of sitting down or of parting, had not an impertinent watchman been saucily vociferous. Johnson outstaid them all, and sat with me half an hour. Memoirs, j. 69.
London, 1776.
Did I ever tell you what Dr. Johnson said to me of my friend the Dean of Gloucester ? I asked him what he thought of him. His answer was verbatim as follows : ' I look upon the Dean of Gloucester to be one of the few excellent writers of this period. I differ from him in opinion, and have expressed that difference in my writings ; but I hope what I wrote did not indicate what I did not feel, for I felt no acrimony. No person, however learned, can read his writings without improvement. He is sure to find something he did not know before.' I told him the Dean did not value himself on elegance of styie. He said he knew nobody whose style was more perspicuous, manly, and vigorous, or better suited to his subject. I was not a little pleased with this tribute to the worthy Dean's merit, from such a judge of merit ; that man, too, professedly differing from him in opinion
Keeping bad company leads to all other bad -things. I have got the headache to-day, by raking out so late with that gay libertine Johnson. Do you know / did not, that he wrote a quarter of the Adventurer I ? I made him tell me all that he wrote in the ' fugitive pieces 2 .' Memoirs, i. 70.
Adelphi 3 , 1776.
Did I tell you we had a very agreeable day at Mrs. Bosca wen's? I like Mr. Berenger 4 prodigiously. I met the Bunbury family 0*t Sir Joshua's. Mr. Boswell (Corsican Boswell) was here last /light 5 ; he is a very agreeable good-natured man ; he perfectly Adores Johnson : they have this day set out together for Oxford, Lichfield, &c., that the Doctor may take leave of all his old friends and acquaintances, previous to his great expedition across
1 He did not write so much as a eighth was Johnson's. Life, ii. 270 ; quarter. and ante, i. 184.
2 Tom Davies, in Johnson's ab- 3 Mrs. Garrick's house. Lzfe,ly.gg. sence in Scotland and without his * Ante, i. 254.
leave, published two volumes en- 5 Boswell, who keeps his narrative titled Miscellaneous and Fugitive so closely to what concerns Johnson, Pieces, of which all but about an does not mention this.
the
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