingle with the world that desires to be useful. Every
new scene impresses new ideas, enriches the imagination, and
enlarges the power of reason, by new topicks of comparison.
You that have seen the regatta will have images which we who
miss it must want, and no intellectual images are without use 3 .
But when you are in this scene of splendour and gayety, do not
let one of your fits of negligence steal upon you. Hoc age, is the
great rule whether you are serious or merry 4 ; whether you are
stating the expences of your family, learning science or duty
Reign of George III, \. 493, ed. 1 7 59, 3 < Dr _ j ohnson asked me if j WQuld
and Gentleman s Magazine, 1775, P- lose the recollection of our Tour to
the Hebrides for five hundred pounds,
there was not half a I answered I would not ; and he ap-
gumea s worth of pleasure in seeing plauded my setting such a value on
this place [the Pantheon]. JOHN- an accession of new images in my
SON. " But, Sir, there is half a mind. Life, v. 405.
guinea s worth of inferiority to other 4 < Remember the hoc age-, do
people m not having seen it." Life, what you are about, be that what it
will ; it is either worth doing well or
f the world be worth thy win- not at all. Chesterfield s Letters to
, . n . m f? . his Son , i- 290. Chesterfield never
Think, O think it, worth enjoying. tires of insisting on hoc age.
DRYDEN, Alexander s Feast, st. v.
VOL. I. Z from
338 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
from a folio x , or floating on the Thames in a fancied dress. Of
the whole entertainment let me not hear so copious nor so true
an account from any body as from you.
I am, dearest Madam,
Your. &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
41O.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, June 23, 1775
So now you have been at the regatta, for I hope you got
tickets somewhere, else you wanted me. and I shall not be sorry,
because you fancy you can do so well without me ; but however
I hope you got tickets, and were dressed fine and fanciful 3 . and
made a fine part of the fine show, and heard musick, and said
good things, and staid on the water four hours after midnight,
and came well home, and slept, and dreamed of the regatta, and
waked, and found yourself in bed, and thought now it is all over,
only I must write about it to Lichfield.
We make a hard shift here to live on without a regatta. The
cherries are ripe at Stowhill, and the currants are ripening, and
the ladies are very kind to me. I wish, however, you would go
to Surry, and come back, though I think it wiser to stay till the
improvement in Ralph 4 may become perceptible, else you will
be apt to judge by your wishes and your imagination. Let us
in the mean time hope the best. Let me but know when you
go, and when you come back again.
If you or Mr. Thrale would write to Dr. Wetherell about
Mr. Carter, it will please Wetherell, and keep the business in
motion. They know not otherwise how to communicate news
if they have it.
As to my hopes and my wishes, I can keep them to myself.
They will perhaps grow less if they are laughed at. I needed
1 Reading James s Medical Die- that the trimming of her Court dress
tionary to learn how to administer was to cost ^65. Mme. D Arblay s
antimonial wine to a boy. BARETTI. Diary, ii. 7.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 244. 4 Her second son.
3 Mrs. Thrale writing in 1781 says
not
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs, Thralc.
339
not tell them, but that I have little else to write, and I needed
not write, but that I do not like to be without hearing from you,
because I love the Thrales and the Thralites.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
411.
To MRS. THRALE*.
DEAR MADAM, June 26, 1775-
That the regatta disappointed you is neither wonderful nor
new 2 ; all pleasure preconceived and preconcerted ends in dis
appointment 3 ; but disappointment, when it involves neither
shame nor loss, is as good as success ; for it supplies as many
images to the mind, and as many topicks to the tongue. I am
glad it failed for another reason, which looks more sage than my
reasons commonly try to look ; this, I think, is Queeney s first
excursion into the regions of pleasure, and I should not wish to
have her too much pleased 4 . It is as well for her to find that
pleasures have their pains ; and that bigger misses who are at
Ranelagh when she is in bed, are not so much to be envied as
they would wish to be, or as they may be represented.
So you left out the * * * * s, and I suppose they did not go.
It will be a common place for you and Queeney fourscore years
hence ; and my master and you may have recourse to it some
times. But I can only listen. I am glad that you were among
the finest 5 .
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 255.
2 The wind had been high and the
water rough so that they had not
ventured on to the river. They had
gone to a friend s house in the
Temple, where they had struggled
for places at a window and discom
posed their head-dresses. They had
hastened thence in a boat to Rane
lagh ; but the wind roared and the
rain fell. The screams of the frighted
company were heard as they were
tossed about at the moment of getting
to shore. The Rotunda was not to
be opened till twelve o clock, and
they crowded into the new building,
whence they drove the carpenters.
The supper was said to be execrable.
They did not return home till about
five or six in the morning. Piozzi
Letters, 1.248-254.
3 Nothing is more hopeless than
a scheme of merriment. The Idler,
No. 58.
4 I have a notion that Queeny
has listened too much to his gloomy
lessons, as now that she is three and
twenty, though rich and independent,
she is already too gloomy herself.
BARETTI.
5 According to Horace Walpole
(Letters, vi. 223), A great deal of
the show was spoilt by everybody
being in black ; it looked like a
Z 2
Nothing
340
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
Nothing was the matter between me and Miss
# # * *
We
are all well enough now. Miss Porter went yesterday to church,
from which she has been kept a long time. I fancy that I shall
go on Thursday to Ashbourne, but do not think that I shall stay
very long. I wish you were gone to Surry and come well back
again, and yet I would not have you go too soon. Perhaps I do
not very well know what I would have; it is a case not ex
tremely rare. But I know I would hear from you by every post,
and therefore I take care that you should every post day hear
from me.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
412.
To RICHARD GREEN.
[Lichfield or Ashbourne], June 29, 1775.
In Messrs. Puttick and Simpson s Auction Catalogue of March 10,
1862, Lot 363 is a Letter of Johnson to Mr. Green, one page quarto,
making an appointment, dated June 29, 1775.
For Mr. Green, see ante, p. 161.
413.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, [Saturday], July i, 1775.
On Thursday I came to Dr. Taylor s, where I live as I am
used to do, and as you know. He has gotten nothing new, but
a very fine looking glass, and a bull-bitch 3 . The less bull is
general mourning for Amphitrite
rather than for the Queen of Den
mark. Yet Mrs. Thrale wrote : -
It had been agreed that all [of our
party] should wear white ; but the
ornaments were left to our own
choice. I was afraid of not being
fine enough ; so I trimmed my white
lute-string with silver gauze, and
wore black ribbons intermixed. You
will be told I was too fine, and tis
partly true ; but the other extreme
would have been worse. Piozzi
Letters, i. 248, 253.
1 Mrs. Thrale had asked : Why
does Miss * * * never find a place in
the letters from Lichfield ? I thought
her a mighty elegant amiable country
lady. Ib. i. 246. Perhaps Miss
Seward is the lady.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 257.
3 See theLtfe, iii. 190, for Johnson s
criticism of Dr. Taylor s bull-dog,
which had not the quick transition
from the thickness of the fore-part to
the tenuity the thin part behind
which a bull-dog ought to have.
now
Aetat. 65.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
now grown the bigger. But I forgot ; he has bought old Shake
speare, the racehorse, for a stallion r . He has likewise some fine
iron gates which he will set up somewhere. I have not yet seen
the old horse.
You are very much enquired after, as well here as at Lich-
field.
This I suppose will go after you to Sussex 2 , where I hope you
will find every thing either well or mending. You never told
me whether you took Queeney with you ; nor ever so much as
told me the name of the little one 3 . May be you think I don t
care about you.
I behaved myself so well at Lichfield, that Lucy says I am
grown better ; and the ladies at Stowhill expect I should come
back thither before I go to London, and offer to entertain me if
Lucy refuses.
I have this morning received a letter from Mrs. Chambers of
Calcutta 4 . The Judge has a sore eye, and could not write. She
represents all as going on very well, only Chambers does not
now flatter himself that he shall do much good.
I am, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
414.
To MRS. THRALE 5 .
[Ashbourne, July 1775.]
Now, thinks my dearest Mistress to herself, sure I am at last
gone too far to be pestered every post with a letter : he knows
that people go into the country to be at quiet ; he knows too that
when I have once told the story of Ralph, the place where I am
affords me nothing that I shall delight to tell, or he will wish to
be told ; he knows how troublesome it is to write letters about
1 See post, Letter of Michaelmas
Day, 1777.
1 The Thrales went to Brighton.
Post, p. 345.
Ante, p. 315, n. 3.
1 Johnson on March 5 of the
previous year had written to Bos-
well : Chambers is either married,
or almost married, to Miss Wilton, a
girl of sixteen, exquisitely beautiful,
whom he has, with his lawyer s
tongue, persuaded to take her chance
with him in the East. Life, ii. 274.
Her chance apparently was a good
one, for she lived till 1839. Diet,
of Nat. Biog., article Sir Robert
Chambers. See also ante, p. 222, n. 3.
5 Piozzi Letters, i. 258.
nothing ;
342
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
nothing ; and he knows that he does not love trouble himself,
and therefore ought not to force it upon others.
But, dearest Lady, you may see once more how little know
ledge influences practice, notwithstanding all this knowledge, you
see, here is a letter.
Every body says the prospect of harvest is uncommonly de
lightful ; but this has been so long the Summer talk, and has
been so often contradicted by Autumn, that I do not suffer it to
lay much hold on my mind. Our gay prospects have now for
many years together ended in melancholy retrospects *. Yet I
am of opinion that there is much corn upon the ground. Every
dear year encourages the farmer to sow more and more, and
favourable seasons will be sent at last. Let us hope that they
will be sent now.
The Doctor and Frank are gone to see the hay. It was cut
on Saturday, and yesterday was well wetted ; but to day has its
fill of sunshine. I hope the hay at Streatham was plentiful, and
had good weather.
Our lawn is as you left it, only the pool is so full of mud that
the water-fowl have left it. Here are many calves, who, I sup
pose, all expect to be great bulls and cows 2 .
Yesterday I saw Mrs. Diot 3 at church, and shall drink tea with
her some afternoon.
I cannot get free from this vexatious flatulence, and therefore
have troublesome nights, but otherwise I am not very ill. Now
and then a fit, and not violent. I am not afraid of the water
fall 4 . I now and then take physick ; and suspect that you were
1 Ante, p. 194. 2 Ante, p. 166.
3 Johnson mentions seeing her
when he and the Thrales visited
Ashbourne the year before. Life, v.
430. Mr. J. Coke Fowler, Stipen
diary Magistrate of Swansea, says
that about the year 1837 he met in a
country-house in Leicestershire, a
very aged lady, a Miss Dyott, who
had more than once dined with Dr.
Johnson at Lichfield. At one dinner
he was talking on some interesting
subject. A dish of Brussels sprouts
or broccoli was on the table before
him. She saw a footman take a plate
to him to receive a helping of the
vegetables, and to her horror she saw
the great man, as he was talking, dive
his hand mechanically into the dish,
and effect the helping with his
fingers. Recollections of Public Men
in The Red Dragon, p. 239.
4 See ante, p. 198. Mrs. Thrale,
I conjecture, had expressed a fear
lest, while he was at the waterfall, a
sudden faintness might overcome him
such as he had had a few weeks earlier.
Ante, p. 322.
not
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 343
not quite right in omitting to let blood before I came away 1 .
But I do not intend to do it here.
You will now find the advantage of having made one at the
regatta. You will carry with you the importance of a publick
personage, and enjoy a superiority which, having been only local
and accidental, will not be regarded with malignity. You have
a subject by which you can gratify general curiosity, and amuse
your company without bewildering them. You can keep the
vocal machine in motion, without those seeming paradoxes that
are sure to disgust ; without that temerity of censure which is
sure to provoke enemies ; and that exuberance of flattery which
experience has found to make no friends. It is the good of
publick life that it supplies agreeable topicks and general con
versation. Therefore wherever you are, and whatever you see,
talk not of the Punick war 2 ; nor of the depravity of human
nature ; nor of the slender motives of human actions ; nor of the
difficulty of finding employment or pleasure ; but talk, and talk,
and talk of the regatta, and keep the rest for, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
415.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, July 6, 1775.
Dr. Taylor says he shall be very glad to see you all here
again, if you have a mind of retirement 4 . But I told him that he
must not expect you this summer; and he wants to know why?
1 Ante, p. 298, and/0-r/, p. 354. humorous catchword with him. She
2 Sooner than hear of the Punic wrote to him in 1773: So here s
War, Murphy writes, Johnson modern politics in a letter from me ;
would be rude to the person that yes and a touch of the Punic War
introduced the subject. Murphy s too. Piozzi Letters, i. 187. He
Life of Johnson, p. 138. Mrs. Piozzi was no doubt sick of the constant
says (Anec., p. 80) that no kind of reference made by writers and public
conversation pleased him less, I speakers to Rome. For instance,
think, than when the subject was in Bolingbroke s Dissertation upon
historical fact or general polity. Parties, we find in three consecu-
"What shall we learn from that tive Letters (xi-xiiij five illustrations
stuff?" said he. " He never," as he drawn from Rome. See Life, iii.
expressed it, " desired to hear of the 206 n,
Punic War while he lived." The 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 261.
Punic War, it is clear, was a kind of * See ante, p. 314, n. 7.
I am
344 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
I am glad you have read Boswell s journal \ because it is
something for us to talk about, and that you have seen the
Hornecks 2 , because that is a publick theme. I would have
you see, and read, and hear, and talk it all, as occasion
offers.
Pray thank Queeney for her letter. I still hope good of poor
Ralph ; but sure never poor rogue was so troubled with his teeth.
I hope occasional bathing, and keeping him about two minutes
with his body immersed, may promote the discharge from his
head, and set his little brain at liberty. Pray give my service to
my dear friend Harry, and tell him that Mr. Murphy does not
love him better than I do 3 .
I am inclined to be of Mr. Thrale s mind about the changes in
the state. A dissolution of the Parliament would, in my opinion,
be little less than a dissolution of the government, by the en
couragement which it would give to every future faction to
disturb the publick tranquillity 4 . Who would ever want places
and power if perseverance in falsehood and violence of outrage
were found to be certain and infallible means of procuring them ?
yet I have so little confidence in our present statesmen, that I
Ante, p. 320. to come to see me, said Northcote in
The Hornecks were and are 1830, except that I am the last link
still two Ladies no less beautiful than in the chain that connects her with
modest and sensible. Both have all those she most esteemed when
been my pupils ; but Madam never she was young Johnson, Reynolds,
liked them much, because few would Goldsmith and remind her of the
take notice of her where they were. - most delightful period of her life.
BARETTI. Boswell describes them Northcote s Conversations, p. 94.
as two beautiful young ladies, one 3 When nine months later Johnson
of whom married Henry Bunbury, heard of poor Harry s death he ex-
Esq., and the other Colonel Gwyn. claimed : I would have gone to
Goldsmith accompanied them and the extremity of the earth to have
their mother on a tour in France. preserved the boy. Life, ^.469. It
Life, i. 414. His nickname for the was Arthur Murphy who introduced
eldest was Little Comedy, and for the Johnson to the Thrales. Ib. i. 493.
youngest, the Jessamy Bride. Burke, Miss Burney writing in May, 1779,
who was their guardian, tenderly re- says : Mr. Thrale and Mr. Murphy
membered in his premature old age are very old friends ; and I question
the delight they had given him from if Mr. Thrale loves any man so well.
their childhood. The youngest died Mme. D Arblay s Diary, i. 210.
in 1840. Forster s Goldsmith, ii. 147. 4 Parliament was not dissolved till
I don t know why she is so kind as 1780.
know
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Tkrctle. 345
know not whether any thing is less likely, for being either absurd
or dangerous. I am, dearest Lady,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
416.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, July [? 9], 1775.
I am sorry that my poor little friend Ralph goes on no
better. We must see what time will do for him.
I hope Harry is well. I had a very pretty letter from
Queeney; and hope she will be kind to my hen and her ten
chickens, and mind her book.
I forget whether I tell some things, and may perhaps tell them
twice, but the matter is not great, only, as you observe, the more
we write the less we shall have to say when we meet.
Are we to go all to Brighthelmstone in the Autumn, or have
you satiated yourself with this visit ? I have only one reason for
wishing you to go, and that reason is far enough from amounting
to necessity.
That * * * * s simplicity should be forgiven, for his benevolence
is very just ; and I will not now say any thing in opposition to
your kind resolution. It is pity that any good man should ever
seem, or ever be ridiculous.
This letter will be short, for I am so much disordered by in
digestion, of which I can give no account, that it is difficult to
write more than that I am, dearest Lady,
Your, &C..,
SAM: JOHNSON.
417.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, [July II, 1775].
I am sure I write and write, and every letter that comes
from you charges me with not writing. Since I wrote to Queeney
I have written twice to you, on the 6th and the 9th, be pleased
to let me know whether you have them or have them not. That
1 Piozzi Letters, \. 273. 2 Piozzi Letters, \. 264.
of
346
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
of the 6th you should regularly have had on the 8th, yet your
letter of the 9th seems not to mention it ; all this puzzles me.
Poor dear * * * * J ! He only grows dull because he is sickly ;
age has not yet begun to impair him ; nor is he such a chameleon
as to take immediately the colour of his company. When you
see him again, you will find him reanimated. Most men have their
bright and their cloudy days, at least they have days when they put
their powers into act, and days when they suffer them to repose 2 .
Fourteen thousand pounds make a sum sufficient for the estab
lishment of a family, and which, in whatever flow of riches or
confidence of prosperity, deserves to be very seriously considered 3 .
I hope a great part of it has paid debts, and no small part bought
land. As for gravelling and walling and digging, though I am
not much delighted with them, yet something, indeed much, must
be allowed to every man s taste. He that is growing rich has
a right to enjoy part of the growth his own way. I hope to
range in the walk, and row upon the water 4 , and devour fruit
from the wall.
Dr. Taylor wants to be gardening. He means to buy a piece
of ground in the neighbourhood, and surround it with a wall, and
build a gardener s house upon it, and have fruit, and be happy.
1 Perhaps Mr. William Seward is
meant, described in the Life, iii. 123,
n. i. He was very intimate with
the Thrales. In Mme. D Arblay s
Diary, ii. 71, he is described as
quacking both himself and his
friends. " When he was at my
place," said Mr. Crutchley, " he did
himself up pretty handsomely ; he
ate cherries till he complained most
bitterly of indigestion, and he poured
down Madeira and Port most plenti
fully, but without relief. He went on
to ask for peppermint-water, ginger,
brandy, and a dose of rhubarb. I
advised him to take a good bumper of
gin and gunpowder, for that seemed
almost all he had left untried." Edge-
worth mentions his hypochondria-
cism. Memoirs of R. L. Edgeivorth,
ed. 1844, p. 117. He was the son
of a wealthy brewer, partner in the
house of Calvert and Seward. In the
Ann. Reg. for 1760, i. 174, that firm is
returned as the largest brewers in
London ; they having brewed 74,700
barrels against Thrale s 32,700. His
name was pronounced Suard, as is
shown by Charlotte Burney thus
writing it. Early Diary of Frances
Burney, ii. 287. S&epost, Letter of
September 18, 1777.
2 Life, i. 332, n. 2.
3 Mrs. Thrale replied: I will
keep the story of the ,14,000 till we
rrieet. Piozzi Letters, i. 269. It
may have been the year s profits of
the Brewery. See post, Letter of
August 23, 1777, where he looks
forward to their soon amounting to
,15,000. It may have come by in
heritance. See/^j/, p. 351.
4 Post, p. 360.
Much
Aetat. 65.] . To Mrs. Thrale. 347
Much happiness it will not bring him ; but what can he do better ?
If I had money enough, what would I do ? Perhaps, if you and
master did not hold me, I might go to Cairo, and down the Red
Sea to Bengal and take a ramble in India T . Would this be better
than building and planting ? It would surely give more variety
to the eye, and more amplitude to the mind. Half fourteen
thousand would send me out to see other forms of existence, and
bring me back to describe them 2 .
I answer this the day on which I had yours of the Qth, that is
on the nth. Let me know when it comes.
I am. &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
418.
To MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, Wednesday, July 12, 1775.
On Monday I was not well, but I grew better at night, and
before morning was, as the doctors say, out of danger.
We have no news here, except that on Saturday Lord Scars-
dale 4 dined with the Doctor. He is a very gentlemanlike man.
On Sunday Mr. * * * * paid a visit from Lichfield, and having
nothing to say, said nothing, and went away.
Our great cattle, I believe, go on well, but our deer have died ;
all but five does and the poor buck. We think the ground too
wet for them.
I have enclosed a letter from Mrs. Chambers 5 , partly, perhaps
wholly, for Mr. Baretti s amusement and gratification, though he
has probably a much longer letter of his own, which he takes no
care to send me.
Mr. L 6 and the Doctor still continue at variance ; and the
1 See Life, iii. 453, for Johnson s Piozzi Letters, i. 269. They went
eagerness for travelling. to France together this Autumn.
2 Mrs. Thrale replied : -- Mr. Life, ii. 384.
Thrale said when we read the last 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 266.
paragraph of your letter together, 4 For Johnson s visit to his house
that you should not travel alone, if at Keddlestone, see Life, iii. 160.
he could once see this dear little boy 5 Ante, p. 341.
quite well, or see me well persuaded 6 Mr. Langley, the Head Master
(as many are) that nothing ails him. of Ashbourne School. Ante, p. 189.
Doctor
To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
Doctor is afraid, and Mr. L- - not desirous of a reconciliation.
I therefore step over at by-times, and of by-times I have enough.
Mrs. Dale 1 has been ill, and, at fourscore, has recovered. She
is much extenuated, but having the summer to favour her, will, I
think, renew her hold on life.
To the Diots 2 I yet owe a visit. Mr. Cell is now rejoicing, at
fifty-seven, for the birth of an heir-male 3 . I hope here is news.
Mr. * * * * and * * * * seem to be making preparations for war.
Now I flatter myself that you want to know something about
me. My spirits are now and then in an uneasy flutter, but upon
the whole not very bad.
We have here a great deal of rain ; but this is a very rainy
region. I hear nothing but good of the harvest ; but the ex
pectation is higher of the wheat than of the barley, but I hope there
will be barley enough for us, and Mr. S- -, and Lady L 4 ,
and something still to spare. I am, dearest sweetest Lady,
Your,, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
419.
To MRS. THRALE 5 .
DEAREST MADAM, juiy 13, 1775.
In return for your three letters I do not find myself able
to send you more than two ; but if I had the prolixity of an
emperour, it should be all at your service 6 .
Poor Ralph ! I think what they purpose to do for his relief
is right, but that it will be efficacious I cannot promise.
Your anxiety about your other babies is, I hope, superfluous.
Miss and Harry are as safe as ourselves 7 ; they have outlived
the age of weakness; their fibres are now elastick, and their
Mrs. Thrale had seen her the rowed money. Ante, p. 192, n. 3.
year before. Life, v. 431. s pi ozzi Letters, i. 274.
Ante, p. 342, n. 3. <> < DOGBERRY. But truly, for mine
Philip Cell of Hopton, Derby- own part, if I were as tedious as
shire. A younger son, born in 1777, a king, I could find it in my heart
was Sir William Cell, author of The to bestow it all of your worship.
Topography of Troy. The Thrales Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii.
had dined with Mr. Cell in 1774. sc. 5.
Life, v. 431. ^ Harry died the following March,
1 Probably Mr. Scrase and Lady Post, p. 381.
Lade of whom Mr. Thrale had bor-
. headachs,
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 349
headachs, when they have them, are from accidental causes, heat
or indigestion.
If Susy had been at all disposed to this horrid malady T , it
would have laid hold on her in her early state of laxity and
feebleness. That native vigour which has carried her happily
through so many obstructions to life and growth, will, I think,
certainly preserve her from a disease most likely to fall only
on the weak.
Of the two small ladies it can only be said, that there is no
present appearance of danger ; and of fearing evils merely
possible there is no end. We are told by the Lord of Nature,
that for the day its own evil is sufficient 2 .
Now to lighter things, and those of weight enough to another.
I am still of opinion, that we shall bring the Oxford riding-
school to bear. ***#### 3 j s indeed un esprit foible, and
perhaps too easily repressed, but Dr. Wetherell is in earnest.
I would come back through Oxford, but that at this time there
is nobody there. But I will not desist. I think to visit them
next term.
Do not let poor Lizard be degraded for five pounds. I sent
you word that I would spend something upon him ; and indeed
for the money which it would cost to take him to Taylor or
Langton and fetch him back, he may be kept, while he stands
idle, a long time in the stable 4 .
Mrs. Williams has been very ill, and it would do her good
if you would send a message of enquiry, and a few strawberries
or currants.
Mr. Flint s 5 little girl is alive and well, and prating, as I hope
yours, my dear Lady, will long continue.
1 Many of them died of some kind 3 Perhaps Dr. Fothergill, the Vice-
of fit. Mrs. Thrale had written to Chancellor. Ante, pp. 323, n. 3, 324,
Johnson : The illness of this boy n. 4.
frights me for all the rest ; if any of l Lizard was perhaps Mr.Thrale s
them have a headach it puts me in old hunter on which Johnson rode
an agony, a broken leg would less with a good firmness at a fox-chase.
affect my peace. So many to have Piozzi s Anec., p. 206, and Life, v.
the same disorder is dreadful. What 253. See Life, iv. 248, 250, about
can be the meaning of it ? the treatment of old horses, unable
2 Sufficient unto the day is the to labour.
evil thereof. St. Matthew, vi. 34. The Thrales visited Mr. Flint
The
35 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
The hay harvest is here very much incommoded by daily
showers, which, however, seem not violent enough to beat down
the corn.
I cannot yet fix the time of coming home. Dr. Taylor and
I spend little time together, yet he will not yet be persuaded
to hear of parting J .
I am, dearest Lady,
Your, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
420.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashboume, July 15, 1775.
You are so kind every post, that I now regularly expect
your favours. You have indeed more materials for writing than
I. Here are only I and the Doctor, and of him I see not much.
You have Master, and young Master, and Misses, besides geese,
and turkies, and ducks, and hens 3 .
The Doctor says, that if Mr. Thrale comes so near as Derby
without seeing us, it will be a sorry trick. I wish, for my part,
that he may return soon, and rescue the fair captives from the
tyranny of B i 4 . Poor B i I do not quarrel with him ;
in 1774. Life,v. 430. He is often front; and often while resident for
mentioned in Johnson s Letters to several years in the vicinity have
Taylor in 1782. Post, Letter of July I lingered around it for hours as
22,1782. venerated ground. Life of M alone,
1 Ante, p. 184. p. 259. On the Common still stands
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 277. an oak known as Johnson s oak.
3 Susan Burney, describing Streat- 4 If B i means Baretti, God
ham in August 1779, says: As knows what lies the woman wrote to
a place it surpassed all my expecta- Johnson ! The girls were never so
tions. The avenue to the house, happy as when their mother was
plantations, &c., are beautiful; worthy away, who did nothing but scold or
of the charming inhabitants. It is beat them for the most trivial faults
a little Paradise, I think. Cattle, or omissions. As to me, when I had
poultry, dogs, all running freely done teaching Queeny I made them
about, without annoying each other. run merrily about, and nobody
Early Diary of Frances Btirney, ii. checked their mirth but their beastly
256. Sir James Prior thus writes of mother. However I suspect that
it : Its site perhaps is too low, but this gabble is not Johnson s but her
Tooting Common opens pleasantly in own. BARETTI. See Life, iii. 49,
to
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 351
to neglect him a little will be sufficient. He means only to
be frank, and manly, and independent, and perhaps, as you
say, a little wise. To be frank he thinks is to be cynical,
and to be independent is to be rude. Forgive him, dearest
Lady, the rather, because of his misbehaviour, I am afraid he
learned part of me. I hope to set him hereafter a better
example.
Your concern for poor Ralph, and your resolution to visit him
again, is too parental to be blamed. You may perhaps do good ;
you do at least your duty, and with that we must be contented ;
with that indeed, if we attained it, we ought to be happy : but
who ever attained it ?
You have perceived, by my letters, that without knowing
more than that the estate was unsettled, I was inclined to a
settlement. I am likewise for an entail. But we will consult
men of experience, for that which is to hinder my dear Harry
from mischief when he comes to age may be done with mature
deliberation.
You have not all the misery in the world to yourself; I was
last night almost convulsed with flatulence, after having gone to
bed I thought so well but it does not much trouble me when
I am out of bed. To your anxiety about your children I wrote
lately what I had to say. I blame it so little, that I think you
should add a small particle of anxiety about me ; for
I am, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
421.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, July 17, 1775.
The post is come without a letter ; how could I be so
n. 1,96, and post, Letter of June 3, spoke English so well as Baretti
1776. Miss Burney describes Ba- does ; but so very slow (in a drawl-
retti in 1772 as a very good-looking ing voice, turning to me) that if
man. Early Diary of Fanny Burney, he were to make love it
i. 169. Twiss, the traveller, mimicked would take him tree hours to
to her his utterance. I think I never utter a declaration. Ib. p. 286.
knew a foreigner, he said, who T Piozzi Letters, i. 279.
sullen
35 2 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
sullen but he must be humble ^vho would please x . Perhaps you
are gone to Brighthelmstone, and so could not write ; however
it be, this I feel, that I have no letter ; but then I have some
times had two, and if I have as many letters as there come
posts nobody will pity me if I were to complain.
How was your hay made? 2 The Doctor has had one part
well housed, another wetted and dried till it is hardly worth the
carriage ; and now many acres newly mown, that have hitherto
had good weather. This may be considered as a foreign article ;
the domestick news is, that our bull-bitch has puppies, and that
our six calves are no longer to be fed by hand, but to live on
grass.
Mr. Langley has made some improvements in his garden.
A rich man might do more ; but what he has done is well 3 .
You have never in all your letters touched but once upon
my master s Summer projects. Is he towering into the air, and
tending to the centre ? Is he excavating the earth, or covering
its surface with edifices ? Something he certainly is doing, and
something he is spending. A genius never can be quite still.
I do not murmur at his expences ; a good harvest will supply
them.
We talk here of Polish oats, and Siberian barley, of which
both are said to be more productive, to ripen in less time, and
to afford better grain than the English 4 . I intend to procure
1 Ten thousand trifles such as rents. Horace Walpole s Letters,
these viii. 382.
Nor can my rage nor anger 3 After breakfast, Johnson carried
move ; me to see the garden belonging to
She should be humble who the school of Ashbourne, which is
would please ; very prettily formed upon a bank,
And she must suffer who can rising gradually behind the house.
love. The Reverend Mr. Langley, the
Cloe Jealous. Prior s Poetical head-master, accompanied us. Life,
Works, 1858, p. 78. iii. 138.
2 I don t know why, but people 4 We are credibly informed that
are always more anxious about their a gentleman at Kilmarnock in Scot-
hay than their corn, or twenty other land had the curiosity to plant three
things that cost them more. I sup- grains of Siberian barley. Their pro
pose my Lord Chesterfield, or some duce was 2585 grains. Gentleman s
other dictator, made it fashionable to Magazine, 1771, p. 520. See ib. 1783,
care about one s hay. Nobody be- p. 852, for a comparison of Tartarian
trays solicitude about getting in his and Poland oats.
specimens
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 353
specimens of both, which we will try in some spots of our own
ground.
The Doctor has no great mind to let me go. Shall I teaze
him, and plague him till he is weary of me ? I am, I hope,
pretty well, and fit to come home. I shall be expected by all
my ladies to return through Lichfield, and to stay there a while ;
but if I thought you wanted me, I hope you know what would
be done by,
Dearest, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.
SAM: JOHNSON.
422.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, Ashbourne, July 20, 1775.
Poor Ralph ! he is gone ; and nothing remains but that
you comfort yourself with having done your best. The first
wish was, that he might live long to be happy and useful ; the
next, that he might not suffer long pain. The second wish has
been granted. Think now only on those which are left you.
I am glad that you went to Brighthelmstone, for your journey
is a standing proof to you of your affection and diligence. We
can hardly be confident of the state of our own minds, but
as it stands attested by some external action ; we are seldom
sure that we sincerely meant what we omitted to do.
Dr. Taylor says, that Mr. Thrale has not used us well, in
coming so near without coming nearer 2 . I know not what he
can say for himself, but I know that he can take shelter in
sullen silence.
There is, I think, still the same prospect of a plentiful harvest.
We have in this part of the kingdom had rain to swell the
grain, and sunshine to ripen it. I was yesterday to see 3 the
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 281. There is nothing to show that in
Mrs. Thrale fresh from the loss her mood there was anything that
of her little boy, might surely, as she was jarred upon by the childless
read this strange letter, have ex- Johnson s natural ignorance of the
claimed with Constance in King feelings of a parent.
John :- 2 Ante, p. 350.
He talks to me that never had a 3 This idiom, a very common one
son - in the writers especially in the early
VOL. I. A a Doctor s
354
To Airs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
Doctor s Poland oats. They grow, for a great part, four feet
high, with a stalk equal in bulk and strength to wheaten straw.
We were of opinion that they must be reaped, as the lower
joints would be too hard for fodder. We will try them.
Susy was always my little girl T . See what she is come to ;
you must keep her in mind of me, who was always on her side.
Of Mrs. Fanny 2 I have no knowledge.
You have two or three of my letters to answer, and I hope
you will be copious and distinct, and tell me a great deal of
your mind ; a dear little mind it is ; and I hope always to love
it better as I know it more.
I am, &c.
SAM: JOHNSON.
423.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR LADY, Ashbourne, July 21, 1775-
When you write next direct to Lichfield, for I think to
move that way on Tuesday, and in no long time to move home
wards, when we will have a serious consultation, and try to do
every thing for the best.
I shall be glad of a letter from dear Queeney, and am not
sorry that she wishes for me. When I come we will enter into
an alliance defensive at least 4 .
Mr. B i very elegantly sent his pupil s letter to Mrs.
Williams without a cover, in such a manner that she knows not
whence it was transmitted 5 .
I do not mean to bleed but with your concurrence 6 , though
I am troubled with eruptions, which I cannot suppress by
frequent physick.
writers of the century, is very un
common in Johnson.
1 Little did he care for Susy, or
for any of the rest. I find he men
tions them often in writing, but
scarce ever took notice of any when
present. BARETTI. ?>&&post, Letter
of Oct. 6, 1777, where Johnson says :
I was always a Susy, when no
body else was a Susy.
2 The last baby, eleven weeks old.
Ante, p. 315, n. 3.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 283.
4 An alliance against
Baretti.
Ante, p. 350.
5 I don t know what this gabble
means, and what letter they are
speaking of. BARETTI. The cover
was the piece of paper in which the
note should have been inclosed. It
answered the purpose of the modern
envelope, and was secured by either
wax or a wafer.
6 Ante, p. 343.
As
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 355
As my master staid only one day 1 , we must forgive him, yet
he knows he staid only one day, because he thought it not
worth his while to stay two.
You and B i are friends again 2 . My dear mistress has
the quality of being easily reconciled, and not easily offended.
Kindness is a good thing in itself ; and there are few things
that are worthy of anger, and still fewer that can justify
malignity.
Nothing remains for the present, but that you sit down
placid and content, disposed to enjoy the present, and planning
the proper use of the future liberalities of Providence 3 . You
have really much to enjoy, and, without any wild indulgence of
imagination, much to expect. In the mean time, however, life
is gliding away, and another state is hastening forwards. You
were but five-and -twenty when I knew you first 4 . What I
shall be next September I confess I have lachetJ 5 enough to
turn aside from thinking.
I am glad you read Boswell s journal 6 ; you are now suf
ficiently informed of the whole transaction, and need not regret
that you did not make the tour of the Hebrides.
You have done me honour in naming me your trustee, and
have very judiciously chosen Cator 7 . I believe our fidelity will
not be exposed to any strong temptations.
I am, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
1 At Derby. Ante, p. 350. Hayward s Piozzi, i. 33. See Life,
2 Baretti, describing Mrs. Thrale i. 520, for the date of Johnson s first
by the word which gave Mrs. Jona- acquaintance with the Thrales.
than Wild such just offence, says s Johnson in these letters does not
that she has suppressed the letter show himself strong in his French
that made Johnson write these idle accents. Perhaps the fault was the
words, therefore I cannot even have printer s. Goethe in a letter which
a guess at their meaning. In all he wrote in French in 1774 equally
probability she had it not in her neglected the accents. G. H.Lewes s
possession to suppress, for Johnson Life of Goethe, ed. 1890, p. 210.
burnt all of her letters that he could 6 Ante, p. 320.
find. Life, iv. 339, n. 3. 7 Cator was a timber-merchant.
3 Her little son had been dead four Mrs. Piozzi says in her Anecdotes,
or five days. p. 304 : I mentioned two friends
4 She was born on January 16, who were particularly fond of looking
1740, O.S., or January 27, 1741, N.S. at themselves in a glass. " They do
A a 2 TO
356
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
424.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, July 24, 1775.
Be pleased to return my thanks to Queeney for her pretty
little letter. I hope the peacock will recover. It is pity we
cannot catch the fellow; we would make him drink at the pump.
The victory over the poor wild cat delights me but little. I had
rather he had taken a chicken than lost his life.
To-morrow I go to Lichfield. My company would not any
longer make the Doctor happy. He wants to be rambling with
his Ashbourne friends. And it is perhaps time for me to think
of coming home. Which way I shall take I do not know.
Miss says, that you have recovered your spirits, and that you
all are well. Pray do not grudge the trouble of telling me so
your ownself ; for I do not find my attention to you and your
sensations at all lessened by this time of absence, which always
appears to my imagination much longer than when I count it.
Now to-morrow I expect to see Lucy Porter and Mrs. Adey,
and to hear how they have gone on at Lichfield ; and then for
a little I shall wander about as the birds of passage circle and
flutter before they set out on the main flight.
I have been generally without any violent disorder of either
mind or body, but every now and then ailing, but so that I could
keep it to myself.
Are we to go to Brighthelmstone this Autumn ? I do not en
quire with any great solicitude. You know one reason, and it
will not be easy to find another, except that which brings all
thither that go, unwillingness to stay at home, and want of power
not surprise me at all by so doing
(said Johnson) ; they see reflected in
that glass men who have risen from
almost the lowest situations in life,
one to enormous riches, the other to
everything this world can give rank,
fame, and fortune. They see likewise
men who have merited their ad
vancement by the exertion and im
provement of those talents which
God had given them ; and I see not
why they should avoid the mirror."
Mrs. Piozzi states in a marginal
note that these two men were Ca-
tor and Wedderburne. Hayward s
Piozzi, i. 154, 294. Cator is, per
haps, the man mentioned in the
Life, iv. 83, who had acquired
.4,000 a year in trade, but was ab
solutely miserable because he could
not talk in company. He was one
of Mr. Thrale s executors. Ib. iv. 3 1 3.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 285.
to
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Thrale. 357
to supply with either business or amusement the cravings of the
day. From this distress all that know either you or me, will
suppose that we might rescue ourselves, if we would, without the
help of a bath T in the morning and an assembly at night.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
425.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfieid, July 26, 1775.
Yesterday I came hither. After dinner I went to Stowhill 3 ;
there I was pampered, and had an uneasy night. Physick to-day
put me out of order ; and for some time I forgot that this is post
night.
Nothing very extraordinary has happened at Lichfieid since I
went away. Lucy Porter is better, and has got her lame hand
out of the bag. The rest of your friends I have not seen.
Having staid long enough at Ashbourne, I was not sorry to
leave it. I hindered some of Taylor s diversions, and he supplied
me with very little. Having seen the neighbouring places, I had
no curiosity to gratify ; and having few new things, we had little
new talk.
When I came I found Lucy at her book. She had Hammond s
Commentary on the Psalms 4 before her. He is very learned, she
says, but there is enough that any body may understand.
Now I am here I think myself a great deal nearer London than
before, for though the distance is not very different, I am here in
the way of carriages, and can easily get to Birmingham, and so
to Oxford 5 ; but I know not which way I shall take, but some
way or other I hope to find, that may bring me back again to
Streatham ; and then I shall see what have been my master s
goings on, and will try whether I shall know the old places 6 .
1 The man who dipped people in * Paraphrase and Annotations
the sea at Brighthelmstone seeing upon the Book of Psalms, London,
Mr. Johnson swim in the year 1766, 1659, folio. Johnson recorded on
said, " Why, Sir, you must have, been Good Friday, in 1782: Read
a stout-hearted gentleman forty years Hammond on one of the Psalms for
ago." Piozzi s Anecdotes, p. 113. the day. Pr. and Med., p. 211.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 287. 5 Ante, p. 183.
3 Ante, p. 160, n. 4. 6 Ante, p. 346.
As
358
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
As I lift up my head from the paper, I can look into Lucy s
garden. Her walls have all failed. I believe she has had hardly
any fruit but gooseberries ; but so much verdure looks pretty in
a town.
When you read my letters I suppose you are very proud to
think how much you excel in the correspondence ; but you must
remember that your materials are better. You have a family,
and friends, and hopes, and fears, and wishes, and aversions, and
all the ingredients that are necessary to the composition of a
letter. Here sit poor I, with nothing but my own solitary indi
viduality; doing little, and suffering no more than I have often
suffered ; hearing nothing that I can repeat ; seeing nothing that
I can relate ; talking, when I do talk, to those whom you cannot
regard ; and at this moment hearing the curfew, which you can
not hear 1 . I am,
Dearest, dearest Lady,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
426.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
MADAM, July 29, 1775.
The rain caught me at Stowhill, and kept me till it is very
late ; I must however write, for I am enjoined to tell you how
much Mrs. Lucy was pleased with your present 3 , and to entreat
you to excuse her from writing, because her hand is not yet re
covered. She is very glad of your notice, and very thankful.
I am very desirous that Mr. * * * * should be sent for a few
weeks to Brighthelmstone. Air, and vacancy, and novelty, and
the consciousness of his own value, and the pride of such dis
tinction and delight in Mr. Thrale s kindness, would, as Cheney 4
1 The curfew still rings in Lich-
field, every evening at eight o clock.
2 Piozzi Letters, \. 291.
3 Ante, p. 332.
4 The learned, philosophical and
pious Dr. Cheyne, as Boswell calls
him, whose books on Health and the
English Malady were recommended
to him by Johnson. Life, i. 65 ; iii. 26.
The English Malady was melan
choly or hypochondria. There is
some comfort in knowing that so
long ago as 1733 Cheyne pointed
out how the conditions of modern
life have brought forth a class and
set of distempers, with atrocious and
frightful symptoms, scarce known to
our ancestors. These nervous dis-
phrases
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 359
phrases it, afford all the relief that human art can give, or human
nature receive. Do not read this slightly, you may prolong a
very useful life.
Whether the pine-apples be ripe or rotten, whether the Duke s
venison be baked or roasted. I begin to think it time I were at
home. I have staid till perhaps nobody wishes me to stay
longer, except the ladies on the hill \ who offer me a lodging,
and though not ill, am unsettled enough to wish for change of
place, even though that change were not to bring me to Streat-
ham ; but thither I hope I shall quickly come, and find you all
well, and gay, and happy, and catch a little gaiety, and health,
and happiness among you 2 .
I am, dearest of all dear Ladies,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
427.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, August i, 1775.
I wonder how it could happen. I forgot that the post went
out yesternight, and so omitted to write ; I therefore put this by
the by-post 4 , and hope it will come, that I may not lose my
regular letter.
This was to have been my last letter from this place, but Lucy
says I must not go this week. Fits of tenderness with Mrs. Lucy
are not common ; but she seems now to have a little paroxysm,
and I was not willing to counteract it. When I am to go I shall
take care to inform you. The lady at Stowhill says, how comes
Lucy to be such a sovereign, all the town besides could not have
kept you 5 .
orders are computed to make almost 2 That he never caught. He
one third of the complaints of the thought and mused at Streatham as
people of condition in England. The he did habitually everywhere, and
English Malady, ed. 1733, Preface, seldom or never minded what was
p. ii. Fielding spells Cheyne s name doing about him. BARETTI.
as Johnson does, Cheney ; no doubt in 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 292.
accordance with the way it was pro- 4 I conjecture that he sent his
nounced. He says : The learned letter by a cross-post either to Bir-
Dr. Cheney used to call drinking mingham or Derby, from each of
punch pouring liquid fire down your which towns a mail was sent to London
throat. Tom Jones, Bk. xi. ch. 8. six days a week.
1 Stowhill. Ante, p. 329. 5 Ante, p. 329.
America
360
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1775.
America now fills every mouth, and some heads, and a little
of it shall come into my letter. I do not much like the news.
Our troops have indeed the superiority; five-and-twenty hundred
have driven five thousand from their intrenchment ; but the
Americans fought skilfully; had coolness enough in the battle
to carry off their men ; and seem to have retreated orderly, for
they were not pursued T . They want nothing but confidence in
their leaders, and familiarity with danger. Our business is to
pursue their main army, and disperse it by a decisive battle;
and then waste the country till they sue for peace 2 . If we
make war by parties and detachments, dislodge them from one
place, and exclude them from another, we shall by a local,
gradual, and ineffectual war, teach them our own knowledge,
harden their obstinacy, and strengthen their confidence, and at
last come to fight on equal terms of skill and bravery, without
equal numbers.
Mrs. Williams wrote me word, that you had honoured her with
a visit, and behaved lovely.
Mr. Thrale left off digging his pool, I suppose, for want of
water. The first thing to be done is by digging in three or four
places,, to try how near the springs will rise to the surface ; for
1 He is referring to the Battle of
Bunker s Hill, ante, p. 332, n. 2.
Horace Walpole wrote two days
later : I did not send you imme
diate word of our victory at Boston,
because the success not only seemed
very equivocal, but because the con
querors lost three to one more than
the vanquished. The last do not
pique themselves upon modern good
breeding, but level only at the officers,
of whom they have slain a vast num
ber. We are a little disappointed
indeed at their fighting at all, which
was not in our calculation. . . . Well !
we had better have gone on robbing
the Indies ; it was a more lucrative
trade. Walpole s Letters, vi. 235.
2 See Boswell s account of the
dinner at Mr. Dilly s, where Johnson
roared out : " I am willing to love all
mankind, except an American ; " and
his inflammable corruption bursting
into horrid fire, he " breathed out
threatenings and slaughter ; " calling
them, "Rascals Robbers Pirates;"
and exclaiming, he d " burn and de
stroy them." Life, iii. 290.
Horace Walpole wrote on August
7 : Is not our dignity maintained ?
have not we carried our majesty be
yond all example ? When did you
ever read before of a besieged army
threatening military execution on the
country of the besiegers ! car tcl est
notreplaisir. But alack ! we are like
the mock Doctor ; we have made the
heart and the liver change sides ; cela
etait autrefois ainsi, mats nous avons
change tout cela! Letters, vi. 237.
See also Hume s Letters to Strahan,
p. 289.
though
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 361
though we cannot hope to be always full, we must be sure never
to be dry.
Poor ****!! am sorry for him. It is sad to give a family
of children no pleasure but by dying. It was said of Otho : Hoc
tantum fecit nobile quod periit. It may be changed to * * * * :
Hoc tantum fecit utile.
If I could do Mr. Carter any good at Oxford, I could easily
stop there ; for through it, if I go by Birmingham, I am likely to
pass ; but the place is now a sullen solitude 1 . Whatever can be
done I am ready to do ; but our operations must for the present
be at London.
I am, &c.,
SAM.- JOHNSON.
428.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
MADAM, Lichfield, August 2, 1775.
I dined to-day at Stowhill, and am come away to write my
letter. Never surely was I such a writer before. Do you keep
my letters ? I am not of your opinion that I shall not like to
read them hereafter ; for though there is in them not much
history of mind, or any thing else, they will, I hope, always be
in some degree the records of a pure and blameless friendship,
and in some hours of languour and sadness may revive the
memory of more cheerful times.
Why you should suppose yourself not desirous hereafter to
1 When Johnson was an under- mained in residence most of the Long
graduate the place was by no means Vacation of 1779, writing on October
a sullen solitude in the beginning of 7, says: The University is yet
August. The books of Pembroke Col- thin and desolate. A few solitary
lege show that on August 15, 1729, tutors, that drop in one by one,
there were twenty-five members in are all you meet in an evening,
residence out of a maximum of little and these by a certain woeful-
more than fifty. On September 12 ness of countenance seem not too
the number sank to sixteen. Life, i. well pleased with the exchange of
63, n. I. Gibbon, writing of the year a good table and merry circle of
1752, says: The long recess be- friends for spare diet and prayers
tween the Trinity and Michaelmas twice a day. Letters of Radcliffe and
terms empties the Colleges of Oxford James, p. 85. For Mr. Carter, see
as well as the courts of Westminster. ante, p. 309.
Gibbon s Misc. Works, i. 56. A young 2 Piozzi Letters, i. 295.
undergraduate of Queen s, who re
read
362 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1775.
read the history of your own mind, I do not see 1 . Twelve years,
on which you now look as on a vast expanse of life, will probably
be passed over uniformly and smoothly, with very little perception
of your progress, and with very few remarks upon the way. That
accumulation of knowledge which you promise to yourself, by
which the future is to look back upon the present, with the supe
riority of manhood to infancy, will perhaps never be attempted,
or never will be made ; and you will find, as millions have found
before you, that forty-five has made little sensible addition to
thirty-three 2 .
As the body after a certain time gains no increase of height,
and little of strength, there is likewise a period, though more
variable by external causes, when the mind commonly attains
its stationary point, and very little advances its powers of re
flection, judgment, and ratiocination 3 . The body may acquire
new modes of motion, or new dexterities of mechanick opera
tions, but its original strength receives not improvement ; the
mind may be stored with new languages, or new sciences, but
its power of thinking remains nearly the same, and unless
1 Johnson advising Boswell in 1773 man loves to review his own mind,
to keep a journal of his life, said : That is the use of a diary, or journal. "
The great thing to be recorded, is Ib. iii. 228. See post, p. 441.
the state of your own mind ; and you 2 She was thirty-four. Ante, p.
should write down every thing that 355? n - 4-
you remember, for you cannot judge 3 See Life, iv. 115, n. 4, for an ac-
at first what is good or bad ; and count of a pretty smart altercation
write immediately while the impres- between Johnson and Dr. Barnard,
sion is fresh, for it will not be the which gave rise to some pleasant
same a week afterwards. Life, ii. verses, of which the following are the
217. Five years later Boswell spoke first two stanzas :
of publishing the Autobiography of I lately thought no man alive
Sir R. Sibbald, of which he had the Could e er improve past forty-five,
manuscript : MRS. THRALE. "I And ventured to assert it;
think you had as well let alone that The observation was not new,
publication. To discover such weak- But seem d to me so just and true,
ness, exposes a man when he is gone." That none could controvert it.
JOHNSON. "Nay, it is an honest " No, Sir," says Johnson, " - tis not so ;
picture of human nature. How often Thafs your mistake, and I can show
are the primary motives of our great- An instance, if you doubt it ;
est actions as small as Sibbald s, for You, Sir, who are near forty-eight,
his re-conversion." MRS. THRALE. May much improve, tis not too late;
" But may they not as well be for- \ wish you d set about it."
gotten? " JOHNSON. " No, Madam, a Ib. iv. 432.
it
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Titrate. 363
it attains new subjects of meditation, it commonly produces
thoughts of the same force and the same extent, at very distant
intervals of life, as the tree, unless a foreign fruit be ingrafted,
gives year after year productions of the same form and the same
flavour.
By intellectual force or strength of thought is meant the degree
of power which the mind possesses of surveying the subject of
meditation, with its circuit of concomitants, and its train of de
pendence.
Of this power, which all observe to be very different in different
minds, part seems the gift of nature, and part the acquisition of
experience. When the powers of nature have attained their in
tended energy, they can be no more advanced. The shrub can
never become a tree. And it is not unreasonable to suppose,
that they are before the middle of life in their full vigour.
Nothing then remains but practice and experience ; and per
haps why they do so little, may be worth enquiry.
But I have just now looked, and find it so late, that I will en
quire against the next post-night.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
429.
To MRS. THRALE J .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfieid, August 5, 1775.
Instead of forty reasons for my return, one is sufficient, that
you wish for my company. I purpose to write no more till you
see me. The ladies at Stowhill and Greenhill 2 are unanimously
of opinion, that it will be best to take a post-chaise, and not to
be troubled with the vexations of a common carriage. I will
venture to suppose the ladies at Streatham to be of the same
mind.
You will now expect to be told why you will not be so much
wiser as you expect, when you have lived twelve years longer.
It is said, and said truly, that experience is the best teacher ;
1 Letters, i. 298. I think, Mrs. Cobb and Miss Adey
2 The ladies at Stowhill were Mrs. (ante, p. 331). For Green-hill Bower
Aston and Mrs. Gastrell (ante, p. see post, Letter of May 29, 1779.
329) ; those on Green-hill were,
and
564 To Mrs. Thrale.
and it is supposed, that as life is lengthened experience is en-
creased. But a closer inspection of human life will discover that
time often passes without any incident which can much enlarge
knowledge or ratify judgment. When we are young we learn
much, because we are universally ignorant; we observe every
thing, because every thing is new. But after some years, the
occurrences of daily life are exhausted ; one day passes like
another, in the same scene of appearances, in the same course
of transactions ; we have to do what we have often done, and
what we do not try, because we do not wish to do much better ;
we are told what we already know, and therefore what repetition
cannot make us know with greater certainty.
He that has early learned much, perhaps seldom makes, with
regard to life and manners, much addition to his knowledge 1 ;
not only because as more is known there is less to learn, but
because a mind stored with images and principles turns inwards
for its own entertainment, and is employed in settling those ideas
which run into confusion, and in recollecting those which are
stealing away ; practices by which wisdom may be kept but not
gained. The merchant who was at first busy in acquiring money,
ceases to grow richer, from the time when he makes it his business
only to count it.
Those who have families or employments are engaged in
business of little difficulty, but of great importance, requiring
rather assiduity of practice than subtilty of speculation, occupy
ing the attention with images too bulky for refinement, and
too obvious for research. The right is already known, what
remains is only to follow it. Daily business adds no more to
wisdom, than daily lesson to the learning of the teacher. But of
how few lives does not stated duty claim the greater part.
Far the greater part of human minds never endeavour their
own improvement. Opinions once received from instruction, or
settled by whatever accident, are seldom recalled to examination ;
having been once supposed to be right, they are never discovered
1 Sir, said Johnson, in my early now. My judgment, to be sure, was
years I read very hard. It is a sad not so good ; but I had all the facts.
reflection, but a true one, that I knew Life, \. 445.
almost as much at eighteen as I do
to
Aetat. 65.]
To Afrs. Desmoulins.
365
to be erroneous, for no application is made of anything that time
may present, either to shake or to confirm them. From this ac
quiescence in preconceptions none are wholly free ; between fear
of uncertainty, and dislike of labour, every one rests while he
might yet go forward J ; and they that were wise at thirty-three,
are very little wiser at forty-five.
Of this speculation you are perhaps tired, and would rather
hear of Sophy. I hope before this comes, that her head will be
easier, and your head less filled with fears and troubles, which
you know are to be indulged only to prevent evil, not to en-
crease it.
Your uneasiness about Sophy is probably unnecessary, and at
worst your other children are healthful 2 , and your affairs pros
perous. Unmingled good cannot be expected ; but as we may
lawfully gather all the good within our reach, we may be allowed
to lament after that which we lose. I hope your losses are at
an end, and that as far as the condition of our present existence
permits, your remaining life will be happy.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
430.
To MRS. DESMOULINS 3 .
MADAM, Lichfield, August 5, 1775.
Mr. Garrick has done as he is used to do. You may tell
him that Dr. Hawkesworth and I never exchanged any letters
A man who has settled his
opinions does not love to have the
tranquillity of his conviction dis
turbed ; and at seventy-seven it is
time to be in earnest. Johnson s
Works, ix. 1 1 8. When Mr. Murray
maintained that truth will always
bear an examination, Johnson re
plied : Yes, Sir, but it is painful to
be forced to defend it. Consider,
Sir, how should you like, though
conscious of your innocence, to be
tried before a jury for a capital crime
once a week. Life, iii. 11.
2 Her baby died four months later,
and her only surviving son in the
following March.
3 First published in the Garrick
Correspondence, ii. 72.
In the same Correspondence is
a letter by Mr. D. Wray, dated only
three days earlier than Johnson s, in
which he informs Garrick that he
must leave to those ingenious gen
tlemen who had the happiness of Dr.
Goldsmith s friendship the pleasing
task of paying those honours to his
memory, c. Ib. p. 71. Perhaps
Wray s letter refers only to the pro
jected memorial to Goldsmith, in
worth
366
To Mrs. J^hrale.
[A.D. 1775.
worth publication. Our notes were commonly to tell when we
should be at home, and I believe were seldom kept on either
side. If I have anything that will do any honour to his memory,
I shall gladly supply it, but I remember nothing.
I am, Madam,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
431.
To TAMES BOSWELL.
* \
London, August 27, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 381.
432.
To MRS. THRALE *.
MADAM, [London], August 29, 1775.
Here is a rout and bustle ; and a bustle and a rout ; as if
nobody had ever before forgotten where a thing was laid. At
last there is no great harm done ; both Colson and Scot have
copies ; and real haste there is none 2 . You will find it some day
this week, and any day will serve, or perhaps we can recollect it
between us.
About your memory we will, if you please, have some serious
Westminster Abbey (post, Letter of
June 21, 1776). It is possible how
ever that Garrick planned Memoirs
both of Goldsmith and Hawkesworth.
He may have repented of his ma
licious epitaph on the poet (Forster s
Goldsmith, ii. 409) and of a cold letter
in the third person which, only six
months before Hawkesworth s death,
he sent to that writer in reply to one
subscribed, Your truly affectionate.
Hawkesworth s letter and the copy
of Garrick s answer are endorsed :
Letter of Dr. Hawkesworth. My
answer to his about his breach of
Correspondence. Garrick Carres, i.
536.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 306.
2 It is probable that the mislaid
paper was connected with the scheme
of the riding-school. Ante, p. 309.
For Coulson see ante, p. 325, n. 4,
and for Scott, ante, p. 311, n. 4.
Scott was the elder brother of John
Scott, afterwards Earl of Eldon.
Johnson in spelling the name Scot
perhaps was paying a delicate com
pliment. Lord Eldon records that
he once found himself seated at
dinner near a gentleman who claimed
to be his namesake, though he spelt
his surname with but a single /.
" I allow you," added he, in a strong
northern accent, " that Scott with
.two fs may sound rounder in the
mouth, but Scott with one / has more
of quality in it." Twiss s Life of
Eldon, ed. 1846, i. 141.
talk.
Aetat. 65.] To Mrs. Porter. 367
talk. I fret at your forgetfulness, as I do at my own x . We will
try to mend both ; yours at least is I should hope remediable.
But, however it happens, we are of late never together.
Am I to come to-morrow to the Borough 2 , or will any one
call on me ? This sorry foot ! and this sorry Dr. Lawrence, who
says it is the gout ! but then he thinks every thing the gout 3 ;
and so I will try not to believe him. Into the sea I suppose
you will send it, and into the sea I design it shall go. Can you
remember, dear Madam, that I have a lame foot ? I am sure I
cannot forget it ; if you had one so painful, you would so re
member it. Pain is good for the memory.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
433.
To MRS. PORTER 4 .
DEAR MADAM, London, Sept. 9, 1775.
I have sent your books by the carrier, and in Sandys s
Travels 5 you will find your glasses. I have written this post to
the ladies at Stowehill, and you may, the day after you have
this, or at any other time, send Mrs. Gastrell s books.
Be pleased to make my compliments to all my good friends.
I hope the poor dear hand is recovered, and you are now able to
write, which, however, you need not do, for I am going to Bright-
1 Two years later Boswell records : thought everything the gout.
I mentioned an old gentleman of 4 First published in Croker s Bos-
our acquaintance whose memory was well, page 459.
beginning to fail. JOHNSON. "There In Johnson s last preceding letter
must be a diseased mind, where to his step-daughter, dated May 29,
there is a failure of memory at 1770, he addresses her as Miss
seventy. A man s head, Sir, must Porter. We now and henceforth find
be morbid, if he fails so soon." : Life, her dignified as Mrs. Porter. She
iii. 191. Nevertheless the following was born in November 1715. The
year Johnson entered in \\isjournal : matronly title therefore seems to have
My memory is less faithful in been assumed between the ages of
retaining names, and I am afraid, in fifty-five and sixty,
retaining occurrences. Pr. andMed., 5 George Sandys, the traveller and
p. 170. For Mrs. Thrale s inaccuracy poet, who in 1615 published A Re-
see Life, i. 416, n. 2 ; iii. 226, 404. lation of a Journey begun in 1610.
2 Mr. Thrale s house in Southwark. Johnson included it in a list of books
3 It is some satisfaction to know which he drew up for a student,
that more than a hundred years ago Life, iv. 311.
there was an eminent physician who
helmstone,
368 To the Reverend Dr, Taylor. [A.D. 1775.
helmstone, and when I come back will take care to tell you. In
the mean time take great care of your health, and drink as much
as you can z .
I am, dearest love,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
434.
To MRS. ASTON AND MRS. GASTRELL.
London, September 9, 1775.
In the last Letter Johnson says that by the same post he had written
to the ladies at Stowhill Mrs. Aston and Mrs, Gastrell.
435.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], September 14, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 384.
436.
To ROBERT LEVETT.
Calais, September 18, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 385.
437.
To ROBERT LEVETT.
Paris, October 22, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 385.
438.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], November 16, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 387.
439.
To MRS. PORTER.
[London], November 16, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 387.
440.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR 2 .
DEAR SIR,
I came back last Tuesday from France 3 . Is not mine
1 She had been suffering from the his step-daughter not to forget to
gout. Ante, p. 328. Seeflost, p. 408, drink.
where Johnson attributes his own 2 First published in Notes and
attack of the gout to his abstinence Queries, 6th S., v. 422.
from wine, and Letter of March 4, 3 For his trip to France, see Life,
1779, where he a second time urges ii. 384.
a kind
Aetat. 66.] To Edmund Hector. 369
a kind of life turned upside down ? Fixed to a spot when I was
young, and roving the world when others are contriving to sit
still, I am wholly unsettled. I am a kind of ship with a wide
sail, and without an anchor.
Now I am come home, let me know how it is with you.
I hope you are well, and intend to keep your residence this year.
Let me know the month, and I will contrive to be about you.
Our friendship has now lasted so long, that it is valuable for its
antiquity. Perhaps neither has any other companion to whom
he can talk of his early years. Let me particularly know the
state of your health. I think mine is the better for the journey.
The French have a clear air and fruitful soil, but their mode
of common life is gross and incommodious, and disgusting.
I am come home convinced that no improvement of general use
is to be gained among them J .
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate servant,
London, Nov. 16, 1775. SAM : JOHNSON.
441.
To EDMUND HECTOR 2 .
DEAR SIR,
On Tuesday I returned from a ramble about France, and
about a month s stay at Paris. I have seen nothing that much
delighted or surprised me 3 . Their palaces are splendid, and
their churches magnificent in their structure, and gorgeous in their
ornaments, but the city in general makes a very mean appearance.
When I opened my letters, I found that you had very kindly
complied with all my requests. The Bar (?) may be sent in
a box directed to me at Henry Thrale Esq., in Southwark. The
whole company that you saw went to France together, and the
Queen was so pleased with our little girl, that she sent to enquire
who she was 4 .
1 Life, ii. 389, 402 ; iii. 352 ; iv. 237. talk of them. As I entered, my wife
2 First published in Notes and was in my mind : she would have
Queries, 6th S., iii. 401. been pleased. Having now nobody
3 Johnson recorded in his journal to please, I am little pleased. Life,
at Paris : The sight of palaces, and ii. 393.
other great buildings, leaves no very 4 The Thrales and Johnson on
distinct images, unless to those who their return from their tour in Wales
VOL. I. B b We
37 To Mrs. Montagu. [A.D. 1775.
We are all well, but I find, my dear Sir, that you are ill.
I hope it does not continue true that you are almost a cripple.
Would not a warm bath have helped you ? Take care of your
self for my sake as well as that of your other friends. I have
the first claim on your attention, if priority be allowed any
advantages. Dear Mrs. Careless 1 , I know, will be careful of
you. I can only wish you well, and of my good wishes you may
be always certain, for
I am, dear Sir,
Your most affectionate
Fleet Street, Nov. 16, 1775. SAM : JOHNSON.
442.
T- . To MRS. MONTAGU 2 .
MADAM, Dec. 15, 1775.
Having, after my return from a little ramble to France,
passed some time in the country, I did not hear, till I was told
by Miss Reynolds, that you were in town ; and when I did hear
it, I heard likewise that you were ill. To have you detained
among us by sickness is to enjoy your presence at too dear
a rate. I suffer myself to be flattered with hope that only half
the intelligence is now true, and that you are now so well as
to be able to leave us, and so kind as not to be willing.
I am, Madam,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
443.
To MRS. MONTAGU.
MADAM, Dec. 17, 1775.
All that the esteem and reverence of mankind can give you
has been long in your possession, and the little that I can add
had stayed at Birmingham and there went to see the King and Queen at
had breakfasted with Hector. In dinner, and the Queen was so im-
examining at the British Museum pressed by Miss, that she sent one
the original MS. of Johnson s Journey of the Gentlemen to enquire who she
into North Wales, I find that in the was. Ib. ii. 385.
record of September 19, 20 and 21, T Hector s sister. Ante, p. 164,
Hector has been wrongly copied as n. I.
Wheeler. Life,v.^. Johnson wrote 2 This and the next two letters
to Levett on October 22, 1775: were first published in Croker s
We came yesterday from Fontain- Boswell, page 470. For Mrs. Mon-
bleau, where the Court is now. We tagu see ante, p. 87, n. 3.
to
Aetat. 66.] To Mrs. Montagu. 371
to the voice of nations will not much exalt ; of that little, how
ever, you are, I hope, very certain . I wonder, Madam, if you
remember Col in the Hebrides 2 ? The brother and heir of poor
Col has just been to visit me, and I have engaged to dine with
him on Thursday. I do not know his lodging, and cannot send
him a message, and must therefore suspend the honour which
you are pleased to offer to,
Madam,
Your most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
444.
To MRS. PORTER.
[London], December 17, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 388.
Boswell gives only the date of December, 1775, but Mr. Croker, who
perhaps had seen the original, adds the day of the month.
445.
To MRS. MONTAGU.
MADAM, Thursday, Dec. 21, 1775.
I know not when any letter has given me so much pleasure
or vexation as that which I had yesterday the honour of
receiving. That you, Madam, should wish for my company
is surely a sufficient reason for being pleased; that I should
delay twice, what I had so little right to expect even once, has
so bad an appearance, that I can only hope to have it thought
that I am ashamed. You have kindly allowed me to name a
day. Will you be pleased, Madam, to accept of me any day
after Tuesday ? Till I am favoured with your answer, or despair
of so much condescension, I shall suffer no engagement to fasten
itself upon me 3 .
I am, Madam,
Your most obliged and most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Mr. Croker quotes a letter (Eos- his gratitude for this kindness to his
well, p. 458) from Mrs. Williams to poor blind friend.
Mrs. Montagu, dated June 26 of this 2 He means of course, not the
year, in acknowledgment of a pension island of that name, but the young
which that great lady had just con- Laird of Col mentioned in the Journey
ferred on her. Johnson s flowery to the Hebrides, ante, p. 279.
language was no doubt in part due to 3 A few years later he said to Bos-
B b 2 To
3 7 2 To the Reverend John Wesley. [A.D. 1776.
446.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], December 23, 1775. Published in the Life, ii. 411.
447.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], January 10, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 412.
448.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
London, January 15, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 415.
449.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR.
[London], January 15, 1776.
In Messrs. Sotheby and Co. s Auction Catalogue for April 10, 1885,
Lot 590 is a Letter of Johnson, dated January 15, 1776, franked by
Thrale to Dr. Taylor, respecting his (Taylor s) law-suit.
For the law-suit see post, pp. 375, 390, and Life, iii. 44, n. 3 ; 51, n. 3.
45O.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], February 3, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 416.
451.
To THE REVEREND JOHN WESLEY ".
SIR, Feb - 6 > 1776.
When I received your Commentary on the Bible, I durst
not at first flatter myself that I was to keep it. having so little
claim to so valuable a present ; and when Mrs. Hall 2 informed
me of your kindness, was hindered from time to time from
returning you those thanks which I now entreat you to accept.
I have thanks likewise to return you for the addition of your
well : Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. man s Magazine, 1797, i. 455.
Now, Sir, there are people whom one 2 She was Wesley s sister. Her
should like very well to drop, but worthless husband had died on
would not wish to be dropped by. January 2 of this year * in deep re-
Life, iv. 73. pentance. Wesley s Journal, iv. 64.
1 First published in the Gentle- See Life, iv. 92, n. 3.
important
Aetat. 66.] To the Reverend John Wesley.
373
important suffrage to my argument on the American question.
To have gained such a mind as yours may justly confirm me
in my own opinion I . What effect my paper has upon the
public, I know not ; but I have no reason to be discouraged.
The lecturer was surely in the right, who, though he saw his
1 On June 14, 1775, Wesley had
written to the Earl of Dartmouth :
All my prejudices are against the
Americans, for I am an High Church
man, the son of an High Churchman,
bred up from my childhood in the
highest notions of passive obedience
and non-resistance ; and yet in spite
of all my rooted prejudice I cannot
avoid thinking (if I think at all) that
an oppressed people asked for nothing
more than their legal rights, and that
in the most modest and inoffensive
manner which the nature of the thing
would allow. Hist. MSS. Comm.,
vol. xi, App. 5, p. 378.
In his Calm Address to our
American Colonies, published near
the end of 1775, he tells the Americans
that they are the dupes of a few
designing men in England, who are
determined enemies to monarchy.
Vainly, he continues, do you com
plain of " unconstitutional exactions,
violated rights, and mutilated char
ters." Nothing is exacted but accord
ing to the original constitution both
of England and her Colonies. He
warns them against the danger of
a republic : No governments under
heaven are so despotic as the re
publican ; no subjects are governed
in so arbitrary a manner as those
of a commonwealth. If any one
doubt of this, let him look at the
subjects of Venice, of Genoa, or even
of Holland. Should any man talk
or write of the Dutch government as
every cobler does of the English,
he would be laid in irons before he
knew where he was. And then wo
be to him! Republics shew no mercy.
A Calm Address, pp. 13, 16, 17, 21.
In his Journal, iv. 59, he gives also
a Letter published by him in Lloyd s
Evening Post near the end of 1775,
in which he maintains that the
Americans are not contending for
liberty, but for the illegal privilege
of being exempt from parliamentary
taxation.
The Gent. Mag. for Dec. 1775 (?
561) contains an admirable reply to
the Calm Address. You are surely,
Sir, too well acquainted, says the
writer, with the nature and workings
of human passions to expect any
good to arrive from a calm address
to men (as you say the Americans
are) under the dominion of enthu
siasm. The experience of your whole
life has been the influence of enthu
siasm over the calm. ... I have seen,
Mr. Wesley, near a hundred persons,
whose consciences or understandings
were affected under your ministry,
fall into convulsions, see angels and
demons by turn, converse alternately
with God and the devil . . . When
a chimera, without a substantial
basis or a visible object, can thus
triumph over the reason and the will,
and laugh argument to scorn, can it
be hoped, Mr. Wesley, that men
acting upon the known and es
tablished systems of human policy,
irritated to enthusiasm in the con
tention for everything that is dear,
will turn aside to listen to your
Address ? Can it be hoped that the
two-pennypamphlet of a Lay Metho
dist preacher will influence the camps
of the Americans, or the Congresses
of New Senators ?
audience
374
To Archibald Hamilton.
[A.D. 1776.
audience slinking away, refused to quit the chair while Plato
staid .
I am, reverend Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
452.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], February 9, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 419.
453.
To ARCHIBALD HAMILTON z .
DEAR SIR, Feb. 13, 1776.
I am afraid that by altering the first article of the
Dictionary at your desire I have given occasion to an unhappy
difference between you and Dr. Calder, who has been with me,
and seems to think himself in danger of losing the revision
of the w T ork. For this consequence I should be very deeply
sorry. I considered the redundance which I lopped away, not
as the consequence of negligence or inability, but as the
of superfluous diligence, naturally exerted on the first article.
He that does too much soon learns to do less. By his own
account however it appears that [he] has shown what I think
an improper degree of turbulence and impatience. I have
1 Plato enim mihi unus instar est
omnium millium. CICERO, Brutus,
chap. 51. See post, Letter of March
18, 1779, where Johnson writes :
Plato is a multitude.
2 First published in Nichols s Lite
rary Anecdotes, ix. 805.
Archibald Hamilton was a printer,
one who had long kept his coach.
" He was in the right," said Johnson ;
" life is short. The sooner that a man
begins to enjoy his wealth the bet
ter." Life, ii. 226. A new edition
of Ephraim Chambers s Cyclopaedia
had been undertaken by the book
sellers and a contract had been made
in 1773 with Dr. Calder for its pre
paration. He set to work, and, as
was his usual custom, soon over
stocked himself with materials. In
1776 the first sheet, by general con
sent, was submitted to Dr. Johnson,
who made many remarks on it ;
which, adds Nichols, I have in his
own hand-writing. Calder, to judge
from the correspondence published
by Nichols, does not seem to have
been a judicious editor. The result
was that the contract was dissolved,
and the Cyclopedia placed in the
hands of Dr. Rees, who did very well
for the proprietors. Nichols s Lit.
Hist. iv. 800-819.
According to Percival Stockdale,
Johnson regretted that he had not
himself undertaken the editorship.
Sir, (said he) I like that muddling
work. Life, ii. 204.
3 A word has been omitted in the
original.
advised
Aetat. 66.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 375
advised him, and he has promised, to be hereafter less tenacious
of his own determination, and more pliable to the direction of
the Proprietors, and the opinion of those whom they may consult.
I entreat therefore that all the past may be forgotten ; that he
may stand where he stood before, and be permitted to proceed
with the work in which he is engaged. Do not refuse this
request to
Sir.
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
454.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], February 15, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 420,
455.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR .
DEAR SIR,
The Case which you sent me contains such vicissitudes of
settlement and rescission that I will not pretend yet to give
any opinion about it. My advice is, that it be laid before some
of the best Lawyers, and branched out into queries, that the
answer may be more deliberate, and the necessity of considering
made greater.
Get it off your hands and out of your head as fast as you
can. You have no evidence to wait for : all that can be done
may be done soon.
Your health is of more consequence. Keep yourself cheerful.
Lye in Bed with a lamp, and when you cannot sleep, and are
beginning to think, light your candle and read 2 . At least light
your candle ; a man is perhaps never so much harrassed [sic]
by his own mind in the light as in the dark.
Poor Caled 3 Harding is dead. Do s [sic ] not every death of
1 First published in Notes and during his hours of restlessness.
Queries, 6th S., v. 423. " I used formerly (he added) when
For Taylor s law-case see post, sleepless in bed to read like a Turk."
p. 390. Life, iv. 409.
Johnson in his last illness la- 3 A misprint, I conjecture, for
mented much his inability to read Caleb.
a man
376
To the Reverend Dr. John C alder. [A.D. me.
a man long known begin to strike deep ? How few dos [sic]
the Man who has lived sixty years now know of the friends
of his youth ! At Lichfield there are none but Harry Jackson 1
and Sedgwick, and Sedgwick, when I left him, had a dropsy.
I am, I think, better than usual, and hope you will grow
better too.
I am, Sir,
Your most affectionate,
Febr. 17, 1776. SAM:JOHNSON.
Rev d Dr. Taylor, Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
456.
To THE REVEREND DR. JOHN CALDER Z .
SlR, Feb. 19, 1776.
I saw Mr. on Saturday, and find that Mr. Hamilton
had shown him my letter. Mr. is, as I feared, so angry
and so resolute that I could not impress him in your favour,
nor have any hope from him. If anything is done it must be
with the other Proprietors. I am sorry for it.
I am, Sir,
Your very humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
457.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], February 24, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 422.
458.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], March 5, 1776 Published in the Life, ii. 423.
1 We dined at our inn [at Lich
field], and had with us a Mr. Jackson,
one of Johnson s schoolfellows, whom
he treated with much kindness,
though he seemed to be a low man,
dull and untaught. He had a coarse
grey coat, black waistcoat, greasy
leather breeches, and a yellow un
curled wig; and his countenance had
the ruddiness which betokens one
who is in no haste to "leave his
can." Life, ii. 463. Johnson wrote
to Boswell on September I, 1777:
When I came to Lichfield I found
my old friend, Henry Jackson, dead.
It was a loss, and a loss not to be
repaired, as he was one of the com
panions of my childhood. Ib. iii.
2 First published in Nichols s Lite
rary History, iv.
P- 374-
811 ; see ante,
To
Aetat. 66.] To Edimmd Hector. 377
459.
To THE REVEREND DR. JOHN DOUGLAS r .
SIR,
This gentleman has been approved by the Vice-Chancellor
and Proctors of Oxford, as a man properly qualified to profess
Horsemanship in that place. The Trustees of the Clarendon
legacy have consented to issue money for the credit of a Riding
house, and the Bishop of Chester delays the payment till he
knows the state of the account between the Trustees and the
University, for he says very reasonably that he knows not to
give, till he knows how much they have.
Upon application to the Dean of Hereford, I was told that
you, dear Sir, have in your hand the accounts between them.
If you would be pleased to examine them, and appoint this
Gentleman a time when he may wait on you for the result to
carry to the Bishop, you will put an end to a business in which
I have interested myself very much, as it will restore prosperity
to a family that has suffered great difficulties a long time.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
March 6, 1776.
To the Reverend Dr. Douglas.
460.
To EDMUND HECTOR 2 .
DEAR SIR, March 7, 1776.
Some time ago you told me that you had unhappily hurt
yourself ; and were confined, and you have never since let me
hear of your recovery. I hope however that you are grown,
at least are growing well. We must be content now to mend
1 From the original in the British Here Douglas retires from his toils
Museum, Egerton MSS. 2182. to relax,
Dr. Douglas was made Bishop of The scourge of impostors, the terror
Carlisle in 1787, of Salisbury in 1791. of quacks.
He had exposed Lauder s literary For the subject of the letter see
fraud about Milton (Life, i. 228) and ante, p. 309.
had helped to expose the Cock Lane 2 First published in Notes and
Ghost (ib. i. 407). Goldsmith intro- Queries, 6th S., iii. 401.
duces him in Retaliation :
very
1
o,
To Edmund Hector.
[A.D. 1776.
very gradually, and cannot make such quick transitions from
sickness to health, as we did forty years ago. Let me know
how you do, and do not imagine that I forgot you.
I forget whether I told you that at the latter end of the
summer I rambled over part of France. I saw something of
the vintage, which is all I think that they have to boast above
our country, at least, it is their great natural advantage. Their
air, I think, is good, and my health mended in it very per
ceptibly.
Our schoolfellow Charles Congreve J is still in town, but very
dull, very valetudinary, and very recluse, willing, I am afraid,
to forget the world, and content to be forgotten by it, to repose
in that sullen sensuality, into which men naturally sink, who
think disease a justification of indulgence, and converse only
with those who hope to prosper by indulging them. This is
a species of Beings with which your profession must have made
you much acquainted, and to which I hope acquaintance has
made you no friend 2 . Infirmity will come, but let us not invite
it ; indulgence will allure us, but let us turn resolutely away.
Time cannot always be defeated, but let us not yield till we
are conquered 3 .
I had the other day a letter from Harry Jackson, who says
nothing, and yet seems to have something which he wishes to
say. He is very poor. I wish something could be done for
him 4 .
I hope dear Mrs. Careless is well, and now and then does not
disdain to mention my name. It is happy when a Brother and
Sister live to pass their time at our age together. I have nobody
to whom I can talk of my first years when I go to Lichfield
1 Ante, p. 304.
2 Hector was a medical man.
3 Johnson, not long before he died,
when talking of his illness, -said,
" I will be conquered ; I will not ca
pitulate." Life, iv. 374. See also
post, Letter of March 14, 1782.
4 For Harry Jackson, see ante, p.
376. Hector, as well as Johnson,
had been his school-fellow. He had
tried to be a cutler at Birmingham,
but had not succeeded ; and now he
lived poorly at home, and had some
scheme of dressing leather in a better
manner than common ; to his indis
tinct account of which Dr. Johnson
listened with patient attention, that
he might assist him with his advice.
Life, ii. 463.
I see
Aetat. 66.] To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. 379
I see the old places, but find nobody that enjoyed them with
me. May she and you live long together I .
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
To Mr. Hector in Birmingham.
461.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR z .
DEAR SIR, March 7, 1776.
You will not write to me, nor come to see me, and you
will not have me within reach long for We are going to Italy
in the spring 3 .
I called the other day upon poor Charles 4 , whom I had not
seen for many months. He took no notice of my absence, nor
appeared either glad or sorry to see me, but answered everything
with monosyllables, arid seemed heavy and drowsy, like a man
muddled with a full meal ; at last I enquired the time, which
gave him hopes of being delivered from me, and enabled him
to bounce up with great alacrity and inspect his watch. He
sits in a room about ten feet square, and though he takes the
air every day in his chaise, fancies that he should take cold
in any other house, and therefore never pays a visit.
Do you go on with your suit ? If you do, you had surely
better come to town and talk with Council \_sic~\. Unless skilful
men give you hopes of success, it will be better not to try it,
you may still triumph in your ill-success s . But supposing that
by the former compact between you and 6 , She had it
1 For Mrs. Careless, see ante, p. 5 Pall Mall Place, S.W.
164, n. I. Johnson wrote to Ben- 3 Post, p. 384.
net Langton in 1758 : I, who have 4 Charles Congreve. Ante, p. 378.
no sisters nor brothers, look with 5 This paragraph is scored through
some degree of innocent envy on in the original.
those who may be said to be born to 6 The name is effaced. It ap-
friends ; and cannot see, without pears to be Wood. According to
wonder, how rarely that native union Nichols (Literary Anecdotes, ix. 63),
is afterwards regarded. Life, i. 324. Taylor s heir was a young gentleman
2 From the original in the posses- in his own neighbourhood of the
sion of Messrs. J. Pearson & Co. of name of Webster, about 12 or 14
for
380 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1776.
for her life, She had as much as She ought to have. I never
well understood the settlement he and you concerted between
you x . Do you know what is become of her, and how She and
the 2 live together ? What a wretch it is !
I should be glad to take my usual round, and see my friends
before I set out, but I am afraid it will hardly be convenient,
therefore write to me.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM : JOHNSON.
462.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[London], March 12, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 424.
463.
To THE REVEREND DR. WETHERELL.
[London], March 12, 1776. Published in the Life, ii. 424.
464.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR 3 .
DEAR SIR,
I came hither last night, and found your Letters. You will
have a note from me on Monday, yet I thought it better to
send a Messenger to-day. Mr. Boswel is with me, but I will
take care that he shall hinder no business, nor shall he know
years old. I am informed however 3 From the original in the pos-
by the Rev. Francis Jourdain, Vicar of session of Mr. Alfred Morrison of
Ashbourne, that Taylor left all his Fonthill House. Boswell had ac-
property to his shoe-black, with the companied Johnson on a visit to
proviso that he might take any name Lichfield. He writes on Monday,
but that of Taylor. Perhaps this March 25 : Johnson had sent an
lad was his illegitimate son, and express to Dr. Taylor s, acquainting
She was the boy s mother. him of our being at Lichfield, and
1 The last six words of this sen- Taylor had returned an answer that
tence are scored through. his post-chaise should come for us
1 This word is not only effaced but this day. Life, ii. 468.
defaced.
more
Aetat. 66.] To Mrs. Thrale. 381
more than you would have him. Send when you please, we
shall be ready.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Lichfield, Saturday, March 23, 1776.
If you care not to send let me know, we will take a chaise.
465.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, Lichfield, March 25, 1776.
This letter will not, I hope, reach you many days before
me ; in a distress which can be so little relieved, nothing remains
for a friend but to come and partake it.
Poor dear sweet little boy ! When I read the letter this day
to Mrs. Aston, she said. Such a death is the next to transla
tion 2 . Yet however I may convince myself of this, the tears
are in my eyes, and yet I could not love him as you loved him,
nor reckon upon him for a future comfort as you and his father
reckoned upon him.
He is gone, and we are going ! We could not have enjoyed
him long, and shall not long be separated from him. He has
probably escaped many such pangs as you are now feeling.
1 Piozzi Letters, \. 307. ignorant of the accident that caused
While Johnson and Boswell sat at the boy s death, and I would not tell
breakfast at Miss Porter s house the him lest his attachment to her should
post came in and brought news of make him discredit my words, and of
the death of little Harry Thrale. course cause a serious quarrel bet ween
He died on March 23, suddenly, us. BARETTI. In later notes (Piozzi
before his father s door. Life, ii. Letters, pp. 316, 319, 338) he says that
468. Baretti has the following ma- she had been in the habit of giving
lignant note : Here our Madam has tin-pills to Queeny, and that he
sunk the letter to which this is an was obliged to be very violent to
answer. Did she own in it that she keep her from sending Hetty where
herself poisoned little Harry, or did she had just sent poor Queeny.
she not ? I think she suppressed 2 Johnson does not give in his
that particularity, and attributed his Dictionary translation as used in
death to convulsions, or some other this sense, though it is used in He-
complaint of that kind, as Johnson brews xi. 5.
seemed the remainder of his life
Nothing
382 To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1776.
Nothing remains, but that with humble confidence we resign
ourselves to Almighty Goodness, and fall down, without ir
reverent murmurs, before the Sovereign Distributer of good and
evil, with hope that though sorrow endureth for a night yet joy
may come in the morning \
I have known you, Madam, too long to think that you want
any arguments for submission to the Supreme Will ; nor can
my consolation have any effect but that of showing that I wish
to comfort you. What can be done you must do for yourself.
Remember first, that your child is happy; and then, that he
is safe, not only from the ills of this world, but from those more
formidable dangers which extend their mischief to eternity.
You have brought into the world a rational being ; have seen
him happy during the little life that has been granted him ; and
can have no doubt but that his happiness is now permanent and
immutable.
When you have obtained by prayer such tranquillity as nature
will admit, force your attention, as you can, upon your ac
customed duties and accustomed entertainments. You can do
no more for our dear boy, but you must not therefore think less
on those whom your attention may make fitter for the place to
which he is gone.
I am, dearest, dearest Madam,
Your most affectionate humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
466.
TO MRS. THRALE 2 .
[London], March 30, 1776.
DEAR MADAM,
Since, as Mr. Baretti informs us, our dear Queeney is grown
better, I hope you will by degrees recover your tranquillity.
1 Heaviness may endure for a 26 ; leaving it the next evening they
night, but joy cometh in the morn- rested Wednesday night at Lough-
ing. Psalms, xxx. 5. borough, and Thursday night at St.
2 Piozzi Letters, i. 309. Alban s, reaching London on Friday
Johnson and Boswell left Lichfield morning, March 29. Johnson at once
for Ashbourne on Tuesday, March hurried away to Mr. Thrale s house
Only
Aetat. ee.] To Mrs. Thrale. 383
Only by degrees, and those perhaps sufficiently slow, can the
pain of an affliction like yours be abated *. But though effects
are not wholly in our power, yet Providence always gives us
something to do. Many of the operations of nature may by
human diligence be accelerated or retarded. Do not indulge
your sorrow; try to drive it away by either pleasure or pain ;
for, opposed to what you are feeling, many pains will become
pleasures. Remember the great precept, Be not solitary; be
not idle 2 .
But above all, resign yourself and your children to the
Universal Father, the Author of Existence, and Governor of the
Universe, who only knows what is best for all, and without
whose regard not a sparrow falls to the ground 3 .
That I feel what friendship can feel, I hope I need not tell
you. I loved him as I never expect to love any other little boy;
but I could not love him as a parent. I know that such a loss
is a laceration of the mind. I know that a whole system of
hopes, and designs, and expectations, is swept away at once,
and nothing left but bottomless vacuity 4 . What you feel I have
felt, and hope that your disquiet will be shorter than mine.
Mr. Thrale sent me a letter from Mr. Boswell, I suppose to be
inclosed 5 . I was this day with Mrs. Montague, who, with
everybody else, laments your misfortune.
I am, dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
in the Borough, where he found the 4 See ante, p. 212, n. 4, and post,
coach at the door to take Mrs. and Letter of July 27, 1778, where we find
Miss Thrale and Baretti to Bath. much the same thoughts and words.
Life, ii. 473, iii. 6. The funeral had ; By the kindness of Mrs. Thomas,
taken place the day before. of Eyhorne House, Hollingbourne,
1 The most unaccountable part of near Maidstone, who is in possession
Johnson s character was his total of the original, I am able to give
ignorance of the character of his a copy of Boswell s letter :
most familiar acquaintance. Far DEAR MADAM, Allow me to as-
from recovering by slow degrees, on sure you and Mr. Thrale that I very
our arrival at Bath the first thing sincerely regret your present afBic-
that the woman did was to buy black tion, and very sincerely wish it were
feathers for her hat. BARETTI. in my power to alleviate it. Were
2 Ante, p. 293. you as sure as I am of my concern
3 St. Matthew, x. 29. for you, I doubt not that it would be
To
84
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1776.
467.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAREST MADAM, [London], April i, 1776.
When you were gone, Mr. Thrale soon sent me away 2 .
I came next day, and was made to understand that when I was
wanted I should be sent for ; and therefore I have not gone
yesterday or to-day, but I will soon go again whether invited
or not.
You begin now I hope to be able to consider, that what has
happened might have had great aggravations. Had you been
followed in your intended travels 3 by an account of this afflictive 4
deprivation, where could have been the end of doubt, and sur
mise, and suspicion, and self-condemnation ? You could not
easily have been reconciled to those whom you left behind, or
some relief. You have now with you
Dr. Johnson, whose friendship is
the most effectual consolation under
heaven. I wish not to intrude upon
you ; but as soon as you let me know
that my presence will not be trouble
some, I shall hasten to your house,
where as I have shared much happi
ness, I would willingly bear a part in
mourning.
I ever am, Madam,
Your obliged humble servant,
JAMES BOSWELL.
Mr. Dillys in the Poultry,
Friday, 29 March, 1776.
It was at the house of Messieurs
Dilly, the booksellers in the Poultry,
that Johnson and Boswell alighted
on their return to London. Life,
iii. 5.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 311.
2 Mr. Thrale who was a worldly
man, and followed the direction of
his own feelings with no philosophi
cal or Christian distinctions, having
now lost the strong hope of being
one day succeeded in the profitable
Brewery by the only son he had left,
gave himself silently up to his grief,
and fell in a few years a victim to it.
BARETTI. When the news had first
arrived of the boy s death, Boswell
had said it would be very distress
ing to Thrale, but she would soon
forget it, as she had so many things
to think of. JOHNSON. "No, Sir,
Thrale will forget it first. She has
many things that she may think of.
He has many things that he must
think of." Life, ii. 470. This, though
true as a general remark, was not
true in this case.
3 They had been on the point of
starting with Johnson for Italy.
4 Johnson avoided the use of the
present participle as an adjective.
He would not have said afflicting
deprivation. Mrs. Piozzi in her
British Synonomy (ii. 139), which
was no doubt to a great extent
founded on what she had learnt
from him, distinguishing between
prevalent and prevailing, says :
Prevailing being a participle is in
common use, of course, and I think
it lies a whole shade nearer to vul
garity than prevalent? She calls
both words adverbs \
those
Aetat. 66.] To Mrs. Tkrale. 385
those who had persuaded you to go. You would have believed
that he died by neglect, and that your presence would have
saved him. I was glad of your letter from Marlborough *, and
hope you will try to force yourself to write. If grief either
caused or aggravated poor Queeney s illness, you have taken
the proper method for relieving it. Young minds easily receive
new impressions.
Poor Peyton 2 expired this morning. He probably during
many years, for which he sat starving by the bed of a wife, not
only useless but almost motionless, condemned by poverty to
personal attendance, and by the necessity of such attendance
chained down to poverty he probably thought often how
lightly he should tread the path of life without his burthen.
Of this thought the admission was unavoidable, and the in
dulgence might be forgiven to frailty and distress. His wife died
at last, and before she was buried he was seized by a fever, and
is now going to the grave.
Such miscarriages, when they happen to those on whom
many eyes are fixed, fill histories and tragedies ; and tears have
been shed for the sufferings, and wonder excited by the for
titude of those who neither did nor suffered more than Peyton.
I was on Saturday at Mrs. Montague s, who expressed great
sensibility 3 of your loss ; and have this day received an invitation
to a supper and a ball ; but I returned my acknowledgment to
the ladies, and let them know that I thought I should like the
ball better another week 4 .
I am, dear Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
1 Marlborough is 74 miles from tionary give sensibility as used in
London, and 33 from Bath on the this sense.
main road between those cities. It 4 He had however attended the
was at Marlborough that Matthew Lichfield Theatre on the day on
Bramble halted to dine on his way which the news arrived of the boy s
from Bath to London, on the day death. Boswell says : We were
when Humphry Clinker comes first quite gay and merry. I afterwards
upon the scene. Humphry Clinker, mentioned to him that I condemned
ed. 1792, i. 169. myself for being so, when poor Mr.
2 Ante, p. 319. and Mrs. Thrale were in such dis-
3 Johnson does not in his Die- tress. JOHNSON. " You are wrong,
VOL. I. C c To
;86 71? Mrs. Thrale.
468.
To MRS. THRALE .
DEAREST MADAM, April 4, 1776.
I am glad to hear of pretty Queeney s recovery, and your
returning tranquillity. What we have suffered ought to make
us remember what we have escaped. You might at as short
a warning have been taken from your children, or Mr. Thrale
might have been taken from us all.
Mr. Thrale, when he dismissed me, promised to call on me ;
he has never called, and I have never seen him. He said that
he would go to the house 2 , and I hope he has found something
that laid hold on his attention.
I do not wish you to return, while the novelty of the place
does any good either to you or Queeney, and longer I know you
will not stay; there is therefore no need of soliciting your
return. What qualification can be extracted from so sad an
event, I derive from observing that Mr. Thrale s behaviour has
united you to him by additional endearments. Every evil will
be more easily borne while you fondly love one another ; and
every good will be enjoyed with encrease of delight past compute^
Sir ; twenty years hence Mr. and he heard a debate on Mr. Hartley s
Mrs. Thrale will not suffer much Motion for Estimates of the probable
pain from the death of their son. expenses of the War with America.
Now, Sir, you are to consider, that Parl. Hist, xviii. 1302. Lord North
distance of place, as well as distance replied that Mr. Hartley looked for
of time, operates upon the human impossibilities ; he could not divine
feelings. I would not have you be what the expenses of the campaign
gay in the presence of the distressed, would amount to. Ib. p. 1315.
because it would shock them ; but Could it have been foreseen that the
you may be gay at a distance." Life, National Debt would be raised by
ii. 471. the war from 129 to 268 millions,
See the sensibility of Mrs. Mon- even Gibbon might have hesitated
tague that invited Johnson to a ball about supporting throughout this
on such an occasion ! Oh, these memorable contest with many a
learned Ladies, how sensible they sincere and silent vote the rights,
are of other people s afflictions. though not perhaps the interest, of
BARETTI. the mother country. Gibbon s Misc.
1 Piozzi Letters, i. 313. Works, i. 220. For the increase in
2 The House of Commons, I con- the debt see Penny Cydo., ed. 1840,
jecture. On April i, if he attended, xvi. 100.
to
Aetat. 66.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
387
to use the phrase of Cumberland T . May your care of each
other always encrease !
I am, dearest Madam,
Your, &c,,
SAM : JOHNSON 2 .
469.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR.
London, April 4, 1776.
In Messrs. Sotheby and Co. s Auction Catalogue of April 8, 1891,
Lot 6 1 is a letter of Johnson to Dr. Taylor, two pages quarto, dated
April 4, 1776, containing frequent references to Boswell. It was sold
for 6 i$s.
470.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, April 9, 1776.
Mr. Th rale s alteration of purpose is not weakness of
resolution ; it is a wise man s compliance with the change of
things, and with the new duties which the change produces.
1 Probably Richard Cumberland,
the playwriter. Life, iv. 384, n. 2.
2 Arthur Murphy, who had made
Johnson and the Thrales acquainted
(Life, i. 493), wrote to Mrs. Thrale
the following letter, the original of
which is in the possession of Mrs.
Thomas, of Eythorne House, Hol-
lingbourne, Maidstone. March 6
is a misdate for April 6 :
DEAR MRS. THRALE,
I was heartily glad to hear that
you had set out for Bath. The best
Effort we can make upon trying oc
casions is as much our Duty, as
submission to the Supreme Will.
I hope that your Journey has had
every good Effect. I long much to
see you, and at the same I dread it.
I have never gone near Mr. Thrale,
for I thought I should only hinder
his wounds from healing. It is, in
my opinion, lucky that you are all
going to change the scene. Your
absence will be felt by me, but if
C C
1 hear from you occasionally it will
be a real pleasure. Your present is
melancholy, but I receive it with that
pleasure which melancholy affords,
and I shall wear it with that sensi
bility which is due to you, and to all
belonging to you.
I will not Endeavour to tell you
the Sentiments, with which I am,
Dear Madam,
Your most obliged
humble servant,
ARTHUR MURPHY.
Lincoln s Inn,
6th March, 1776.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 314.
This letter, if it is rightly dated,
must have crossed Mrs. Thrale on
her way back, for we find her dining
at her own house on April 10. Life,
iii. 29. Soon afterwards she returned
to Bath with her husband and John
son. Ib. p. 44. Mr. Thrale s altera
tion of purpose was the abandonment
of the journey to Italy.
2 Whoever
3 88
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1776.
Whoever expects me to be angry, will be disappointed *. I do
not even grieve at the effect, I grieve only at the cause.
Your business for the present is to seek for ease, and to go
where you think it most likely to be found. There cannot yet
be any place in your mind for mere curiosity. Whenever I can
contribute to your tranquillity, I shall readily attend, and hope
never to add to the evils that may oppress you. I will go with
you to Bath, or stay with you at home.
I am very little disappointed. I was glad to go to places of
so much celebrity, but had promised to myself no raptures, nor
much improvement 2 : nor is there any thing to be expected
worth such a sacrifice as you might make.
Keep yourself busy, and you will in time grow cheerful.
New prospects may open, and new enjoyments may come within
your reach. I surely cannot but wish all evil removed from
a house which has afforded my miseries all the succour which
attention and benevolence could give. I am sorry not to owe
so much, but to repay so little. What I can do, you may with
great reason expect from,
Dearest Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM : JOHNSON.
1 This passage seems to be an
answer to a passage in Mrs. Thrale s
letter to him, where she says :
Baretti said you would be very
angry because this dreadful event
made us put off our Italian journey,
but I knew you better. Her letter
however is dated May 3, more than
three weeks later ; on which day, to
add to the perplexity, Johnson was
with her till about eleven at night,
when he left for London (post, p. 391).
I suspect that her letter is either
wholly or in part a fabrication.
2 The following day, Johnson said
to Boswell : " I am disappointed,
to be sure ; but it is not a great dis
appointment." * * * I perceived
that he had so warmly cherished the
hope of enjoying classical scenes,
that he could not easily part with
the scheme ; for he said, " I shall
probably contrive to get to Italy
some other way. But I won t men
tion it to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, as
it might vex them." Life, iii. 28.
Johnson was not fit to travel as
every place was equal to him. He
mused as much on the road to Paris
as he did in his garret in London, as
much at a French Opera as in his
room at Streatham. With men,
women, and children he never cared
to exchange a word, and if he ever
took any delight in any thing it was
to converse with some old acquaint
ance. New people he never loved
to be in company with, except Ladies,
when disposed to caress and flatter
him. BARETTI.
To
Aetat. 66.]
To the Lord Chamberlain.
471.
To Miss REYNOLDS *.
DEAREST MADAM, April 11,1776.
To have acted, with regard to you, in a manner either un
friendly or disrespectful, would give me great pain ; and, I hope,
will be always very contrary to my intention. That I staid away
was merely accidental. I have seldom dined from home ; and I did
not think my opinion necessary to your information in any pro
prieties of behaviour. The poor parents of the child are much
grieved, and much dejected. The journey to Italy is put off, but
they go to Bath on Monday 2 . A visit from you will be well
taken, and I think your intimacy is such that you may very
properly pay it in a morning. I am sure that it will be thought
seasonable and kind, and I wish you not to omit it.
I am,
Dear Madam, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
472.
To THE EARL OF HERTFORD, LORD CHAMBERLAIN 3 .
MY LORD,
Being wholly unknown to your lordship, I have only this
apology to make for presuming to trouble you with a request,
that a stranger s petition, if it cannot be easily granted, can be
easily refused. Some of the apartments are now vacant in which
I am encouraged to hope that by application to your lordship I
may obtain a residence. Such a grant would be considered by
me as a great favour ; and I hope that to a man who has had the
honour of vindicating his Majesty s Government, a retreat in one
of his houses may not be improperly or unworthily allowed 4 .
1 First published in Croker s Bos-
well, page 505.
1 Monday was the I5th.
5 First published in the Gentle
man s Magazine for 1850, part i.
page 292.
Lord C. stands for Lord Chamber
lain. The Earl (afterwards first
Marquis) of Hertford was at one
time Hume s patron. Hume s Letters
to W. Strahan, p. xxx. He was the
grandfather of the third Marquis,
who was born within a year of the
date of Johnson s letter, and who is
supposed to be the original of the
Marquis of Steyne in Thackeray s
Vanity Fair. The endorsement
does not agree in date with the
letter.
4 Johnson complained that his
I therefore
390 To the Reverend Dr. Taylor. [A.D. 1776.
I therefore request that your lordship will be pleased to grant
such rooms in Hampton Court as shall seem proper to
My Lord,
Your lordship s most obedt. and
most faithful humble servant,
Bolt court, Fleet street, SAM: JOHNSON.
April n, 1776.
Indorsed Mr. Samuel Johnson to the Earl of Hertford, requesting
apartments at Hampton Court. nth May, 1776. And within, a
memorandum of the answer : Lord C. presents his compliments to
Mr. Johnson, and is sorry that he cannot obey his commands, having
already on his hands many engagements unsatisfied.
473.
To THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR x .
DEAR SIR,
I have not yet carried the cases. I would have the value of
the Estate truly told. This trial takes up the Attorney general
for the present ; and there is little hope of his attention to any
thing else. And upon the whole, I do not see that there is any
haste. The opinion is as good and as useful a month hence,
unless you found [name obliterated] alienating the land. I am
going with Mr. Thrale to Bath on Monday. Our Italian journey
pension having been given to him as * Copied by me from the original
a literary character he had been in the possession of Mr. Alfred
applied to by administration to write Morrison, of Fonthill House,
political pamphlets. On another For the first mention of Taylor s
occasion speaking of them he said : law case, see ante, p. 375. Boswell
Except what I had from the book- wrote to Temple on May i :
seller, I did not get a farthing by Luckily Dr. Taylor has begged of
them. This letter however shows Dr. Johnson to come to London,
that Boswell went too far when he to assist him in some interesting
asserted that he neither asked nor business, and Johnson loves much
received from government any reward to be so consulted and so comes up.
whatsoever for his political labours. Letters of Boswell, p. 234. The
Life, ii. 147, 317. Wraxall asserts Attorney-General was Thurlow. The
that in the struggle with America, trial on which he was engaged was
with the exceptions of Johnson and that of Elizabeth, styling herself
Gibbon all the eminent or shining Duchess of Kingston, for bigamy. It
talents of the country, led on by began on April 15 and ended on the
Burke, were marshalled in support of 22nd with a verdict of guilty. Gentle-
the Colonies. Wraxall s Memoirs, man s Magazine, 1776, p. 179.
ed. 1815, ii. 81.
IS
Aetat. 66.] To Mrs. Thrale. 391
is deferred to another year, perhaps totally put off on their part.
They are both extremely dejected. I think, his grief is deepest.
If you put off your coming to town, I will give you notice when
we return, but if your coming is necessary, I will come from
Bath to meet you.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Bolt court, (not Johnson s court), Fleet street.
April 13, 1776.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor in Ashburne, Derbyshire.
474.
To Miss REYNOLDS I .
DEAREST MADAM, April 15, 1776.
When you called on Mrs. Thrale, I find by enquiry that she
was really abroad. The same thing happened to Mrs. Montagu,
of which I beg you to inform her, for she went likewise by my
opinion. The denial, if it had been feigned, would not have
pleased me 2 . Your visits, however, are kindly paid, and very
kindly taken. We are going to Bath this morning ; but I could
not part without telling you the real state of your visit.
I am, dearest Madam, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
475.
To JAMES BOSWELL.
[Bath, April, 1776.] Published in the Life, iii. 44.
476.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAREST MADAM, [London, Monday], May 6, 1776.
On Friday night, as you know, I left you about eleven
1 First published in Croker s Bos- merely a form of denial ; but few
well, page 508. servants are such nice distinguishers.
2 Johnson would not allow his If I accustom a servant to tell a lie
servant to say he was not at home for me, have I not reason to appre-
when he really was. " A servant s hend that he will tell many lies for
strict regard for truth (said he) must himself." Life, i. 436.
be weakened by such a practice. A 3 Piozzi Letters, i. 320.
philosopher may know that it is
i i
o clock.
392
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1776.
o clock. The moon shone, but I did not see much of the way,
for I think I slept better than I commonly do in bed. My
companions were civil men, and we dispatched our journey very
peaceably. I came home at about seven on Saturday very little
fatigued *.
To-day I have been at home. To-morrow I am to dine, as I
did yesterday, with Dr. Taylor. On Wednesday I am to dine
with Oglethorpe ; and on Thursday with Paoli 2 . He that sees
before him to his third dinner, has a long prospect.
My political tracts are printed, and I bring Mr. Thrale a copy
when I come. They make but a little book 3 .
Count Manucci is in such haste to come, that I believe he will
not stay for me ; if he would, I should like to hear his remarks
on the road 4 .
1 Johnson took twenty hours in
travelling in the stage coach a dis
tance of 107 miles. In 1772 it had
taken him twenty-six hours from
London to Lichfield a distance of
116 miles. Ante, p. 191. In 1783
the journey from London to Salis
bury 82 miles took him nearly fif
teen hours. Life, iv. 234, n. 3. From
about 4 \ to 5 \ miles an hour was, it
seems, at this time the rate at which
a stage-coach travelled. By a Parlia
mentary Return in 1836 it was shown
that in that year the greatest speed
travelled by the mail-coaches was
lof miles an hour, the slowest 6 ;
the average being 8-|. Penny Cyclo.
ed. 1840, xviii. 458. In Dickens s
Tale of two Cities mail-coaches are
described as running in 1775. They
did not begin till nine years later, as
is shown by the following entry in
the Gentleman s Magazine for 1784,
p. 634 : Monday, August 2, 1784.
Began a new plan for the conveyance
of the mail between London, Bath,
and Bristol, by coaches constructed
for that purpose. The coach which
left London this evening at 8 o clock
arrived at Bristol the next morning
before eleven ; and the coach that
set out from Bristol at 4 o clock in
the afternoon got into London before
8 o clock next morning.
Horace Walpole on July 4, 1788,
wrote to Hannah More : As letters,
you say, now keep their coaches, I
hope those from Bristol will call often
at my door. Letters, ix. 129.
3 Boswell records : I dined with
him at Dr. Taylor s, at General Ogle-
thorpe s, and at General Paoli s.
Life, iii, 52. Boswell was indolent in
keeping his Journal at this time, and
has left us scarcely any account of
the talk. Life, iii. 52. For Ogle
thorpe see ib. i. 127, and for Paoli
ib. ii. 71.
3 His four pamphlets, The False
Alarm, Falkland s Islands, The
Patriot, and Taxation no Tyranny
he collected into one volume with
the title of Political Tracts. Boswell
says that on the title-page is added:
By the Authour of the Rambler
(Life, ii. 315); but these words do
not appear in my copy of the first
edition.
4 Boswell says that Manucci was
a Florentine nobleman. Life, iii.
Mr. Baretti
Aetat. 66.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
393
Mr. Baretti has a cold and hoarseness, and Mrs. Williams says
that I have caught a cold this afternoon.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
477.
To MRS. THRALE .
DEAR MADAM, [London], May n, 1776.
That you may have no superfluous uneasiness, I went this
afternoon to visit the two babies at Kensington, and found them
indeed a little spotted with their disorder, but as brisk and gay
as health and youth can make them. I took a paper of sweet
meats, and spread them on the table. They took great delight
to shew their governess the various animals that were made of
sugar ; and when they had eaten as much as was fit, the rest
were laid up for to-morrow.
Susy sends her duty and love with great propriety. Sophy
sends her duty to you, and her love to Queeney and Papa. Mr.
Evans 2 came in after me. You may set your heart quite at rest,
no babies can be better than they appear to be. Dr. Taylor went
with me, and we staid a good while. He likes them very much.
Susy said her creed in French.
Dr. Taylor says, I must not come back till his business is ad
justed ; and indeed it would not be wise to come away without
doing what I came hither only to do. However, I expect to be
dismissed in a few days, and shall bring Manucci with me.
I dined yesterday with * * * *. His three children are very
lovely. * * * * longs to teach him a little economy. I know
89. Baretti describes him as a good
and most pleasing man, who had
read very little in his language and
next to nothing in any other. John
son did not return to Bath. Had he
done so he might have come across
Hume, who had gone there on May
8, in the vain hope that the waters
might relieve the illness of which
he was dying. Letters of Hume
to Strahan, p. 323.
1 Pi 02 21 Letters, i. 321.
2 Mr. Evans is mentioned post,
Letter of April 25, 1780, and Life, iii.
422. He was, I believe, the Rev.
Mr. Evans, mentioned in Miss
Hawkins s Memoirs, i. 65, who
having the living of St. Olave s,
Tooley Street, was frequently a guest
at Mrs. Thrale s table.
not
394
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1776.
not how his money goes, for I do not think that Mrs. Williams
and I had our due share of the nine guineas *.
He begins to reproach himself with neglect of * * * * s
education, and censures that idleness, or that deviation, by the
indulgence of which he has left uncultivated such a fertile mind.
I advised him to let the child alone ; and told him that the
matter was not great, whether he could read at the end of four
years or of five, and that I thought it not proper to harass a
tender mind with the violence of painful attention. I may per
haps procure both father and son a year of quiet ; and surely I
may rate myself among their benefactors 2 .
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
478.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR LADY, May 14, 1776.
Since my visit to the younglings, nothing has happened but
a little disappointment in Dr. Taylor s affairs, which, he says,
1 It was with Bennet Langton, no
doubt, that Johnson dined. See Life,
iii. 48, n. 4 for criticisms on his mode
of living. On November 16 Johnson
wrote to Bos well : Do you ever
hear from Mr. Langton ? I visit him
sometimes, but he does not talk. I
do not like his scheme of life ; but as
I am not permitted to understand it,
I cannot set any thing right that is
wrong. His children are sweet
babies. Ib. iii. 93.
Mrs. Thrale, I conjecture, had
heard that Langton had received
nine guineas from some unusual
source. It might have been expected
that the dinner which he had given
to Johnson and Mrs. Williams would
have been better than usual on
account of this windfall, but it was
not. Johnson later on complained
that his table was rather coarse.
Ib. iii. 128.
2 Endeavouring to make children
prematurely wise, said Johnson, is
useless labour. Suppose they have
more knowledge at five or six years
old than other children, what use can
be made of it ? It will be lost before
it is wanted, and the waste of so
much time and labour of the teacher
can never be repaid. Too much is
expected from precocity, and too
little performed. Life, ii. 407. Ac
cording to Mrs. Piozzi (Anecdotes, p.
24) he had persuaded Dr. Sumner,
the Head Master of Harrow School,
to give up the practice of setting
holiday-tasks. He told me, she
adds, that he had never ceased
representing to all the eminent
schoolmasters in England the absurd
tyranny of poisoning the hour of per
mitted pleasure, by keeping future
misery before the children s eyes, and
tempting them by bribery or false
hood to evade it. Unfortunately for
the children Dr. Sumner died
before the next vacation.
3 Piozzi Letters, i. 323.
must
Aetat. 66.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
395
must keep me here a while longer. Mr. Wedderburn has given
his opinion to-day directly against us. He thinks of the claim
much as I think. We sent this afternoon for a solicitor, another
Scrase 2 . who gave the same sentence with Wedderburn. and with
less delicacy. The Doctor tried to talk him into better notions,
but to little purpose, for a man is not much believed in his own
cause. At last, finding the Doctor somewhat moody, I bid him
not be disturbed, for he could not be injured till the death of
Mrs. Rudd 3 , and her life was better than his. So I comforted
and advised him 4 .
I know not how you intend to serve me, but I expect a
letter to-morrow, and I do not see why Queeney should forget
me.
Manucci must, I believe, come down without me. I am
ashamed of having delayed him so long, without being able to
fix a day; but you know, and must make him know, that the
fault is not mine.
goes away on Thursday, very well satisfied with his
* * * *
1 Wedderburne (at this time
Solicitor-General, afterwards Lord
Chancellor, Lord Loughborough and
Earl of Rosslyn) had been consulted
by Taylor. Life, iii. 44.
2 Mr. Scrase, an old solicitor, who
lent money to Mr. Thrale has been
mentioned before, ante, p. 348, n. 4.
Mrs. Piozzi says that he had told her
that in the neighbourhood of Brighton
he had made gentlemen s wills when
they left the county of Sussex ;
describing the leave-takings, &c., as
if they had been setting out for a dis
covery of the North Pole. Hay-
ward s Piozzi, ii. 244. She says
that he was eighty-six years old in
1765, but this probably is an ex
aggeration as he was still living in
1777. By another Scrase Johnson
means, I conjecture, a man of his
character.
1 This can scarcely refer to the
celebrated Mrs. Rudd, who had been
much talked of this spring. She had
been tried for forgery with the two
brothers Perreau. She was acquitted
and they were hanged. Boswell
talked to Johnson a good deal of
her the day after the date of the
letter in the text. Life, ii. 450 ;
iii. 79. _
This was, it should seem, a
common quotation in the Streatham
set. Mrs. Thrale wrote to Miss
Burney in 1779 : And so, as Mow-
bray the brutal says of Lovelace the
gay, " We comforted and advised
him. " Mme. D Arblay s Diary, i.
159. The original passage is found in
Mr. Mowbray s Letter of September
7, to John Belford, Esq. (Clarissa,
ed. 1 8 10, viii. 95): The conquest
did not pay trouble ; and what was
there in one woman more than
another? Hey, you know, Jack !
And thus we comforted him and ad
vised him.
journey.
To Mrs. Thrale. [A.D. 1776.
journey. Some great men have promised to obtain him a place,
and then a fig for my father and his new wife T .
I have not yet been at the Borough 2 , nor know when I shall
go, unless you send me. There is in the exhibition of Exeter
Exchange 3 , a picture of the house at Streatham, by one Laurence,
I think, of the Borough. This is something, or something like.
Mr. Welch 4 sets out for France to-morrow, with his younger
daughter. He has leave of absence for a year, and seems very
much delighted with the thought of travelling, and the hope of
health.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
479.
TO MRS. THRALE 5 .
DEAR MADAM, May 16, 1776.
This is my third letter. Well, sure I shall have something
to-morrow. Our business stands still. The Doctor 6 says I must
not go ; and yet my stay does him no good. His solicitor says
he is sick, but I suspect he is sullen. The Doctor, in the mean
time, has his head as full as yours at an election. Livings and
preferments, as if he were in want with twenty children, run in
his head 7 . But a man must have his head on something, small
or great.
1 New wife seems a strange term 3 Exeter Change, an edifice in
to apply to a woman more than six the Strand, erected for the sake of
years after her marriage. For Bos- trade, consisting of a long room with
well s disagreement with his step- a row of shops on each side, and a
mother, see Life, ii. 377, n. i. He large room above, now used for
too often nursed hopes of promotion auctions. Dodsley s Environs of
through great men. On March 18, London, ii. 290. On its site stands
1 775, he wrote : I have hopes from Exeter Hall.
Lord Pembroke. How happy should 4 Saunders Welch, Fielding s suc-
I be to get an independency by my cessor as one of the Magistrates for
own influence while my father is Westminster. He went abroad for
alive! Letters of Boswell, p. 182. his health s sake, having through
On May i, 1776, he wrote : I am Johnson s influence obtained leave of
going to sup with Lord Mountstuart absence. Life, iii. 216.
[the Earl of Bute s eldest son] my s Piozzi Letters, i. 325.
Maecenas. You know how I delight 6 Dr. Taylor,
in patronage. Ib. p. 234. 7 For Taylor s eagerness for pre-
~ Mr. Thrale s house at Southwark. ferment see ante, pp. 12, 156.
For
Aetat. 66.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
397
For my part, I begin to settle and keep company with grave
aldermen. I dined yesterday in the Poultry with Mr. Alderman
Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Lee, and Counsellor Lee, his brother \
There sat you the while, so sober, with your W s and your
H s 2 , and my aunt and her turnspit ; and when they are
gone, you think by chance on Johnson, what is he doing ? What
should he be doing? He is breaking jokes with Jack Wilkes
upon the Scots 3 . Such, Madam, are the vicissitudes of things 4 .
And there was Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, that works the futile 5
pictures, who is a great admirer of your conversation. She saw
you at Mr. Shaw s 6 , at the election time. She is a Staffordshire
woman, and I am to go and see her. Staffordshire is the nursery
of art, here they grow up till they are transplanted to London 7 .
Yet it is strange that I hear nothing from you ; I hope you
1 This was the famous dinner at
Messieurs Dilly s, my worthy book
sellers and friends, as Boswell calls
them, where Johnson met Wilkes.
Counsellor Lee was Arthur Lee,
who, says Boswell, could not but
be very obnoxious to Johnson, for
he was not only a patriot, but
an American. He was afterwards
Minister from the United States at
the Court of Madrid. Life, iii. 68.
He was a son of Thomas Lee, of
Virginia. One of his brothers was
the author of the Resolution of June
10, 1776, for the Independence of the
Colonies ; another brother was the
ancestor of Robert Lee, the famous
General of the Slave States in the
War between the North and South.
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, by A. L.
Long, 1886, p. 19. According to
Franklin s Memoirs, ed. 1833, ii. 42 ;
iii. 407, Arthur Lee was at this time
employed by Congress as a private
and confidential agent in England,
receiving his letters by private hand
under cover to his brother, the Alder
man. I have not been able to identify
the Alderman (whose Christian name
was William) in the Memoirs of
Robert Lee.
I conjecture, was one
See post, p. 400, where
are mentioned.
2 W ,
Woodward,
he and H
3 See Life, iii. 73, 76, for the jokes
of Johnson and Wilkes against Bos
well.
4 Life, v. 117, n. 3.
5 Johnson wrote sutile ; his initial
s being always formed like an /was
here absurdly taken for one. In the
Idler, No. 13, he describes some
rooms as adorned with a kind of
sutile pictiires which imitate tapestry.
For Mrs. Knowles see Life, iii. 78,
299, n. 2. Nichols (Lit. Hist., iv.
830) says that her grand under
taking was a representation of the
King in needle-work which she
completed to the entire satisfaction
of their Majesties. Mr. Lort wrote
to Bishop Percy about futile : I
desired a sight of the original letter
in order to determine a wager. There
it plainly appeared that a dash had
been put across the long s, perhaps
by the printer or corrector of the
press. Nichols s Lit. Hist., vii. 494.
6 Mr. Shaw is mentioned, post
Letter of August 14, 1780.
7 Johnson, it must be remembered,
came from Staffordshire.
are
398 To Mrs. Thrale.
are not angry, or sick. Perhaps you are gone without me for
spite to see places. That is natural enough, for evil is very
natural, but I shall vex, unless it does you good.
Stevens seems to be connected with Tyrwhitt in publishing
Chatterton s poems ; he came very anxiously to know the result
of our enquiries, and though he says he always thought them
forged, is not well pleased to find us so fully convinced z .
I have written to Manucci to find his own way, for the law s
delay 2 makes it difficult for me to guess when I shall be able to
be, otherwise than by my inclination, Madam,
Your, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
480.
To SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
[London], May 16, 1776. Published in the Life, iii. 81.
481.
To MRS. BOSWELL.
[London], May 16, 1776. Published in the Life, iii. 85.
482.
TO MRS. THRALE 3 .
DEAR MADAM, May 18, 1776.
Then you are neither sick nor angry. Don t let me be de
frauded of Queeney s letter. Yesterday Seward 4 was with me,
and told me what he knew of you. All good. To-day I went
to look into my places at the Borough 5 . I called on Mr. Perkins
1 Steevens on the publication of pleted at the press ; and cancelled
these Letters inserted an unsigned several sheets which had been printed
letter in the Gentleman s Magazine to demonstrate that the poems were
(1788, p. i87)in which he assertedthat genuine. Lit. Anec. ix. 530.
he always thought the poems forged, 2 Hamlet, Act iii. sc. I.
and that Mr. Tyrwhitt, before he 3 Piozzi Letters, \. 333.
printed them, had arrived at the 4 Ante, p. 346, n. I.
same conclusion. Nichols, however, 5 His room, or rather the re
in a note on this statement says that ceptacles in it, in Mr. Thrale s house
Mr. Tyrwhitt changed his opinion in Southwark.
after his volume was actually corn-
in
Aetat. 66.]
To Mrs, Thrale.
399
in the counting-house *. He crows and triumphs, as we go on
we shall double our business. The best brown malt he can have
laid in at thirty and sixpence, and great stores he purposes to
buy 2 . Dr. Taylor s business stagnates, but he resolves not to
wait on it much longer. Surely I shall get down to you next
week.
B went away on Thursday night, with no great inclination
to travel northward ; but who can contend with destiny ? He
says, he has had a very pleasant journey. He paid another visit,
I think, to - * * *, before he went home 3 . He carries with him
two or three good resolutions ; I hope they will not mould upon
the road. Who can be this new friend of mine 4 ? The letter
you sent me was from Mr. Twisse, and the book, if any come, is
Twisse s travels to Ireland, which you will, I hope, unty and
read s .
1 Mr. Perkins was the worthy
superintendant of Mr. Thrale s
brewery, and after his death became
one of the proprietors. . . . He hung
up in the counting-house a fine proof
of the admirable mezzotinto of Dr.
Johnson, by Doughty ; and when
Mrs. Thrale asked him somewhat
flippantly, "Why do you put him
up in the counting-house ? " he
answered, " Because, Madam, I wish
to have one wise man there." " Sir,"
(said Johnson,) " I thank you. It is
a very handsome compliment, and I
believe you speak sincerely." Life,
ii. 286.
2 Ante, p. 192, n. 3.
3 B is Boswell. It was perhaps
Mrs. Rudd (ante, p. 395, n. 3) to
whom he paid another visit. That
he had visited her more than once he
tells us. Life, iii. 79 ; vi. Addenda,
p.li.
This is in answer to the following
passage in Mrs. Thrale s letter of
May 16: We have a flashy friend
here already, who is much your
adorer ; I wonder how you will like
him ? An Irishman he is ; very
handsome, very hot-headed, loud and
lively, and sure to be a favourite with
you, he tells us, for he can live with
a man of ever so odd a temper. My
master laughs, but likes him, and it
diverts me to think what you will do
when he professes that he could clean
shoes for you ; that he could shed
his blood for you ; with twenty
more extravagant flights. Piozzi
Letters, i. 329. He was a Mr. Mus-
grave. Life, ii. 343, . 2 ; iv. 323,
n. i.
5 For Mr. Twiss see ante, p. 316,
n. 2. His To^^r in Ireland in 1775
is reviewed in the Gentleman s
Magazine for September, 1776, p.
420. Twiss, who had travelled,
describes the poverty of the common
Irish as much greater than that of the
Spanish, Portuguese, or even Scotch
peasants. The gentry, he says,
have three, and only three peculiar
customs. They always have boiled
eggs for breakfast ; they always
have potatoes at every meal ; and
they pretty universally forge franks.
Ib.
I enclose
4OO
To Mrs. Thrale.
[A.D. 1776.
I enclose some of the powders, lest you should lose your
patient by delay.
I am, &c.,
SAM: JOHNSON.
483.
TO MRS. THRALE 1 .
DEAR MADAM, May 22, 1776.
On Friday and Saturday I dined with Dr. Taylor, who is
in discontent, but resolved not to stay much longer to hear the
opinions of lawyers who are all against him. Who can blame
him for being weary of them ?
On Sunday I dined at Sir Joshua s house on the hill, with the
Bishop of St. Asaph. The dinner was good, and the Bishop is
knowing and conversible 2 . Yesterday at the Doctor s again
very little better. In the evening came in Dr. Crane, who en
quired after you.
All this while * * * * 3 is hurt only in his vanity. Rethought
he had supplanted Mrs. W , and Mrs. W has found the
means of defeating him. He really wanted nothing more than
to have the power of bequeathing a reversion to Mr. G s
son, who Is very nearly related to W . This purity of in
tention however he cannot prove ; and the transaction in itself
seems pactum iniquum. I do not think that he can, or indeed
that he ought to prevail.
Woodward, I hear, is gone to Bristol, in deep dudgeon at
Barret s declaration against Chatterton s productions. You have
now only H- , whom you can only make a silent admirer 4 .
1 Piozzi Letters, \. 334.
2 Sir Joshua had a house on
Richmond Hill, where in the
summer season it was his frequent
custom to dine with select parties of
his friends. Northcote s Reynolds,
i. 304. The Bishop of St. Asaph was
Dr. Shipley. Boswell quotes in the
Life, iv. 246, Johnson s praise of him.
He was one of the two Bishops with
whom Johnson dined one Passion
Week. Ib. iv. 88.
3 No doubt Dr. Taylor. See ante,
p. 379, where it is stated his suit was
with a woman, and^<?j/, p. 408.
4 Johnson and Boswell had visited
Bristol on April 29, and examined
into the authenticity of Chatterton s
poems : We called on Mr. Barret,
the surgeon, and saw some of the
originals as they were called, which
were executed very artificially; but
from a careful inspection of them,
and a consideration of the circum-
I hope
Aetat. 66.]
To Mrs. Thrale.
