Life of Johnson
Chapter 374 : We went to Hagley, where we were disappointed of the respect and kindness that we expe

We went to Hagley, where we were disappointed of the respect and kindness that we expected[1240].

SEPTEMBER 17.

We saw the house and park, which equalled my expectation. The house is one square ma.s.s. The offices are below. The rooms of elegance on the first floor, with two stories of bedchambers, very well disposed above it. The bedchambers have low windows, which abates the dignity of the house. The park has one artificial ruin[1241], and wants water; there is, however, one temporary cascade. From the farthest hill there is a very wide prospect.

I went to church. The church is, externally, very mean, and is therefore diligently hidden by a plantation. There are in it several modern monuments of the Lytteltons.

There dined with us, Lord Dudley, and Sir Edward Lyttelton, of Staffords.h.i.+re, and his Lady. They were all persons of agreeable conversation.

I found time to reflect on my birthday, and offered a prayer, which I hope was heard.

SEPTEMBER 19.

We made haste away from a place, where all were offended[1242]. In the way we visited the Leasowes[1243]. It was rain, yet we visited all the waterfalls. There are, in one place, fourteen falls in a short line. It is the next place to Ham Gardens[1244]. Poor Shenstone never tasted his pension. It is not very well proved that any pension was obtained for him. I am afraid that he died of misery[1245].

We came to Birmingham, and I sent for Wheeler, whom I found well.

SEPTEMBER 20.

We breakfasted with Wheeler,[1246] and visited the manufacture of Papier Mache. The paper which they use is smooth whited brown; the varnish is polished with rotten stone. Wheeler gave me a tea-board. We then went to Boulton's,[1247] who, with great civility, led us through his shops. I could not distinctly see his enginery.

Twelve dozen of b.u.t.tons for three s.h.i.+llings.[1248] Spoons struck at once.

SEPTEMBER 21.

Wheeler came to us again.

We came easily to Woodstock.

SEPTEMBER 22.

We saw Blenheim and Woodstock Park.[1249] The Park contains two thousand five hundred acres; about four square miles. It has red deer. Mr.

Bryant[1250] shewed me the Library with great civility. _Durandi Rationale_, 1459[1251]. Lascaris' _Grammar_ of the first edition, well printed, but much less than later editions[1252]. The first _Batrachomyomachia_[1253].

The Duke sent Mr. Thrale partridges and fruit.

At night we came to Oxford.

SEPTEMBER 23.

We visited Mr. Coulson[1254]. The Ladies wandered about the University.

SEPTEMBER 24.

We dine with Mr. Coulson. Vansittart[1255] told me his distemper.

Afterwards we were at Burke's, where we heard of the dissolution of the Parliament. We went home[1256].

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See _ante_, ii. 434, note 1, and iii. 209.

[2] His _Account of Corsica_, published in 1768.

[3] Horace Walpole wrote on Nov.6, 1769 (_Letters_, v. 200):--'I found Paoli last week at Court. The King and Queen both took great notice of him. He has just made a tour to Bath, Oxford, &c., and was everywhere received with much distinction.' See _ante_, ii. 71.

[4] Boswell, when in London, was 'his constant guest.' Ante, iii 35.

[5] Boswell's son James says that 'in 1785 Mr. Malone was shewn at Mr.

Baldwin's printing-house a sheet of the _Tour to the Hebrides_ which contained Johnson's character. He was so much struck with the spirit and fidelity of the portrait that he requested to be introduced to its writer. From this period a friends.h.i.+p took place between them, which ripened into the strictest and most cordial intimacy. After Mr.

Boswell's death in 1795 Mr. Malone continued to shew every mark of affectionate attention towards his family.' _Gent. Mag._ 1813, p. 518.

[6] Malone began his edition of _Shakespeare_ in 1782; he brought it out in 1790. Prior's _Malone_, pp. 98, 166.

[7] Boswell in the 'Advertis.e.m.e.nt' to the second edition, dated Dec. 20, 1785, says that 'the whole of the first impression has been sold in a few weeks.' Three editions were published within a year, but the fourth was not issued till 1807. A German translation was published in Lubeck in 1787. I believe that in no language has a translation been published of the _Life of Johnson_. Johnson was indeed, as Boswell often calls him, 'a trueborn Englishman'--so English that foreigners could neither understand him nor relish his _Life_.

[8] The man thus described is James I.

[9] See _ante_, i. 450 and ii. 291.

[10] _A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_. Johnson's _Works_ ix. 1.

[11] See _ante_, i. 450. On a copy of Martin in the Advocates' Library [Edinburgh] I found the following note in the handwriting of Mr.

Boswell:--'This very book accompanied Mr. Samuel Johnson and me in our Tour to the Hebrides.' UPCOTT. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 267.

[12] Macbeth, act i. sc. 3.

[13] See _ante_, iii. 24, and _post_, Nov. 10.

[14] Our friend Edmund Burke, who by this time had received some pretty severe strokes from Dr. Johnson, on account of the unhappy difference in their politicks, upon my repeating this pa.s.sage to him, exclaimed 'Oil of vitriol !' BOSWELL.

[15] _Psalms_, cxli. 5.

[16] 'We all love Beattie,' he had said. _Ante_, ii. 148.

[17] This, I find, is a Scotticism. I should have said, 'It will not be long before we shall be at Marischal College.' BOSWELL. In spite of this warning Sir Walter Scott fell into the same error. 'The light foot of Mordaunt was not long of bearing him to Jarlok [Jarlshof].' _Pirate_, ch. viii. CROKER. Beattie was Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in Marischal College.

[18] 'Nil mihi rescribas; attamen ipse veni.' Ovid, _Heroides_, i. 2.

Boswell liked to display such cla.s.sical learning as he had. When he visited Eton in 1789 he writes, 'I was asked by the Head-master to dine at the Fellows' table, and made a creditable figure. I certainly have the art of making the most of what I have. How should one who has had only a Scotch education be quite at home at Eton? I had my cla.s.sical quotations very ready.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 308.

[19] Gray, Johnson writes (_Works_, viii. 479), visited Scotland in 1765. 'He naturally contracted a friends.h.i.+p with Dr. Beattie, whom he found a poet,' &c.

[20] _Post_, Sept. 12.

[21] See _ante_, i. 274.