that Johnson only meant to attack the metre; but he certainly turned the whole poem into ridicule : 'I put my hat upon my head, And walk'd into the Strand, With his hat in his hand '.' Mr. Garrick, in a letter to me, soon afterwards asked me, 'Whether I had seen Johnson's criticism on the Hermit; it is already,' said he, 'over half the town.' Almost the last time that I ever saw Johnson, he said to me, 'Notwithstanding all the pains that Dr. Farmer and I took to serve Dr. Percy, in regard to his Ancient Ballads, he has left town for Ireland 2, without taking leave of either of us.' Admiral Walsingham, who sometimes resided at Windsor, and sometimes in Portugal Street, frequently boasted that he was the only man to bring together miscellaneous parties, and make them all agreeable; and, indeed, there never before was so strange an assortment as I have occasionally met there. At one of his dinners were the Duke of Cumberland 3, Dr. Johnson, who took the name of Walsingham; but it is hardly possible that Dr. Johnson should have met the Duke of Cumberland at dinner without Mr. Boswell's having mentioned it.' Croker's Boswell, ix. 242 n. Mr. Croker forgets that there are men who can dine with a Duke and not boast of it. 'Having observed the vain ostentatious importance of many people in quoting the authority of Dukes and Lords, as having been in their company, Dr. Johnson said, he went to the other extreme, and did not mention his authority when he should have done it, had it no. been of a Duke or a Lord.' Life, iv. 183. Boswell accused him of making 'but an awkward return' in leaving in his Lives of the Poets' an acknowledgement unappropriated to his Grace,' Mr. Mr. Nairn, the optician', and Mr. Leoni, the singer: at another, Dr. Johnson, &c., and a young dashing officer, who determined, he whispered, to attack the old bear that we seemed all to stand in awe of. There was a good dinner, and during that important time Johnson was deaf to all impertinence. However, after the wine had passed rather freely, the young gentleman was resolved to bait him, and venture out a little further. Now, Dr. Johnson, do not look so glum, but be a little gay and lively, like others: what would you give, old gentleman, to be as young and sprightly as I am?' 'Why, Sir,' said he, 'I think I would almost be content to be as foolish 2.' Johnson, it is well known, professed to recruit his acquaintance with younger persons3, and, in his latter days, I, with a few others, were [sic] more frequently honoured by his notice. At times he was very gloomy, and would exclaim, 'Stay with me, for it is a comfort to me'-a comfort that any feeling mind would wish to administer to a man so kind, though at times so boisterous, when he seized your hand, and repeated, 'Ay, Sir, but to die and go we know not where',' &c.-here his morbid melancholy prevailed, and Garrick never spoke so impressively to the heart. Yet, to see him in the evening (though he took nothing stronger than lemonade 5), a stranger would have concluded that our morning account was a fabrication. No hour was too late the Duke of Newcastle. Life, iv. 63. Neither Boswell nor any of Johnson's biographers knew of his second interview with the king. Ib. ii. 42, n. 2. The Admiral must, indeed, have been happy in his son, for Mr. Croker says:-'I have heard George IV speak most highly of this young Boyle Walsingham.' Walpole's Letters, viii. 502 n. In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1774, p. 472, is an account of 'Electrical Experiments by Mr. Edward Nairne, made with a Machine of his own Workmanship.' The writer says, 'the discharges of an electrical battery at ducks, cocks, and turkeys, however to keep him from the tyranny of his own gloomy thoughts. A gentleman venturing to say to Johnson, ‘Sir, I wonder sometimes that you condescend so far as to attend a city club.' 'Sir, the great chair of a full and pleasant club is, perhaps, the throne of human felicity'.' I had not the honour to be at all intimate with Johnson till about the time he began to publish his Lives of the Poets; and how he got through that arduous labour is, in some measure, still a mystery to me: he must have been greatly assisted by booksellers. I had some time before lent him Euripides with Milton's manuscript notes: this, though he did not minutely examine (see Joddrel's Euripides), yet he very handsomely returned it, and mentioned it in his Life of Milton3. In the course of conversation one day I dropped out to him, that Lord Harborough (then the Rev.*) was in possession of a very valuable collection of manuscript poems, and that amongst them there were two or three in the handwriting of King James I; that they were bound up handsomely in folio, and were entitled Sackville's Poems. These he solicited me to borrow for him, and Lord Harborough very kindly intrusted them to me for his perusal. Harris's Hermes was mentioned. I said, 'I think the book is too abstruse; it is heavy.' 'It is; but a work of that kind 1 Cradock misquotes Hawkins (post, p. 91)-'A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity.' See also Life, ii. 452. 2 Cradock, I suppose, means that they lent him books, and supplied him with facts, and not as Mr. Croker thinks (ix. 243 n.) that they assisted him in his manuscript. Thus he writes to John Nichols desiring that 'some volumes published of Prior's papers in two vols. 8vo. may be procured.' Letters, ii. 130. Another day he writes:-'Mr. Johnson is obliged to Mr. Nicol [sic] for his communication, and must have Hammond again. Mr. Johnson would be glad of Blackmore's Essays for a few days.' Ib. ii. 159. 3'His Euripides is by Mr. Cradock's kindness now in my hands; the margin is sometimes noted, but I have found nothing remarkable.' Works, vii. 114. 4 When Johnson was writing the Lives the Rev. Robert Sherard was Earl of Harborough, for it was in 1770 that he succeeded his brother, who, in spite of marrying four times, left no heir. Burke's Peerage. must must be heavy' 'A rather dull man of my acquaintance asked me,' said I, 'to lend him some book to entertain him, and I offered him Harris's Hermes, and as I expected, from the title, he took it for a novel; when he returned it, I asked him how he liked it, and, what he thought of it? "Why, to speak the truth," says he, "I was not much diverted; I think all these imitations of Tristram Shandy fall far short of the original!" This had its effect, and almost produced from Johnson a rhinocerous laugh 2. One of Dr. Johnson's rudest speeches was to a pompous gentleman coming out of Lichfield cathedral, who said, 'Dr. Johnson, we have had a most excellent discourse to-day!' 'That may be,' said Johnson; but, it is impossible that you should know it.' Of his kindness to me during the last years of his most valuable life, I could enumerate many instances. One slight circumstance, if any were wanting, would give an excellent proof of the goodness of his heart, and that to a person whom he found in distress. In such a case he was the very last man that would have given even the least momentary uneasiness to any one, had he been aware of it. The last time I saw him was just before I went to France. He said, with a deep sigh, 'I wish I was going with you.' He had just then been disappointed of going to Italy3. Of all men I ever knew, Dr. Johnson was the most instructive. ANECDOTES BY RICHARD CUMBERLAND [FROM Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, written by himself. 2 vols. London, 1807. Johnson, writing to Mrs. Thrale, who was at Brighton, says :— 'The want of company is an inconvenience, but Mr. Cumberland is a million.' Letters, ii. 111. There is nothing in Boswell to show that Cumberland was much with Johnson. Northcote told Hazlitt that Johnson and his friends 'never admitted him as one of the set; Sir Joshua did not invite him to dinner.' Conversations of Northcote, p. 385. Rogers described him as 'a most agreeable companion, and a very entertaining converser. His theatrical anecdotes were related with infinite spirit and humour.' Rogers's Table Talk, p. 136. 'I once (says W. Maltby) dined at Dilly's with Parr, Priestley, Cumberland, and some other distinguished people. Cumberland, who belonged to the family of the Blandishes, bepraised Priestley to his face, and after he had left the party spoke of him very disparagingly. This excited Parr's extremest wrath. When I met him a few days after he said :-'Only think of Mr. Cumberland! that he should have presumed to talk before me,—before me, Sir-in such terms of my friend Dr. Priestley! Pray, Sir, let Mr. Dilly know my opinion of Mr. Cumberland— that his ignorance is equalled only by his impertinence, and that both are exceeded by his malice.' Ib. P. 314. - Sir Walter Scott thus writes of Cumberland :-' January 12, 1826.-Mathews last night gave us a very perfect imitation of old |
