is 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 Assuredly, 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' Institutes (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 entitled 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.
(Vol. ii, p. 461.)
C. P. Moritz, a young Prussian clergyman who published an account of a pedestrian tour that he made in England in the year 1782, thus describes Lichfield as he saw it on a day in June:--
'At noon I got to Lichfield, an old-fashioned town with narrow dirty streets, where for the first time I saw round panes of glass in the windows. The place to me wore an unfriendly appearance; I therefore made no use of my recommendation, but went straight through and only bought some bread at a baker's, which I took along with me.'--Travels in England in 1782, p. 140, by C. P. Moritz. Cassell's National Library, 1886.
The 'recommendation' was an introduction to an inn given him by the daughter of his landlord at Sutton, who told him 'that the people in Lichfield were, in general, very proud.' Travelling as he did, on foot and without luggage, he was looked upon with suspicion at the inns, and often rudely refused lodging.
Richard Baxter's doubt.
(Vol. ii, p. 477.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See ante, p. xlix. 1] informs me that there can be no doubt that Johnson referred to the following passage in Reliquiae Baxterianae, folio edition of 1696, p. 127:--
'This is another thing which I am changed in; that whereas in my younger days I was never tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture or Christianity, but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home, about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ--since then my sorest assaults have been on the other side, and such they were, that had I been void of internal Experience, and the adhesion of Love, and the special help of God, and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion than I did when I was younger, I had certainly apostatized to Infidelity,' &c.