In the preface to _Poems by George Monck Berkeley_, it is recorded
(p. cccxlviii) that when 'Mr. Berkeley entered at the University of
St. Andrews [about 1778], one of the college officers called upon him
to deposit a crown to pay for the windows he might break. Mr. Berkeley
said, that as he should reside in his father's house, it was little
likely he should break any windows, having never, that he remembered,
broke one in his life. He was assured that he _would_ do it at St.
Andrews. On the rising of the session several of the students said, "Now
for the windows. Come, it is time to set off, let us sally forth!"
Mr. Berkeley, being called upon, enquired what was to be done? They
replied, "Why, to break every window in college." "For what reason?"
"Oh! no reason; but that it has always been done from time immemorial."'
The Editor goes on to say that Mr. Berkeley prevailed on them to give
up the practice. How poor some of the students were is shown by the
following anecdote, told by the College Porter, who had to collect the
crowns. 'I am just come,' he said, 'from a poor student indeed. I went
for the window _croon_; he cried, begged, and prayed not to pay it,
saying, "he brought but a croon to keep him all the session, and he
had spent sixpence of it; so I have got only four and sixpence."' His
father, a labourer, who owned three cows, 'had sold one to dress his
son for the University, and put the lamented croon in his pocket to
purchase coals. All the lower students study by fire-light. He had
brought with him a large tub of oatmeal and a pot of salted butter, on
which he was to subsist from Oct. 20 until May 20.' Berkeley raised
'a very noble subscription' for the poor fellow.
In another passage (p. cxcviii) it is recorded that Berkeley 'boasted to
his father, "Well, Sir, idle as you may think me, I never have once
bowed at any Professor's Lecture." An explanation being requested of
the word _bowing_, it was thus given: "Why, if any poor fellow has
been a little idle, and is not prepared to speak when called upon by
the Professor, he gets up and makes a respectful-bow, and sits down
again."' Berkeley was a grandson of Bishop Berkeley.
_Johnson's unpublished sermons_.
(Vol. v, p. 67, n. i.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.
'June 11, 1792.
"I have not yet been able to discover any more of Johnson's sermons
besides those left for publication by Dr. Taylor. I am informed by the
Lord Bishop of Salisbury, that he gave an excellent one to a clergyman,
who preached and published it in his own name on some public occasion.
But the Bishop has not as yet told me the name, and seems unwilling to
do it. Yet I flatter myself I shall get at it."'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 315.
_Tillotson's argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation._
(Vol. v, p. 71.)
Gibbon, writing of his reconversion from Roman Catholicism to
Protestantism in the year 1754, after allowing something to the
conversation of his Swiss tutor, says:--
'I must observe that it was principally effected by my private
reflections; and I still remember my solitary transport at the discovery
of a philosophical argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation--
_that_ the text of scripture which seems to inculcate the real presence
is attested only by a single sense-- our sight; while the real presence
itself is disproved by three of our senses--the sight, the touch, and
the taste.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 67.
_Jean Pierre de Crousaz_.
(Vol. v, p. 80.)
Gibbon, describing his education at Lausanne, says:--'The principles
of philosophy were associated with the examples of taste; and by a
singular chance the book as well as the man which contributed the most
effectually to my education has a stronger claim on my gratitude than
on my admiration. M. de Crousaz, the adversary of Bayle and Pope, is not
distinguished by lively fancy or profound reflection; and even in his
own country, at the end of a few years, his name and writings are almost
obliterated. But his philosophy had been formed in the school of Locke,
his divinity in that of Limborch and Le Clerc; in a long and laborious
life several generations of pupils were taught to think and even to
write; his lessons rescued the Academy of Lausanne from Calvinistic
prejudice; and he had the rare merit of diffusing a more liberal spirit
among the clergy and people of the Pays de Vaud.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 66.
_The new pavement in London._
(Vol. v, p. 84, n. 3.)
'By an Act passed in 1766, _For the better cleansing, paving, and
enlightning the City of London and Liberties thereof_, &c., powers
are granted in pursuance of which the great streets have been paved
with whyn-quarry stone, or rock-stone, or stone of a flat surface.'
--_A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain_, ed. 1769,
vol. ii, p. 121.
_Boswell's Projected Works._
(Vol. v, p. 91, n. 2.)
To this list should be added an account of a Tour to the Isle of Man
(_ante_, iii. 80).
_A cancel in the first edition of Boswell's 'Journal of a Tour to the
Hebrides_.'
(Vol. v, p. 151.)
In my note on the suppression of offensive passages in the second edition
of Boswell's _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_ (_ante_, v. 148), I
mention that Rowlandson in one of his _Caricatures_ paints Boswell
begging Sir Alexander Macdonald for mercy, while on the ground lie
pages 165, 167, torn out. I have discovered, though too late to mention
in the proper place, that in the first edition the leaf containing pages
167, 168, was really cancelled. In my own copy I noticed between pages 168
and 169 a narrow projecting slip of paper. I found the same in the copy
in the British Museum. Mr. Horace Hart, the printer to the University,
who has kindly examined my copy, informs me that the leaf was cancelled
after the sheets had been stitched together. It was cut out, but an edge
was left to which the new one was attached by paste. The leaf thus
treated begins with the words 'talked with very high respect' (_ante_,
v. 149) and ends 'This day was little better than a blank' (_ante_,
v. 151). This conclusion was perhaps meant to be significant to the
observant reader.
_Boswell's conversation with the King about the title proper to be
given to the Young Pretender._
(Vol. v, p. 185, n. 4.)
Dr. Lort wrote to Bishop Percy on Aug. 15, 1785:--
'Boswell's book [_The Tour to the Hebrides_], I suppose, will be out
in the winter. The King at his levee talked to him, as was natural, on
this subject. Boswell told his majesty that he had another work on the
anvil--a _History of the Rebellion in_ 1745 (_ante_, iii. 162); but
that he was at a loss how to style the principal person who figured
in it. "How would you style him, Mr. Boswell?" "I was thinking, Sire,
of calling him the grandson of the unfortunate James the Second." "That
I have no objection to; my title to the Crown stands on firmer ground
--on an Act of Parliament." This is said to be the _substance_ of a
conversation which passed at the levee. I wish I was certain of the
exact words.'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 472.
_Shakespeare's popularity_.
(Vol. v, p. 244, n. 2.)
Gibbon, after describing how he used to attend Voltaire's private theatre
at Monrepos in 1757 and 1758, continues:--
'The habits of pleasure fortified my taste for the French theatre, and
that taste has perhaps abated my idolatry for the gigantic genius of
Shakespeare, which is inculcated from our infancy as the first duty of
an Englishman.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1837, i. 90.
_Archibald Campbell_.
(Vol. v, p. 357.)
Mr. C. E. Doble informs me that in the Bodleian Library 'there is a
characteristic letter of Archibald Campbell in a _Life of Francis
Lee_ in Rawlinson, J., 4to. 2. 197; and also a skeleton life of him
in Rawlinson, J., 4to. 5. 301.'
_Cocoa Tree Club._
(Vol. v, p. 386, n. 1.)
Gibbon records in his Journal on November 24, 1762, a visit to the Cocoa
Tree Club:--
'That respectable body, of which I have the honour of being a member,
affords every evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty, perhaps,
of the first men in the kingdom in point of fashion and fortune, supping
at little tables covered with a napkin, in the middle of a coffee-room,
upon a bit of cold meat or a sandwich, and drinking a glass of punch.
At present we are full of king's counsellors and lords of the bed-chamber,
who, having jumped into the ministry, make a very singular medley
of their old principles and language with their modern ones.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 131.
_Johnson's use of the word 'big'_.
(Vol. v, p. 425.)
On volume i, page 471, Johnson says: 'Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to
use big words for little matters.'
_Atlas, the Duke of Devonshire's race-horse._
(Vol. v, p. 429.)
Johnson, in his _Diary of a Journey into North Wales_, records on
July 12, 1774:--
'At Chatsworth..., Atlas, fifteen hands inch and half.'
Mr. Duppa in a note on this, says: 'A race-horse, which attracted so
much of Dr. Johnson's attention, that he said, "of all the Duke's
possessions I like Atlas best."'
Thomas Holcroft, who in childhood wandered far and wide with his father,
a pedlar, was at Nottingham during the race-week of the year 1756 or
1757, and saw in its youth the horse which Johnson so much admired in
its old age. He says: 'The great and glorious part which Nottingham held
in the annals of racing this year, arose from the prize of the King's
plate, which was to be contended for by the two horses which everybody
I heard speak considered as undoubtedly the best in England, and perhaps
equal to any that had ever been known, Childers alone excepted. Their
names were Careless and Atlas.....There was a story in circulation that
Atlas, on account of his size and clumsiness, had been banished to the
cart-breed; till by some accident, either of playfulness or fright,
several of them started together; and his vast advantage in speed
happening to be noticed, he was restored to his blood companions.....Alas
for the men of Nottingham, Careless was conquered. I forget whether it
was at two or three heats, but there was many an empty purse on that
night, and many a sorrowful heart.'
--_Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft_, i. 70.
Sir Richard Clough.
(Vol. v, p. 436.)
There is an interesting note on Sir Richard Clough, the founder of Bach
y Graig, in Professor Rhys's edition of Pennant's _Tours in Wales_
(vol. ii, p. 137). The Professor writes to me:--
'Sir Richard Clough's wealth was so great that it became a saying of the
people in North Wales that a man who grew very wealthy was or had become
a Clough. This has long been forgotten; but it is still said in Welsh,
in North Wales, that a very rich man is a regular _clwch_, which is
pronounced with the guttural spirant, which was then (in the 16th
century) sounded in English, just as the English word _draught_ (of
drink) is in Welsh _dracht_ pronounced nearly as if it were German.'
_Evan Evans._
(Vol. v, p. 443.)
Evan Evans, who is described as being 'incorrigibly addicted to strong
drink,' was Curate of Llanvair Talyhaern, in Denbighshire, and author
of _Some Specimens of the Poetry of Antient Welsh Bards translated into
English_. London, R. & J. Dodsley, 1764. My friend Mr. Morfill informs
me that he remembers to have seen it stated in a manuscript note in a
book in the Bodleian, that 'Evan Evans would have written much more if
he had not been so much given up to the bottle.'
Gray thus mentions Evan Evans in a letter to Dr. Wharton, written in
July, 1760:--
'The Welsh Poets are also coming to light. I have seen a discourse in
MS. about them (by one Mr. Evans, a clergyman) with specimens of their
writings. This is in Latin; and though it don't approach the other
[Macpherson], there are fine scraps among it.'
--_The Works of Thomas Gray_, ed. by the Rev. John Mitford. London,
1858, vol. iii, p. 250.
INDEX TO THE ADDENDA.
ABERCROMBIE, James, lxii, lxvi.
ADDENBROKE, Dean, xxxiv.
ATLAS, the race-horse, lxix, lxx.
BARCLAY'S Answer to Kenrick's Review of Johnson's Shakespeare, xlviii.
BARETTI, Joseph, lvii.
BASKETT, Mr., xxxii.
BATHURST, Dr., Proposal for a _Geographical Dictionary_, xxi.
BAXTER, Richard, on toleration, xlix;
his doubt, liv;
rule of preaching, lx;
on the possible salvation of a suicide, lx;
on the portion of babies who die unbaptized, lxi.
BERKELEY, Dr., xlix.
BERKELEY, George Monck, lxv.
_Big_, lxix.
BOSWELL, James, Bishop Percy's Communications, lvii;
Johnson in his last illness, and to publish 'praises' of him, lxiii;
_Lurgan Clanbrassil_, li;
projected works, lxvii;
_Remarks on the
profession of a player_, lxi;
visit to Rousseau and Voltaire, xlvi.
BROWNE, Sir Thomas, lviii.
BROWNING, Mr. Robert, lii.
BURKE, Edmund, lxii.
CAMDEN, Lord, xlix.
CAMPBELL, Archibald, lxix.
'CAUTION' money, xxxii.
CLARENDON, Edward, Earl of, l.
CLARENDON PRESS, xxxii.
CLOUGH, Sir Richard, lxx.
COCOA TREE CLUB, lxix.
CROUSAZ, Jean Pierre de, lxvi.
DAVENPORT, William, xxxv.
DAVIES, Rev. J. Hamilton, xlix, liv, lx, lxi.
DODSLEY, Robert, xxvi.
_Don Belianis_, xli.
ENGLAND barren in good historians, xlix.
ENGLISH pulpit eloquence, lvii.
EVANS, Evan, lxxi.
EYRE, Mr., xxxii.
_Farm and its Inhabitants_, xlii, liii.
_Felixmarte of Hircania_, xli.
FLOYER, Sir John, lxii.
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, l.
FRANKING LETTERS, xxxvii.
FREDERICK II. OF PRUSSIA, xlvi.
FRENCH WRITERS, their superficiality, xlvii.
FULLER, Thomas, _Life_, lxiv.
GARRICK, David, xli, xlv, lxi.
GIBBON, Edward, xlvii, lvii, lxvi, lxviii, lxix.
GOUGH, Richard, xxxiv.
GRAY, Thomas, lxxi.
GREGORY FAMILY, lxiv.
HARINGTON'S _Nugae Antiqua_, xxxv.
HAZLITT, William, lxi.
_History of the Marchioness de Pompadour_, xxix.
HOLCROFT, Thomas, lxx.
HUME, David, xlv.
'IT has not wit enough to keep it sweet,' lxiv.
JOHNSON, Michael, xl.
JOHNSON, Mr., a bookseller, xxix.
JOHNSON, Mrs., xliii.
JOHNSON, Samuel, advantages of having a profession or business, lviii;
advice about studying, xxxii;
anonymous publications, xxix;
application for the mastership of Solihull School, xliv;
citation of living authors in the Dictionary, lviii;
critics of three classes, xlv;
difference with Baretti, lvii;
discussion on baptism with Mr. Lloyd, liii;
knowledge of Italian, xliv;
Letters to William Strahan:
Apology about some work that was passing through the press, xxv;
apprenticing a lad to Mr. Strahan, and a presentation to the Blue
Coat School, xxxv;
Bathurst's projected _Geographical Dictionary_, xxi;
cancel in the _Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_, xxxiii;
'copy' and a book by Professor Watson, xxxvii;
George Strahan's election to a scholarship, xxx;
Miss Williams, taxes due, and a journey, xxvii;
printing the _Dictionary_, xxv-xxviii;
_Rasselas_, xxviii;
Suppressions in _Taxation no Tyranny_, xxxvi;
letter to Dr. Taylor, xxxviii;
portraits, lxiv;
public interest in him, xlviii;
romantic virtue, xlviii;
transformation of an actor, lxi;
trips to the country, lviii; unpublished sermons, lxvi;
use of the word _big_, lxix.
JONES, Sir William, xxxi.
KENRICK, Dr. William xlviii.
