Dowager of Portland ('), the Duchess of Beaufort, whom, I suppose, from her rank, I must name before her mother, Mrs. Boscawen (2), and her eldest sister, Mrs. Lewson, who was likewise there; Lady Lucan (®), Lady Clermont (4), and others of note both for their station and understandings. Among other gentlemen were Lord Althorpe, whom I have before named, Lord Macartney, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord Lucan, Mr. Wraxal, whose book you have probably seen, the Tour to the Northern Parts of Europe,' a very agreeable, ingenious man, Dr. Warren, Mr. Pepys, the master in chancery, whom, I believe, you know, and Dr. Barnard, the provost of Eton. (5) As soon as Dr.

(1) Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, only child of the second Earl of Oxford and Mortimer; married in 1734 to the second Duke of Portland. She was the heiress of three great families herself of the Harleys; her mother (the Lady Harriet of Prior) was the heiress of John Holles, Duke of Newcastle; and her mother again, the heiress of Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. "The Duchess of Portland inherited," says the Peerage, "the spirit of her ancestors in her patronage of literature and the arts." Her birth was congratulated by Swift, and her childhood celebrated by Prior in the well-known nursery lines beginning

"My noble, lovely, little Peggy."

The duchess died in 1785. — - C.

(2) See antè, p. 186. Mrs. Boscawen and her daughters, Mrs. Leveson (spelled in the text, as it is pronounced, Lewson) Gower and the Duchess of Beaufort, are celebrated in Miss Hannah More's poem entitled " 'Sensibility," who, speaking of Mrs. Boscawen, says that she

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views, enamoured, in her beauteous race,

All Leveson's sweetness and all Beaufort's grace."- C.

(3) Margaret Smith; married in 1760 the first Lord Lucan. C.

(+) Frances Murray; married in 1752 to the first Lord Clermont.-C.

(5) See antè, p. 314., Johnson's own account of this evening. The gentle and good-natured Langton does not hint at his having driven away "the very agreeable and ingenious Mr. Wraxal."

Johnson was come in, and had taken the chair, the company began to collect round him till they became not less than four, if not five deep; those behind standing, and listening over the heads of those that were sitting near him. The conversation for some time was chiefly between Dr. Johnson and the provost of Eton, while the others contributed occasionally their remarks. Without attempting to detail the particulars of the conversation, which, perhaps, if I did, I should spin my account out to a tedious length, I thought, my dear Sir, this general account of the respect with which our valued friend was attended to might be acceptable."

LETTER 373. TO MR. THOMAS WARTON.(1)

"Bolt Court, Fleet Street, May 9. 1780.

"SIR, I have your pardon to ask for an involuntary fault. In a parcel sent from Mr. Boswell I found the enclosed letter, which, without looking on the direction, I broke open; but, finding I did not understand it, soon saw it belonged to you. I am sorry for this appearance of a fault, but believe me it is only the

(1) The formal style of this letter, compared with that of his former correspondence with Mr. Thomas Warton, plainly proves that a coolness or misunderstanding had taken place between them. In Dr. Wooll's Memoirs of Dr. Warton we find the following statement: "The disagreement which took place after a long and warm friendship between Johnson and [Joseph] Warton is much to be lamented: it occurred at the house of Sir Joshua Reynolds, as I am told by one of the company, who only overheard the following conclusion of the dispute: JOHNSON. Sir, I am not used to be contradicted.' WARTON. Better for yourself and friends, Sir, if you were: our admiration could not be increased, but our love might.' The party interfered, and the conversation was stopped. A coolness, however, from that time took place, and was increased by many trifling circumstances, which, before this dispute, would, perhaps, have not been attended to." The style, however, of the second letter to Dr. Warton, written so late in Dr. John son's life, leads us to hope that the difference recorded by Dr. Wooll was transient.- C.

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appearance. I did not read enough of the letter to know its purport. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

LETTER 374. TO DR. WARTON.

"May 23. 1780.

"DEAR SIR, It is unnecessary to tell you how much I was obliged by your useful memorials. The shares of Fenton and Broome in the Odyssey I had before from Mr. Spence. Dr. Warburton did not know them. I wish to be told, as the question is of great importance in the poetical world, whence you had your intelligence: if from Spence, it shows at least his consistency; if from any other, it confers corroboration. If any thing useful to me should occur, I depend upon your friendship. Be pleased to make my compliments to the ladies of your house, and to the gentlemen that honoured me with the Greek Epigrams, when I had, what I hope sometime to have again, the pleasure of spending a little time with you at Winchester. I am, dear Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

LETTER 375. TO MRS. THRALE.

"May 23. 1780.

"But [Mrs. Montagu] and you have had, with all your adulation, nothing finer said of you than was said last Saturday night of Burke and me. We were at the Bishop of (1) (a bishop little better than your bishop), and towards twelve we fell into talk, to which the ladies listened, just as they do to you; and said, as I heard, there is no rising unless somebody will cry Fire!' I was last night at Miss Monkton's; and there were Lady Craven and Lady Cranburne, and

(1) The Bishop of St. Asaph's, of whose too constant appearance in general society Dr. Johnson disapproved. C.