172 Anecdotes and Remarks
from the first who died, a legacy of clothes and money. The last of them, Mrs. Jane, left her an annual rent ; but from the blundering manner of the will, I fear she never reaped the benefit of it. The lady left money to erect a hospital for ancient maids ; but the number she had allotted being too great for the donation, the Doctor [Johnson] said, it would better to expunge the word maintain, and put in to starve such a number of old maids. They asked him what name should be given it: he replied, 'Let it be called JENNY'S WHIM 1 .' Lady Philips 2 made her a small annual allowance, and some other Welsh ladies, to all of whom she was related. Mrs. Mon tagu, on the death of Mr. Montagu, settled upon her (by deed) ten pounds per annum 3 . As near as I can calculate, Mrs. Williams had about thirty-five or forty pounds a year. The furniture she used [in her apartment in Dr. Johnson's house] was her own 4 ; her expenses were small, tea and bread and butter being at least half of her nourishment. Sometimes she had a servant or charwoman to do the ruder orifices of the house 5 ; but she was herself active and industrious. I have frequently seen her at work. Upon remarking one day her facility in moving about the house, searching into drawers, and finding books, with out the help of sight, ' Believe me (said she), persons who cannot do these common offices without sight, did but little while they enjoyed that blessing.' Scanty circumstances, bad health, and blindness, are surely a sufficient apology for her being sometimes impatient : her natural disposition was good, friendly, and humane.
As to her poems, she many years attempted to publish them : the half-crowns she had got towards the publication, she confessed to me, went for necessaries, and that the greatest
1 ' Here [at Vauxhall] we picked Life, v. 276.
up Lord Granby, arrived very drunk 3 Letters, i. 371, n. I ; ii. 190.
from Jenny's Whim.' Walpole's 4 ' She left her little ' to the Ladies'
Letters, ii. 212. Jenny's Whim was Charity School. Ib. ii. 334.
a tavern at the end of the wooden 5 Johnson had his man-servant,
bridge at Chelsea, where Victoria and a female-servant, to whom he
Station now stands. Wheatley's bequeathed ^100 stock. Life, iv.
London, 1891, ii. 305. 402, n. 2.
2 Lady Philipps of Picton Castle.
pain
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