CHAPTER V.

Visit to Dr. Burney's-The Lives of the Poets--Progress of the BreweryAdvice about 'Thraliana'-Boswell at Ashbourne-Dr. Taylor's Cattle and Waterfall-Mrs. Thrale in Low Spirits-Letters from Johnson-Her Alleged Inaccuracy-A Lecture-Precept and Practice-Johnson and Lord Marchmont-Cornelius Ford-A Ghost Story-Thrale over-brews himself— 'Evelina' Published-Miss Burney Introduced at Streatham-Kindly Received-Second Visit-Johnson as an Inmate-His Opinions on DressFamily Life at Streatham-Johnson's Domestic Economy-Lady LadeJohnson's Portrait-The Brewery Prospers-The Black Dog-Discord in Bolt Court-Sophy Streatfield-Dr. Collier-Mrs. Thrale Jealous-Tears at Command-The Thrales at Brighton-Mr. Thrale has a Fit-Johnson's Sympathy-Thrale's Health Improves-Mrs. Thrale's Dislike of the Borough.

ON March 19, 1777, Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale: You are all young and gay and easy; but I have miserable nights, and know not how to make them better; but I shift pretty well a-days, and so have at you all at Dr. Burney's to-morrow. I never thought of meeting you at Sir Joshua's, nor knew that it was a great day. But things, as sages have observed, happen unexpectedly; and you thought little of seeing me this fortnight, except to-morrow. But go where you will, and see if I do not catch you. When I am away, everybody runs away with you, and carries you among the grisettes, or whither they will. I hope you will find the want of me twenty times before you see me.'*

This letter refers to the first visit paid to Dr. Burney's house in St. Martin's Street, by the Thrale party, of which we have given an account elsewhere.t

* 'Piozzi Letters,' i. 345.

+ 'Fanny Burney and her Friends,' p. 51.

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The Lives of the Poets.

A few days later, Johnson had an interview, of which Lord Macaulay has spoken in a memorable passage: 'On Easter-Eve, 1777, some persons, deputed by a meeting, which consisted of forty of the first booksellers in London, called upon him. Though he had some scruples about doing business at that season, he received his visitors with much civility. They came to inform him that a new edition of the English poets, from Cowley downwards, was in contemplation, and to ask him to furnish short biographical prefaces. He readily undertook the task, a task for which he was pre-eminently qualified. His knowledge of the literary history of England since the Restoration was unrivalled. That knowledge he had derived partly from books, and partly from sources which had long been closed; from old Grub Street traditions; from the talk of forgotten poetasters and pamphleteers who had long been lying in parish vaults; from the recollections of such men as Gilbert Walmesley, who had conversed with the wits of Button; Cibber, who had mutilated the plays of two generations of dramatists; Orrery, who had been admitted to the society of Swift; and Savage, who had rendered services of no very honourable kind to Pope. The biographer therefore sat down to his task with a mind full of matter. He had at first intended to give only a paragraph to every minor poet, and only four or five pages to the greatest name. But the flood of anecdote and criticism overflowed the narrow channel. The work, which was originally meant to consist only of a few sheets, swelled into ten volumes.'* This paragraph is an expansion of what Mrs. Piozzi had expressed in a couple of sentences: 'Johnson's knowledge of literary history was extensive and surprising. He knew every adventure of every book *Lord Macaulay's Miscellaneous Works, vol. ii., p. 298.

Mrs. Thrale's Letters.

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you could name almost, and was exceedingly pleased with the opportunity which writing the Poets' Lives gave him. to display it.'*

Our information respecting the Thrales in 1777 is almost entirely derived from the correspondence that passed between them and Johnson, and mainly from the Doctor's share of it. When the Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D.' were published by Mrs. Piozzi in 1788, Miss Burney wrote: The few she has selected of her own do her much credit; she has discarded all that were trivial and merely local, and given only such as contain something instructive, amusing, and ingenious.'† At the present day we would willingly exchange most of these studied letters for a few of the discarded ones; the former, which show some awe of the writer's correspondent, exhibit less ease of style than her later productions; the latter would at least have thrown more. light on her life and doings.

In the summer of 1777 Johnson made his usual journey into the Midlands, taking Oxford on his way. At the beginning of August he writes to Mrs. Thrale from University College that he has picked up some small materials for his Lives at the library, and he mentions a proposal of Boswell's to meet him during his excursion. 'Bozzy, you know,' he says, 'makes a huge bustle about all his own motions and all mine. I have enclosed a letter to pacify him, and reconcile him to the uncertainties of human life.'‡

But Johnson's principal topic on his route is the prospects of the harvest, which the rapid growth of their business had made more than usually interesting and important to his master and mistress. Referring to a

'Anecdotes.'

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+ Madam d'Arblay's 'Diary.' Piozzi Letters,' i. 349, 350.

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Advice about Thraliana.'

pool which Thrale was then making at Streatham, he says: My master may plant and dig till his pond is an ocean, if he can find water, and his parterre a down. I have no doubt of a most abundant harvest, and it is said that the produce of barley is particularly great. We are not far from the great year of a hundred thousand barrels, which, if three shillings be gained upon each barrel, will bring us fifteen thousand pounds a year. . . . But suppose we shall get but two shillings a barrel, that is ten thousand a year. Again, a few days later: But amidst all these little things there is one great thing. The harvest is abundant, and the weather à la merveille. No season ever was finer. Barley, malt, beer, and money. There is the series of ideas. The deep logicians call it a sorites. I hope my master will no longer endure the reproach of not keeping me a horse.'+

On September 6 he writes: As you have now little to do, I suppose you are pretty diligent at the "Thraliana,' and a very curious collection posterity will find it. Do not remit the practice of writing down occurrences as they arise, of whatever kind, and be very punctual in annexing the dates. Chronology, you know, is the eye of history, and every man's life is of importance to himself. Do not omit painful casualties, or unpleasing passages; they make the variegation of existence; and there are many transactions of which I will not promise with Æneas, et hæc olim meminisse juvabit-yet that remembrance which is not pleasant may be useful.'‡

On September 13, from Ashbourne: 'Boswell, I believe, is coming. He talks of being here to-day. I shall be glad to see him. But he shrinks from the Baltick expedition, which I think is the best scheme in our power. What we shall substitute, I know not. He wants to see

'Piozzi Letters,' i. 357.

† Ibid., i. 360.

Ibid., i. 362.

Boswell at Ashbourne.

*

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Wales, but except the woods of Bâch y Graig, what is there in Wales? What that can fill the hunger of ignorance, or quench the thirst of curiosity? We may, perhaps, form some scheme or other, but, in the phrase of Hockley-in-the-Hole, it is pity he has not a better bottom.' 'It appears,' says Boswell, 'that Johnson, now in his sixty-eighth year, was seriously inclined to realize the project of our going up the Baltick, which I had started when we were in the Isle of Skye.'

Again, on September 15:

'Do you call this punctual correspondence? There was poor I writing, and writing, and writing, on the 8th, on the 11th, on the 13th; and on the 15th I looked for a letter, but I may look and look. Instead of writing to me you are writing the "Thraliana." But he must be humble who would please.

'Last night came Boswell. I am glad that he is come. He seems to be very brisk and lively, and laughs a little

'You talk of pine-apples and venison. Pine-apples, it is sure, we have none; but venison, no forester that lived under the greenwood-tree ever had more frequently upon his table. We fry, and roast, and bake, and devour in every form.

'We have at last fair weather in Derbyshire, and everywhere the crops are spoken of as uncommonly exuberant. Let us now get money and have it. All that is paid is saved, and all that is laid out in land or malt. But I long to see twenty thousand pounds in the bank, and to see my master visiting this estate and that, as purchases

Hockley-in-the-Hole was in Clerkenwell. In the Spectator, No. 436, Hockley-in-the-Hole is described as a place of no small renown for the gallantry of the lower order of Britons. In The Beggar's Opera, act i., Mrs. Peachum says to Filch: You should go to Hockley-in-the-Hole, and to Marylebone, child, to learn valour. These are the schools that have bred so many brave men.