country; where he thinks that I might be able to save so as gradually to relieve myself. But, alas! I should be absolutely miserable. In the mean time, such are my projects and sanguine expectations, that you know I purchased an estate which was given long ago to a younger son of our family, and came to be sold last autumn, and paid for it 2500l.-1500l. of which I borrow upon itself by a mortgage. But the remaining 1000l. I cannot conceive a possibility of raising, but by the mode of annuity; which is, I believe, a very heavy disadvantage. I own it was imprudent in me to make a clear purchase at a time I was sadly straitened; but if I had missed the opportunity, it never again would have occurred, and I should have been vexed to see an ancient appanage, a piece of, as it were, the flesh and blood of the family, in the hands of a stranger. And now that I have made the purchase, I should feel myself quite despicable should I give it up.

In this situation, then, my dear Sir, would it not be wise in me to accept of 1000 guineas for my Life of Johnson, supposing the person who made the offer should now stand to it, which I fear may not be the case; for two volumes may be considered as a disadvantageous circumstance? Could I indeed raise 1000l. upon the credit of the work, I should incline to game, as Sir Joshua says; because it may produce double the money, though Steevens kindly tells me that I have over-printed, and that the curiosity about Johnson is now only in our own circle2. Pray decide for me; and if, as I suppose, you are for my taking the offer, inform me with whom I am to treat. In my present state of spirits, I am all timidity. Your absence has been a severe stroke to me. I am at present quite at a loss what to do. Last week they gave me six sheets3. I have now before me in proof p. 456*: yet I have above 100 pages of my copy remaining, besides his death, which is yet to be written,

and many insertions, were there room, as also seven-and-thirty letters, exclusive of twenty to Dr. Brocklesby, most of which will furnish only extracts. I am advised to extract several of those to others, and leave out some; for my first volume makes only 516 pages, and to have 600 in the second will seem awkward, besides increasing the expense considerably. The counsellor, indeed, has devised an ingenious way to thicken the first volume, by prefixing the index. I have now desired to have but one compositor. Indeed, I go sluggishly and comfortlessly about my work. As I pass your door I cast many a longing look.

I am to cancel a leaf of the first volume, having found that though Sir Joshua certainly assured me he had no objection to my mentioning that Johnson wrote a dedication for him, he now thinks otherwise. In that leaf occurs the mention of Johnson having written to Dr. Leland, thanking the University of Dublin for their diploma.

It contained 588 pages.

2 The cancel came on vol. i. p. 272 of the first edition. In the second edition a change was made in the order of the paragraphs, by which Dr. Leland and the Dedications were separated by ten pages.

In my

edition Dr. Leland is found on vol. i. p. 489, and the Dedications on vol. ii. p. 1. By the kindness of my friend, Mr. R. B. Adam, of Buffalo, who has in his collection the proof-sheets of the Life, with Boswell's autograph corrections, I am able to give the passage as it first stood. It ran as follows:-'He furnished his friend, Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore, with a Dedication to the Countess of Northumberland, which was prefixed to his collection of Reliques of ancient English Poetry," in which he pays compliments to that most illustrious family in the most courtly style. It shou not be wondered at, that one who can himself write so well as Dr. Percy should accept of a Dedication from Johnson's pen; for as Sir Joshua Reynolds, who we

What shall I say as to it?

shall see afterwards accepted of the same kind of assistance, well observed to me, Writing a dedication is a knack. It is like writing an advertisement."

'In this art no man excelled Dr. Johnson. Though the loftiness of his mind prevented him from ever dedicating in his own person, he wrote a great number of Dedications for others. After all the diligence I have bestowed, some of them have escaped my inquiries. He told me he believed he had dedicated to all the Royal Family round.'

Advertisement in the above passage is not used in its modern sense. What we should call the Prefaces to the first and second edition of the Life, Boswell calls the Advertisements. For the Advertisements which Johnson had intended for the English Poets, see Life, iv. 35 n.

Percy, in later editions of the Reliques, suppressed the Dedication. He wrote to Dr. Anderson:-'Though not wholly written by Dr. Johnson, it owed its finest strokes to his pen, and

I have also room to state shortly the anecdote of the college cook', which I beg you may get for me. I shall be very

anxious till I hear from you.

Having harassed you with so much about myself, I have left no room for any thing else. We had a numerous club on Tuesday: Fox in the chair, quoting Homer and Fielding, &c. to the astonishment of Jo. Warton; who, with Langton and Seward, eat a plain bit with me, in my new house, last Saturday. Sir Joshua has put up Dr. Lawrence, who will be blackballed as sure as he exists 3.

We dined on Wednesday at Sir Joshua's; thirteen without Miss P. 4 Himself, Blagden, Batt, [Lawrence',] Erskine', Langton, Dr. Warton, Metcalfe, Dr. Lawrence, his brother, a clergyman, Sir Charles Bunbury 9, myself.

I could not any longer allow myself to strut in borrowed feathers.' Anderson's Johnson, ed. 1815, p. 309.

I

:

This, no doubt, is explained by the following correspondence between Malone and Lord Charlemont. Malone wrote on Nov. 7, 1787 :—' Dr. Johnson very kindly wrote to some man who was employed in the College kitchen [Trinity College, Dublin] who had a mind to breed his son a scholar, and wrote to Johnson for advice. Perhaps Dr. J. Kearney could recover this.' Charlemont replied:-'The letter to an officer in the College kitchen is well remembered, and John Kearney has promised, if possible, to find it, though he seems almost to despair.' Two days later he wrote: The other letter is, I fear, absolutely irrecoverable, as no trace can be found of any papers belonging to the College steward, who has long since been dead.' Hist. MSS. Com., Thirteenth Report, App. viii. 62, 3, 5.

have met Fox and learnt that he was a scholar.

3 Dr. Lawrence was black-balled, and did not become a member of the Club till December, 1802. CRoker. 4 Sir Joshua's niece, Miss Palmer. For the dinners which he gave, see Life, iii. 375 n.; iv. 312 n.

5 Thomas Batt, who in 1789 was one of the Commissioners for auditing the Public Accounts. Walpole's Letters, ix. 181 n.

When Miss Burney escaped from her Court servitude she met him at

8 Philip Metcalfe, one of Reynolds's executors. Ib. iv. 159, n. 2.

9 The brother of H. W. Bunbury, the caricaturist. Ib. ii. 274. Sir Charles was the only man of heredi

Feb.

Feb. 10. 1791. Yours of the 5th reached me yesterday. I instantly went to the Don, who purchased for you at the office of Hazard and Co. a half, stamped by government and warranted undrawn, of No. 43 m 152. in the English State Lottery. I have marked on the back of it Edward, Henrietta, and Catherine Malone, and if Fortune will not favour those three united, I shall blame her. This half shall lie in my bureau with my own whole one, till you desire it to be placed elsewhere. The cost with registration is 87. 12s. 6d. A half is always proportionally dearer than a whole. I bought my ticket at Nicholson's the day before, and paid 167. 8s. for it. I did not look at the number, but sealed it up. In the evening a handbill was circulated by Nicholson, that a ticket the day before sold at his office for 167. 8s. was drawn a prize for 5000l. The number was mentioned in the handbill. I had resolved not to know what mine was till after the drawing of the lottery was finished, that I might not receive a sudden shock of blank; but this unexpected circumstance, which elated me by calculating that mine must certainly be one of 100, or at most 200 sold by Nicholson the day before, made me look at the two last figures of it; which, alas! were 48, whereas those of the fortunate one were 33. I have remanded my ticket to its secrecy. O! could I but get a few thousands, what a difference would it make upon my state of mind, which is harassed by thinking of my debts. I am anxious to hear your determination as

tary rank who attended Johnson's funeral. He married Lady Sarah Lennox, with whom George III had been in love. Being divorced, she married the Hon. George Napier, by whom she was the mother of Sir

Charles Napier, the conqueror of Scinde, and Sir William Napier, the historian. Walpole's Letters, iii. 373 n. She died in 1826-a great grand-daughter of Charles II. Topham Beauclerk and Charles James Fox, both of whom Johnson called his friends, were descended from Charles II.

for 1791 is entered on May 19, 'Profit in 50,000 lottery-tickets at £16. 2. 6- £306,250.' Annual Register, 1791, Appendix, i. 116. The difference between £16. 2. 6 and £16. 8 was, I suppose, the dealer's profit. The total sum paid at this rate for the tickets was £820,000, of which little more than £500,000 was returned in prizes, while over £13,000 went to the dealers.

2 I learnt on good authority at Auchinleck that Boswell left his estates nearly clear of debt, but that they became encumbered by his son, Sir Alexander, and his grand

to

to my magnum opus. I am very unwilling to part with the property of it, and certainly would not, if I could but get credit for 100ol. for three or four years. Could you not assist me in that way, on the security of the book, and of an assignment to one half of my rents, 700l. which, upon my honour, are always due, and would be forthcoming in case of my decease? I will not sell, till I have your answer as to this.

On Tuesday we had a Club of eleven. Lords Lucan' (in the chair), Ossory, Macartney 2, Eliot 3, Bishop of Clonfert*, young Burke, myself, Courtenay, Windham, Sir Joshua, and Charles Fox, who takes to us exceedingly, and asked to have dinner a little later; so it was to be at past five. Burke had made a great interest for his drum-major 3, and, would you believe it? had not Courtenay and I been there, he would have been chosen. Banks was quite indignant, but had company at home. Lord Ossory ventured to put up the Bishop of Peterborough, and I really hope he will get in. Courtenay and I will not be there, and probably not again till you come. It was poor work last week, the whelp would not let us hear Fox . . . . I am strangely ill, and doubt if even you could dispel the demoniac

6

'I did not think a young Lord could have mentioned to me a book in the English history that was not known to me.' Life, iv. 333.

Richard Marlay, once Dean of Ferns and afterwards Bishop of Waterford. Life, iv. 73. On Jan. 27, 1782, he wrote to Lord Charlemont - Our club black-balled lord Camden. This conduct should disgrace the society. The bishop of St. Asaph was once black-balled, but is now elected. The club must have some wretched members belonging to it, or the two greatest and most virtuous characters in the kingdom could not be treated with such disrespect.' Hist. MSS. Com., Twelfth Report, App. x. 396.