Life of Johnson Volume VI Part 13

_Mr. Planta_.

(Vol. ii, p. 399, n. 2.)

The reference is no doubt to Mr. Joseph Planta, a.s.sistant-Librarian of the British Museum 1773, Princ.i.p.al Librarian 1799-1827. See Edwards'

_Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_, pp. 517 sqq.; and Nichols's _Ill.u.s.trations of Literature_, vol. vii, pp. 677-8.

'_Unitarian_'.

(Vol. ii, p. 408, n. 1.)

John Locke in his _Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity_ quotes from Mr. Edwards whom he answers:--'This gentleman and his fellows are resolved to be Unitarians; they are for one article of faith as well as One person in the G.o.dhead.'

--Locke's _Works_, ed. 1824, vi, 200.

_The proposed Riding School for Oxford_.

(Vol. ii, p. 424.)

My friend, Mr. C. E. Doble, has pointed out to me the following pa.s.sage in _Collectanea_, First Series, edited by Mr. C. R. L. Fletcher, Fellow of All Souls College, and printed for the Oxford Historical Society, Oxford, 1885.

'The _Advertis.e.m.e.nt to Religion and Policy, by Edward Earl of Clarendon_, runs as follows:--

"Henry Viscount Cornbury, who was called up to the House of Peers by the t.i.tle of Lord Hyde, in the lifetime of his father, Henry Earl of Rochester, by a codicil to his will, dated Aug. 10, 1751, left divers MSS. of his great grandfather, Edward Earl of Clarendon, to Trustees, with a direction that the money to arise from the sale or publication thereof, should be employed as a beginning of a fund for supporting a Manage or Academy for riding and other useful exercises in Oxford; a plan of this sort having been also recommended by Lord Clarendon in his Dialogue on Education. Lord Cornbury dying before his father, this bequest did not take effect. But Catharine, one of the daughters of Henry Earl of Rochester, and late d.u.c.h.ess Dowager of Queensbury, whose property these MSS. became, afterwards by deed gave them, together with all the monies which had arisen or might arise from the sale or publication of them, to [three Trustees] upon trust for the like purposes as those expressed by Lord Hyde in his codicil."

'The preface to the _Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, written by himself_., has words to the same effect. (See also _Notes and Queries_, Ser. I. x. 185, and xi. 32.)

'From a letter in _Notes and Queries_, Ser. II. x. p. 74, it appears that in 1860 the available sum, in the hands of the Trustees of the Clarendon Bequest, amounted to 10,000. The University no longer needed a riding-school, and the claims of Physical Science were urgent; and in 1872 the announcement was made, that by the liberality of the Clarendon Trustees an additional wing had been added to the University Museum, containing the lecture-rooms and laboratories of the department of Experimental Philosophy.' Vol. i. p. 305.

_Boswell and Mrs. Rudd._

(Vol. ii, p. 450, n. 1.)

In Mr. Alfred Morrison's _Collection of Autographs_, vol. i. p. 103, mention is made among Boswell's autographs of verses ent.i.tled _Lurgan Clanbra.s.sil_, a supposed Irish song.'

I have learnt, through Mr. Morrison's kindness, that 'on the doc.u.ment itself there is the following memorandum, signed, so far as can be made out, H. W. R.:--

"The enclosed song was written and composed by James Boswell, the biographer of Johnson, in commemoration of a tour he made with Mrs.

Rudd whilst she was under his protection, for living with whom he displeased his father so much that he threatened to disinherit him.

"Mrs. Rudd had lived with one of the Perreaus, who were tried and executed for forgery. She was tried at the same time and acquitted.

"My father having heard that Boswell used to sing this song at the Home Circuit, requested it of him, and he wrote it and gave it him. H.W. R."'

"Feb. 1828."

Christopher Smart.

(Vol. ii, p. 454, n. 3.)

Mr. Robert Browning, in his Parleyings with Christopher Smart, under the similitude of 'some huge house,' thus describes the general run of that unfortunate poet's verse:--

'All showed the Golden Mean without a hint Of brave extravagance that breaks the rule.

The master of the mansion was no fool a.s.suredly, no genius just as sure!

Safe mediocrity had scorned the lure Of now too much and now too little cost, And satisfied me sight was never lost Of moderate design's accomplishment In calm completeness.'

Mr. Browning goes on to liken one solitary poem to a Chapel in the house, in which is found--

'from floor to roof one evidence Of how far earth may rival heaven.'

_Parleyings with certain People of Importance in their Day_ (pp. 80-82), London, 1887.

_Johnsons discussion on baptism--with Mr. Lloyd, the Birmingham Quaker_.

(Vol. ii, p. 458.)

In _Farm and its Inhabitants_ (_ante_, p. xlii), a further account is given of the controversy between Johnson and Mr. Lloyd the Quaker, on the subject of Barclay's _Apology_.

'Tradition states that, losing his temper, Dr. Johnson threw the volume on the floor, and put his foot on it, in denunciation of its statements.

The identical volume is now in the possession of G. B. Lloyd, of Edgbaston Grove.

'At the dinner table he continued the debate in such angry tones, and struck the table so violently that the children were frightened, and desired to escape.

'The next morning Dr. Johnson went to the bank [Mr. Lloyd was a banker]

and by way of apology called out in his stentorian voice, "I say, Lloyd, I'm the best theologian, but you are the best Christian.'" p. 41. It could not have been 'the next morning' that Johnson went to the bank, for he left for Lichfield on the evening of the day of the controversy (_ante_, ii. 461). He must have gone in the afternoon, while Boswell was away seeing Mr. Boulton's great works at Soho (ib. p. 459).

Mr. G. B. Lloyd, the great-grandson of Johnson's host, in a letter written this summer (1886), says: 'Having spent much of my boyhood with my grandfather in the old house, I have heard him tell the story of the stamping on the broad volume.'

Boswell mentions (ib. p. 457) that 'Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd, like their Majesties, had been blessed with a numerous family of fine children, their numbers being exactly the same.' The author of _Farm and its Inhabitants_ says (p. 46): 'There is a tradition that when Sampson Lloyd's wife used to feel depressed by the care of such a large family (they had sixteen children) he would say to her, "Never mind, the twentieth will be the most welcome."' His fifteenth child Catharine married Dr. George Birkbeck, the founder of the Mechanics' Inst.i.tutes (ib. p. 48).

A story told (p. 50) of one of Mr. Lloyd's sons-in-law, Joseph Biddle, is an instance of that excess of forgetfulness which Johnson called 'morbid oblivion' (_ante_, v. 68). 'He went to pay a call in Leamington.

The servant asked him for his name, he could not remember it; in perplexity he went away, when a friend in the street met him and accosted him, "How do you do, Mr. Biddle?" "Oh, Biddle, Biddle, Biddle, that's the name," cried he, and rushed off to pay his call.'

The editor is in error in stating (p. 45, n. 1) that a very poor poem ent.i.tled _A bone for Friend Mary to pick_, is by Johnson. It may be found in the _Gent. Mag._ for 1791, p. 948.

_Lichfield in 1783._