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Wednesday, 7th September.-We came | of Chester-The town is large, and has mato Chirk Castle.

ny gentlemen's houses, but the streets are narrow-I saw Taylor's library-We walked in the Quarry; a very pleasant walk by the river-Our inn was not bad.

Sunday, 11th September.-We were at St. Chads, a very large and luminous church -We were on the Castle Hill.

Thursday, 8th September.-We came to the house of Dr. Worthington 1, at Llanrhaiadr 2-Our entertainment was poor, though the house was not bad. The situation is very pleasant, by the side of a small river, of which the bank rises high on the other side, shaded by gradual rows of trees Monday, 12th September.-We called -The gloom, the stream, and the silence, on Dr. Adams 5, and travelled towards Worgenerate thoughtfulness. The town is old,cester, through Wenlock; a very mean and very mean, but has, I think, a market -In this town, the Welsh translation of the Old Testament was made-The Welsh singing psalms were written by Archdeacon Price-They are not considered as elegant, but as very literal, and accurate We came to Llanrhaiadr through Oswestry; a town not very little, nor very mean -The church, which I saw only at a distance, seems to be an edifice much too good for the present state of the place.

Friday, 9th September.-We visited the waterfall, which is very high, and in rainy weather very copious-There is a reservoir made to supply it-In its fall, it has perforated a rock-There is a room built for entertainment-There was some difficulty in climbing to a near view-Lord Lyttelton3 came near it, and turned back-When we came back, we took some cold meat, and notwithstanding Doctor [Worthington's] importunities, went that day to Shrewsbury.

Saturday, 10th September.-I sent for Gwynn4, and he showed us the town-The walls are broken, and narrower than those

[Dr. William Worthington, a man of distinguished learning, and an authour of many works on religious subjects. He enjoyed considerable preferment in the church, and lived at Llanrhaiadr; of which parish he was the rector. He died October 6, 1778, aged seventy-five.-DUPPA. Dr. Johnson thus notices his death in a letter to Mrs. Thrale: "My clerical friend Worthington is dead. I have known him long-and to die is dreadful. I believe he was a very good man."-Letters, v. i. p. 26.-ED.]

2 [Llanrhaiadr, being translated into English, is The Village of the Fountain, and takes its name from a spring, about a quarter of a mile from the church.-DUPPA. Mr. Duppa was misinformed. Rhaiadr signifies a waterfall, and not a spring; and a waterfall was, as we shall see presently, the chief feature of the vicinity.-ED.] [Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton. DUPPA.]

[Mr. Gwynn was an architect of considerable celebrity. He was a native of Shrewsbury, and was at this time completing a bridge across the Severn, called the English Bridge. Besides this bridge, he built one at Atcham, over the Severn, near to Shrewsbury; and the bridges at Worcester, Oxford, and Henley, are all built by him. DUPPA. See ante, p. 234, and post, 19th March, 1776.-ED.]

place, though a borough-At noon, we came to Bridgenorth, and walked about the town, of which one part stands on a high rock, and part very low, by the river-There is an old tower, which, being crooked, leans so much, that it is frightful to pass by itIn the afternoon we came through Kinver6, a town in Staffordshire, neat and closely built-I believe it has only one street-The road was so steep and miry, that we were forced to stop at Hartlebury, where we had a very neat inn, though it made a very poor appearance.

Tuesday, 13th September.-We came to lord Sandys's, at Ombersley, where we were treated with great civility 7-The house is large-The hall is a very noble room.

Thursday, 15th September.-We went to Worcester, a very splendid city-The cathedral is very noble, with many remarkable monuments-The library is in the chapter-house-On the table lay the Nuremberg Chronicle, I think, of the first editions. We went to the china warehouse-The cathedral has a cloister-The long aisle is, in my opinion, neither so wide nor so high as that of Lichfield.

Friday, 16th September.-We went to Hagley, where we were disappointed of the respect and kindness that we expected 9.

5 [The master of Pembroke College, Oxford; who was also rector of St. Chads, in Shrewsbury. DUPPA.]

[There must have been some unexplained reason why they left the straight high-road from Bridgenorth to Hartlebury, through Kidderminster, to call at the little village of Kinver.-ED.]

7 [It was here that Johnson had as much wallfruit as he wished, and, as he told Mrs. Thrale, for the only time in his life.-DUPPA. See ante, p. 209. It seems they spent here Wednesday, the 14th Sept.-ED.]

8 [The first edition was printed July 12, 1493. The authour, or rather compiler of this chronicle, was one Hartman Schedel, of Nuremberg, a physician.-DUPPA.]

9 [This visit was not to Lord Lyttelton, but to his uncle [called Billy Lyttelton, afterwards, by successive creations, Lord Westcote, and Lord Lyttelton], the father of the present lord, who lived at a house called Little Hagley.-DUPPA, This gentleman was an intimate friend of Mr. Thrale, and had some years before invited Johnson (through Mrs. Thrale) to visit him at Hagley, ante, p. 277.-ED.]

Saturday, 17th September.-We saw the house and park, which equalled my expectation-The house is one square mass -The offices are below-The rooms of elegance on the first floor, with two stories of bedchambers, very well disposed above itThe bedchambers have low windows, which abates the dignity of the house-The park has an artificial ruin, and wants water; there is, however, one temporary cascade 1-From the farthest hill there is a very wide prospect.

Sunday, 18th September.-I went to church-The church is, externally, very mean, and is therefore diligently hidden by a plantation-There are in it several modern monuments of the Lytteltons.

There dined with us Lord Dudley, and Sir Edward Lyttelton, of Staffordshire, and his lady-They were all persons of agreeable conversation.

I found time to reflect on my birthday, and offered a prayer, which I hope was heard.

through his shops-I could not distinctly see his enginery-Twelve dozen of buttons for three shillings-Spoons struck at once. Wednesday, 21st September.-Wheeler came to us again-We came easily to Woodstock.

Thursday, 22d September.-We saw Blenheim and Woodstock park-The park contains two thousand five hundred acres; about four square miles. It has red deerMr. Bryant showed me the library with great civility-Durandi Rationale, 1459 Lascaris' Grammar of the first edition, well printed, but much less than later editions The first Batrachomyomachia -The duke sent Mr. Thrale partridges and fruit-At night we came to Oxford.

Friday, 23d September.-We visited Mr. Coulson-The ladies wandered about the university.

Saturday, 24th September.-Ka-We dine 8

5 [This is a work written by William Durand, Bishop of Mende, and printed on vellum, in folio, by Fust and Schoeffer, in Mentz, 1459. It is the third book that is known to be printed with a date, and is considered as a curious and extraordinary specimen of early printing. An imperfect copy was sold at Dr. Askew's sale, Feb. 22, 1775, for

sixty-one pounds, to Mr. Elmsly, the bookseller. DUPPA.]

Monday, 19th September.-We made haste away from a place where all were offended In the way we visited the Leasowes-It was rain, yet we visited all the waterfalls-There are, in one place, fourteen falls in a short line-It is the next place to Ilam gardens-Poor Shenstone never 6 [Dr. Johnson, in another column of his Diatasted his pension-It is not very well prov-ry, has put down, in a note, "First printed book ed that any pension was obtained for him in Greek, Lascaris's Grammar, 4to. Mediolani, -I am afraid that he died of misery. 1476." The imprint of this book is, Mediolani Impressum per Magistrum Dionysium Pa

We came to Birmingham, and I sent for Wheeler 3, whom I found well.

ravisinum. M.CCCC.LXXVI. Die xxx Jan

Tuesday, 20th September.-We break-uarii. This edition is very rare, and it is probafasted with Wheeler, and visited the manu- ble that Dr. Johnson saw it now for the first time. facture of Papier mache―The paper which A copy was purchased for the king's library at they use is smooth whited brown; the var- Dr. Askew's sale, 1775, for twenty-one pounds nish is polished with rotten stone-Wheeler ten shillings. gave me a teaboard-We then went to Boulton's 4, who, with great civility, led us

1 ["He was enraged at artificial ruins and temporary cascades, so that I wonder at his leaving his opinion of them dubious; besides, he hated the Lytteltons, and would rejoice in an opportunity of insulting them."-Piozzi MS.-See post, sub 1781, the Life of Lyttelton.-ED.]

["Mrs. Lyttelton, ci-devant Caroline Bristow, forced me to play at whist against my liking, and her husband took away Johnson's candle that he wanted to read by at the other end of the room. Those, I trust, were the offences."Piozzi MS.]

This was the first book that was ever printed in the Greek character. The first book printed in the English language was the Historyes of Troye, printed in 1471; an imperfect copy of which was put up to public sale in 1812, when there was a competition amongst men eminent for learning, rank, and fortune; and, according to their estimation of its value, it was sold for the sum of 10607. 108.-DUPPA.]

The

7 [The Battle of the Frogs and Mice. first edition was printed by Laonicus Cretensis, 1486. This book consists of forty-one pages, small quarto, and the verses are printed with red and black ink alternately. A copy was sold at Dr. Askew's sale, 1775, for fourteen guineas.DUPPA.]

3 [Dr. Benjamin Wheeler; he was a native of Oxford, and originally on the foundation of Trinity 8 ["Of the dinner at University College I reCollege; afterwards he became a Fellow of Mag-member nothing, unless it was there that Mr. dalene College, Canon of Christ Church, and Re- Vansittart, a flourishing sort of character, showed gius Professor of Divinity. He took his degree of off his graceful form by fencing with Mr. Seward, A. M. Nov. 14, 1758, and D. D. July 6, 1770; who joined us at Oxford. We had a grand dinand was a man of extensive learning. Dr. John-ner at Queen's College, and Dr. Johnson made son, in his letters to Mrs. Thrale, styles him "My learned friend, the man with whom I most delighted to converse."-Lett.-DUPPA.]

4 [See post, 22d March, 1776.-ED.]

Miss Thrale and me observe the ceremony of the grace cup; but I have but a faint remembrance of it, and can in nowise tell who invited us, or how we came by our academical honour of hearing

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68 MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, 30th August, 1774.

"You have given me an inscription for a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, in which you, in a short and striking manner, point

our healths drank in form, and I half believe in Latin."-Piozzi MS. The Editor suspects that Mrs. Piozzi, writing after a lapse of forty years, mentioned Queen's by mistake for University College.-ED.]

1 [Mr. Coulson was a senior Fellow of University College; in habit and appearance somewhat resembling Johnson himself, and was considered in his time as an Oxford character. He took his degree of A. M. April 12, 1746. After this visit,

Dr. Johnson told Mrs. Thrale that he was the man

designated in the Rambler, under the name of Gelidus the philosopher.-DUPPA. It was Mrs. Piozzi's confusion of names, as she herself admits in her MS. letters to Mr. Duppa, which gave rise to the unfounded idea that Gelidus was meant for Professor Colson, of Cambridge (See ante, p. 38 and 88); Mrs. Piozzi meant Mr. Coulson, Fellow of. University; but even as to this Mr. Coulson, of Oxford, Mrs. Piozzi must have been in some degree of error. Coulson was a humourist, and Johnson may have caught some hints from him; but the greater number of the points of the character of Gelidus could have no resemblance to him. Lord Stowell informs the editor that he was very eccentric. He would on a fine day hang out of the college windows his various pieces of apparel to air, which used to be universally answered by the young men hanging out from all the other windows quilts, carpets, rags, and every kind of trash, and this was called an illumination. His notions of the eminence and importance of his academic situation were so peculiar, that, when he afterwards accepted a college living, he expressed to Lord Stowell his doubts whether, after living so long in the great world, he might not grow weary of the comparative retirement of a country parish.-ED.]

2 [See ante, p.,298 and 299, n. The distemper was no doubt a tendency to depression of spirits, which Dr. Johnson alludes to in the last cited passage.-ED.]

of the dissolution of the parliament 3-We went home.

out her hard fate. But you will be pleased to keep in mind, that my picture is a representation of a particular scene in her history

her being forced to resign her crown, while she was imprisoned in the castle of Lochlevin. I must, therefore, beg that you will be kind enough to give me an inscription suited to that particular scene; or determine which of the two formerly transmitted to you is the best; and at any rate, favour me with an English translation. It will be doubly kind if you comply with my request speedily.

"Your critical notes on the specimen of Lord Hailes's 'Annals of Scotland' are excellent. I agreed with you on every one of them. He himself objected only to the alteration of free to brave, in the passage where he says that Edward 'departed with the glory due to the conqueror of a free people." He says, to call the Scots brave would only add to the glory of their conqueror. You will make allowance for the national zeal of our annalist. I now send a few more leaves of the Annals, which I hope you will peruse, and return with oboccasion. Lord Hailes writes to me thus: servations, as you did upon the former Mr. Boswell will be pleased to express the grateful sense which Sir David Dalrymple has of Dr. Johnson's attention to his little specimen. The further specimen will show, that

• Even in an Edward he can see desert.'

6

"It gives me much pleasure to hear that intended. You have been in a mistake in a republication of Isaac Walton's Lives is thinking that Lord Hailes had it in view. I remember one morning, while he sat with you in my house, he said, that there should be a new edition of Walton's Lives; and you said that they should be benoted a little.' This was all that passed on that subject. You must, therefore, inform Dr. Horne, that he may resume his plan. I enclose a note concerning it; and if Dr. Horne will write to me, all the attention that I can give shall be cheerfully bestowed upon what I think a pious work, the preservation and elucidation of Walton, by whose writings I have been most pleasingly edified."

"C MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, 16th Sept. 1774. "Wales has probably detained you longer than I supposed. You will have become 3 [Dissolved the 30th September, 1774.—ED.]

quite a mountaineer, by visiting Scotland one year and Wales another. You must next go to Switzerland. Cambria will complain, if you do not honour her also with some remarks. And I find concessere columnæ, the booksellers expect another book. I am impatient to see your Tour to Scotland and the Hebrides.' Might you not send me a copy by the post as soon as it is printed off?"

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"London, 1st Oct. 1774. "DEAR SIR,-Yesterday I returned from my Welsh journey. I was sorry to leave my book suspended so long; but having an opportunity of seeing, with so much convenience, a new part of the island, I could not reject it. I have been in five of the six counties of North Wales; and have seen St. Asaph and Bangor, the two seats of their bishops; have been upon Penmaenmaur and Snowdon, and passed over into Anglesea. But Wales is so little different from England, that it offers nothing to the speculation of the traveller.

"When I came home, I found several of your papers, with some pages of Lord Hailes's Annals, which I will consider. I am in haste to give you some account of myself, lest you should suspect me of negligence in the pressing business which I find recommended to my care, and which I knew nothing of till now, when all care is vain 1. "In the distribution of my books, I purpose to follow your advice, adding such as shall occur to me. I am not pleased with your notes of remembrance added to your names, for I hope I shall not easily forget them.

"I have received four Erse books, without any direction, and suspect that they are intended for the Oxford library. If that is the intention, I think it will be proper to add the metrical psalms, and whatever else is printed in Erse, that the present may be complete. The donor's name should be

told.

"I wish you could have read the book before it was printed, but our distance does not easily permit it.

"I am sorry Lord Hailes does not intend to publish Walton; I am afraid it will not be done so well, if it be done at all.

Parliament having been dissolved, and his friend Mr. Thrale, who was a steady supporter of government, having again to encounter the storm of a contested election, he wrote a short political pamphlet, entitled “The Patriot*,” addressed to the electors of Great Britain; a title which, to factious men who consider a patriot only as an opposer of the measures of government, will appear strangely misapplied. It was, however, written with energetick vivacity; and, except those passages in which it endeavours to vindicate the glaring outrage of the house of commons in the case of the Middlesex election, and to justify the attempt to reduce our fellow-subjects in America to unconditional submission, it contained an admirable display of the properties of a real patriot, in the original and genuine sense; a sincere, steady, rational, and unbiassed friend to the interests and prosperity of his king and country. It must be acknowledged, however, that both in this and his two former pamphlets, there was, amidst many powerful arguments, not only a considerable portion of sophistry, but a contemptuous ridicule of his opponents, which was very provoking.

"TO MR. PERKINS 2.

"25th October, 1774.

SIR,-You may do me a very great favour. Mrs. Williams, a gentlewoman whom you may have seen at Mr. Thrale's, is a petitioner for Mr. Hetherington's charity; petitions are this day issued at Christ's hospital.

"I am a bad manager of business in a crowd; and if I should send a mean man, he may be put away without his errand. I must, therefore, entreat that you will go, and ask for a petition for Anna Williams, whose paper of inquiries was delivered with answers at the counting-house of the hospital on Thursday the 20th. My servant will attend you thither, and bring the petition home when you have it.

"The petition which they are to give us, is a form which they deliver to every peti

2 Mr. Perkins was for a number of years the worthy superintendent of Mr. Thrale's great brewery, and after his death became one of the proprietors of it; and now resides in Mr. Thrale's house in Southwark, which was the scene of so many literary meetings, and in which he continues the liberal hospitality for which it was eminent. Dr. Johnson esteemed him much. He hung up ble mezzotinto of Dr. Johnson, by Doughty; and when Mrs. Thrale asked him somewhat flippantly,

"I purpose now to drive the book for ward. Make my compliments to Mrs. Bos-in the counting-house a fine proof of the admirawell, and let me hear often from you. I am, dear sir, your affectionate humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

1 I had written to him, to request his interposition in behalf of a convict, who I thought was very unjustly condemned.-BosWELL.

66

Why do you put him up in the counting-house?" He answered, "Because, madam, I wish to have one wise man there." "Sir (said Johnson), I thank you. It is a very handsome compliment, and I believe you speak sincerely."-BOSWELL

tioner, and which the petitioner is after- | wish that they might be given before they wards to fill up, and return to them again. are bought; but I am afraid that Mr. StraThis we must have, or we cannot proceed han will send to you and to the booksellers at according to their directions. You need, I the same time. Trade is as diligent as believe, only ask for a petition; if they in- courtesy. I have mentioned all that you quire for whom you ask, you can tell recommended. Pray make my compliments them. to Mrs. Boswell and the younglings. The club has, I think, not yet met.

"I beg pardon for giving you this trouble; but it is a matter of great importance. I am, sir, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"London, 27th Oct. 1774. "Dear sir,—There has appeared lately in the papers an account of the boat overset between Mull and Ulva, in which many passengers were lost, and among them Maclean of Col. We, you know, were once drowned 1; I hope, therefore, that the story is either wantonly or erroneously told. Pray satisfy me by the next post.

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"Tell me, and tell me honestly, what you think and what others say of our travels. Shall we touch the continent 3?-I am, dear sir, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

In his manuscript diary of this is the following entry:

"I have printed two hundred and forty pages. I am able to do nothing much worth doing to dear Lord Hailes's book. II will, however, send back the sheets; and hope, by degrees, to answer all your reasonable expectations.

"Mr. Thrale has happily surmounted a very violent and acrimonious opposition; but all joys have their abatement: Mrs. Thrale has fallen from her horse, and hurt herself very much. The rest of our friends, I believe, are well. My compliments to Mrs. Boswell.-I am, sir, your most affectionate servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

This letter, which shows his tender concern for an amiable young gentleman to whom he had been very much obliged in the Hebrides, I have inserted according to its date, though before receiving it I had informed him of the melancholy event that the young Laird of Col was unfortunately drowned.

"26th Nov. 1774.

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR,-Last night I corrected the last page of our Journey to the Hebrides.' The printer has detained it all this time, for I had, before I went into Wales, written all except two sheets. The Patriot' was called for by my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday, and I have heard little of it. So vague are conjectures at a distance 2. As soon as I can, I will take care that copies be sent to you, for I would

In the newspapers.-BosWELL.

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2 Alluding to a passage in a letter of mine, where, speaking of his Journey to the Hebrides," I say, "But has not The Patriot' been an interruption, by the time taken to write it, and the time luxuriously spent in listening to its applauses?"-BOSWELL.

year, there

"Nov. 27. Advent Sunday. I considered that this day, being the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, was a proper time for a new course of life. I began to read the Greek Testament regularly at one hundred and sixty verses every Sunday. This day I began the Acts.

"In this week I read Virgil's Pastorals. learned to repeat the Pollio and Gallus. I read carelessly the first Georgick.”

Such evidences of his unceasing ardour, both for "divine and human lore," when advanced into his sixty-fifth year, and notwithstanding his many disturbances from disease, must make us at once honour his spirit, and lament that it should be so grievously clogged by its material tegument. It is remarkable that he was very fond of the precision which calculation produces. Thus we find in one of his manuscript diaries, "12 pages in 4to. Gr. Test. and 30 pages in Beza's folio, comprise the whole in 40 days."

"DR. JOHNSON TO JOHN HOOLE, ESQ.
"19th December, 1774.

"DEAR SIR, I have returned your play 5, which you will find underscored with red, where there was a word which I did not like. The red will be washed off with a little water.

"The plot is so well framed, the intricacy so artful, and the disentanglement so easy, the suspense so affecting, and the passionate parts so properly interposed, that I have no doubt of its success.-I am, sir, your most humble servant,

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