Life of Johnson Volume II Part 66

[773] Mrs. Piozzi's _Anecdotes of Johnson_, p. 131. BOSWELL. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 129) describes her mother and Johnson as 'excellent, far beyond the excellence of any other man and woman I ever yet saw. As her conduct extorted his truest esteem, her cruel illness excited all his tenderness. He acknowledged himself improved by her piety, and over her bed with the affection of a parent, and the reverence of a son.'

Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 81, says that 'Johnson could not much near Mrs. Salusbury, nor Mrs. Salusbury him, when they first knew each other. But her cancer moved his compa.s.sion, and made them friends.' Johnson, recording her death, says:--'Yesterday, as I touched her hand and kissed it, she pressed my hand between her two hands, which she probably intended as the parting caress ... This morning being called about nine to feel her pulse, I said at parting, "G.o.d bless you; for Jesus Christ's sake." She smiled as pleased.' _Pr.

and Med_. p. 128.

[774] Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor July 22, 1782:--'Sir Robert Chambers slipped this session through the fingers of revocation, but I am in doubt of his continuance. Shelburne seems to be his enemy. Mrs. Thrale says they will do him no harm. She perhaps thinks there is no harm without hanging. The mere act of recall strips him of eight thousand a year.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 462.

[775] Beattie was Professor of Moral Philosophy. For some years his 'English friends had tried to procure for him a permanent provision beyond the very moderate emoluments arising from his office.' Just before Johnson wrote, Beattie had been privately informed that he was to have a pension of 200 a year. Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824, pp. 145, 151. When Johnson heard of this 'he clapped his hands, and cried, "O brave we!"' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 26.

[776] Langton. See _ante_, p. 254, note 2.

[777] Langton--his native village.

[778] See _ante_, p. 261, note 2.

[779] That he set out on this day is shewn by his letter to Mrs. Thrale.

_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 103. The following anecdote in the _Memoir of Goldsmith_, prefixed to his _Misc. Works_ (i. 110), is therefore inaccurate:--'I was dining at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, August 7, 1773, where were the Archbishop of Tuam and Mr. (now Lord) Eliot, when the latter making use of some sarcastical reflections on Goldsmith, Johnson broke out warmly in his defence, and in the course of a spirited eulogium said, "Is there a man, Sir, now who can pen an essay with such ease and elegance as Goldsmith?"' Johnson did in August, 1783, dine at Reynolds's, and meet there the Archbishop of Tuam, 'a man coa.r.s.e of voice and inelegant of language' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 300.

[780] It was on Sat.u.r.day the 14th of August that he arrived.

[781] From Aug. 14 to Nov. 22 is one hundred days.

[782] It is strange that not one of the four conferred on him an honorary degree. This same year Beattie had been thus honoured at Oxford. Gray, who visited Aberdeen eight years before Johnson, was offered the degree of doctor of laws, 'which, having omitted to take it at Cambridge, he thought it decent to refuse.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 479.

[783] He was long remembered amongst the lower order of Hebrideans by the t.i.tle of _Sa.s.senach More_, the _big Englishman_. WALTER SCOTT.

[784] The first edition was published in September, 1785. In the following August, in his preface to the third edition, Boswell speaks of the first two editions 'as large impressions.'

[785] The authour was not a small gainer by this extraordinary Journey; for Dr. Johnson thus writes to Mrs. Thrale, Nov. 3, 1773:--'Boswell will praise my resolution and perseverance, 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.' Let. 90, to Mrs.

Thrale. [_Piozzi Letters_, i. 198.] MALONE.

[786] 'The celebrated Flora Macdonald. See Boswell's _Tour_' COURTENAY.

[787] Lord Eldon (at that time Mr. John Scott) has the following reminiscences of this visit:--'I had a walk in New Inn Hall Garden with Dr. Johnson and Sir Robert Chambers [Princ.i.p.al of the Hall]. Sir Robert was gathering snails, and throwing them over the wall into his neighbours garden. The Doctor repreached him very roughly, and stated to him that this was unmannerly and unneighbourly. "Sir," said Sir Robert, "my neighbour is a Dissenter." "Oh!" said the Doctor, "if so, Chambers, toss away, toss away, as hard as you can." He was very absent. I have seen him standing for a very long time, without moving, with a foot on each side the kennel which was then in the middle of the High Street, with his eyes fixed on the water running in it. In the common-room of University College he was dilating upon some subject, and the then head of Lincoln College, Dr. Mortimer, occasionally interrupted him, saying, "I deny that." This was often repeated, and observed upon by Johnson, in terms expressive of increasing displeasure and anger. At length upon the Doctor's repeating the words, "I deny that," "Sir, Sir," said Johnson, "you must have forgot that an author has said: _Plus negabit tinus asinus in una hora quam centum philosophi probaverint in centum annis_."' [Dr. Fisher, who related this story to Mr. Croker, described Dr. Mortimer as 'a Mr. Mortimer, a shallow under-bred man, who had no sense of Johnson's superiority. He flatly contradicted some a.s.sertion which Johnson had p.r.o.nounced to be as clear as that two and two make four.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 483.] 'Mrs. John Scott used to relate that she had herself helped Dr. Johnson one evening to fifteen cups of tea.'

Twiss's _Eldon_, i. 87.

[788] In this he shewed a very acute penetration. My wife paid him the most a.s.siduous and respectful attention, while he was our guest; so that I wonder how he discovered her wis.h.i.+ng for his departure. The truth is, that his irregular hours and uncouth habits, such as turning the candles with their heads downwards, when they did not burn bright enough, and letting the wax drop upon the carpet, could not but be disagreeable to a lady. Besides, she had not that high admiration of him which was felt by most of those who knew him; and what was very natural to a female mind, she thought he had too much influence over her husband. She once in a little warmth, made, with more point than justice, this remark upon that subject: 'I have seen many a bear led by a man; but I never before saw a man led by a bear.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 66.

[789] Sir Alexander Gordon, one of the Professors at Aberdeen. BOSWELL.

[790] This was a box containing a number of curious things which he had picked up in Scotland, particularly some horn spoons. BOSWELL.

[791] The Rev. Dr. Alexander Webster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, a man of distinguished abilities, who had promised him information concerning the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. BOSWELL.

[792] The Macdonalds always laid claim to be placed on the right of the whole clans, and those of that tribe a.s.sign the breach of this order at Culloden as one cause of the loss of the day. The Macdonalds, placed on the left wing, refused to charge, and positively left the field una.s.sailed and unbroken. Lord George Murray in vain endeavoured to urge them on by saying, that their behaviour would make the left the right, and that he himself would take the name of Macdonald. WALTER SCOTT.

[793] The whole of the first volume is Johnson's and three-quarters of the second. A second edition was published the following year, with a third volume added, which also contained pieces by Johnson, but no apology from Davies.

[794] 'When Davies printed the _Fugitive Pieces_ without his knowledge or consent; "How," said I, "would Pope have raved had he been served so?" "We should never," replied he, "have heard the last on't, to be sure; but then Pope was a narrow man: I will however," added he, "storm and bl.u.s.ter _myself_ a little this time;"--so went to London in all the wrath he could muster up. At his return I asked how the affair ended:

'"Why," said he, "I was a fierce fellow, and pretended to be very angry, and Thomas was a good-natured fellow, and pretended to be very sorry; so _there_ the matter ended: I believe the dog loves me dearly. Mr. Thrale"

(turning to my husband), "What shall you and I do that is good for Tom Davies? We will do something for him to be sure."' Piozzi's _Anec_.

p. 55.

[795] _Prayers and Meditations_, BOSWELL.

[796] The ancient Burgh of Prestick, in Ayrs.h.i.+re. BOSWELL.

[797] Perhaps Johnson imperfectly remembered, '_novae rediere in pristina vires_.' _AEneid_, xii. 424.

[798] See _ante_, i. 437. The decision was given on Feb. 22 against the perpetual right. 'By the above decision near 200,000. worth of what was honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought property, is now reduced to nothing.... The English booksellers have now no other security in future for any literary purchase they may make but the statute of the 8th of Queen Anne, which secures to the authors a.s.signs an exclusive property for 14 years, to revert again to the author, and vest in him for 14 years more.' _Ann. Reg_. 1774, i. 95.

[799] Murphy was a barrister as well as author.

[800] Mr. Croker quotes a note by Malone to show that in the catalogue of Steevens's Library this book is described as a quarto, _corio turcico foliis deauratis_.

[801] A ma.n.u.script account drawn by Dr. Webster of all the parishes in Scotland, ascertaining their length, breadth, number of inhabitants, and distinguis.h.i.+ng Protestants and Roman Catholicks. This book had been transmitted to government, and Dr. Johnson saw a copy of it in Dr.

Webster's possession. BOSWELL.

[802] Beauclerk, three weeks earlier, had written to Lord Charlemont:--'Our club has dwindled away to nothing. n.o.body attends but Mr. Chambers, and he is going to the East Indies. Sir Joshua and Goldsmith have got into such a round of pleasures that they have no time.' Charlemont's _Life_, i. 350. Johnson, no doubt, had been kept away by illness (_ante_, p. 272).

[803] Mr. Fox, as Sir James Mackintosh informed me, was brought in by Burke. CROKER.

[804] Sir C. Bunbury was the brother of Mr. H. W. Bunbury, the caricaturist, who married Goldsmith's friend, the elder Miss Horneck--'Little Comedy' as she was called. Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 147.

[805] Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 23) tells how Dr. Fordyce, who sometimes drank a good deal, was summoned to a lady patient when he was conscious that he had had too much wine. 'Feeling her pulse, and finding himself unable to count its beats, he muttered, "Drunk by G--." Next morning a letter from her was put into his hand. "She too well knew," she wrote, "that he had discovered the unfortunate condition in which she had been, and she entreated him to keep the matter secret in consideration of the enclosed (a hundred-pound bank-note)."'

[806] Steevens wrote to Garrick on March 6:--'Mr. C. Fox pays you but a bad compliment; as he appears, like the late Mr. Secretary Morris, to enter the society at a time when he has _nothing else to do_. If the _bon ton_ should prove a contagious disorder among us, it will be curious to trace its progress. I have already seen it breaking out in Dr. G----[Goldsmith] under the form of many a waistcoat, but I believe Dr. G---- will be the last man in whom the symptoms of it will be detected.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 613. In less than a month poor Goldsmith was dead. Fox, just before his election to the club, had received through one of the doorkeepers of the House of Commons the following note:--'SIR,--His Majesty has thought proper to order a new commission of the Treasury to be made out, in which I do not perceive your name. NORTH.'

[807] See Boswell's answer, _post_, May 12.

[808] See _post_, April 16, 1775.

[809] See _ante_, i. 122, note 2.

[810] Iona.

[811] 'I was induced,' he says, 'to undertake the journey by finding in Mr. Boswell a companion, whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel in countries less hospitable than we have pa.s.sed.' Quoted by Boswell in his _Hebrides_, Aug.

18, 1773.

[812] See _post_, Nov. 16, 1776.

[813] Boswell wrote to Temple on May 8, 1779:--'I think Dr. Johnson never answered but three of my letters, though I have had numerous returns from him.' _Letters of Boswell_. See _post_, Sept. 29, 1777.

[814] Dr. Goldsmith died April 4, this year. BOSWELL. Boswell wrote to Garrick on April 11, 1774:--'Dr. Goldsmith's death would affect all the club much. I have not been so much affected with any event that has happened of a long time. I wish you would give me, who am at a distance, some particulars with regard to his last appearance.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 622.

[815] See _ante_, p. 265.

[816] See _ante_, ii. 27, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 29, 1773.