THE

(499

Gentleman's Magazine:

For JUNE, 1791.

BEING THE SIXTH NUMBER OF VOL LXI. PART I.

Mr. URBAN,

May 30.

I

NCLOSED you have
sketches of Barfreston
church in Kent, and
Ifley church near Ox-
ford; the first of which
is already engraved in
Grofe, but this sketch

does not exactly answer to his. Query,
Which is most correct ?

Ifley is not engraved; except the
West door of it in Ducarel's Anglo-
Norman Antiquities.
M. N.

Mr. URBAN,

June 21.

AFTER an attentive perusal of the
BOSWELLIAN Quartos, I cannot
refrain from expressing the satisfaction
I have had in this second fight of the
matchless JOHNSON. The great Phi-
lologer is again brought fairly into view;
and all who intimately knew him will
recognize their valuable Friend.

Mr. BOSWELL, by labouring affidu-
ously in the harvest, has brought home
a plenteous crop. Some gleanings, how-
ever not remaining, The leaves where

to assign over any edition, unless he
could add Notes, and so alter them as
to make them new Works; which his
state of health forbade him to think of.
I may possibly live," he said, "or rather
breathe, three days, or perhaps three
weeks; but find myself daily and gra-
dually weaker." The disconsolate M.

He said at another time, three or four
days only before his death, speaking of
the little fear he had of undergoing a
chirurgical operation, "I would give
one of these legs for a year more of life,
I mean of comfortable life, not such as
that which I now suffer;"—and lament-
ed much his inability to read during his
hours of restlessness. "I used formerly,"
he added, "when sleeplesfs in bed, to
read like a Turk."

Whilst confined by his last illness, it
was his regular practice to have the
church-service read to him by some at-
tentive and friendly Divine. Mr. Hoole
performed this kind office in my pre-
fence for the last time, when, by his
own desire, no more than the Litany
was read; in which his responses were
in the deep and sonorous voice which
Mr. Bofwell has occasionally noticed,
and with the most profound devotion
that can be imagined. His hearing not
being quite perfect, he more than once
interrupted Mr. Hoole, with "Louder,
my dear Sir, louder, I entreat you; or
you pray in vain!" And when the ser-
vice was ended, he with great earnest-
ness turned round to an excellent lady
who was present, saying, "I thank you,
Madam, very heartily, for your kind-
ness in joining me in this solemn exer-
cise. Live well, I conjure you; and

all space than before.—24. The storm abated.
Mountain ash, English rhubarb in bloom; land
ting over the standing water; fog rose about
Fog foon after funfet; fall of rain one inch
N. B. Some allowance should be made for
on the vessel to overflow.

you

More last Words of Dr. Johnfon.

[June,

you will not feel the compulsion at
the last, which I now feel." So truly
humble were the thoughts which this
great and good man entertained of his
own approaches to religious perfection.

He was earnestly invited to publish a
volume of *Devotional Exercises*; but this
(though he listened to the proposal with
much complacency, and a large sum of
money was offered for it,) he declined,
from motives of the sincere modesty.

It is very true, as has been slightly
flated in your vol. LV. p. 86, that he
fierously entertained the thought of
translating *Thuanus*. He often talked
to me on the subject; and once in par-
ticular, when I was rather wistful that
he would favour the world, and gratify
his Sovereign, by a Life of Spenfer
(which he said that he would readily
have done, had he been able to obtain
any new materials for the purpose,) he
added, "I have been thinking again,
Sir, of *Thuanus*: it would not be the
laborious task which you have supposed
it. I should have no trouble but that of
dictation, which would be performed as
speedily as an amanuensis could write."

Allow me to add a few flight collections of conversations that passed in an earlier period of the life of "the bright and ornamented of the eighteenth century," as he is justly styled by Malone, in the版 of his Shakspere.

Among the early affiliates of John-
fon at St. John's Gate was Samuel
Boyle, well known by his ingenious
productions, and not less noted for his
imprudence. It was not unusual for
Boyle to be a customer to the pawnbro-
ker. On one of these occasions Dr.
Johnson collected a sum of money to re-
deem his friend's cloaths, which in two
days after were pawned again. "The
sum," said Johnson, "was collected by
lixpences, at a time when to me a fix-
pence was a serious consideration."

Mr. Bofwell mentions the introduc-
tion of Mrs. Siddons in Bolt-court.—
The writer of this article had the plea-
fure of being present when Mr. Hen-
derson had that honour; and was high-
ly entertained by the interview. The
conversation turning on the merits of a
certain dramatic writer, Johnfon said,
"I never did the man an injury; but
he would perlift in reading his tragedy
to me." When Henderson was taking
his leave, he invited him with much
earnestness to come again frequently.
"The oftener you call on me, Sir, the
more welcome with your visits be."

Speaking one day of a person for
whom he had a real friendship, but in
whom vanity was somewhat too predo-
minant, he observed, that "Kelly was
so fond of displaying on his fideboard
the plate which he possessed, that he
added to it his spurs. For my part,"
he said, "I never was master of a pair
of spurs but once; and they are now at
the bottom of the ocean. By the care-
lessness of Bofwell's servant, they were
dropped from the end of the boat on our
return from the Isle of Sky."

I had the satisfaction of calling on
him with the late excellent Mr. Bad-
cock; with whom Johnson had much
conversation on the subject of Dr. Priest-
ley. Badcock often spoke with rapture
of this visit; which is already noticed
(in his own words) in Gent. Mag. vol.
LVIII. p. 596.

These particulars, I have no doubt,
Mr. Urban, will be received with can-
dour by your readers; and to Mr. Bof-
well they may be acceptable when his
Biography comes (as it certainly soon
must) to a new edition. When we re-
flect, indeed, that these volumes are a
collection of the wisdom and wit of
THE RAMBLER, and that by a pecu-
liar felicity we are admitted into the
company of our illustrious Moralift,
and as it were *live with him* and other
eminent persons, not to mention origi-
nal effort, and the rich treasure of his
epistolary writings, no book that has
appeared in this age deferves better the
popularity which it has already obtain-
ed, and which will undoubtedly in-
crease.

J. N.