i88 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
the Alps x . I lament his undertaking such a journey at his time of life, with beginning infirmities ; I hope he will not leave his bones on classic ground. Memoirs, i. 74.
[From H. MORE to one of her sisters.]
London, 1778.
I dined with the Garricks on Thursday ; he went with me in the evening, intending only to set me down at Sir Joshua's, where I was engaged to pass the evening. I was not a little proud to be the means of bringing such a beau into such a party. We found Gibbon 2 , Johnson, Hermes Harris, Burney, Chambers, Ramsay, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Boswell, Langton, &c. ; and scarce an expletive man or woman among them. Garrick put Johnson into such good spirits that I never knew him so enter taining or more instructive. He was as brilliant as himself, and as good-humoured as any one else 3 . Memoirs, i. 146.
London, 1780.
I spent a very comfortable day yesterday with Miss Reynolds ; only Dr. Johnson, and Mrs. Williams and myself. He is in but poor health, but his mind has lost nothing of its vigour. He never opens his mouth but one learns something ; one is sure either of hearing a new idea, or an old one expressed in an
1 Johnson wrote to Boswell on quaintance I have had, that my soul March 5 of this year : ' Of my never came into their secret.' Me- company you cannot in the next moirs, ii. 415. The same year she month have much, for Mr. Thrale recorded : ' It is now, I think, five will take me to Italy, he says, on or six years since I have been en- the first of April. ... If you will come abled, by the grace of God, in a good to me, you must come very quickly; degree, to give up all human studies, and even then I know not but we I have not allowed myself to read may scour the country together, for any classic or pagan author for I have a mind to see Oxford and many years I mean by myself.' Ib. Lichfield before I set out on this ii. 420.
long journey.' Life, ii. 423. The 3 Boswell, after a full account of
tour was given up on the sudden the dinner, describes ' the rich as-
death of the Thrales' only son. Ib. semblage ' he found in the drawing-
p. 468. See also ante, i. 263. room. He continues : ' After wan-
2 On Jan. 19, 1794, Hannah More dering about in a kind of pleasing recorded : ' Heard of the death of distraction for some time, I got into Mr. Gibbon. . . . He too was my a corner with Johnson, Garrick, and acquaintance. Lord, I bless thee, Harris.' Life, iii. 256. considering how much infidel ac-
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