1737. greater affection for you upon it than I had before, Etat. 28. being long fince so much endeared to you, as well by an early friendship, as by your many excellent and valuable qualifications; and, had I a fon of my own, it would be my ambition, inftead of fending him to the University, to difpofe of him as this young gentleman is. "He, and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. Samuel Johnson, fet out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick is to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnfon to try his fate with a tragedy, and to fee to get himself employed in fome tranflation, either from the Latin or the French. Johnson is a very good scholar and poet, and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedywriter. If it fhould any way lie in your way, doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and affift your countryman. G. WALMSLEY." How he employed himself upon his first coming to London is not particularly known. I never heard that he found any protection or encouragement by the means of Mr. Colfon, to whofe academy David Garrick went. Mrs. Lucy Porter told me, that Mr. Walmsley gave him a letter of introduction to Lintot his bookfeller, and that Johnson wrote fome things for him; but I imagine 4 One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr. John Nichols. Mr. Wilcox, the bookfeller, on being informed. by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an authour, eyed his robust frame attentively, and with a fignificant look, faid, "You had better buy a porter's knot." He however added, "Wilcox was one of my best friends." this this to be a mistake, for I have difcovered no 1737trace of it, and I am pretty fure he told me, that Etat. 28. Mr. Cave was the first publisher by whom his pen was engaged in London. manner. He had a little money when he came to town, and he knew how he could live in the cheapest His firft lodgings were at the house of Mr. Norris, a ftaymaker, in Exeter-ftreet, adjoining Catharine-street, in the Strand. "I dined (faid he) very well for eight-pence, with very good company, at the Pine Apple in New-street, juft by. Several of them had travelled. They expected to meet every day; but did not know one another's names. It used to coft the reft a fhilling, for they drank wine; but I had a cut of meat for fix-pence, and bread for a penny, and gave the waiter a penny; fo that I was quite well ferved, nay, better than the reft, for they gave the waiter nothing." He at this time, I believe, abstained entirely from fermented liquors; a practice to which he rigidly conformed for many years together, at different periods of his life. in HIS OFELLUS in the Art of living in London, I have heard him relate, was an Irish painter, whom he knew at Birmingham, and who had practised his own precepts of economy for several years the British capital. He affured Johnson, who, I fuppofe, was then meditating to try his fortune in London, but was apprehenfive of the expence, "that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible. He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He 1737 Etat. 28. faid a man might live in a garret at eighteen-pence a week; few people would inquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was easy to say, 'Sir, I am to be found at fuch a place.' By fpending three-pence in a coffee houfe, he might be for fome hours every day in very good company; he might dine for fix-pence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny, and do without fupper. On clean-fhirt-day he went abroad, and paid vifits." I have heard him more than once talk of this frugal friend, whom he recollected with esteem and kindness, and did not like to have one fmile at the recital. "This man (faid he, gravely,) was a very fenfible man, who perfectly understood common affairs: a man of a great deal of knowledge of the world, fresh from life, not ftrained through books. He borrowed a horfe and ten pounds at Birmingham. Finding himself mafter of fo much money, he fet off for Weft Chester, in order to get to Ireland. He returned the horse, and probably the ten pounds too, after he got home." Confidering Johnfon's narrow circunftances in the early part of his life, and particularly at the interesting æra of his launching into the ocean of London, it is not to be wondered at, that an actual inftance, proved by experience of the poffibility of enjoying the intellectual luxury of focial life, upon a very small income, fhould deeply engage his attention, and be ever recollected by him as a circumftance of much importance. He amufed himself, I remember, by computing how much more expence was abfolutely neceffary to live upon the fame fcale with that which his friend defcribed, when when the value of money was diminished by the progrefs of commerce. It may be estimated that double the money might now with difficulty be fufficient. Amidst this cold obfcurity, there was one brilliant circumftance to cheer him; he was well acquainted with Mr. Henry Hervey3, one of the branches of the noble family of that name, who had been quartered at Lichfield as an officer of the army, and had at this time a houfe in London, where Johnson was frequently entertained, and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company. Not very long before his death, he mentioned this, among other particulars of his life, which he was kindly communicating to me; and he defcribed this early friend "Harry Hervey," thus: "He was a vicious man, but very kind to me. If you call a dog HERVEY, 1 fhall love him.” He told me he had now written only three acts of his IRENE, and that he retired for fome time to lodgings at Greenwich, where he proceeded in it fomewhat further, and ufed to compofe, walking in the Park; but did not ftay long enough at that place to finish it. At this period we find the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, which, as a link in the chain of his literary hiftory, it is proper to 'infert: 1737. Etat. 28. 3 The Honourable Henry Hervey, third fon of the first Earl of Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. He married a fifter of Sir Thomas Afton, by whom he got the Afton Estate, and affumed the name and arms of that Family. Vide Collins's Peerage. VOL. I. G To 1737. Etat. 28. "SIR, To Mr. CAVE. Greenwich, next door to the Golden Heart, "HAVING obferved in your papers very uncommon offers of encouragement to men of letters, I have chofen, being a stranger in London, to communicate to you the following defign, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of us. "The Hiftory of the Council of Trent having been lately trandated into French, and published with large Notes by Dr. Le Courayer, the reputation of that book is fo much revived in England, that, it is prefumed, a new tranflation of it from the Italian, together with Le Courayer's Notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable reception. "If it be answered, that the History is already in English, it must be remembered, that there. was the fame objection against Le Courayer's undertaking, with this difadvantage, that the French had a version by one of their best translators, whereas you cannot read three pages of the English History without discovering that the style is capable of great improvements; but whether those improvements are to be expected from the attempt, you must judge from this fpecimen, which, if you approve the proposal, I fhall fubmit to your exa mination. "Suppose the merit of the versions equal, we may hope that the addition of the Notes will turn the |