attention does Johnson's heart much honour. Out of many letters which Mr. Barber received from his master, he has preserved three, which he kindly gave me, and which I shall insert according to their dates.

"TO MR. FRANCIS BARBER.

"28th May, 1768. "DEAR FRANCIS,-I have been very much out of order. I am glad to hear that you are well, and design to come soon to you. I would have you stay at Mrs. Clapp's for the present, till I can determine what we shall do. Be a good boy. "My compliments to Mrs. Clapp and to Mr. Fowler. I am yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."

Soon afterwards, he supped at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in the Strand, with a company whom I collected to meet him. They were Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore, Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salisbury, Mr. Langton, Dr. Robertson the historian, Dr. Hugh Blair, and Mr. Thomas Davies, who wished much to be introduced to these eminent Scotch literati; but on the present occasion he had very little opportunity of hearing them talk, for with an excess of prudence, for which Johnson afterwards found fault with them, they hardly opened their lips, and that only to say something which they were certain would not expose them to the sword of Goliath ; such was their anxiety for their fame when in the presence of Johnson. He was this evening in remarkable vigour of mind, and eager to exert himself in conversation, which he did with great readiness and fluency; but I am sorry to find that I have preserved but a small part of what passed.

He allowed high praise to Thomson as a poet; but when one of the company said he was also a very

and Francis quarrelled, as was very frequent, the lady would complain to the doctor, adding, "This is your scholar, on whose education you have spent 3001" Dr. Johnson, in the conclusion of the letter, calls him a "boy," but sixteenyears had already elapsed since he entered Johnson's own service. ED.]

good man, our moralist contested this with great warmth, accusing him of gross sensuality and licentiousness of manners. I was very much afraid that in writing Thomson's life, Dr. Johnson would have treated his private character with a stern severity, but I was agreeably disappointed; and I may claim a little merit in it, from my having been at pains to send him authentick accounts of the affectionate and generous conduct of that poet to his sisters, one of whom, the wife of Mr. Thomson, schoolmaster at Lanark, I knew, and was presented by her with three of his letters, one of which Dr. Johnson has inserted in his life.

He was vehement against old Dr. Mounsey', of Chelsea College, as "a fellow who swore and talked loosely." "I have often been in his company," said Dr. Percy, "and never heard him swear or talk loosely.” Mr. Davies, who sat next to Dr. Percy, having after this had some conversation aside with him, made a discovery which, in his zeal to pay court to Dr. Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table: "O, sir, I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard Mounsey swear or talk loosely, for he tells me he never saw him but at the Duke of Northumberland's table." “And so, sir," said Dr. Johnson loudly to Dr. Percy, “you would shield this man from the charge of swearing and talking loosely, because he did not do so at the Duke of Northumberland's table. Sir, you might as well tell us that you had seen him hold up his hand

1 Messenger Mounsey, M. D. died at his apartments in Chelsea College. Dec. 26, 1788, at the great age of ninety-five. An extraordinary direction in his will may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 50. p. ii. p. 1183.—MALONE. [The direction was, that his body should not suffer any funeral ceremony, but undergo dissection, and, after that operation, be thrown into the Thanies, or where the surgeon pleased. It is surprising, that this coarse humorist should have been an intimate friend and favourite of the elegant and pious Mrs. Montagu-ED.]

VOL. II.

F

at the Old Bailey, and he neither swore nor talked loosely; or that you had seen him in the cart at Tyburn, and he neither swore nor talked loosely. And is it thus, sir, that you presume to controvert what I have related?" Dr. Johnson's animadversion was uttered in such a manner, that Dr. Percy seemed to be displeased, and soon afterwards left the company, of which Johnson did not at that time take any

notice.

Swift having been mentioned, Johnson, as usual, treated him with little respect as an authour. Some of us endeavoured to support the Dean of St. Patrick's, by various arguments. One in particular praised his "Conduct of the Allies." JOHNSON. "Sir, his 'Conduct of the Allies' is a performance of very little ability." "Surely, sir," said Dr. Douglas, "you must allow it has strong facts '." JOHNSON. "Why yes, sir; but what is that to the merit of the composition? In the sessions-paper of the Old Bailey there are strong facts. Housebreaking is a strong fact; robbery is a strong fact; and murder is a mighty strong fact: but is great praise due to the historian of those strong facts? No, sir, Swift has told what he had to tell distinctly enough, but that is all. He had to count ten, and he has counted it right." Then recollecting that Mr. Davies, by acting as an informer, had been the occasion of his talking somewhat too harshly to his friend Dr. Percy, for which, probably, when the first ebullition was over, he felt some compunction, he took an opportunity to

My respectable friend, upon reading this passage, observed that he probably must have said not simply "strong facts," but "strong facts well arranged.' His lordship, however, knows too well the value of written documents to insist on setting his recollection against my notes taken at the time. He does not attempt to traverse the record. The fact, perhaps, may have been, either that the additional words escaped me in the noise of a numerous company, or that Dr. Johnson, from his impetuosity, and eagerness to seize an opportunity to make a lively retort, did not allow Dr. Douglas to finish his sentence. BOSWELL.

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give him a hit so added, with a preparatory laugh, Why, sir, Tom Davies might have written the Conduct of the Allies.'" Poor Tom being thus suddenly dragged into ludicrous notice in presence of the Scottish doctors, to whom he was ambitious of appearing to advantage, was grievously mortified. Nor did his punishment rest here; for upon subsequent occasions, whenever he, "statesman all o'er '," assumed a strutting importance, I used to hail him -"the Authour of the Conduct of the Allies."

When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning, I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening. "Well," said he, "we had good talk." BOSWELL. "Yes, sir, you tossed and gored several persons.'

The late Alexander Earl of Eglintoune, who loved wit more than wine, and men of genius more than sycophants, had a great admiration of Johnson; but from the remarkable elegance of his own manners, was, perhaps, too delicately sensible of the roughness which sometimes appeared in Johnson's behaviour. One evening about this time, when his lordship did me the honour to sup at my lodgings with Dr. Robertson, and several other men of literary distinction, he regretted that Johnson had not been educated with more refinement, and lived more in polished society. "No, no, my lord," said Signor Baretti, "do with him what you would, he would always have been a bear." "True," answered the earl,

1 See the hard drawing of him in Churchill's Rosciad.-BOSWELL. 2 [Tenth earl, who was shot, in 1769, by Mungo Campbell, whose fowlingpiece Lord Eglintoune attempted to seize. To this nobleman Boswell was indebted, as he himself said, to his early introduction to the circle of the great, the gay, and the ingenious. Boswell thus mentions himself in a tale called The Cub at Newmarket," published in 1762:

Lord Eglintoune, who loves, you know,

A little dish of whim or so,

By chance a curious cub had got

On Scotia's mountains newly caught.

Gent. Mag. 1795, 471.—En ]

Pearson
MSS.

with a smile, "but he would have been a dancing bear."

To obviate all the reflections which have gone round the world to Johnson's prejudice, by applying to him the epithet of a bear, let me impress upon my readers a just and happy saying of my friend Goldsmith, who knew him well:-"Johnson, to be sure, has a roughness in his manner: but no man alive has a more tender heart. He has nothing of the bear but his skin'”

[DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. LUCY PORTER.

"18th June, 1-768.

"MY LOVE,—It gives me great pleasure to find that you are so well satisfied with what little things it has been in my power to send you. I hope you will always employ me in any office that can conduce to your convenience.

"My health is, I thank God, much better, but it is yet very weak ; and very little things put it into a troublesome state; but still I hope all will be well. Pray for me.

My friends at Lichfield must not think that I forget them. Neither Mrs. Cobb, nor Mrs. Adey, nor Miss Adey, nor Miss Seward, nor Miss Vise, are to suppose that I have lost all memory of their kindness. Mention me to them when you see them. I hear Mr. Vise has been lately very much in danger. I hope he is better.

"When you write again, let me know how you go on, and what company you keep, and what you do all day. I love to think on you, but do not know when I shall see you. Pray, write very often. I am, dearest, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."]

In 1769, so far as I can discover, the publick was favoured with nothing of Johnson's composition, either for himself or any of his friends 2. His "Medita

[It was drolly said, in reference to the pensions granted to Doctors Shebbeare and Johnson, that the king had pensioned a She-bear and a He-bear.ED.]

A difference took place in the March of this year between Mr. Thrale and Sir Joseph Mawbey, his colleague, in the representation of Southwark, when Sir Joseph endeavoured to defend himself from some anti-popular step he had taken, by inculpating Mr. Thrale; the affair is related in the Gentleman's