Thursday, Oct. 26.

We saw the china at Sêve cut, glazed, painted.-Bellevue, a pleasing house, not great; fine prospect. — Meudon, an old palace.-Alexander, in porphyry: hollow between eyes and nose, thin cheeks. - Plato and Aristotle. Noble terrace overlooks the town-St Cloud.-Gallery not very high, nor grand, but pleasing.-In the rooms, Michael Angelo, drawn by himself, Sir Thomas More, Des Cartes, Bochart, Naudæus, Mazarine.Gilded wainscot, so common that it is not minded.-Gough and Keene.-Hooke came to us at the inn.-A message from Drumgould.

'Friday, Oct. 27. I stayed at home.-Gough and Keene, and Mrs S's friend dined with us. This day we began to have a fire.-The weather is grown very cold, and I fear has a bad effect upon my breath, which has grown much more free and easy in this country.

'Saturday, Oct. 28. I visited the Grand Chartreux built by St. Louis.-It is built for forty, but contains only twenty-four, and will | not maintain more. The friar that spoke to us had a pretty apartment.-Mr. Baretti says four rooms; I remember but three.--His books seemed to be French.-His garden was neat; he gave me grapes. We saw the Place de Victoire, with the statues of the King, and the captive nations.

'We saw the palace and gardens of Luxembourg, but the gallery was shut.-We climbed to the top stairs.-I dined with Colbrooke, who had much company:-Foote, Sir George Rodney, Motteux, Udson, Taaf.-Called on the Prior, and found him in bed.

'Hotel1-a guinea a day.-Coach, three guineas a week.--Valet de place, three 1. a day.-Avant coureur, a guinea a week. -Ordinary dinner; six 1. a head. Our ordinary seems to be about five guineas a day. Our extraordinary expenses, as diversions, gratuities, clothes, I cannot reckon. -Our travelling is ten guineas a day.

|

a parlour. They lose a third; take in to perhaps more than seven [years old]; put them to trades; pin to them the papers sent with them.-Want nurses.-Saw their chapel.

'Went to St. Eustatia; saw an innumerable company of girls catechised, in many bodies, perhaps 100 to a catechist.-Boys taught at one time, girls at another.-The sermon; the preacher wears a cap, which he takes off at the name:-His action uniform, not very violent.

'Monday, Oct. 30. We saw the library of St. Germain.-A very noble collection.--Codex Divinorum Officiorum, 1459:-A letter, square like that of the Offices, perhaps the same.-The Codex by Fust and Gernsheym.—Meursius, 12 v. fol.-Amadis, in French, 3 v. fol.-CATHOLICON sine colophone, but of 1460.-Two other editions,' one by Augustin. de Civitate

Dei without name, date, or place, but of Fust's square letter as it seems.

I dined with Col. Drumgould; had a pleasing afternoon.

'Some of the books of St. Germain's stand in presses from the wall, like those at Oxford.

'Tuesday, Oct. 31. I lived at the Benedictines; meagre day; soup meagre; herrings, eels, both with sauce; fried fish; lentils, tasteless in themselves. In the library, where I found Maffeus's de Historia Indicâ : Promontorium flectere, to double the Cape. I parted very tenderly from the Prior and Friar Wilkes.

'Maitre des Arts, 2 y.-Bacc. Theol. 3 y.Licentiate, 2 y.-Doctor Th. 2 y. in all, 9 years.

For the Doctorate three disputations, Major, Minor, Sarbonica.-Several colleges suppressed, and transferred to that which was the Jesuits' College.

'Wednesday, Nov. 1. We left Paris.-St. Denis, a large town; the church not very large, but the middle aisle is very lofty and awful.On the left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall, which destroyed the symmetry of the sides. The organ is higher above the pavement than any I have ever seen.-The gates are of brass.-On the middle gate is the history of our Lord.-The painted windows are historical, and said to be eminently beautiful. We were at another church belonging to a convent, of which the portal is a dome; we could not enter farther, and it was almost dark.

'Thursday, Nov. 2. We came this day to Chantilly, a seat belonging to the Prince of Condé.-This place is eminently beautified by all varieties of water starting up in fountains,

I have looked in vain into De Bure, Meerman, Maittaire, and other typographical books for the two editions of the Catholicon, which Dr. Johnson mentions here, with names which I cannot make out: I read, 'one by Latinius, one by Boedinus.' I have deposited the original мs. in the British Museum, where the curious may see it. My grateful acknowledgments are due to Mr. Planta for the trouble he was pleased to take in aiding my researches.-BOSWELL

falling in cascades, running in streams, and spread in lakes.-The water seems to be too near the house. All this water is brought from a source or river three leagues off, by an artificial canal, which for one league is carried underground. The house is magnificent.-The cabinet seems well stocked; what I remember was the jaws of a hippopotamus, and a young hippopotamus preserved, which however is so small that I doubt its reality. It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth. Nothing was preserved in spirits; all was dry.-The dog; the deer; the ant-bear, with long snout.-The toucan, long broad beak.-The stables were of very great length. The kennel had no scents.-There was a mockery of a village. -The menagerie had few animals.'-Two faussans, or Brazilian weasels, spotted, very wild.-There is a forest, and I think a park. I walked till I was very weary, and next morning felt my feet battered, and with pains in the toes.

2

Friday, Nov. 3. We came to Compeigne, a very large town, with a royal palace built round a pentagonal court.--The court is raised upon vaults, and has I suppose an entry on one side by a gentle rise.-Talk of painting.-The church is not very large, but very elegant and splendid. -I had at first great difficulty to walk, but motion grew continually easier.-At night we came to Noyon, an episcopal city.--The cathedral is very beautiful, the pillars alternately Gothic and Corinthian. We entered a very noble parochial church.-Noyon is walled, and is said to be three miles round.

Saturday, Nov. 4. We rose very early, and came through St. Quintin to Cambray, not long after three. - We went to an English nunnery to give a letter to Father Welch, the confessor, who came to visit us in the evening.

Sunday, Nov. 5. We saw the Cathedral.— It is very beautiful, with chapels on each side. -The choir splendid. The balustrade in one part brass.-The Neff very high and grand. The altar, silver as far as it is seen. -The vestments very splendid. At the Benedictines' Church

wrote any more after this time, I know not; but probably not much, as he arrived in England about the 12th of November. These short notes of his tour, though they may seem minute taken singly, make together a considerable mass of information, and exhibit such an ardour of inquiry and acuteness of examination as I believe are found in but few travellers, especially at an advanced age. They completely refute the idle notion which has been propagated, that he could not see; and if he had taken the trouble to revise and digest them, he undoubtedly could have expanded them into a very entertaining narrative.

When I met him in London the following year, the account which he gave me of his French tour was, 'Sir, I have seen all the visibilities of Paris, and around it; but to have formed an acquaintance with the people there, would have required more time than I could stay. I was just beginning to creep into acquaintance by means of Colonel Drumgould, a very high man, sir, head of L'Ecole Militaire, a most complete character, for he had first been a professor of rhetoric, and then became a soldier. And, sir, I was very kindly treated by the English Benedictines, and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent.'

He observed, 'The great in France live very magnificently, but the rest very miserably. There is no happy middle state as in England. The shops of Paris are mean; the meat in the markets is such as would be sent to a gaol in England; and Mr. Thrale justly observed that the cookery of the French was forced upon them by necessity; for they could not eat their meat unless they added some taste to it. The French are an indelicate people; they will spit upon any place. At Madame- -'s,' a literary lady of rank, the footman took the sugar in his fingers, and threw it into my coffee. I was going to put it aside; but hearing it was made on purpose for me, I e'en tasted Tom's fingers. The same lady would needs make tea à l'Angloise. The spout of the tea-pot did not pour freely; she bade the | footman blow into it. France is worse than Scotland in everything but climate. Nature has done more for the French; but they have done less for themselves than the Scotch have

1 The writing is so bad here, that the names of several of the animals could not be deciphered without much more acquaintance with natural history than I I possess. Dr. Blagden, with his usual politeness, most obligingly examined the Ms. To that gentleman, and to Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, who also very readily assisted me, I beg leave to express my best! thanks.-BOSWELL.

2 It is thus written by Johnson, from the French pronunciation of fossane. It should be observed that the person who showed this menagerie was mistaken supposing the fossane and the Brazilian weasel to be the same, the fossane being a different animal, and a native of Madagascar. I find them, however, upon one plate in Pennan's Synopsis of Quadrupeds.-BosWELL.

My worthy and ingenious friend, Mr. Andrew

astonished at his figure and manner, and at his dress, which he obstinately continued exactly as in London ;-his brown clothes, black stockings, and plain shirt. He mentioned that an Irish gentleman said to Johnson, 'Sir, you have not seen the best French players.' JOHNSON: 'Players, sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint-stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.'-' But, sir, you will allow that some players are better than others?' JOHNSON: 'Yes, sir, as some dogs dance better than others.'

While Johnson was in France he was generally very resolute in speaking Latin. It was a maxim with him that a man should not let himself down by speaking a language which he speaks imperfectly. Indeed, we must have often observed how inferior, how much like a child a man appears, who speaks a broken tongue. When Sir Joshua Reynolds, at one of the dinners of the Royal Academy, presented him to a Frenchman of great distinction, he would not deign to speak French, but talked Latin, though his Excellency did not understand it, owing perhaps to Johnson's English pronunciation: yet upon another occasion he was observed to speak French to a Frenchman of high rank who spoke English; and being asked the reason, with some expression of surprise, he answered, 'Because I think my French is as good as his English.' Though Johnson understood French perfectly, he could not speak it readily, as I have observed at his first interview with General Paoli in 1769; yet he wrote it, I imagine, pretty well, as appears in some of his letters in Mrs. Piozzi's collection, of which I shall transcribe one :

'A MADAME LA COMTESSE DE

'May 16, 1771.

'Our, Madame, le moment est arrivé, et il faut que je parle. Mais pourquoi faut il partir? Est ce que je m'ennuye? Je m'ennuyerai ailleurs. Est ce que je cherche ou quelque plaisir, ou quelque soulagement? Je ne cherche rien, je n'espere rien. Aller voir ce que j'ai vû, être un peu rejoué, un peu degouté, me resouvenir que la vie se passe en vain, me plaindre de moi, m'endur

1 Mr. Foote seems to have embellished a little in saying that Johnson did not alter his dress at Paris; as in his Journal is a memorandum about white stockings, wig, and hat. In another place we are told that 'during his travels in France he was furnished with a French-made wig of handsome construction.' That Johnson was not inattentive to his appearance is certain, from a circumstance related by Mr. Steevens, and inserted by Mr. Boswell, in vol. iv., between June 15 and June 22, 1784.-J. BLAKEWAY.

Mr. Blakeway's observation is further confirmed by a note in Johnson's diary (quoted by Sir John Hawkins, Life of Johnson, p. 516), by which it appears that he laid out thirty pounds in clothes for his French journey. -MALONE.

cir aux dehors; voici le tout de ce qu'on compte pour les delices de l'année. Que Dieu vous donne, Madame, tous les agrémens de la vie, avec un esprit qui peut en jouir sans s'y livrer trop.'

Here let me not forget a curious anecdote as related to me by Mr. Beauclerk, which I shall endeavour to exhibit as well as I can in that gentleman's lively manner: and in justice to him it is proper to add, that Dr. Johnson told me I might rely both on the correctness of his memory and the fidelity of his narrative. "When Madame de Boufflers was first in England,' said Beauclerk, 'she was desirous to see Johnson. I accordingly went with her to his chambers in the Temple, where she was entertained with his conversation for some time. When our visit was over, she and I left him, and were got into Inner Temple Lane, when all at once I heard a noise like thunder. This was occasioned by Johnson, who, it seems, upon a little reflection, had taken it into his head that he ought to have done the honours of his literary residence to a foreign lady of quality, and eager to show himself a man of gallantry, was hurrying down the staircase in violent agitation. He overtook us before we reached the Temple Gate, and brushing in between me and Madame de Boufflers, seized her hand, and conducted her to her coach. His dress was a rusty-brown morning suit, a pair of old shoes by way of slippers, a little shrivelled wig sticking on the top of his head, and the sleeves of his shirt and the knees of his breeches hanging loose. A considerable crowd of people gathered round, and were not a little struck by this singular appearance.'

He spoke Latin with wonderful fluency and elegance. When Père Boscovich was in England, Johnson dined in company with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's and at Dr. Douglas's, now Upon both occasions, that Bishop of Salisbury. celebrated foreigner expressed his astonishment at Johnson's Latin conversation. When at

Paris, Johnson thus characterized Voltaire to Freron the journalist: Vir est acerrimi ingenii et paucarum literarum.’

'TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

'EDINBURGH, Dec. 5, 1775. 'MY DEAR SIR, -Mr. Alexander Maclean, the young laird of Coll, being to set out tomorrow for London, I give him this letter to introduce him to your acquaintance. The kindness which you and I experienced from his brother, whose unfortunate death we sincerely lament, will make us always desirous to show attention to any branch of the family. Indeed, you have so much of the true Highland cordiality, that I am sure you would have thought me to blame if I had neglected to recommend to you this Hebridean prince, in whose island we were hospitably entertained.-I ever am

'JAMES BOSWELL.'

Mr. Maclean returned with the most agreeable accounts of the polite attention with which he was received by Dr. Johnson.

In the course of this year Dr. Burney informs me that 'he very frequently met Dr. Johnson at Mr. Thrale's, at Streatham, where they had many long conversations, often sitting up as long as the fire and candles lasted, and much longer than the patience of the servants subsisted.'

A few of Johnson's sayings, which that gentleman recollects, shall here be inserted :

'I never take a nap after dinner but when I have a bad night, and then the nap takes me.' 'The writer of an epitaph should not be considered as saying nothing but what is strictly true. Allowance must be made for some degree of exaggerated praise. In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.'

'There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.'

'More is learned in public than in private schools from emulation; there is the collision of mind with mind, or the radiation of many minds pointing to one centre. Though few boys make their own exercises, yet if a good exercise is given up, out of a great number of boys, it is made by somebody."

'I hate by-roads in education. Education is as well known, and has long been as well known as ever it can be. Endeavouring to make children prematurely wise is useless labour. Suppose they have more knowledge at five or six years old than other children, what use can be made of it? It will be lost before it is wanted, and the waste of so much time and labour of the teacher can never be repaid. Too much is expected from precocity, and too little performed. Miss was an instance of early cultiva|tion, but in what did it terminate? In marrying a little Presbyterian parson who keeps an infant boarding-school, so that all her employment now is,

"To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer." She tells the children, "This is a cat, and that is a dog, with four legs and a tail; see there! you are much better than a cat or a dog, for you can speak." If I had bestowed such an education on a daughter, and had discovered that she thought of marrying such a fellow, I would have sent her to the Congress.'

'After having talked slightingly of music, he was observed to listen very attentively while Miss Thrale played on the harpsichord, and with eagerness he called to her, "Why don't you dash

1 Miss Aikin, who afterwards became Mrs. Barbauld.

Dr. Burney upon this

said to him, "I believe, sir, we shall make a musician of you at last." Johnson, with candid complacency, replied, "Sir, I shall be glad to have a new sense given to me.'

'He had come down one morning to the breakfast-room, and been a considerable time by himself before anybody appeared. When on a subsequent day he was twitted by Mrs. Thrale for being very late, which he generally was, he defended himself by alluding to the extraordinary morning when he had been too early. "Madam, I do not like to come down to vacuity."

'Dr. Burney having remarked that Mr. Garrick was beginning to look old, he said, "Why, sir, you are not to wonder at that; no man's face has had more wear and tear.""

Not having heard from him for a longer time than I supposed he would be silent, I wrote to him December 18th, not in good spirits. 'Sometimes I have been afraid that the cold which has gone over Europe this year like a sort of pestilence has seized you severely; sometimes my imagination, which is upon occasions prolific of evil, hath figured that you may have somehow taken offence at some part of my conduct.'

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'December 23, 1775. 'DEAR SIR,-Never dream of any offence. How should you offend me? I consider your friendship as a possession, which I intend to hold till you take it from me, and to lament if ever by my fault I should lose it. However, when such suspicions find their way into your mind, always give them vent; I shall make haste to disperse them; but hinder their first ingress if you can. Consider such thoughts as morbid.

'Such illness as may excuse my omission to Lord Hailes I cannot honestly plead. I have been hindered, I know not how, by a succession of petty obstructions. I hope to mend imme. diately, and to send next post to his Lordship. Mr. Thrale would have written to you if I had omitted; he sends his compliments and wishes to see you.

'You and your lady will now have no more wrangling about feudal inheritance. How does the young Laird of Auchinleck? I suppose Miss Veronica is grown a reader and discourser.

'I have just now got a cough, but it has never quieter nights than are common with me. yet hindered me from sleeping; I have had

'I cannot but rejoice that Joseph' has had the wit to find the way back. He is a fine fellow, and one of the best travellers in the world.

'Young Coll brought me your letter. He is a very pleasing youth. I took him two days ago 1 Joseph Ritter, a Bohemian, who was in my service many years, and attended Dr. Johnson and me in our tour to the Hebrides. After having left me for some time, he had now returned to me.- BOSWELL.

to the Mitre, and we dined together. I was as civil as I had the means of being.

'I have had a letter from Rasay, acknowledging, with great appearance of satisfaction, the insertion in the Edinburgh paper. I am very glad that it was done.

'My compliments to Mrs. Boswell, who does not love me; and of all the rest, I need only send them to those that do; and I am afraid it will give you very little trouble to distribute them.—I am, my dear, dear sir, your affectionate humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

CHAPTER XXXIV.

1776.

IN 1776, Johnson wrote, so far as I can discover, nothing for the public; but that his mind was still ardent and fraught with generous wishes to attain to still higher degrees of literary excellence, is proved by his private notes of this year, which I shall insert in their proper place.

· TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'Jan. 10, 1776. 'DEAR SIR,-I have at last sent you all Lord Hailes's papers. While I was in France I looked very often into Henault; but Lord Hailes, in my opinion, leaves him far and far behind. Why I did not despatch so short a perusal sooner, when I look back, I am utterly unable to discover; but human moments are stolen away by a thousand petty impediments which leave no trace behind them. I have been afflicted through the whole Christmas with the general disorder, of which the worst effect was a cough, which is now much mitigated, though the country, on which I look from a window at Streatham, is now covered with a deep snow. Mrs. Williams is very ill; everybody else is as usual.

'Among the papers I found a letter to you which I think you had not opened; and a paper for The Chronicle, which I suppose it not necessary now to insert. I return them both.

'I have within these few days had the honour of receiving Lord Hailes's first volume, for which I return my most respectful thanks.

'I wish you, my dearest friend, and your haughty lady, (for I know she does not love me,) and the young ladies, and the young laird, all happiness. Teach the young gentleman, in spite of his mamma, to think and speak well of, sir, your affectionate humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

At this time was in agitation a matter of great consequence to me and my family, which I should not obtrude upon the world, were it not that the part which Dr. Johnson's friendship for me made him take in it, was the occasion of an exertion of his abilities which it would be injustice to conceal. That what he wrote upon

the subject may be understood, it is necessary to give a state of the question, which I shall do as briefly as I can.

In the year 1504, the barony or manor of Auchinleck (pronounced Affleck) in Ayrshire. which belonged to a family of the same name with the lands, having fallen to the Crown by forfeiture, James the Fourth, King of Scotland, granted it to Thomas Boswell, a branch of an ancient family in the county of Fife, styling him in the charter dilecto familiari nostro;' and assigning, as the cause of the grant, pro bono et fideli servitio nobis præstito.' Thomas Boswell was slain in battle, fighting along with his sovereign, at the fatal field of Flodden in 1513.

From this very honourable founder of our family the estate was transmitted, in a direct series of heirs male, to David Boswell, my father's great-granduncle, who had no sons, but four daughters, who were all respectably married, the eldest to Lord Cathcart.

David Boswell, being resolute in the military feudal principle of continuing the male succession, passed by his daughters, and settled the estate on his nephew by his next brother, who approved of the deed, and renounced any pretensions which he might possibly have in preference to his son. But the estate having been burthened with large portions to the daughters, and other debts, it was necessary for the nephew to sell a considerable part of it, and what remained was still much encumbered.

The frugality of the nephew preserved, and in some degree relieved, the estate. His son, my grandfather, an eminent lawyer, not only repurchased a great part of what had been sold, but acquired other lands; and my father, who was one of the judges of Scotland, and had added considerably to the estate, now signified his inclination to take the privilege allowed by our law, to secure it to his family in perpetuity by an entail, which, on account of his marriage articles, could not be done without my consent. In the plan of entailing the estate I heartily concurred with him, though I was the first to be restrained by it; but we unhappily differed as to the series of heirs which should be established, or, in the language of our law, called to the succession. My father had declared a predilection for heirs general, that is, males and females indiscriminately. He was willing, however, that all males descending from his grandfather should be preferred to females; but would not extend that privilege to males deriving their descent from a higher source. I, on the other hand, had a zealous partiality for heirs male, however remote, which I maintained by arguments which appeared to me to have considerable weight. And in the particular case of our family, I apprehended that we were under

1 Acts of Parliament of Scotland, 1685, cap. 22.BOSWELL.