Johnson asked me to give him my picture." "And I assure you, Sir," says he, "I shall put it in very good company, for I have portraits of some very respectable people in my dining-room." After all I could say I was obliged to go to the painter's. And I found him in such a condition! a room all dirt and filth, brats squalling and wrangling... "Oh!" says I, "Mr. Lowe, I beg your pardon for running away, but I have just recollected another engagement; so I poked three guineas in his hand, and told him I would come again another time, and then ran out of the house with all my might."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii.41. A correspondent of the Examiner writing on May 28, 1873, said that he had met one of Lowe's daughters, 'who recollected,' she told him, 'when a child, sitting on Dr. Johnson's knee and his making her repeat the Lord's Prayer.' She was Johnson's god-daughter. By a committee consisting of Milman, Thackeray, Dickens, Carlyle and others, an annuity fund for her and her sister was raised. Lord Palmerston gave a large subscription.
[632] See post, May 15, 1783.
[633] See Boswell's Hebrides, post, v. 48.
[634] See ante, p. 171.
[635] Quoted by Boswell, ante, iii. 324.
[636] It is suggested to me by an anonymous Annotator on my Work, that the reason why Dr. Johnson collected the peels of squeezed oranges may be found in the 58th [358th] Letter in Mrs. Piozzi's Collection, where it appears that he recommended 'dried orange-peel, finely powdered,' as a medicine. BOSWELL. See ante, ii. 330.
[637] There are two mistakes in this calculation, both perhaps due to Boswell. Eighty-four should be eighty-eight, and square-yards should be yards square. 'If a wall cost L1000 a mile, L100 would build 176 yards of wall, which would form a square of 44 yards, and enclose an area of 1936 square yards; and L200 would build 352 yards of wall, which would form a square of 88 yards, and inclose an area of 7744 square yards. The cost of the wall in the latter case, as compared with the space inclosed, would therefore be reduced to one half.' Notes and Queries, 1st S. x. 471.
[638] See ante, i. 318.
[639] 'Davies observes, in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had ever planted an orchard.' Johnson's Works, ix.7. 'At Fochabars [in the Highlands] there is an orchard, which in Scotland I had never seen before.' Ib. p. 21.
[640] Miss Burney this year mentions meeting 'Mr. Walker, the lecturer. Though modest in science, he is vulgar in conversation.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 237. Johnson quotes him, Works, viii. 474.
[641] 'Old Mr. Sheridan' was twelve years younger than Johnson. For his oratory, see ante, i. 453, and post, April 28 and May 17, 1783.
[642] See ante, i. 358, when Johnson said of Sheridan:--'His voice when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard.'
[643] See ante, iii. 139.
[644] 'A more magnificent funeral was never seen in London,' wrote Murphy (Life of Garrick, p. 349). Horace Walpole (Letters, vii. 169), wrote on the day of the funeral:--'I do think the pomp of Garrick's funeral perfectly ridiculous. It is confounding the immense space between pleasing talents and national services.' He added, 'at Lord Chatham's interment there were not half the noble coaches that attended Garrick's.' Ib. p. 171. In his Journal of the Reign of George III (ii. 333), he says:--'The Court was delighted to see a more noble and splendid appearance at the interment of a comedian than had waited on the remains of the great Earl of Chatham.' Bishop Horne (Essays and Thoughts, p. 283) has some lines on 'this grand parade of woe,' which begin:--
'Through weeping London's crowded streets, As Garrick's funeral passed, Contending wits and nobles strove, Who should forsake him last. Not so the world behaved to him Who came that world to save, By solitary Joseph borne Unheeded to his grave.'
Johnson wrote on April 30, 1782: 'Poor Garrick's funeral expenses are yet unpaid, though the undertaker is broken.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 239. Garrick was buried on Feb. 1, 1779, and had left his widow a large fortune. Chatham died in May, 1778.
[645] Boswell had heard Johnson maintain this; ante, ii. 101.
[646] See post, p. 238, note 2.
[647] This duel was fought on April 21, between Mr. Riddell of the Horse-Grenadiers, and Mr. Cunningham of the Scots Greys. Riddell had the first fire, and shot Cunningham through the breast. After a pause of two minutes Cunningham returned the fire, and gave Riddell a wound of which he died next day. Gent. Mag. 1783, p. 362. Boswell's grandfather's grandmother was a Miss Cunningham. Rogers's Boswelliana, p. 4. I do not know that there was any nearer connection. In Scotland, I suppose, so much kindred as this makes two men 'near relations.'
[648] 'Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other.' St. Luke, vi. 29. Had Miss Burney thought of this text, she might have quoted it with effect against Johnson, who, criticising her Evelina, said:--'You write Scotch, you say "the one,"--my dear, that's not English.