agreeable to myself and the rest of the company, I could not but obey, and so to it we went for three or four hours without ceasing. He once observed, that it was the duty of a biographer to state all the failings of a respectable character J . . . . He took great credit for not having mentioned the coarseness of Lord Lytteltons manners 2 . I told him, that if he would insert that in the next edition, I would excuse him all the rest 3 . We shook hands, however, at parting ; which put me much in mind of the parting between Jaques and Orlando 'God be with you, let us meet as seldom as we can. Fare you well ; I hope we shall be better strangers to you 4 .' We have not met again till last Tuesday, and then I must do him the justice to say that he did all in his power to show me that he was sorry for the former attack. But what hurts me all this while is, not that Johnson should go unpunished, but that our dear and respect able friend should ... be handed down to succeeding generations under the appellation of poor Lyttelton 5 .
��BY THE REV. HASTINGS ROBINSON.
[Communicated to Mr. Croker by the Rev. Hastings Robinson, Rector of Great Warley, Essex. Croker 's Boswell, x. 126.]
Miss Seward, her father 6 (the editor of Beaumont and Fletcher), the Rev. R. G. Robinson, of Lichfield, and Dr. Johnson, were passing the day at the palace at Lichfield, of which Mr. Seward was the occupier. The conversation turned upon Dr. Dodd,
1 Life, iii. 155 ; ante, ii. 3. better strangers.' As You Like It,
2 Ante, ii. 5. Act iii. sc. 2. 1. 273.
3 On the principle 5 For Miss Burney's description
- Quis tulerit Gracchos de sedi- of this scene, see Life, iv. 65.
done querentes.' 6 The Rev. Thomas Seward. Life,
Juvenal, Satires, ii. 24. ii. 467 ; Letters, i. 10. He lived in
Note by Croker. the Bishop's Palace, which, according
4 'JAQUES. God be wi' you; let's to Johnson, Miss Porter might have meet as little as we can. had in 1763 for a rent of ^20. Ib. i.
ORLANDO. I do desire we may be 100.
VOL. II. E e who
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