Life of Johnson Volume VI Part 14

(Vol. ii, p. 461.)

C. P. Moritz, a young Prussian clergyman who published an account of a pedestrian tour that he made in England in the year 1782, thus describes Lichfield as he saw it on a day in June:--

'At noon I got to Lichfield, an old-fas.h.i.+oned town with narrow dirty streets, where for the first time I saw round panes of gla.s.s in the windows. The place to me wore an unfriendly appearance; I therefore made no use of my recommendation, but went straight through and only bought some bread at a baker's, which I took along with me.'--_Travels in England in 1782_, p. 140, by C. P. Moritz. Ca.s.sell's National Library, 1886.

The 'recommendation' was an introduction to an inn given him by the daughter of his landlord at Sutton, who told him 'that the people in Lichfield were, in general, very proud.' Travelling as he did, on foot and without luggage, he was looked upon with suspicion at the inns, and often rudely refused lodging.

_Richard Baxter's doubt_.

(Vol. ii, p. 477.)

The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See _ante_, p. xlix. 1] informs me that there can be no doubt that Johnson referred to the following pa.s.sage in _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, folio edition of 1696, p. 127:--

'This is another thing which I am changed in; that whereas in my younger days I was never tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture or Christianity, but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home, about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ--since then my sorest a.s.saults have been on the other side, and such they were, that had I been void of internal Experience, and the adhesion of Love, and the special help of G.o.d, and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion than I did when I was younger, I had certainly apostatized to Infidelity,'

&c.

Johnson, the day after he recorded his 'doubt,' wrote that he was 'troubled with Baxter's _scruple_' (_ante_, ii. 477). The 'scruple'

was, perhaps, the same as the 'doubt.' In his _Dictionary_ he defines _scruple_ as _doubt; difficulty of determination; perplexity; generally about minute things_.

_Oxford in 1782_.

(Vol. iii, p. 13, n. 3.)

The Rev. C. P. Moritz (_ante_, p. liv) gives a curious account of his visit to Oxford. On his way from Dorchester on the evening of a Sunday in June, he had been overtaken by the Rev. Mr. Maud, who seems to have been a Fellow and Tutor of Corpus College[3], and who was returning from doing duty in his curacy. It was late when they arrived in the town. Moritz, who, as I have said, more than once had found great difficulty in getting a bed, had made up his mind to pa.s.s the summer night on a stonebench in the High Street. His comrade would not hear of this, but said that he would take him to an ale-house where 'it is possible they mayn't be gone to bed, and we may yet find company.'

This ale-house was the Mitre.

'We went on a few houses further, and then knocked at a door. It was then nearly twelve. They readily let us in; but how great was my astonishment when, on being shown into a room on the left, I saw a great number of clergymen, all with their gowns and bands on, sitting round a large table, each with his pot of beer before him. My travelling companion introduced me to them as a German clergyman, whom he could not sufficiently praise for my correct p.r.o.nunciation of the Latin, my orthodoxy, and my good walking.

'I now saw myself in a moment, as it were, all at once transported into the midst of a company, all apparently very respectable men, but all strangers to me. And it appeared to me extraordinary that I should thus at midnight be in Oxford, in a large company of Oxonian clergy, without well knowing how I had got there. Meanwhile, however, I took all the pains in my power to recommend myself to my company, and in the course of conversation I gave them as good an account as I could of our German universities, neither denying nor concealing that now and then we had riots and disturbances. "Oh, we are very unruly here, too," said one of the clergymen, as he took a hearty draught out of his pot of beer, and knocked on the table with his hand. The conversation now became louder, more general, and a little confused. ... At last, when morning drew near, Mr. Maud suddenly exclaimed, "D-n me, I must read prayers this morning at All Souls!" "D-n me" is an abbreviation of "G-d d-n me," which in England does not seem to mean more mischief or harm than any of our or their common expletives in conversation, such as "O gemini!" or "The deuce take me!" ... I am almost ashamed to own, that next morning, when I awoke, I had got so dreadful a headache from the copious and numerous toasts of my jolly and reverend friends that I could not possibly get up.

--_Travels in England in 1782_, by C. P. Moritz, p. 123.

[Footnote 3: No such person appears in the _Catalogue of Graduates_.]

_Dr. Lettsom_.

(Vol. in, p. 68.)

Boswell in an _Ode to Mr. Charles Dilly_, published in the _Gent.

Mag._ for 1791, p. 367, says that Dr. Lettsom 'Refutes pert Priestley's nonsense.'

_William Vach.e.l.l_.

(Vol. iii, p. 83, n. 3.)

Mr. George Parker of the Bodleian Library informs me that William Vach.e.l.l had been tutor to Prince Esterhazy, and that for many years he held the appointment of 'Pumper,' or Lessee of the baths at Bath.

In 1776 and 1777 he paid as rental for them to the Corporation 525.

He died on November 26, 1789. According to Mr. Ivor Vach.e.l.l (_Notes and Queries_, 6th S. vii. 327), it was his eldest son who signed the Round Robin.

_Johnson and Baretti_.

(Vol. iii, p. 96, n. 1.)

Baretti in his _Tolondron_, p. 145, gives an account of a difference between himself and Johnson. Johnson sent to ask him to call on him, but Baretti was leaving town. When he returned the time for a reconciliation had pa.s.sed, for Johnson was dead.

_English pulpit eloquence_.

(Vol. iii, p. 248.)

'Upon the whole, which is preferable, the philosophic method of the English, or the rhetoric of the French preachers? The first (though less glorious) is certainly safer for the preacher. It is difficult for a man to make himself ridiculous, who proposes only to deliver plain sense on a subject he has thoroughly studied. But the instant he discovers the least pretensions towards the sublime or the pathetic, there is no medium; we must either admire or laugh; and there are so many various talents requisite to form the character of an orator that it is more than probable we shall laugh.'

--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 118.

_Bishop Percy's communications to Boswell relative to Johnson_.

(Vol. iii, p. 278, n. 1.)

'JAMES BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY.

"9 April, 1790.

"As to suppressing your Lords.h.i.+p's name when relating the very few anecdotes of Johnson with which you have favoured me, I will do anything to oblige your Lords.h.i.+p but that very thing. I owe to the authenticity of my work, to its respectability, and to the credit of my ill.u.s.trious friends [? friend] to introduce as many names of eminent persons as I can... Believe me, my Lord, you are not the only bishop in the number of great men with which my pages are graced. I am quite resolute as to this matter."

'--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 313.

_Sir Thomas Brown's remark 'Do the devils lie? No; for then h.e.l.l could not subsist._'

(Vol. iii, p. 293.)

This remark, whether it is Brown's or not, may have been suggested by Milton's lines in _Paradise Lost_, ii. 496-9, or might have suggested them:--

'O shame to men! devil with devil d.a.m.n'd Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational.'