vol. i.

p. 27.

will try to bring you the dimensions of the great bull. The Letters, skies and the ground are all so wet, that I have been very little abroad; and Mrs. Aston is from home, so that I have no motive to walk. When she is at home, she lives on the top of Stowhill, and I commonly climb up to see her once a day. There is nothing there now but the empty nest.

"To write to you about Lichfield is of no use, for you never saw Stow-pool, nor Borowcop-hill. I believe you may find Borow or Boroughcop-hill in my Dictionary, under cop or cob. Nobody here knows what the name imports."

"Lichfield, 11th July, 1770.

"Mr. Greene', the apothecary, has found a book which tells who paid levies in our parish, and how much they paid above an hundred years ago. Do you not think we study this book hard? Nothing is like going to the bottom of things. Many families that paid the parish rates are now extinct, like the race of Hercules. Pulvis et umbra sumus. What is nearest us touches us most. The passions rise higher at domestick than at imperial tragedies. I am not wholly unaffected by the revolutions of Sadler-street; nor can forbear to mourn a little when old names vanish away, and new come into their place."

"Ashbourne, 20th July, 1770. "I came hither on Wednesday, having staid one night at a lodge in the forest of Nedewood. Dr. Taylor's is a very pleasant house, with a lawn and a lake, and twenty deer and five fawns upon the lawn. Whether I shall by any light see Matlock I do not yet know.

p. 31.

"That Baretti's book would please you all I made no doubt. p. 32. I know not whether the world has ever seen such Travels before. Those whose lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who know how to write very seldom ramble. If Sidney had gone, as he desired, the great voyage with Drake, there would probably have been such a narrative as would have equally satisfied the poet and the philosopher."

"Ashbourne, 23d July, 1770.

"I have seen the great bull; and very great he is. I have seen likewise his heir apparent, who promises to inherit all the bulk and all the virtues of his sire. I have seen the man who

[See post, 23d March, 1776.-ED.]

2 [Dr. Taylor had a remarkable fine breed of cattle; and one bull, in particular, was of celebrated beauty and size.-ED.]

p. 33.

vol. i.

p. 33.

Letters, offered an hundred guineas for the young bull, while he was yet little better than a calf. Matlock, I am afraid, I shall not see, but I purpose to see Dovedale; and, after all this seeing, I hope to see you."]

"TO THE REV. DR. JOSEPH WARTON.

"21st Sept. 1770. "DEAR SIR,—I am revising my edition of Shakspeare, and remember that I formerly misrepresented your opinion of Lear. Be pleased to write the paragraph as you would have it, and send it. If you have any remarks of your own upon that or any other play, I shall gladly receive them.

"Make my compliments to Mrs. Warton. I sometimes think of wandering for a few days to Winchester, but am apt to delay. I am, sir, your most humble servant,

66

SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO MR. FRANCIS BARBER, AT MRS. CLAPP'S, BISHOP. STORTFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE.

"London, 25th Sept. 1770. "DEAR FRANCIS,-I am at last sat down to write to you, and should very much blame myself for having neglected you so long, if I did not impute that and many other failings to want of health. I hope not to be so long silent again. I am very well satisfied with your progress, if you can really perform the exercises which you are set; and I hope Mr. Ellis does not suffer you to impose on him, or on yourself.

"Make my compliments to Mr. Ellis, and to Mrs. Clapp, and Mr. Smith.

"Let me know what English books you read for your entertainment. You can never be wise unless you love reading. "Do not imagine that I shall forget or forsake you; for if, when I examine you, I find that you have not lost your time, you shall want no encouragement from yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."

TO THE SAME.

"7th December, 1770. "DEAR FRANCIS,-I hope you mind your business. I design you shall stay with Mrs. Clapp these holidays. If you are invited out you may go, if Mr. Ellis gives leave. I have ordered you some clothes, which you will receive, I believe, next week. My compliments to Mrs. Clapp, and to Mr. Ellis, and Mr. Smith, &c.-I am your affectionate "SAM. JOHNSON."

During this year there was a total cessation of all

correspondence between Dr. Johnson and me, without any coldness on either side, but merely from procrastination, continued from day to day; and as I was not in London, I had no opportunity of enjoying his company and recording his conversation'.

In 1771 he published another political pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands," in which, upon materials furnished to him by ministry, and upon general topicks expanded in his rich style, he successfully endeavoured to persuade the nation that it was wise and laudable to suffer the question of right to remain undecided, rather than involve our country in another war. It has been suggested by some, with what truth I shall not take upon me to decide, that he rated the consequence of those islands to Great Britain too low. But however this may be, every humane mind must surely applaud the earnestness with which he averted the calamity of war; a calamity so dreadful, that it is astonishing how civilised, nay, christian nations, can deliberately continue to renew it. His description of its miseries in this pamphlet is one of the finest pieces of eloquence in the English language. Upon this occasion, too, we find Johnson lashing the party in opposition with unbounded severity, and making the fullest use of what he ever reckoned a most effectual argumentative instrument-contempt. His character of their very able mysterious champion, Junius, is executed with all the force of his genius, and finished with the highest care. He seems to have exulted in sallying forth to single combat against the boasted and formidable hero, who bade defiance to " principalities and powers, and the rulers of this world."

[Here Mr. Boswell had placed Dr. Maxwell's "Collectanea," which the editor has removed to vol. 1, p. 373.—ED.]

Piozzi,

p. 31.

[He often delighted his imagination with the thoughts of having destroyed Junius. One day, Mrs. Thrale had received a remarkably fine Stilton cheese as a present from some person who had packed and directed it carefully, but without mentioning whence it came. Mr. Thrale, desirous to know who they were obliged to, asked every friend as they came in, but nobody owned it. Dr. Johnson at last excited a general laugh, by saying, "Depend upon it, sir, it was sent by Junius."]

This pamphlet, it is observable, was softened in one particular, after the first edition; for the conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's character stood thus: "Let him not, however, be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally possessed: could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransom, he could have counted it." Which, instead of retaining its sly sharp point, was reduced to a mere flat unmeaning expression, or, if I may use the word -truism: "He had powers not universally possessed: and if he sometimes erred, he was likewise sometimes right."

"DR. JOHNSON TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ.

"March 20, 1771. "DEAR SIR,-After much lingering of my own, and much of the ministry, I have, at length, got out my paper. But delay is not yet at an end: Not many had been dispersed, before Lord North ordered the sale to stop. His reasons I do not distinctly know. You may try to find them in the perusal. Before his order, a sufficient number were dispersed to do all the mischief, though, perhaps, not to make all the sport that might be expected from it.

"Soon after your departure, I had the pleasure of finding all

"Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands."-Bos

WELL.

2 By comparing the first with the subsequent editions, this curious circumstance of ministerial authourship may be discovered.-BOSWELL.

It can only be discovered (as Mr. Bindley observes to me) by him who possesses a copy of the first edition issued out before the sale was stopped.MALONE.

the danger pass with which your navigation' was threatened. I hope nothing happens at home to abate your satisfaction; but that Lady Rothes, and Mrs. Langton, and the young ladies, are all well.

"I was last night at the Club. Dr. Percy has written a long ballad in many fits: it is pretty enough. He has printed, and will soon publish it. Goldsmith is at Bath, with Lord Clare". At Mr. Thrale's, where I am now writing, all are well. I am, dear sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

[One evening in the oratorio season of the year Piozzi, 1771, Dr. Johnson went with Mrs. Piozzi to Covent- P. 55,56. garden theatre; and though he was for the most part an exceeding bad playhouse companion, as his person drew people's eyes upon the box, and the loudness of his voice made it difficult to hear any body but himself, he sat surprisingly quiet, and Mrs. Piozzi flattered herself that he was listening to the musick. When they got home, however, he repeated these verses, which he said he had made at the oratorio:

IN THEATRO.

Tertii verso quater orbe lustri,

Quid theatrales tibi, Crispe, pompæ!

Quam decet canos male litteratos

Sera voluptas!

1

[Probably some canal or work of a similar nature in which Mr. Langton was interested in Lincolnshire. What the danger was which threatened it is not now recollected.-ED.]

2 Mr. Langton married, May 24, 1770, Jane, the daughter of Lloyd, Esq. and widow of John, eighth Earl of Rothes, many years commander in chief of the forces in Ireland, who died in 1767.-MALONE. [It was, as Mr. Chalmers observes, a saying about that time, "Married a Countess Dowager of Rothes! Why, every body marries a Countess Dowager of Rothes!" And there were, in fact, about 1772, three ladies of that name married to second husbands. Mary Lloyd married to Mr. Langton; Jane Maitland, widow of John, ninth Earl of Rothes, married the Honourable P. Maitland, seventh son of the fifth Earl of Lauderdale; and Lady Jane Leslie, Countess of Rothes, widow of John Raymond Evelyn, Esq. remarried to Sir Lucas Pepys.-ED.] 3 [Robert Nugent, an Irish gentleman, who married (the second of three wives) the sister and heiress of Secretary Craggs, by whom he acquired a considerable fortune. He was created, in 1767, Baron Nugent and Viscount Clare, and in 1777, Earl Nugent. His only daughter married the first Marquis of Buckingham, on whose second son the title of Baron Nugent devolved. Lord Nugent wrote some odes and light pieces, which had some merit and a great vogue. He died in 1788. Goldsmith addressed to him his lively verses called "The Haunch of Venison." The characters exhibited in this piece are very comic, and were no doubt drawn from nature; but Goldsmith ought to have confessed that he had borrowed the idea and some of the details from Boileau.—ED.]