indignation, for he swelled to think that his celebrity should not be notorious to every porter in the street. The Archdeacon, he told me, has a sermon upon the nature of moral good and evil, preparing for the press, and should he die before publication, he leaves fifty pounds for that purpose. He said he read some of it to him, but that as he had interrupted him to make some remarks, he hopes never to be troubled with another rehearsal 1.

25th. Eddying winds in the forenoon rendered the streets very disagreeable with dust, which was laid in the evening by rain from three. Dined at Mr. Thrale's, where there were ten or more gentlemen, and but one lady besides Mrs. Thrale. The dinner was excellent 2: first course, soups at head and foot removed by fish and a saddle of mutton; second course, a fowl they call Galena at head, and a capon larger than some of our Irish turkeys at foot; third course, four different sorts of Ices, Pineapple, Grape, Raspberry and a fourth; in each remove, there were I think fourteen dishes. The two first courses were served in massy plate. I sat beside Baretti, which was to me the richest part of the entertainment. He and Mr. and Mrs. Thrale joyn'd in expressing to me Dr. Johnson's concern that he could not give me the meeting that day, but desired that I should go and see him. Baretti was very humourous about his new publication3, which he expects to put out next month. He there introduces a dialogue about Ossian, wherein he ridicules the idea of its double translation into Italian, in hopes, he said, of having it abused by the Scots, which would give it an imprimatur for a second edition, and he had stipulated for twenty five guineas additional if the first should sell in a given time. He repeated to me upon memory the substance of the letters which passed between Dr. Johnson and Mr. McPherson. The latter tells the Doctor, that neither his age nor infirmity's should protect him if he came in his way. The Doctor responds that

Congreve has been here, I know not. He told me he knew not how to find me.' Letters, i. 304.

"He is going to print a sermon, but I thought he appeared neither very acute nor very knowing.'

Letters, i. 304. The sermon probably was not published; it is not in the British Museum.

2

Life, iii. 423, n. I.

3 Ib. ii. 449.

no

no menaces of any rascal should intimidate him from detecting imposture wherever he met it'.

APRIL Ist. A fair day, dined at Mr. Thrale's, whom in proof of the magnitude of London, I cannot help remarking, no coachman, and this is the third I have called, could find without enquiry 2. But of this by the way. There was Murphy, Boswell, and Baretti, the two last, as I learned just before I entered, are mortal foes, so much so that Murphy and Mrs. Thrale agreed that Boswell expressed a desire that Baretti should be hanged upon that unfortunate affair of his killing, &c.3 Upon this hint I went, and without any sagacity it was easily discernable, for upon Baretti's entering, Boswell did not rise, and upon Baretti's descry of Boswell, he grinned a perturbed glance. Politeness however smooths the most hostile brows, and theirs were smoothed. Johnson was the subject, both before and after dinner, for it was the boast of all but myself, that under that roof were the Doctor's first friends. His bon mots were retailed in such plenty, that they, like a surfeit, could not lye upon my memory. Boswell arguing in favour of a cheerful glass, adduced the maxim in vino veritas, "well,' says Johnson, 'and what then unless a man has lived a lye.' B. then urged that it made a man forget all his cares, 'that, to be sure' says Johnson 'might be of use if a man sat by such a person as you 5.' Boswell confessed that he liked a glass of whiskey in the Highland tour, and used to take it; at length says Johnson, 'let me try wherein the pleasure of a Scotsman consists,' and so tips off a brimmer of whiskey. But Johnson's abstemiousness is new to him, for within a few years he would swallow two bottles of Port

without any apparent alteration, and once in the company with whom I dined this day, he said, pray Mr. Thrale give us another bottle.' It is ridiculous to pry so nearly into the movements of such men, yet Boswell carrys it to a degree of superstition. The Doctor it appears has a custom of putting the peel of oranges into his pocket, and he asked the Doctor what use he made of them, the Doctor's reply was, that his dearest friend should not know that. This has made poor Boswell unhappy, and I verily think he is as anxious to know the secret as a green sick girl. N.B. The book wherewith Johnson presented the highland lady was Cocker's Arithmetic 3.

Murphy gave it (on Garrick's authority) that when it was asked what was the greatest pleasure, Johnson answered** But Garrick is his most intimate friend, they came to London together and he is very correct both in his conduct and language; as a proof of this, they all agreed in a story of him and Dr. James 5, who is, it seems, a very lewd fellow, both verbo et facto. James, it seems, in a coach with his whoor, took up Johnson, and set him down at a given place. Johnson hearing afterwards what the lady was attacked James, when next he met him, for carrying him about in such company. James apologised by saying **. 'Damn the rascal',' says Johnson,' he is past sixty the * .'

Boswell desirous of setting his native country off to the best advantage expatiated upon the beauty of a certain prospect, particularly upon a view of the sea. 'O Sir,' says Johnson, 'the sea is the same everywhere.

Dr. Johnson calls the act in Braganza' with the monk, paralytick on one side; i. e. the monk is introduced without any notification of his character, so that any monk, or any other person might as well be introduced in the same place, and for the same purpose. And I myself say, that Velasquez quitting his hold of the Dutchess, upon sight of the monk, is an effect without a sufficient cause. The cool, intrepid character of Velasquez required that he should either have dispatched, or attempted to dispatch the monk, and then there would have been a pretext for losing hold of the Dutchess. The Duke is a poor, tame animal, and by no means equal to his historic character. A whimsical incident I was witness to there. Murphy told a very comical story of a Scotchman's interview with Dr. Johnson, upon his earnest desire of being known to the Doctor. This was Boswell himself. N.B. The Tour to the Western Isles was written in twenty days3, and the Patriot in three. Taxation no Tyranny within a week 5, and not one of them would have yet seen the light, had it not been for Mrs. Thrale and Baretti, who stirred him up by laying wagers'.

the ladies find so much novelty at Weymouth. Ovid says that the sun is undelightfully uniform.' I conjectured in a note that he wrote not sun but sea. Letters, ii. 325. I could not however find the reference to Ovid. I have no doubt however that he was referring to the line which he quoted to Boswell at Leith:

'Una est injusti caerula forma maris.'

Ovid, Amor. L. ii. El. xi. 1 A tragedy by Robert Jephson, acted at Drury Lane 1775. Post, p. 182.

diligent next week about our travels, which I have too long neglected.' Ib. ii. 277. On June 20 he 'put the first sheets to the press.' lb. p. 278. On July 4 he had still two sheets to write. Ib. p. 288. Owing to the delay of the printer the last sheet was not corrected till Nov. 25. Ib. p. 288. 4 The Patriot was called for by my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday.' Ib. ii. 288.

6

5 On Jan. 21, 1775, he wrote to Boswell :-'I am going to write about the Americans.' Ib. ii. 292. On Feb. 3 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale :-' My pamphlet has not gone on at all.' Letters, i. 308. By March 1 it had been not only written, but altered by some one in the Ministry. Ib. i. 309. 'The False Alarm was written between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock on Thursday night.' Ante, i. 173.

6 According to Hawkins, 'it was

APRIL 5th. Dined with Dilly in the Poultry', as guest to Mr. Boswell, where I met Dr. Johnson, (and a Mr. Miller, who lives near Bath, who is a dilletanti man, keeps a weekly day for the Litterati, and is himself so litterate, that he gathereth all the flowers that ladies write, and bindeth into a garland, but enough of him) with several others, particularly a Mr. Scott3, who seems to be a very sensible plain man. The Doctor, when I came in, had an answer titled Taxation and Tyranny to his last pamphlet, in his hand. He laughed at it, and said he would read no more of it, for that it paid him compliments, but gave him no information. He asked if there were any more of them. I told him I had seen another, and that the Monthly Review had handled it in what I believed he called the way of information. 'Well,' says he, 'I should be glad to see it.' Then Boswell (who understands his temper well) asked him somewhat, for I was not attending, relative to the Provincial Assemblies 5. The Doctor, in process of discourse with him, argued with great vehemence that the Assemblies were nothing more than our Vestries. I asked him, was there not this difference, that an Act of the Assemblies required the King's assent to pass into a law: his answer had more of wit than of argument. 'Well Sir,' says he, 'that only gives it more weight.' I thought I had gone too far, but dinner was then announced, and Dilly, who paid all attention to him, in placing him next to the fire, said, 'Doctor, perhaps you will be too warm.' 'No Sir,' says the Doctor, 'I am neither hot

by a wager, or some other pecuniary engagement' that he was moved to finish his Shakespeare. Life, i. 319,

n. 4.

At Dilly's table 'Johnson, who boasted of the niceness of his palate, owned that "he always found a good dinner."' Life, iii. 285. For this particular dinner see ib. ii. 338.

2 Ib. ii. 336.

3 John Scott of Amwell, the Quaker poet. Ib. ii. 338, 351.

See ib. iii. 39, where Boswell asked him a question 'with an assumed air of ignorance, to incite him

to talk, for which it was often necessary to employ some address.'

5 The assemblies of the thirteen American colonies.

'Johnson told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that once when he dined in a numerous company of booksellers, where, the room being small, the head of the table at which he sat was almost close to the fire, he persevered in suffering a great deal of inconvenience from the heat, rather than quit his place, and let one of them sit above him.' Ib. iii. 311.

nor