334 Anecdotes by the Rev. Percival Stockdale.
make him speak if it was possible. ' Dr. Johnson,' said she, ' you tell us, in your Dictionary, that in England oats are given to horses ; but that in Scotland they support the people 1 . Now, Sir, I can assure you, that in Scotland we give oats to our horses, as well as you do to yours in England.' I almost trembled for the widow of the Russian hero ; I never saw a more contemptuous leer than that which Johnson threw at Mrs. Bruce : however, he deigned her an answer, ' I am very glad, Madam, to find that you treat your horses as well as you treat yourselves.' I was delivered from my panic, and I wondered that she was so gently set down.
Soon after I had entered on my charge as domestic tutor to my Lord Craven's son I called on Dr. Johnson. ' Well (said he) how do you like your place ? ' On my hesitating to answer, or on my answer which expressed not much love of my situation, he added the following words of consolation : ' You must expect insolence.'
1 ' Oats. A grain which in Eng- to men and horses.' C. W. Boase's
land is generally given to horses, Oxford, p. 65. but in Scotland supports the people.' Hector told Boswell that Johnson,
'The sarcastic Jew in Richard of in his boyhood, 'used to have oat- Devizes' History of Richard I says meal porridge for breakfast.' Mor- Oxford barely keeps its clerks from rison Autographs, 2nd series, j i. starving, Exeter gives the same grain 368.
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