396 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
scholars play) in search of a rail that he used to jump over when a boy, ' and/ says the Doctor in a transport of joy, c I have been so fortunate as to find it : I stood, said he, ' gazing upon it some time with a degree of rapture, for it brought to my mind all my juvenile sports and pastimes, and at length I determined to try my skill and dexterity ; I laid aside my hat and wig, pulled off my coat, and leapt over it twice/ Thus the great Dr. Johnson, only three years before his death, was, without hat, wig, or coat, jumping over a rail that he had used to fly over when a school-boy x .
Amongst those who were so intimate with Dr. Johnson as to have him occasionally an intimate in their families, it is a well known fact that he would frequently descend from the con templation of subjects the most profound imaginable to the most childish playfulness. It was no uncommon thing to see him hop, step, and jump 2 ; he would often seat himself on the back of his chair, and more than once has been known to propose a race on some grassplat adapted to the purpose. He was very intimate and much attached to Mr. John Payne 3 , once a bookseller in Paternoster Row, and afterwards Chief Accountant of the Bank. Mr. Payne was of a very diminutive appearance, and once when they were together on a visit with a friend at some distance from town, Johnson in a gaiety of humour proposed to run a race with Mr. Payne the proposal was accepted ; but, before they had proceeded more than half of the intended distance, Johnson caught his little adversary up in his arms, and without any ceremony placed him upon the arm of a tree which was near, and then continued running as if he had met with a hard match. He afterwards returned with much exultation to release his friend from the no very pleasant situation in which he had left him 4 .
1 This is, perhaps, an amplification Addison, The Gitardian, No. 112.
of the story told,/^/, p. 415. In my schoolboy days we always
2 ' I flutter about my room two or said * hop, skip and jump.' three hours in a morning, and when 3 Ante, i. 388.
my wings are on can go above an hun- 4 For his race with a young lady dred yards at a hop, step and jump.' see ante, ii. 278.
Doctor
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