366. " Baiting the Bear."

Admiral Walsingham, who sometimes resided at Windsor, and sometimes in Portugal Street, frequently boasted that he was the only man to bring together miscellaneous parties, and make them all agreeable; and, indeed, there never before was so strange an assortment as I have occasionally met there. At one of his dinners, were the Duke of Cumberland (1), Dr. Johnson, Mr. Nairn, the optician, and Mr. Leoni, the singer: at another, Dr. Johnson, &c., and a young dashing officer. who determined, he whispered, to attack the old bear that we seemed all to stand in awe of. There was a good dinner, and during that important time Johnson was deaf to all impertinence. However, after the wine had passed rather freely, the young gentleman was resolved to bait him, and venture out a little further. Now, Dr. Johnson, do not look so glum, but be a little gay and lively, like others: what would you give, old gentleman, to be as young and sprightly as I am?” "Why, Sir," said he, “I think I would almost be content to be as foolish."

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Johnson, it is well known, professed to recruit his acquaintance with younger persons, and, in his latter days, I, with a few others, were more frequently honoured by his notice. At times he was very gloomy, and would exclaim, "Stay with me, for it is a comfort to me -a comfort that any feeling mind would wish to administer to a man so kind, though at times so boisterous, when he seized your hand, and repeated, "Ay, Sir, but to die and go we know not where," &c.

(1) It is possible Dr. Johnson may have been acquainted with the Hon. Robert Boyle, who took the name of Walsingham; but it is hardly possible that Dr. Johnson should have met the Duke of Cumberland at dinner without Mr. Boswell's having mentioned it. — C.

- here his morbid melancholy prevailed, and Garrick never spoke so impressively to the heart. Yet, to see him in the evening (though he took nothing stronger than lemonade), a stranger would have concluded that our morning account was a fabrication. No hour was too late to keep him from the tyranny of his own gloomy thoughts. A gentleman venturing to say to Johnson, "Sir, I wonder sometimes that you condescend so far as to attend a city club." "Sir, the great chair of a full and pleasant club is, perhaps, the throne of human felicity."

368. Lives of the Poets.

I had not the honour to be at all intimate with Johnson till about the time he began to publish his Lives of the Poets; and how he got through that arduous labour is, in some measure, still a mystery to me: he must have been greatly assisted by booksellers. (1) I had some time before lent him "Euripides" with Milton's manuscript notes: this, though he did not minutely examine (see Joddrel's "Euripides"), yet he very handsomely returned it, and mentioned it in his Life of Milton. (2) In the course of conversation one day I dropped out to him, that Lord Harborough (3) (then the Rev.) was in possession of a very valuable collection of manuscript poems, and that amongst them there were two or three in the handwriting of King James I.; that they were bound up handsomely in folio, and were entitled "Sackville's Poems." These he solicited me to borrow for him, and Lord Harborough very kindly intrusted them to me for his perusal.

(1) The original MS. is still extant, and it appears that he had very little assistance, and none at all from the booksellers. .C.

(2) "His Euripides' is, by Mr. Cradock's kindness, now in my hands: the margin is sometimes noted, but I have found nothing remarkable." — Life of Milton. — C.

(3) The Rev. Robert Sherrard, who became on the death of his elder brother, in 1770, fourth Earl of Harborough.- C.

369. Harris's Hermes. -Tristram Shandy

Harris's Hermes was mentioned. I said, "I think the book is too abstruse; it is heavy." "It is; but a work of that kind must be heavy." "A rather dull man of my acquaintance asked me,” said I, "to lend him some book to entertain him, and I offered him Harris's Hermes, and as I expected, from the title, he took it for a novel; when he returned it, I asked him how he liked it, and, what he thought of it? Why, to speak the truth,' says he, 'I was not much diverted; I think all these imitations of Tristram Shandy fall far short of the original!'" This had its effect, and almost produced from Johnson a rhinocerous laugh.

370. A rude Speech.

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One of Dr. Johnson's rudest speeches was to a pompous gentleman coming out of Lichfield cathedral, who said, "Dr. Johnson, we have had a most excellent discourse to-day!" "That may be," said Johnson; “but, it is impossible that you should know it."

Of his kindness to me during the last years of his most valuable life, I could enumerate many instances. One slight circumstance, if any were wanting, would give an excellent proof of the goodness of his heart, and that to a person whom he found in distress. In such a case he was the very last man that would have given even the least momentary uneasiness to any one, had he been aware of it. The last time I saw him was just before I went to France. He said, with a deep sigh, wish I was going with you." He had just then been disappointed of going to Italy. Of all men I ever knew, Dr. Johnson was the most instructive.

"I

PART IX.

ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON,
BY MR. WICKINS. (1)

371. Deception.

WALKING one day with him in my garden at Lichfield, we entered a small meandering shrubbery, whose vista not lengthened to the sight," gave promise of a larger extent. I observed, that he might perhaps conceive that he was entering an extensive labyrinth, but that it would prove a deception, though I hoped not an unpardonable one. "Sir," said he, " don't tell me of deception; a lie, Sir, is a lie, whether it be a lie to the eye or a lie to the ear.'

372. Urns.

Passing on we came to an urn which I had erected to the memory of a deceased friend. I asked him how he liked that urn - it was of the true Tuscan order. 66 Sir," said he, "I hate urns (2); they are nothing, they mean nothing, convey no ideas but ideas of horror - would they were beaten to pieces to pave our streets!"

373. Cold Baths.

We then came to a cold bath. I expatiated upon its salubrity. "Sir," said he, "how do you do?”

(1) Dr. Harwood informs me that Mr. Wickins was a respectable draper in Lichfield. It is very true that Dr. Johnson was accustomed to call on him during his visits to his native town. The garden attached to his house was ornamented in the manner he describes, and no doubt was ever entertained of the exactness of his anecdotes.- C.

(2) See a similar sentiment on the occasion of Mr. Myddle on's urn to himself, antè, Vol. IV. p. 2.

- C.

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Very well, I thank you, Doctor.” Then, Sir, let well enough alone, and be content. I hate immersion." Truly, as Falstaff says, the Doctor "would have a sort of alacrity at sinking." (1)

374. The Venus de' Medicis.

Upon the margin stood the Venus de' Medicis "So stands the statue that enchants the world."

"Throw her," said he, " into the pond to hide her nakedness, aud to cool her lasciviousness."

375. Arcadia.

He then, with some difficulty, squeezed himself into a root-house, when his eye caught the following lines from Parnell:

"Go search among your idle dreams,

Your busy, or your vain extremes,
And find a life of equal bliss,

Or own the next began in this."

The Doctor, however, not possessing any silvan ideas, seemed not to admit that heaven could be an Arcadia.

376. Doing Good.

I then observed him with Herculean strength tugging at a nail which he was endeavouring to extract from the bark of a plum tree; and having accomplished it, he exclaimed, “ There, Sir, I have done some good to-day; the tree might have festered. I make a rule, Sir, to do some good every day of my life."

377. Sterne's Sermons.

Returning through the house, he stepped into a small study or book-room. The first book he laid his hands (1) A mistake—he was a good swimmer. See antè, Vol. VI p. 218.-C.