James Boswell - THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON - All 6 Volumes in One Edition

[1108] See ante , p. 294.

[1109] Murphy’s account is nearly as follows ( Life , p. 92):—‘Lord Loughborough was well acquainted with Johnson; but having heard much of his independent spirit, and of the downfall of Osborne the bookseller ( ante , p. 154), he did not know but his benevolence might be rewarded with a folio on his head. He desired me to undertake the task. I went to the chambers in the Inner Temple Lane, which, in fact, were the abode of wretchedness. By slow and studied approaches the message was disclosed. Johnson made a long pause; he asked if it was seriously intended. He fell into a profound meditation, and his own definition of a pensioner occurred to him. He desired to meet next day, and dine at the Mitre Tavern. At that meeting he gave up all his scruples. On the following day Lord Loughborough conducted him to the Earl of Bute. The conversation that passed was in the evening related to me by Dr. Johnson. He expressed his sense of his Majesty’s bounty, and thought himself the more highly honoured, as the favour was not bestowed on him for having dipped his pen in faction. “No, Sir,” said Lord Bute, “it is not offered to you for having dipped your pen in faction, nor with a design that you ever should.”’ The reviewer of Hawkins’s Johnson in the Monthly Review , lxxvi. 375, who was, no doubt, Murphy, adds a little circumstance:—‘On the next day Mr. Murphy was in the Temple Lane soon after nine; he got Johnson up and dressed in due time ; and saw him set off at eleven.’ Malone’s note on what Lord Bute said to Johnson is as follows:—‘This was said by Lord Bute, as Dr. Burney was informed by Johnson himself, in answer to a question which he put, previously to his acceptance of the intended bounty: “Pray, my Lord, what am I expected to do for this pension?”’

[1110]

‘In Britain’s senate he a seat obtains

And one more pensioner St. Stephen gains.’

Moral Essays , iii. 392.

Johnson left the definition of pension and pensioner unchanged in the fourth edition of the Dictionary , corrected by him in 1773.

[1111] He died on March 10, 1792. This paragraph and the letter are not in the first two editions.

[1112] The Treasury, Home Office, Exchequer of Receipt and Audit Office Records have been searched for a warrant granting a pension to Dr. Johnson without success. In 1782, by Act of Parliament all pensions on the Civil List Establishment were from that time to be paid at the Exchequer. In the Exchequer Order Book, Michaelmas 1782, No. 46, p. 74, the following memorandum occurs:—“Memdum. 3 Dec. 1782. There was issued to the following persons (By order 6th of Nov. 1782) the sums set against their names respectively, etc.:—Persons names: Johnson Saml, LL.D. Pensions p. ann. £300. Due to 5 July 1782, two quarters, £150.”

This pension was paid at the Exchequer from that time to the quarter ending 10 Oct. 1784. ‘It is clear that the pension was payable quarterly [for confirmation of this, see post , Nov. 3, 1762, and July 16, 1765] and at the old quarter days, July 5, Oct. 10, Jan. 5, April 5, though payment was sometimes delayed. [Once he was paid half-yearly; see post , under March 20, 1771.] The expression “bills” was a general term at the time for notes, cheques, and warrants, and no doubt covered some kind of Treasury warrant.’ The above information I owe to the kindness of my friend Mr. Leonard H. Courtney, M.P., late Financial Secretary to the Treasury. The ‘future favours’ are the future payments. His pension was not for life, and depended therefore entirely on the king’s pleasure (see post , under March 21, 1775). The following letter in the Grenville Papers , ii. 68, seems to show that Johnson thought the pension due on the new quarter-day:—

‘DR. JOHNSON To MR. GRENVILLE.

‘July 2, 1763.

‘Be pleased to pay to the bearer seventy-five pounds, being the quarterly payment of a pension granted by his Majesty, and due on the 24th day of June last, to Sir,

‘Your most humble servant,

[1113] They left London on Aug. 16 and returned to it on Sept. 26. Taylor’s Reynolds , i. 214. Northcote records of this visit:—‘I remember when Mr. Reynolds was pointed out to me at a public meeting, where a great crowd was assembled, I got as near to him as I could from the pressure of the people to touch the skirt of his coat, which I did with great satisfaction to my mind.’ Northcote’s Reynolds , i. 116. In like manner Reynolds, when a youth, had in a great crowd touched the hand of Pope. Ib , p. 19. Pope, when a boy of eleven, ‘persuaded some friends to take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented.’ Johnson’s Works , viii. 236. Who touched old Northcote’s hand? Has the apostolic succession been continued?—Since writing these lines I have read with pleasure the following passage in Mr. Ruskin’s Praeterita , chapter i. p. 16:—‘When at three-and-a-half I was taken to have my portrait painted by Mr. Northcote, I had not been ten minutes alone with him before I asked him why there were holes in his carpet.’ Dryden, Pope, Reynolds, Northcote, Ruskin, so runs the chain of genius, with only one weak link in it.

[1114] At one of these seats Dr. Amyat, Physician in London, told me he happened to meet him. In order to amuse him till dinner should be ready, he was taken out to walk in the garden. The master of the house, thinking it proper to introduce something scientifick into the conversation, addressed him thus: ‘Are you a botanist, Dr. Johnson:’ ‘No, Sir, (answered Johnson,) I am not a botanist; and, (alluding no doubt, to his near sightedness) should I wish to become a botanist, I must first turn myself into a reptile.’ BOSWELL.

[1115] Mrs. Piozzi ( Anec . 285) says:—‘The roughness of the language used on board a man of war, where he passed a week on a visit to Captain Knight, disgusted him terribly. He asked an officer what some place was called, and received for answer that it was where the loplolly man kept his loplolly; a reply he considered as disrespectful, gross and ignorant.’ Mr. Croker says that Captain Knight of the Belleisle lay for a couple of months in 1762 in Plymouth Sound. Croker’s Boswell , p. 480. It seems unlikely that Johnson passed a whole week on ship-board. Loplolly , or Loblolly , is explained in Roderick Random , chap. xxvii. Roderick, when acting as the surgeon’s assistant on a man of war, ‘suffered,’ he says, ‘from the rude insults of the sailors and petty officers, among whom I was known by the name of Lobolly Boy .’

[1116] He was the father of Colonel William Mudge, distinguished by his trigonometrical survey of England and Wales. WRIGHT.

[1117] ‘I have myself heard Reynolds declare, that the elder Mr. Mudge was, in his opinion, the wisest man he had ever met with in his life. He has always told me that he owed his first disposition to generalise, and to view things in the abstract, to him.’ Northcote’s Reynolds , i. 112, 115.

[1118] See post , under March 20, 1781.

[1119] See ante , p. 293. BOSWELL.

[1120] The present Devonport.

[1121] A friend of mine once heard him, during this visit, exclaim with the utmost vehemence ‘I hate a Docker.’ BLAKEWAY. Northcote (Life of Reynolds, i. 118) says that Reynolds took Johnson to dine at a house where ‘he devoured so large a quantity of new honey and of clouted cream, besides drinking large potations of new cyder, that the entertainer found himself much embarrassed between his anxious regard for the Doctor’s health and his fear of breaking through the rules of politeness, by giving him a hint on the subject. The strength of Johnson’s constitution, however, saved him from any unpleasant consequences.’ ‘Sir Joshua informed a friend that he had never seen Dr. Johnson intoxicated by hard drinking but once, and that happened at the time that they were together in Devonshire, when one night after supper Johnson drank three bottles of wine, which affected his speech so much that he was unable to articulate a hard word, which occurred in the course of his conversation. He attempted it three times but failed; yet at last accomplished it, and then said, “Well, Sir Joshua, I think it is now time to go to bed.”’ Ib . ii. 161. One part of this story however is wanting in accuracy, and therefore all may be untrue. Reynolds at this time was not knighted. Johnson said ( post , April 7, 1778): ‘I did not leave off wine because I could not bear it; I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this.’ See however post , April 24, 1779, where he said:—‘I used to slink home when I had drunk too much;’ also ante , p. 103, and post , April 28, 1783.