Tuesday, Sept. 13. - We came to Lord Sandys's, at Ombersley, where we were treated with great civility (1) — The house is large- The hall is a very noble room.

Thursday, Sept. 15. 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 edition. 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, Sept. 16. — We went to Hagley, where we were disappointed of the respect and kindness that we expected. (2) Saturday, Sept. 17. We saw the house and park, which equalled my expectation - The house is one square massThe offices are below. The rooms of elegance on the first floor, with two stories of bedchambers, very well disposed above it The bedchambers have low windows, which abates the dignity of the house — The park has one artificial ruin, and wants water; there is, however, one temporary cascade (3) — From the farthest hill there is a very wide prospect.

Sunday, Sept. 18. 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. Monday, Sept. 19. - We made haste away from a place where all were offended (4) — 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

(1) It was here that Johnson had as much wall-fruit as he wished, and, as he told Mrs. Thrale, for the only time in his life. — D.

(2) 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. - D. This gentleman was an intimate friend of Mr. Thrale, and had some years before invited Johnson (through Mrs. Thrale) to visit him at Hagley, antè, Vol. III. p. 162. — C.

(3) 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 at an opportunity of insulting them. — P.

(4) 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.-P.

the next place to Ilam gardens Poor Shenstone never tasted his pension - It is not very well proved that any pension was obtained for him (1) — I am afraid that he died of misery. We came to Birmingham, and I sent for Wheeler (2), whom I found well.

Tuesday, Sept. 20. We breakfasted with Wheeler, and visited the manufacture of Papier maché- The paper which they use is smooth whited brown; the varnish is polished with rotten stone- Wheeler gave me a teaboard We then went to Boulton's, who, with great civility, led us through his shops I could not distinctly see his enginery Twelve dozen of buttons for three shillings- Spoons struck at once. Wednesday, Sept. 21. Wheeler came to us again - We came easily to Woodstock.

Thursday, Sept. 22. We saw Blenheim and Woodstock park The park contains two thousand five hundred acres ; about four square miles. It has red deer - Mr. Bryant showed me the library with great civility - Durandi Rationale, 1459 (3) - 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, Sept. 23. - We visited Mr. Coulson - The ladies wandered about the university.

Saturday, Sept. 24.-Ka0.-We dine (4) with Mr. Coulson (5)

(1) [Lord Loughborough applied to Lord Bute, to procure Shenstone a pension; but that it was ever asked of the king is not certain. He was made to believe that the patent was actually made out, when his death rendered unnecessary any further concern of his friends for his future ease and tranquillity.

ANDERSON.]

(2) Dr. Benjamin Wheeler; he was a native of Oxford, and originally on the foundation of Trinity College. He took his degree of A. M. Nov. 14. 1758, and D. D. July 6. 1770; and was a man of extensive learning. Dr. Johnson styles him " My learned friend, the man with whom I most delighted to converse."-Letters.-D.

(3) 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. — D.

(4) Of the dinner at University College I remember nothing, unless it was there that Mr. Vansittart, a flourishing sort of character, showed off his graceful form by fencing with Mr. Seward, who joined us at Oxford. We had a grand dinner at Queen's College, and Dr. Johnson made 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 our healths drank in form, and I half believe in Latin. - P.

(5) Mr. Coulson was a senior Fellow of University College. Lord Stowell informs me that he was very eccentric. He would on a fine day hang out

Vansittart told me his distemper Afterwards we were at Burke's [at Beaconsfield], where we heard of the dissolution of the parliament (1) - We went home.

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. -C.

(1) Dr. Johnson had always a very great personal regard and particular affection for Mr. Burke; and when at this time the general election broke up the delightful society in which we had spent some time at Beaconsfield, Dr. Johnson shook the hospitable master of the house kindly by the hand, and said, "Farewell, my dear Sir, and remember that I wish you all the success which ought to be wished you, which can possibly be wished you, indeed, by an honest man."— P.

CHAPTER VII.

1774-1775.

Mr. Thrale's Political Position.—Johnson's "Patriot."

Lessons." Case of Dr. Memis. · Lord Hailes's

"Annals."

Mary Queen of Scots. - American

sonal Courage.

Letter to Macpherson.

Foote. Publishes

the Western Islands." · Mr. Knox.

66

Journey to

Mr. Tytler. Mr. Windham. Irish and Scotch Impudence compared. Ossian Controversy.— Visit to Oxford.

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 energetic 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 ad

mirable 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.

LETTER 193. TO MR. PERKINS. (')

"October 25. 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.

(1) 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 in the counting-house a fine proof of the admirable mezzotinto of Dr. Johnson, by Doughty; and when Mrs. Thrale asked him somewhat flippantly, "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."