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xii
Preface.

of the Life, which his father, a Johnsonian collector, purchased many years ago. They were written, I have no doubt, by the Rev. John Hussey, 'who,' as Boswell tells us, 'had long been in habits of intimacy with Johnson[1].'

Messrs. J. Pearson & Co., of 5 Pall Mall Place, London, I have to thank for permission to print some hitherto unpublished letters of Johnson which were in their possession.

To Mr. John Murray, of Albemarle Street, the publisher of The Life of Reynolds by C. R. Leslie and Tom Taylor, I am indebted for permission to reprint an interesting paper by Sir Joshua on Johnson's character.

Mr. G. K. Fortescue, of the British Museum, has once more greatly lessened my labours by the assistance he has so kindly given me when I have been working in the Library. His friends rejoice in his well-earned promotion, much as they must miss him in his old place in the Reading Room.

It only remains for me to express the hope that the kind welcome which was given by scholars on both sides of the Atlantic to my editions of the Life and Letters will be extended also to these two volumes.

Villa Venusta, Alassio,
February 7, 1897.

  1. Life, vol. iii. p. 369.