whence I purpose to send a parcel of the History every post. Concerning the character of Bruce, I can only say that I do not see any great reason for writing it; but I shall not easily deny what Lord Hailes and you concur in desiring.

'I have been remarkably healthy all the journey, and hope you and your family have known only that trouble and danger which has so happily terminated. Among all the congratulations that you may receive, I hope you believe none more warm or sincere than those of dear sir, your most affectionate,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD.1

'November 16, 1775.

'DEAR MADAM, -This week I came home from Paris. I have brought you a little box which I thought pretty; but I know not whether it is properly a snuff-box or a box for some other use. I will send it when I can find an opportunity. I have been through the whole journey remarkably well. My fellow-travellers were the same whom you saw at Lichfield, only we took Baretti with us. Paris is not so fine a place as you would expect. The palaces and churches, however, are very splendid and magnificent; and what would please you, there are many very fine pictures; but I do not think their way of life commodious or pleasant.

'Let me know how your health has been all this while. I hope the fine summer has given you strength sufficient to encounter the

'DEAR MADAM,-Some weeks ago I wrote to you to tell you that I was just come home from a ramble, and hoped that I should have heard from you. I am afraid winter has laid hold on your fingers and hinders you from writing. However, let somebody write if you cannot, and tell me how you do, and a little of what has happened at Lichfield among our friends. I hope you are all well.

'When I was in France I thought myself growing young, but am afraid that cold weather will take part of my new vigour from me. Let

1 There can be no doubt that, many years previous to 1775, he corresponded with this lady, who was his stepdaughter, but none of his earliest letters to her have been preserved. -BOSWELL

Since the death of the author, several of Johnson's letters to Mrs. Lucy Porter, written before 1775, were obligingly communicated to me by the Rev. Dr. Vyse, and are printed in the present edition. -MALONE.

us, however, take care of ourselves, and lose no part of our health by negligence.

'I never knew whether you received the Commentary on the New Testament, and the Travels, and the glasses.

'Do, my dear love, write to me, and do not let us forget each other. This is the season of good wishes, and I wish you all good. I have not lately seen Mr. Porter,1 nor heard of him. Is he with you?

'Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Adey and Mrs. Cobb, and all my friends; and when I can do any good, let me know. -I am, dear madam, yours most affectionately,

'SAM. JOHNSON."

CHAPTER XXXIII.

1775.

IT is to be regretted that Johnson did not write an account of his travels in France; for as he is reported to have once said that he could write the life of a broomstick," so, notwithstanding so many former travellers have exhausted almost every subject for remark in that great kingdom, his very accurate observation, and peculiar vigour of thought and illustration, would have produced a wonderful work. During his visit to it, which lasted but about two months, he wrote notes or minutes of what he saw. He promised to show me them, but I neglected to put him in mind of it; and the greatest part of them has been lost, or perhaps destroyed in a precipitate burning of his papers a few days before his death, which must ever be lamented. One small paper-book, however, entitled 'France II.,' has been preserved, and is in my possession. It is a diurnal register of his life and observations, from the 10th of October to the 4th of November inclusive, being twenty-six days, and shows an extraordinary attention to various minute particulars. Being the only memorial of this tour that remains, my readers, I am confident, will peruse it with pleasure, though his notes are very short, and evidently written only to assist his own recollection.

'Tuesday, Oct. 10. We saw the Ecole Militaire, in which one hundred and fifty young boys are educated for the army. They have arms of different sizes, according to the age; -flints of wood. The building is very large, but nothing fine except the council-room. The French have large squares in the windows ;they make good iron palisades. Their meals

are gross.

'We visited the observatory, a large building

1 Son of Mrs. Johnson, by her first husband.-Bos

WELL

• It is probable that the author's memory here deceived him, and that he was thinking of Stella's remark, that Swift could write finely upon a broomstick.-J. BOSWELL, jun.

of a great height. The upper stones of the parapet very large, but not cramped with iron. The flat on the top is very extensive; but on the insulated part there is no parapet. Though it was broad enough, I did not care to go upon it. Maps were printing in one of the rooms.

'We walked to a small convent of the Fathers of the Oratory. In the reading-desk of the refectory lay the Lives of the Saints.

'Wednesday, Oct. 11. We went to see the Hôtel de Chatlois, a house not very large, but very elegant. One of the rooms was gilt to a degree that I never saw before. The upper part for servants and their masters was pretty.

'Thence we went to Mr. Monville's, a house divided into small apartments, furnished with effeminate and minute elegance.-Porphyry.

'Thence we went to St. Roque's [Roch] Church, which is very large; -the lower part of the pillars incrusted with marble.-Three chapels behind the high altar; the last a mass of low arches. -Altars I believe all round.

'We passed through Place de Vendôme, a fine square, about as big as Hanover Square. Inhabited by the high families. -Louis XIV. on horseback in the middle.

'Monville is the son of a farmer-general. In the house of Chatlois is a room furnished with japan, fitted up in Europe.

'We dined with Bocage, the Marquis Blanchetti, and his lady. The sweetmeats taken by the Marchioness Blanchetti, after observing that they were dear. Mr. Le Roy, Count Manucci, the Abbé, the Prior, and Father Wilson, who stayed with me, till I took him home in the coach.

'Bathiani is gone.

'The French have no laws for the maintenance of the poor. -Monk not necessarily a priest. - Benedictines rise at four; - are at church an hour and half; at church again half an hour before, half an hour after, dinner; and again from half an hour after seven to eight. They may sleep eight hours. Bodily labour wanted in monasteries.

'The poor taken into hospitals and miserably kept.--Monks in the convent, fifteen;--accounted

poor.

Thursday, Oct. 12. We went to the Gobelins.-Tapestry makes a good picture: imitates flesh exactly. - One piece with a gold ground; the birds not exactly coloured.-Thence we went to the King's cabinet; very neat, not perhaps perfect.-Gold ore. -Candles of the candle-tree. -Seeds. Woods. Thence to Gagnier's house, where I saw rooms nine, furnished with a profusion of wealth and elegance which I never had seen before.- Vases. - Pictures. - The dragon china. The lustre is said to be of crystal, and to have cost £3500.- The whole furniture said to have cost £125,000.-Damask hangings covered with pictures. - Porphyry. - This house struck me.-Then we waited on the ladies to Monville's.

- Captain Irwin with us.1- Spain. - Country towns all beggars. -At Dijon he could not find the way to Orleans. -Cross roads of France very bad.--Fivesoldiers. --Woman.-Soldiers escaped. - The Colonel would not lose five men for the death of one woman. -The magistrates cannot seize a soldier but by the Colonel's permission.Good inn at Nismes. -Moors of Barbary fond of Englishmen.-Gibraltar eminently healthy; it has beef from Barbary. There is a large garden. - Soldiers sometimes fall from the rock.

'Friday, Oct. 13. I stayed at home all day, only went to find the Prior, who was not at home. I read something in Canus. 2-Nec admiror, nec multum laudo.

'Saturday, Oct. 14. We went to the house of Mr. [D'] Argenson, which was almost wainscoted with looking-glasses, and covered with gold. -The ladies' closet wainscoted with large squares of glass over painted paper. They always place mirrors to reflect their rooms.

'Then we went to Julien's, the Treasurer of the Clergy; £30,000 a year. The house has no very large room, but is set with mirrors, and covered with gold.-Books of wood here, and in another library.

'At D' [Argenson's] I looked into the books in the lady's closet, and in contempt showed them to Mrs. T[hrale]. -Prince Titi; Bibl. des Fées, and other books. She was offended, and shut up, as we heard afterwards, her apartment.

'Then we went to Julien Le Roy, the King's watchmaker, a man of character in his business, who showed a small clock made to find the longitude. -A decent man.

'Afterwards we saw the Palais Marchand, and the Courts of Justice, civil and criminal.Queries on the Sellette. -This building has the old Gothic passages, and a great appearance of antiquity. - Three hundred prisoners sometimes in the gaol.

'Much disturbed; hope no ill will be.* 'In the afternoon I visited Mr. Freron the journalist. He spoke Latin very scantily, but seemed to understand me. His house not splendid, but of commodious size. His family, wife, son, and daughter, not elevated, but decent. I was pleased with my reception.-He is to translate my books, which I am to send him with notes.

'Sunday, Oct. 15. At Choisi, a royal palace on the banks of the Seine, about seven miles from Paris. -The terrace noble along the river. - The rooms numerous and grand, but not discriminated from other palaces. The chapel beautiful but small. - China globes.

Inlaid

1 The rest of this paragraph appears to be a minute of what was told by Capt. Irwin.-BOSWELL.

2 Melchior Canus, a celebrated Spanish Dominican, who died at Toledo in 1560. He wrote a treatise, Do Locis Theologicis, in twelve books. -BOSWELL.

• This passage, which so many think superstitious, reminds me of Archbishop Laud's Diary.-BOSWELL

tables. - Labyrinth. - Sinking table. - Toilet tables.

'Monday, Oct. 16. The Palais Royal very grand, large, and lofty. -A very great collection of pictures. - Three of Raphael. - Two Holy Family. One small piece of M. Angelo. One room of Rubens. I thought the pictures of Raphael fine.

'The Tuileries. - Statues. - Venus. -Æn. and Anchises in his arms.-Nilus. - Many more.The walks not open to mean persons. -Chairs at night hired for two sous a piece. - Pont tournant.

'Austin nuns.-Grate. - Mrs. Fermor, Abbess. She knew Pope, and thought him disagreeable. -Mrs. - has many books; has seen life. Their frontlet disagreeable. -Their hood. -Their life easy. Rise about five; hour and half in chapel; dine at ten. Another hour and half in chapel-half an hour about three, and half an hour more at seven; four hours in chapel.A large garden. -Thirteen pensioners. --Teachers complained.

'At the Boulevards saw nothing, yet was glad to be there.-Rope-dancing and farce.-Eggdance.

'N. [Note.] Near Paris, whether on weekdays or Sundays, the roads empty. 'Tuesday, Oct. 17. At the Palais Marchand,

'We heard the lawyers plead. -N. As many killed at Paris as there are days in the year. Chambre de question. -Tournelle at the Palais Marchand. An old venerable building.

'The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of Condé. Only one small wing shown; - lofty; -splendid;-gold and glass. - The battles of the great Condé are painted in one of the rooms. The present Prince a grandsire at thirty-nine.

'The sight of palaces and other great buildings leaves no very distinct images, unless to those who talk of them. As I entered, my wife was in my mind: she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased. 'N. In France there is no middle rank.

'So many shops open, that Sunday is little distinguished at Paris. -The palaces of Louvre and Tuileries granted out in lodgings.

'In the Palais de Bourbon, gilt globes of metal at the fire-place.

'The French beds commended. -Much of the marble only paste.

'The Colosseum a mere wooden building, at least much of it.

'Wednesday, Oct. 18. We went to Fontainebleau, which we found a large mean town, crowded with people. -The forest thick with

woods, very extensive.-Manucci secured us lodgings. The appearance of the country pleasant. No hills, few streams, only one hedge.I remember no chapels nor crosses on the road. - Pavement still, and rows of trees.

'N. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris.

Thursday, Oct. 19. At court, we saw the apartments; - the King's bed-chamber and council-chamber extremely splendid.-Persons of all ranks in the external rooms through which the family passes; servants and masters.-Brunet with us the second time.

'The introductor came to us;-civil to me. Presenting. I had scruples. -Not necessary. We went and saw the King and Queen at dinner. - We saw the other ladies at dinner.-Madame Elizabeth, with the Princess of Guimene.-At night we went to a comedy. I neither saw nor heard.-Drunken women. - Mrs T[hrale] preferred one to the other.

'Friday, Oct. 20. We saw the Queen mount in the forest. - Brown habit: rode aside: one lady rode aside. - The Queen's horse light grey; -martingale. She galloped. - We then went to the apartments, and admired them. Then wandered through the palace. - In the passages, stalls, and shops. -Painting in fresco by a great master, worn out. We saw the King's horses and dogs. - The dogs almost all English. Degenerate.

'The horses not much commended. - The stables cool; the kennel filthy.

'At night the ladies went to the Opera. I refused; but should have been welcome.

'The King fed himself with his left hand,

'Faggots in the palace. - Everything slovenly, except in the chief rooms. -Trees in the roads, some tall, none old, many very young and small.

'Women's saddles seem ill-made. Queen's bridle woven with silver. -Tags to strike the horse.

'Sunday, Oct. 22. To Versailles, a mean town. Carriages of business passing.-Mean shops against the wall. -Our way lay through Sêve (Sévres), where is the china manufacture.Wooden bridge at Sêve in the way to Versailles. -The palace of great extent. -The front long; I saw it not perfectly. The menagerie. Cygnets dark; their black feet; on the ground; tame. - Halcyons, or gulls. - Stag and hind, young.-Aviary, very large: the net, wire.Black stag of China, small. Rhinoceros, the horn broken and pared away, which I suppose will grow; the basis, I think, four inches across; the skin folds like loose cloth doubled over his body, and cross his hips; a vast animal, though young: as big, perhaps, as four oxen.The young elephant, with his tusks just appearing. The brown bear put out his paws; -all very tame. The lion. -The tigers I did not well view. The camel or dromedary with two bunches called the Huguin,1 taller than any horse. Two camels with one bunch.-Among the birds was a pelican, who being let out, went to a fountain, and swam about to catch fish. His feet well webbed he dipped his head, and turned his long bill sideways. He caught two or three fish, but did not eat them.

'Trianon is a kind of retreat appendant to Versailles. It has an open portico; the pavement, and I think the pillars, of marble. There are many rooms which I do not distinctly remember. A table of porphyry, about five feet long, and between two and three broad, given to Louis XIV. by the Venetian State. - In the council-room almost all that was not door or window was I think looking - glass. - Little Trianon is a small palace like a gentleman's house. The upper floor paved with brick. Little Vienne. The court is ill-paved. The rooms at the top are small, fit to soothe the imagination with privacy. In the front of Versailles are small basins of water on the terrace, and other basins I think below them. There are little courts. The great gallery is wainscoted with mirrors, not very large, but joined by frames. I suppose the large plates were not yet made. --The playhouse was very large. The chapel I do not remember if we saw. We saw one chapel, but I am not certain whether there or at Trianon. The foreign office paved with bricks. The dinner half a louis each, and, I think, a louis over. -Money given at menagerie, three livres; at palace, six livres. 'Monday, Oct. 23. Last night I wrote to Levet. We went to see the looking-glasses wrought. They come from Normandy in cast plates, perhaps the third of an inch thick. At Paris they are ground upon a marble table, by rubbing one plate upon another with grit between them. The various sands, of which there are said to be five, I could not learn. The handle, by which the upper glass is moved, has the form of a wheel, which may be moved in all directions. The plates are sent up with their surfaces ground, but not polished, and so continue till they are bespoken, lest time should spoil the surface, as we are told. Those that are to be polished are laid on a table covered with

1 This epithet should be applied to this animal with one bunch.-BOSWELL.

2 When at Versailles, the people showed us the theatre. As we stood on the stage looking at some machinery for play-house purposes-"Now we are here, what shall we act, Dr. Johnson? The Englishman at Paris?"-"No, no," replied he, "we will try to Harry the Fifth.''-MRS. PIOZZI.

several thick cloths, hard strained, that the resistance may be equal; they are then rubbed with a hand rubber, held down hard by a contrivance which I did not well understand. The powder which is used last seemed to me to be iron dissolved in aquafortis; they called it, as Baretti said, marc de l'eau forte, which he thought was dregs. They mentioned vitriol and saltpetre. The cannon-ball swam in the quicksilver. To silver them, a leaf of beaten tin is laid, and rubbed with quicksilver, to which it unites. Then more quicksilver is poured upon it, which, by its mutual [attraction], rises very high. Then a paper is laid at the nearest end of the plate, over which the glass is slided till it lies upon the plate, having driven much of the quicksilver before it. It is then, I think, pressed upon cloth, and then set sloping to drop the superfluous mercury: the slope is daily heightened towards a perpendicular.

'In the way I saw the Grêve, the mayor's house, and the Bastile.

'We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer.1 He brews with about as much malt as Mr. Thrale, and sells his beer at the same price, though he pays no duty for malt, and little more than half as much for beer. Beer is sold retail at 6d. a bottle. He brews 4000 barrels a year. There are seventeen brewers in Paris, of whom none is supposed to brew more than he; reckoning them at 3000 each, they make 51,000 a year. They make their malt, for malting is here no trade.

'The moat of the Bastile is dry.

'Tucsday, Oct. 24. - We visited the King's library-I saw the Speculum humanæ Salvationis, rudely printed, with ink sometimes pale, sometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part with pages cut in boards. The Bible, supposed to be older than that of Mentz, in 1462; it has no date; it is supposed to have been printed with wooden types. -I am in doubt; the print is large and fair, in two folios. Another book was shown me, supposed to have been printed with wooden types; I think Durandi Sanctuarium in 1458. This is inferred from the difference of form sometimes seen in the same letter, which might be struck with different puncheons. The regular similitude of most letters proves better that they are metal. I saw nothing but the Speculum, which I had not seen I think before.

'Thence to the Sorbonne. -The library very large, not in lattices like the King's. Marbone and Durandi, q. collection, 14 vol. Scriptores de rebus Gallicis, many folios.-Histoire Généalogique of France, 9 vol.-Gallia Christiana, the first edition 4to, the last f. 12 vol. -The Prior and Librarian dined [with us]: I waited on

1 The detestable ruffian, who afterwards conducted Louis the Sixteenth to the scaffold and commanded the troops that guarded it, during his murder.--MALONE,

them home. Their garden pretty, with covered walks, but small; yet may hold many students. The Doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal; choose those who succeed to vacancies.-Profit little.

'Wednesday, Oct. 25. I went with the Prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. Hooke. We walked round the palace, and had some talk. -I dined with our whole company at the monastery. -In the library, Beroald, - Cymon, - Titus, from Boccace, Oratio Proverbialis to the Virgin, from Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys; Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of Miscellanies.1

'Thursday, Oct. 26. We saw the china at Sêve cut, glazed, painted.-Bellevue, a pleasing house, not great; fine prospect. - Meudon, an old palace. Alexander, in porphyry: hollow between eyes and nose, thin cheeks. - Plato and Aristotle. - Noble terrace overlooks the town-St Cloud. - Gallery not very high, nor grand, but pleasing. -In the rooms, Michael Angelo, drawn by himself, Sir Thomas More, Des Cartes, Bochart, Naudæus, Mazarine.Gilded wainscot, so common that it is not minded.-Gough and Keene.-Hooke came to us at the inn. A message from Drumgould.

'Friday, Oct. 27. I stayed at home. -Gough and Keene, and Mrs S's friend dined with us. This day we began to have a fire. - The weather is grown very cold, and I fear has a bad effect upon my breath, which has grown much more free and easy in this country.

'Saturday, Oct. 28. I visited the Grand Chartreux built by St. Louis. It is built for forty, but contains only twenty-four, and will not maintain more. The friar that spoke to us had a pretty apartment. -Mr. Baretti says four rooms; I remember but three. --His books seemed to be French.-His garden was neat; he gave me grapes. We saw the Place de Victoire, with the statues of the King, and the captive nations.

'We saw the palace and gardens of Luxem bourg, but the gallery was shut.-We climbed to the top stairs. I dined with Colbrooke, who had much company: -Foote, Sir George Rodney, Motteux, Udson, Taaf. Called on the Prior, and found him in bed.

'Hotel-a guinea a day. -Coach, three guineas a week.-Valet de place, three 1. a day. Avant coureur, a guinea a week. -Ordinary dinner, six 1. a head.-Our ordinary seems to be about five guineas a day. -Our extraordinary expenses, as diversions, gratuities, clothes, I cannot reckon. -Our travelling is ten guineas a day.

'White stockings, 18 1.2 Wig.-Hat.

'Sunday, Oct. 29. We saw the boardingschool, the Enfans trouvés. - A room with about eighty-six children in cradles, as sweet as

1 He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces while he remained in the library.-BOSWELL. • Eighteen livres. Two pair of white silk stockings were probably purchased. -MALONE.

a parlour. They lose a third; take in to perhaps more than seven [years old); put them to trades; pin to them the papers sent with them.-Want nurses. -Saw their chapel.

'Went to St. Eustatia; saw an innumerable company of girls catechised, in many bodies, perhaps 100 to a catechist. -Boys taught at one time, girls at another. -The sermon; the preacher wears a cap, which he takes off at the name:-His action uniform, not very violent.

'Monday, Oct. 30. We saw the library of St. Germain. -A very noble collection.-Codex Divinorum Officiorum, 1459:-A letter, square like that of the Ofices, perhaps the same.The Codex by Fust and Gernsheym.--Meursius, 12 v. fol.-Amadis, in French, 3 v. fol. -CATHOLICON sine colophone, but of 1460.-Two other editions,1 one by Augustin. de Civitate Dei without name, date, or place, but of Fust's square letter as it seems.

'I dined with Col. Drumgould; had a pleasing

afternoon.

'Some of the books of St. Germain's stand in presses from the wall, like those at Oxford.

'Tuesday, Oct. 31. I lived at the Benedic tines; meagre day; soup meagre; herrings, eels, both with sauce; fried fish; lentils, tasteless in themselves. In the library, where I found Maffeus's de Historia Indica: Promontorium flectere, to double the Cape. I parted very tenderly from the Prior and Friar Wilkes.

'Maitre des Arts, 2 y. -Bacc. Theol. 3 yу.Licentiate, 2 y. - Doctor Th. 2 y. in all, 9 years. -For the Doctorate three disputations, Major, Minor, Sarbonica. -Several colleges suppressed, and transferred to that which was the Jesuits' College.

'Wednesday, Nov. 1. We left Paris. -St. Denis, a large town; the church not very large, but the middle aisle is very lofty and awful.On the left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall, which destroyed the symmetry of the sides. The organ is higher above the pavement than any I have ever seen. The gates are of brass.-On the middle gate is the history of our Lord. -The painted windows are historical, and said to be eminently beautiful. We were at another church belonging to a convent, of which the portal is a dome; we could not enter farther, and it was almost dark.

'Thursday, Nov. 2. We came this day to Chantilly, a seat belonging to the Prince of Condé. This place is eminently beautified by all varieties of water starting up in fountains,

1 I have looked in vain into De Bure, Meerman, Maittaire, and other typographical books for the two editions of the Catholicon, which Dr. Johnson mentions here, with names which I cannot make out: I read, 'one by Latinius, one by Boedinus.' I have deposited the original ms. in the British Museum, where the curious may see it. My grateful acknowledgments are due to Mr. Planta for the trouble he was pleased to take in aiding my researches.-BOSWELL