will do the same at [Lewes]. Do not make them speeches. Unusual compliments, to which there is no stated and prescriptive answer, embarrass the feeble who do not know what to say, and disgust the wise, who, knowing them to be false, suspect them to be hypocritical. * * * *

You never told me, and I omitted to inquire, how you were entertained by Boswell's Journal.' One would think the man had been hired to be a spy upon me; he was very diligent, and caught opportunities of writing from time to time. You may now conceive yourself tolerably well acquainted with the expedition. Folks want me to go to Italy, but I say you are not for it."

"Lichfield, 13th June, 1775.

"I now write from Mrs. Cobb's, where I have had custard. Nothing considerable has happened since I wrote, only I am sorry

to see Miss Porter so bad, and I am not 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 told you once before.

"Lichfield is full of box-clubs. The ladies have one for their own sex. They have incorporated themselves under the appellation 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 beforehand.

"Mr. Green has got a cast of Shakspeare, which he holds to be a very exact resemblance.

"There is great lamentation here for the death of Col. 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."]

ED.

[The history of Mrs. Williams belongs so inseparably to that of Dr. Johnson, that the Editor cannot omit here inserting the following letter, relating to a small annuity, which the charity of Mrs. Montagu had secured to Mrs. Williams, and which, as we shall see, was long afterwards a subject of acknowledgment from Dr. Johnson to that lady.]

["MRS. WILLIAMS TO MRS. MONTAGU.
"Johnson's-court, 26th June, 1775.
"MADAM,-Often have I heard of
generosity, benevolence, and com-

Mont. M8.

passion, but never have I known or experienced the reality of those virtues, till this joyful morning, when I received the honour of your most tender and affectionate letter with its most welcome contents. Madam, I may with truth say, I have not words to express my gratitude as I ought to a lady, whose bounty has, by an act of benevolence, doubled my income, and whose tender, compassionate assurance has removed the future anxiety of trusting to chance, the terror of which only could have prompted me to stand a public candidate for Mr. Hetherington's bounty. May my sincere and grateful thanks be accepted by you, and may the Author of all good bless and long continue a life, whose shining virtues are so conspicuous and exemplary, is the most ardent prayer of her who is, with the greatest respect, madam, your most devoted, truly obliged, and obedient humble servant,

"ANNA WILLIAMS."]

[The following letter, addressed to ED. Dr. Johnson, though it does not belong to his personal history, describes a scene of public amusement, and affords some details concerning the habits of society, which may amuse the reader, and in a work of this nature will hardly be considered as misplaced.]

["MRS. THRALE TO DR. JOHNSON.
"24th June, 1775.

Lett. v. i. p.

"Now for the regatta, of which, Baretti says, the first notion was taken from Venice, where the gon- 247. doliers practise rowing against each other perpetually; and I dare say 'tis good diversion where the weather invites, and the water seduces to such entertainments. Here, however, it was not likely to answer; and I think nobody was pleased.

66

Well! Croesus promised a reward, you remember, for him who should produce a new delight; but the prize was never obtained, for nothing that was new proved delightful; and Dr. Goldsmith, three thousand years afterwards, found out that whoever did a new thing did a bad thing, and whoever said a new thing said a false thing. So yestermorning, a flag flying from some conspicuous steeple in Westminster gave notice of the approaching festival, and at noon the managers determined to hold it on that day. In about two hours the wind rose very high, and the river was exceedingly rough; but the lot was cast, and the ladies went on with their dresses. It had been agreed that all 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 lutestring with silver gauze, and wore black riband intermixed. We had obtained more tickets than I hoped for, though Sir Thomas Robinson gave us 1 [Ante, v. i. p. 173.—ED.]

1

none at last; but he gives one such a profusion of words, and bows, and compliments, that I suppose he thinks every thing else superfluous. Mr. Cator was the man for a real favour at last, whose character is directly opposite, as you know; but if both are actuated by the spirit of kindness, let us try at least to love them both.

"He wished Hester [Miss Thrale] to go, and she wished it too, and her father wished; so I would not stand out, though my fears for her health and safety lessened the pleasure her company always gives. The D'Avenants, then, Mr. Cator, Mr. Evans, Mr. Seward, and ourselves, set about being happy with all our might, and tried for a barge to flutter in altogether. The barges, however, were already full, and we were to be divided and put into separate boats. The water was rough, even seriously so; the time glided away in deliberation of what was to be done; and we resolved, at last, to run to the house of a gentleman in the Temple, of whom we knew nothing but that he was D'Avenant's friend, and look at the race from his windows,-then drive away for Ranelagh, in time to see the barges drawn up, and the company disembark. Of the race, however, scarce any thing could be seen for clouds of dust that intercepted one's sight; and we have no balconies to see shows from, as are provided in countries where processions make much of the means of entertainment; so we discomposed our headdresses against each other, by struggling for places in an open window, and then begged pardons with courtesies, which exposed our trains to be trod on, and made us still more out of humour. It was however a real pleasure to look at the crowd of spectators. Every shop was shut; every street deserted; and the tops of all such houses as had any catch of the river swarmed with people, like bees settling on a branch. Here is no exaggeration, upon my honour; even the lamp-irons on Westminster-bridge were converted into seats, while every lighter lying in the Thames bore men up to the topmast-head. This was the true wonder of the day. Baretti says he will show us finer sights when we go to Italy. I believe him; but shall we ever see so populous a city as London? so rich a city? so happy a city? I fancy not.

'Let bear or elephant be e'er so white,

The people sure, the people, are the sight.' "They could not indeed be very attentive to the games, like those Horace talks of, for here was neither panther nor camel; no pretence to draw us together, as I could find; yet they sat so thick upon the slating of Whitehall, that nobody could persuade 1 [A timber-merchant in the Borough.-ED.]

me for a long while out of the notion that it was covered with black, till through a telescope we espied the animals in motion, like magnified mites in a bit of old cheese. Well! from this house in the Temple we hasted away to Ranelagh, happy in having at least convinced a hundred folks we never saw before, and perhaps never shall see again, that we had tickets for the regatta, and fine clothes to spoil with the rain, and that we were not come thither like the vulgar -in good time!-only to see the boat-race. And now, without one image of Cleopatra's galley or Virgil's games, or one pretext to say how it put us in mind of either, we drove to Ranelagh, and told each other all the way how pretty it would be to look at the ladies disembarking to musick, and walking in procession up to the rotunda. But the night came on; the wind roared; the rain fell; and the barges missing their way, many came up to the wrong stairs. The managers endeavoured to rectify the mistake, and drive them back, that some order might be kept, and some appearance of regularity might be made; but the women were weary and wet, and in no disposition to try for further felicity out of the old common road; so the procession was spoiled; and as to musick, we heard none but screams of the frighted company, as they were tossed about at the moment of getting to shore. Once more, then, all were turned loose to look for pleasure where it could be found. The rotunda was not to be opened till twelve o'clock, when the bell was to call us to sup there; the temporary building was not finished, and the rain would not permit walking in the garden. Calamity, however, vanishes often upon a near approach-does not it as well as happiness. We all crowded into the new building, from whence we drove the carpenters, and called for cards, without the help of which, by some fatality, no day dedicated to amusement is ever able to end.

66

Queeney said there was no loss of the ornaments intended to decorate Neptune's hall; for she saw no attempt at embellishment, except a few fluttering rags, like those which dangle from a dyer's pole into the street; and in that room we sat telling opinions, adventures, &c. till supper was served, which the men said was an execrable one, and I thought should have been finer. Was nothing good, then?' you begin to exclaim; here is desire of saying something where little is to be said, and lamentations are the readiest nonsense my mistress can find to fill her letter with.' No, no; I would commend the concert, the catch singers, for an hour, if you would hear me; the musick was well selected, and admirably executed; nor did the company look much amiss when all the dismal was

"We returned safe home about five or six o'clock: a new scene to Hester, who behaved sweetly, and had no fears in the crowd, but prodigious surprise in finding it broad day when we came out. I might have wondered too, for few people have frequented publick places less than myself; and for the first six years after my marriage, as you know, I never set my foot in any theatre or place of entertainment at all. What most amazed me about this regatta, however, was the mixture of company, when tickets were so difficult to obtain. Somebody talked at Ranelagh of two ladies that were drowned; but I have no doubt that was a dream."]

ED. [In the last days of June, he removed to Ashbourne; and his letters thence contain the usual routine of his country observations, with one or two more characteristic circumstances. He was very anxious that an old horse of Mrs. Thrale's should not be sold to hard work, or, as he called it, degraded, for five pounds, and was willing to have borne the expense of maintaining the poor animal.

For his friend Baretti, of some point of whose conduct Mrs. Thrale had complained, he intercedes with that lady in a tone of modest propriety :

He returned to town about the end of August.]

ED.

After my return to Scotland, I wrote three letters to him, from which I extract the following passages:

"I have seen Lord Hailes since I came down. He thinks it wonderful that you are pleased to take so much pains in revising his Annals.' I told him that you said you were well rewarded by the entertainment which you had in reading them.”

"There has been a numerous flight of Hebrideans in Edinburgh this summer, whom I have been happy to entertain at my house. Mr. Donald Macqueen 1 and Lord Monboddo supped with me one evening. They joined in controverting your proposition, that the Gaelick of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland was not written till of late."

"My mind has been somewhat dark this summer. I have need of your warming and vivifying rays; and I hope I shall have them frequently. I am going to pass some time with my father at Auchinleck."

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"London, Aug. 27, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-I am returned from the annual ramble into the middle counties. Having seen nothing I had not seen before I have nothing to relate. Time has left that part of the island few antiquities; and commerce has left the people no singularities. 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.

"For the black fumes which rise in your mind, I can prescribe nothing but that you disperse them by honest business or innocent pleasure, and by reading, sometimes easy and sometimes serious. Change of

I The very learned minister in the Isle of Sky, whom both Dr. Johnson and I have mentioned with regard.-BOSWELL. [See ante, vol. i. p. 377.—ED.]

effects.

"That I should have given pain to Rasay, I am sincerely sorry; and am therefore very much pleased that he is no longer uneasy. He still thinks that I have represented him as personally giving up the chieftainship. I meant only that it was no longer contested between the two houses, and supposed it settled, perhaps, by the cession of some remote generation, in the house of Dunvegan. I am sorry the advertisement was not continued for three or four times in the paper.

"That Lord Monboddo and Mr. Macqueen should controvert a position contrary to the imaginary interest of literary or national prejudice, might be easily imagined; but of a standing fact there ought to be no controversy; if there are men with tails, catch a homo caudatus ; if there was writing of old in the Highlands or Hebrides, in the Erse language, produce the manuscripts. Where men write they will write to one another, and some of their letters, in families studious of their ancestry, will be kept. In Wales there are many manuscripts.

"I have now three parcels of Lord Hailes's history, which I purpose to return all the next week: that his respect for my little observations should keep his work in suspense, makes one of the evils of my journey. It is in our language, I think, a new mode of history which tells all that is wanted, and, I suppose, all that is known, without laboured splendour of language, or affected subtilty of conjecture. The exactness of his dates raises my wonder. He seems to have the closeness of Henault without his constraint.

"Mrs. Thrale was so entertained with your Journal,' that she almost read herself blind. She has a great regard for you. "Of Mrs. Boswell, though she knows in her heart that she does not love me, I am always glad to hear any good, and hope that she and the little dear ladies will have neither sickness nor any other affliction. But she knows that she does not care what becomes of me, and for that she may be sure that I think her very much to blame.

66

Never, my dear sir, do you take it into your head to think that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and esteem: I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety. I hold you, as Hamlet has it, in my heart of hearts,' and there

1 My "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," which that lady read in the original manuscript.— BOSWELL.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"London, 30th August, 1775. "SIR,-If in these papers 2 there is little alteration attempted, do not suppose me negligent. I have read them perhaps more closely than the rest; but I find nothing worthy of an objection.

"Write to me soon, and write often, and tell me all your honest heart. I am, sir, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."

["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. LUCY PORTER. "London, 9th September, 1775. "DEAR MADAM,-I have sent Pearson your books by the carrier, and in Sandys's Travels you will find your glasses.

MS.

"I have written this post to the ladies at Stow-hill, and you may, the day after you have this, or at any other time, send Mrs. Gastrel'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 Brighthelmstone, 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. I am, dearest love, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."]

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "14th Sept. 1775. "MY DEAR SIR,-I now write to you, lest in some of your freaks and humours you should fancy yourself neglected. Such fancies I must entreat you never to admit, at least never to indulge; for my regard for you is so radicated and fixed, that it is become part of my mind, and cannot be effaced but by some cause uncommonly violent; therefore, whether I write or not, set your thoughts at rest. I now write to tell you that I shall not very soon write again, for I am to set out to-morrow on another journey.

*

*

"Your friends are all well at Streatham, and in Leicesterfields 3. Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, if she is in good humour with me. I am, sir, &c.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

What he mentions in such light terms

2 Another parcel of Lord Hailes's “Annals of Scotland."-BosWELL.

3 Where Sir Joshua Reynolds lived.—Bos

WELL.

as, "I am to set out to-morrow on another journey," I soon afterwards discovered was no less than a tour to France with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. This was the only time in his life that he went upon the Continent.

"TO MR. ROBERT LEVET.

"Calais, 18th Sept. 1775.

"DEAR SIR,-We are here in France, after a very pleasing passage of no more than six hours. I know not when I shall write again, and therefore I write now, though you cannot suppose that I have much to say. You have seen France yourself. From this place we are going to Rouen, and from Rouen to Paris, where Mr. Thrale designs to stay about five or six weeks. We have a regular recommendation to the English resident, so we shall not be taken for vagabonds. We think to go one way and return another, and see as much as we can. I will try to speak a little French; I tried hitherto but little, but I spoke sometimes. If I heard better, I suppose I should learn faster. I am, sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO THE SAME.

"Paris, 22d October, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-We are still here, commonly very busy in looking about us. We have been to day at Versailles. You have We seen it, and 1 shall not describe it. came yesterday from Fontainbleau, where the court is now. We went to see the king and queen at dinner, and the queen was so impressed by Miss 1, that she sent one of the gentlemen to inquire who she was. I find all true that you have ever told me at Paris. Mr. Thrale is very liberal, and keeps us two coaches, and a very fine table; but I think our cookery very bad. Mrs. Thrale got into a convent of English nuns, and I talked with her through the grate, and I am very kindly used by the English Benedictine friars. But upon the whole I cannot make much acquaintance here; and though the churches, palaces, and some private houses are very magnificent, there is no very great pleasure after having seen many, in seeing more; at least the pleasure, whatever it be, must some time have an end, and we are beginning to think when we shall come home. Mr. Thrale calculates that as we left Streatham on the fifteenth of September, we shall see it again about the fifteenth of November.

"I think I had not been on this side of the sea five days before I found a sensible improvement in my health. I ran a race in the rain this day, and beat Baretti. Baretti is a fine fellow, and speaks French, I think, quite as well as English.

! Miss Thrale.-BOSWELL. VOL. II.

2

"Make my compliments to Mrs. Williams; and give my love to Francis; and tell my friends that I am not lost. I am, dear sir, your affectionate humble, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, 24th October, 1775. “My dear sir,—If I had not been informed that you were at Paris, you should have had a letter from me by the earliest opportunity, announcing the birth of my son, on the 9th instant; I have named him Alexander 2, after my father. I now write, as I suppose your fellow-traveller, Mr. Thrale, will return to London this week, to attend his duty in parliament, and that you will not stay behind him.

"I send another parcel of Lord Hailes's Annals.' I have undertaken to solicit you for a favour to him, which he thus requests in a letter to me: I intend soon to give you The Life of Robert Bruce,' which you will be pleased to transmit to Dr. Johnson. I wish that you could assist me in a fancy which I have taken, of getting Dr. Johnson to draw a character of Robert Bruce, from the account that I give of that prince. If he finds materials for it in my work, it will be a proof that I have been fortunate in selecting the most striking incidents.'

"I suppose by The Life of Robert Bruce,' his lordship means that part of his Annals' which relates the history of that prince, and not a separate work.

"Shall we have A Journey to Paris,' from you in the winter? You will, I hope, at any rate, be kind enough to give me some account of your French travels very soon, for I am very impatient. What a

different scene have you viewed this autumn, from that which you viewed in autumn 1773! I ever an, my dear sir, your much obliged and affectionate humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL."

'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"16th November, 1775.

"DEAR SIR,-I am glad that the young laird is born, and an end, as I hope, put to the only difference that you can ever have

2 [The Editor had the pleasure of his acquaintance. He was a high-spirited, clever, and amiable gentleman; and, like his father, of a frank and social disposition; but it is said that he did not relish the recollections of our authour's devotion to Dr. Johnson: like old lord Auchinleck, he seemed to think it a kind of derogation. He was created a baronet in 1821, but was unfortunately killed in a duel, arising from a political dispute, near Edinburgh, on the 26th March, 1822, by Mr. Stuart, of Dunearn. He left issue a son and two daughters.--ED.]