4io
��Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
��orthodox in their religion, more pure in their language, and more polite in their manners than any other town in the kingdom x ; ' and he often lamented that * no city of equal antiquity and worth has been so destitute of a native to record its fame, and transmit its history to posterity V
Mr. Cradock informs me, that he once accompanied Dr. John son and Mr. Steevens to Marybone Gardens, to see La Serva Padrona performed 3 . . . . Mr. Steevens, being quite weary of the Burletta, exclaimed, ' There is no plot ; it is merely an old fellow
��* Dr. Johnson expatiated in praise of Lichfield and its inhabitants, who, he said, were " the most sober, decent people in England, the genteelest in proportion to their wealth, and spoke the purest English."' Life, ii. 463.
- Sir (said he) we are a city of philo
sophers, we work with our heads, and make the boobies of Birmingham work for us with their hands. 3 Ib. p. 464.
Staffordshire, in which Lichfield is situated, was a. stronghold of Toryism and even of Jacobitism. Ib. iii. 326.
Smollett, writing of Lichfield in 1747, says: 'Even the females at their assembly, and the gentlemen at the races, affected to wear the checquered stuff by which the Prince Pretender and his followers had been distinguished. Divers noblemen on the course were insulted as apos tates.' Smollett's England, ed. 1800, iii. 259.
Nevertheless, 'in an answer of the Bailiffs and Justices of the Peace of the City of Lichfield, dated March 8, 1743, directed to the Lords of his Majesty's Council, they say that they have made diligent search through out the city, and certify that all was peaceable and quiet ; that there was "no Papist (save only two or three women) or Nonjuror in the city; neither have we amongst us any Quaker, or above two Dissenters
��from the established Church of Eng land, under any denomination what soever ; " and that the whole city was zealously attached to his Majesty's person and government.' Harwood's History of Lichfield, p. 309.
Lord Stanhope wrote from Lichfield on Oct. 6, 1705, to Atterbury: 'I must confess (except it be your brother Binckes) I lose no conversation by being deaf in this place, which is just as well stocked with good manners and polite conversation as your friend Dr. Wake is with deep learning, solid sense and the knack of writing in telligible English ! ' Atterbury's Cor respondence, ii. 25. Binckes, a Pre bendary of Lichfield, was supposed to be the author of a pamphlet which gave rise to a controversy between Atterbury and Wake. Ib.
2 In 1806 the Rev. Thomas Har- wood published a History of Lick- field.
3 La Serva Padrona was a burletta composed by Pergolesi, a Neapolitan who was born in 1704 ; it was trans lated into English by Stephen Storace, father of the composer of that name. Memoirs ofj. Cradock, iii. 345-
For another visit to the gardens where, if we can trust Steevens (a very untrustworthy authority), John son was ' the ringleader of a success ful riot,' see Life, iv. 324.
cheated
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