On Tuesday, April 18, he and I were engaged to go with Sir Joshua Reynolds to dine with Mr. Cambridge, at his beautiful villa on the banks of the Thames, near Twickenham.' Dr. Johnson's tardiness was such, that Sir Joshua, who had an appointment at Richmond early in the day, was obliged to go by himself on horseback, leaving his coach to Johnson and me. Johnson was in such good spirits, that every thing seemed to please him as we drove along.

Our conversation turned on a variety of subjects. He thought portrait-painting an improper employment for a woman. "Public practice of any art," he observed, "and staring in men's faces, is very indelicate in a female." I happened to start a question, whether when a man knows that some of his intimate friends are invited to the house of another friend, with whom they are all equally intimate, he may join them without an invitation. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; he is not to go when he is not invited. They may be invited on purpose to abuse him," smiling.

As a curious instance how little a man knows, or wishes to know, his own character in the world, or rather as a convincing proof that Johnson's roughness was only external, and did not proceed from his heart, I insert the following dialogue. JOHNSON. "It is wonderful, Sir, how rare a quality goodhumour is in life. We meet with very few good-humoured men." I mentioned four of our friends, none of whom he would allow to be good-humoured. One was acid, another was muddy, and to others he had objections which have escaped me. Then shaking his head and stretching himself at ease in

1 After the death of Richard Owen Cambridge, Sept. 17, 1802, this villa passed to his son, George Owen Cambridge, Archdeacon of Middlesex, who died in 1841: but ultimately came into the possession of Henry Bevan, Esq., whose daughter was married to Lord John Chichester, its present owner and occupant. Abridged from Rev. R. S. Cobbett's Memorials of Twickenham, 1872.-Editor.

2 This topic was probably suggested to them by Miss Reynolds, who practised that art.-Croker.

3

The acid was Beauclerk. The muddy, I fear, was the gentle Langton. -Croker.

the coach, and smiling with much complacency, he turned to me and said, "I look upon myself as a good-humoured fellow." The epithet fellow, applied to the great lexicographer, the stately moralist, the masterly critic, as if it had been Sam Johnson, a mere pleasant companion, was highly diverting; and this light notion of himself struck me with wonder. answered, also smiling, “No, no, Sir; that will not do. You are good-natured, but not good-humoured; you are irascible. You have not patience with folly and absurdity. I believe you would pardon them, if there were time to deprecate your vengeance; but punishment follows so quick after sentence, that they cannot escape."

I

I had brought with me a great bundle of Scotch magazines and newspapers, in which his "Journey to the Western Islands" was attacked in every mode; and I read a great part of them to him, knowing they would afford him entertainment. I wish the writers of them had been present; they would have been sufficiently vexed. One ludicrous imitation of his style, by Mr. Maclaurin, now one of the Scotch judges, with the title of Lord Dreghorn, was distinguished by him from the rude mass.' "This," said he, "is the best. But I could caricature my own style much better myself." He defended his remark upon the general insufficiency of education in Scotland; and confirmed to me the authenticity of his witty saying on the learning of the Scotch-" Their learning is like bread in a besieged town; every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal." "There is," said he, "in Scotland, a diffusion of learning, a certain portion of it widely and thinly spread. A merchant has as much learning as one of their clergy."

He talked of " Isaac Walton's Lives," which was one of his most favourite books. Dr. Donne's life, he said, was the most perfect of them. He observed, that "it was wonderful that Walton, who was in a very low situation of life, should have been familiarly received by so many great men, and that at a

1 The curious reader may find this burlesque piece in the Works of the late John Maclaurin, Esq., of Dreghorn, one of the senators of the College of Justice, vol. i., p. 29-31. Edinburgh, 1798.-Editor.

time when the ranks of society were kept more separate than they are now." He supposed that Walton had then given up his business as a linendraper and sempster, and was only an author;' and added, "that he was a great panegyrist." BOSWELL. "No quality will get a man more friends than a disposition to admire the qualities of others. I do not mean flattery, but a sincere admiration." JOHNSON. “Nay, Sir, flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but, in the second place, whether he thinks so or not, he certainly thinks those whom he flatters of consequence enough to be flattered."

No sooner had we made our bow to Mr. Cambridge, in his library, than Johnson ran eagerly to one side of the room, intent on poring over the backs of the books. Sir Joshua observed (aside), "He runs to the books as I do to the pictures; but I have the advantage. I can see much more of the pictures than he can of the books." Mr. Cambridge, upon this, politely said, “Dr. Johnson, I am going, with your pardon, to accuse myself, for I have the same custom which I perceive you have. But it seems odd that one should have such a

Johnson's conjecture was erroneous. Walton did not retire from business till 1643. But in 1664, Dr. King, Bishop of Chichester, in a letter prefixed to his Lives, mentions his having been familiarly acquainted with him for forty years; and in 1631 he was so intimate with Dr. Donne, that he was one of the friends who attended him on his deathbed.-7. Boswell, jun.

And, as Mr. Markland observes to me, Walton's condition in life was not very low; he was in a respectable line of business, and was well descended, and well allied: his mother was niece to Archbishop Cranmer, and his wife was the sister of Bishop Ken. But it seems to me that Johnson confounds distinction with separation of ranks. Literature has always been a passport into higher society. Walton was received, as Johnson himself was a century later, not on a footing of personal or political equality, but of social and literary intercourse.-Croker.

The first time he dined with me, he was shown into my book room, and instantly pored over the lettering of each volume within his reach. My collection of books is very miscellaneous, and I feared there might be some among them that he would not like. But seeing the number of volumes very considerable, he said, "You are an honest man to have formed so great an accumulation of knowledge."-Burney.