pany: though little thought of by ó- annoyances which Johnson's untothers, this man was so highly esteemed ward habits had occasioned her, was for his abilities by Johnson, that he was evidently pleased by his hearty exheard to say, he should not be satis- pressions of regard, and flattered fied though attended by all the Col- by his conversation on subjects of lege of Physicians, unless he had literature, in which she was herself Levett with him. He must have well able to take a part. been a useful assistant in the che- In this year, his long-promised mical processes with which Johnson edition of Shakspeare made its apwas fond of amusing himself; and pearance, in eight volumes octavo. at one of which Murphy, on his first That by Steevens was published the visit, found him in a little room, following year; and a coalition becovered with soot like a chimney- tween the editors having been efsweeper, making æther. Beauclerk, fected, an edition was put forth with his lively exaggeration, used under their joint names, in ten voto describe Johnson at breakfast, lumes 8vo., 1773. For the first, throwing his crusts to Levett after Johnson received 375l. ; and for the he had eaten the crumb. The pa- second, 100l.* At the beginning of thetic verses written by Johnson on the Preface, he has marked out the his death, which happened suddenly character of our great dramatist three years before his own, show with such a power of criticism, as with what tenderness of affection there was perhaps no example of in he regarded Levett. Some time the English language. Towards the after (1778), to this couple, who did conclusion, he has, I think, successnot live in much harmony together, fully defended him from the neglect were added Mrs. Desmoulins, the of what are called the unities. The daughter of Dr. Swinfen his god-fa- observation, that a quibble was the ther, and widow of a writing-master; Cleopatra for which he lost the Miss Carmichael, and, as Boswell world, and was content to lose it, is thought, a daughter also of Mrs. more pointed than just. Shakspeare Desmoulins, all of whom were cannot be said to have lost the lodged in his house. To the widow world ; for his fame has not only he allowed half-a-guinea a week, the embraced the circle of his own countwelfth part, as Boswell observes, try, but is continually spreading over of his pension. It was sometimes new portions of the globe; nor is more than he could do, to reconcile there any reason to conclude that he so many jarring interests. “ Wilc would have acquiesced in such a liams,” says he, in a letter to Mrs. loss. Like most other writers, he Thrale, “ hates every body: Levett indulged himself in a favourite prohates Desmoulins and does not love pensity, aware, probably, that if it Williams : Desmoulins hates them offended some, it would win him the both. Poll loves none of them.” applause of others. One avenue of Poll was Miss Carmichael, of whom knowledge, that was open to ShakI do not find that any thing else is speare in common with the rest of recorded. Boswell ventured to call mankind, none of his commentators this groupe the seraglio of Johnson, appear to have sufficiently consiand escaped without a rebuke. dered. We cannot conceive him to From these domestic feuds he have associated frequently with men would sometimes withdraw himself of larger acquirements than himself, to the house of Mr. Thrale, at and not to have made much of their Streatham, an opulent brewer, with treasures his own. The conversation whom his acquaintance had begun in of such a man as Ben Jonson alone, 1765. With this open-hearted man supposing him to have made no he was always sure of a welcome more display of his learning than reception for as long a time as he chance or vanity would occasionally chose; and the mistress of the produce, must have supplied ample house, though after the death of her sources of information to a mind so first husband and her subsequent curious, watchful, and retentive, that marriage to an Italian she somewhat it did not suffer the slightest thing ungraciously remembered the petty to escape its grasp. Johnson is dis Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii. tinguished in his notes from the other commentators, chiefly by the acute remarks on many of the characters, and on the conduct of some of the fables, which he has subjoined to the different plays. In other respects he is not superior to the rest; in some, particularly in illustrating his author from antecedent or contemporary writers, he is inferior to them. A German critic of our own days, Schlegel, has surpassed him even in that which he has done best. From Boswell I have collected an account of the little journeys with which he from time to time relieved the uniformity of his life. They will be told in order as they occur, and I hope will not weary the reader. The days of a scholar are frequently not distinguished by varieties even as unimportant as these. Johnson found his mind grow stagnant by a constant residence in the neighbourhood of Charing-cross itself, where he thought human happiness at its flood: and once, when moving rapidly along the road in a carriage with Boswell, cried out to his fellowtraveller, "Sir, life has few things In the winter of better than this." (To be continued.) THE YORKSHIRE ALEHOUSE. "A DUSTY road makes a drouthy passenger." Such was the motto which, written beneath an open mouth and a foaming tankard, seemed to frame an excuse for the wayfarer whom it sought to entice into an alehouse in one of the woody dales of merry old Yorkshire. To the enticement of this homely sign and summer proverb, the house held out the farther, but more dubious inducement, of a mounted Saint George slaying the dragon, bearing a notice, in the manner of a legend, "entertainment for man and horse." More comprehensible symbols of good and various cheer abounded; the burnished bottoms of pewter drinking-vessels were seen, elevating and elevated, within the open win dows, and amid the summer airJULY, 1823. the smacking of palm on palm, in friendly and clamorous salutation, was heard; while before the door stood, with interlaced bridles, many horses, neighing an acknowledgment over their corn to the anxious steeds of passing travellers, who, with eyes averted from the pressing seductions of the change-house, hastened on to more remote accommodation. The great northern waggon, heaped househigh with the woollen treasures of the county, and drawn tediously along by ten fine horses, stood by the way-side, watched by a vigilant bull-dog; while its cautious conductors sat within sight, giving, at every mingled morsel of beef and ale they dispatched, a wary glance at their travelling depository of English wealth. Nor was this caution with F out cause for a roving horde of gypsies had pitched their tent within sight, under the shelter of a holly tree-the thin blue smoke from their little fire curled quietly upward into the twilight air, and half a dozen asses grazed at short tether-length, with the double burthen of old brass, and tawny children, on their backs. A fair-haired girl waved the ringlets backwards on her shoulders, as she glided towards them, bearing a flagon of ale, and returned not without the assurance of a merry bridal, and a potent bridegroom, from the presiding sybil of the horde. I saw her look at her white palm, as she came smiling back; every step she took was lighter with increase of joy; while a head or two, with tawny visages and sun-burnt locks, looked after her with a suppressed laugh, enjoying the double pleasure of having passed upon her credulous heart, and unpractised eye, imaginary happiness and a bad sixpence. The alehouse itself was not without its external attractions. It stood on the verge of an ancient forest, where the cultivated and uncultivated land met; and it presented to the highway a peaked and carved front of stone, of that mixed style common in the days of Queen Bess and King James. The architraves of door and windows had been covered with rich carving; and the heads of deer, and chace-dogs, and hunting horns and bows, might still be distinguished amid the profusion of leaf and blossom with which the skill of the carver had wreathed each window-lintel. An infant river was seen glimmering among the short massy shafts of a multitude of oak and elm-trees, which studded an extensive pasture land in front; while behind, a pretty abrupt hill, clothed to the summit with natural wood, interposed between the eastern blast and this ancient hunting-lodge of a branch of the house of Percy. I am not one insensible to the influence of ancient names; and I love those of our old English and Scottish worthies before the names of all meaner persons. I also know that a baron's hall in romance is a right hospitable place with an open door and a full table smoking with festal dinners; and that a palace in poetry is a place Blooded with nectar, and strewn with couches, and filled with luxurious feasting, and ringing with pleasant sounds. But by the honest faith of one who has travelled far, and proved the matter by that rough instructor experience, I have ever found the best accommodation and comfort in places where aristocratical poesy, and regal romance, had no colours to bestow; and I care not who hears me declare that to the palace of a Percy, or a Howard, or a Dacre, I prefer the humble house of homely comfort before me-and that, to the fellowship of lords, I prefer that of Gilbert Gauntree, the owner of the George and Dragon, there where he stands filling up the porch with his most portly person-a visible type of excellent ale and soft accommodation-a personification of provincial jollity and good cheer. I might as well have said sooner, that I had been on the road from the rising of the sun, and it was now setting-that the day had been close and sultry, and the motion of our horses (for you will find presently that I had a companion) had stirred the dust around us in clouds, rendering a place of rest a desirable thing. As I turned my horse's head to the house, the owner moved towards me with what speed he might-the earth, accustomed to the load, forbore to groan; but it certainly shook while my horse-purchased among a spare race of people, and unacquainted with the miracles which the fatted calf and the foaming tankard work among the jolly children of the south-stood stone-still, and snorted, and seemed to examine, with a suspicious eye, the approach of this walking prodigy. come, master, welcome," said he of the George and Dragon; "a dusty road makes a drouthy passenger, as the sign says and, if ye were as dry as dust, I have the stuff that will sloken ye, as the cannie lads of the north say. My horse, at this address, slackened his knees, unarched his neck, and, compressing his nostrils, broke out with a long quavering neigh, which had more of a laugh in it than I ever heard in any uttered sound short of a human laugh. Whether laughter or speech, honest Gilbert began to interpret it to his own advantage: "Aye, aye, my bonnie grey, that was a neigh Wel demanding winnowed corn-and corn thou shalt have, lad, a heaped measure-thou mightest have neighed long for corn in Scotland, I trow there heather springs, instead of hay, and corn-cakes grow like cockles. Whew, Dicken, boy, Dicken—plague on thee for a snail; canst thou not leap instead of crawl? Art thou twenty-seven stone neat of flesh and bone, like thy master, that thou comest as if thy boots were lead? Here, take this horse, and rub him down like a lord's, and litter him to the knees." And, giving the horse to a kind of goblin of all work, he turned to me, and said, "Now, master, come to as good a supper as ever smoked, as soft a bed as ever weary bones rested in, and a flagon of as nappy ale as ever reamed o'er the lips of a bicker, as ye say in the north for a cannie Scotchman I trow ye be." "But, honest Gilbert," said I, "how knowest thou that I am from the north? Resolve me that, thou slender lord of the open mouth and the drouthy motto-thou enter tainer of man and horse." "Ah, master," replied he, "these are the marks which I know the three kingdoms by. Foremost of all comes my hot Irishman, shouting out Wine! by the powers, wine! Ale, you tun of man! Would you poison a born gentleman with your muddy ale?By Saint Patrick, I shall grow as thick i' the wit as one of you foggy islanders, if I drink such vile potations-I disown the drink, by the hand of Noah, who plucked the first grape.' Next comes my own happy countryman, finding fault with every thing, devouring every thing, and paying for every thing. He curses the post-boy for going too slow and time, for going too fast-vows we have never had good weather since the French Revolution-nor aught but dusty roads since the change of ministry-drinks a bottle of brandy to cool himself-eats three pounds of the best beef in the North Riding to make him sleep sound growls a prayer-and goes to bed with his boots on. And, lastly, comes my cautious Scot-he walks round the house three times-ponders upon the sign-dives into the meaning of the motto tells the waiter it is a Scottish proverb, and asks him the price of his twopenny ale, and what is the charge of an hour's sleep by the fire. Ah, sir, they are a cannie people-I could pick ye out a Scotchman among a thousand men-the land of cakes appears at the second word he speaks.' While Gilbert was concluding this hasty sketch of national character, I began to fear that my companion, faint with the heat and weary with the long journey, would become anxious to know if accommodation for the night could be obtained. The look of the establishment satisfied me that this abounded; so I waved my hand, and forward she came. "I swear by the drouth of man, by which I live," said he of the George and Dragon," that here comes a lady to be my guest. Bless her sweet face, and her kindly look. I will wait upon her myself-it will do my heart good." And, setting himself in motion, and shouting out, "Rebecca, love! Rebecca!" he produced a chair, and, with unlookedfor agility, placed it for my companion to dismount by, softened down the rough outward man, and demeaned himself like one aware that good manners and civil carriage were necessary now. His daughter Rebecca came-a sweet slender girl of seventeen, with a light foot and a merry eye, and cheeks like the damask rose. "Rebecca, my love!" said he, "show this lady into the little chamber with the brown hangings-wait upon her, and see that all is in order. The room, madam, is as fragrant as a rose-the floor as white as a lily-the bed as soft as down can be, and the sheets are like new-fallen snow. There's not such a chamber in all the North Riding. And these words of boast, madam, are not mine-they are the words of young lady Kipletillem, who slept here when she ran away, and was wed to lance Corporal Maccraw, of the Fusileers. And now," said he, as my companion followed Rebecca, with a smile at Gilbert's historical notice of the promised chamber, "let me do the needful to your honour. Will you like to sit in the parlour by yourself, and look at my paintings till dinner is ready? There is the portrait of Squire Musgrave's brown horse Cubal, that won the Irish and the English plate, and which the old ballad says was begotten by Belzebub, and could speak like a Christian. I remember some And when that they came to the middle of the course, Saying, Come, pretty rider, pray tell unto me "So you see, sir, the song bears the story out. I gave long Saunders, the ballad pedlar, a good supper, and a night's quarters, for a copy of it to hang up by the picture. And there is a painting of the Ram of Derbyit has been celebrated in song too, sir. I have a club of the best wits of the district, who meet here, and sing the merry song of the Ram, sir. I can touch a verse or two of it myself, sir, to oblige a north-country gentleman-you are all pipers and ballad-makers, I am told: it must be a merry country-but cruel cold, sir. Shall I give you a slice of the Ram, sir, as the president of the witty club says? (Sings.) As I went into Derby, This ram was fat behind, sir; This ram was fat before; This ram was a hundred yards round, The horns which grew on this ram, sir, And the eagles built their nests there, ed to the left, and there I saw some- "The ram is choking you, as our worthy vice-president says when he calls for another touch of my choice October so I will cease, sir. But look in-look in-chop and choose chop and choose: parlour or hall-hung round with flitches of bacon as kitchen or chamber-all's one to Gib Gauntree, of the Dragon; a dry road makes a drouthy passenger-that's my motto-so look in-chop and choose, chop and choose." Thus admonished, into the house I went; and looking to the right, there I beheld half the running horses, and fatted oxen, of the west -flourishing in fullness of pedigree -limned with all the skill of the district sign-painter, and hung in succession like the male and female portraitures of families whose genealogical trees take root about the time of Hengist and Horsa. I look if with tapestry, and the mantlepiece glittering with burnished copper and tin. A large fire, though it was the middle of summer, glowed in the chimney; and, over many simmering-pans and moving spits presided a squat middle-aged dame, sprinkled with the fatness of many feasts, and with a face broad and imperious, from which the fire itself might have obtained increase of heat. She moved from side to side of the immense fire-place, preparing consolation of various kinds for many desiring mouths; and casting a look upon each of the groupes of longing |