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A

JOURNEY

INTO

NORTH WALES,

IN

THE YEAR 1774'.

1

TUESDAY, JULY 5.

WE left Streatham 11 a.m.

Price of four horses 2s. a mile.

Boswell, briefly mentioning the tour which Johnson made to Wales in the year 1774 with Mr. and Mrs Thrale, says :-'I do not find that he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there' (ante, ii. 326). A journal had been kept however, which in 1816 was edited and published by Mr. Duppa. Mrs. Piozzi, writing in October of that year, says that three years earlier she had been shewn the MS. by a Mr. White, and that it was genuine. The gentleman who possessed it seemed shy of letting me read the whole, and did not, as it appeared, like being asked how it came into his hands.' Hayward's Piozzi, ii. 177. According to Mr. Croker (Croker's Boswell, p. 415) 'it was preserved by Johnson's servant, Barber. How it escaped Boswell's research is not known.' A fragment of Johnson's Annals, also preserved by Barber, had in like manner never been seen by Boswell; ante, i. 40, note 5. The editor of these Annals says (Preface, p. v) :— Francis Barber, unwilling that all the MSS. of his illustrious master should be utterly lost, preserved these relicks from the flames. By purchase from Barber's widow they came into the possession of the editor.' It

JULY 6.

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seems likely that Barber was afraid to own what he had done; though as he was the residuary legatee he was safe from all consequences, unless the executors of the will who were to hold the residue of the estate in trust for him had chosen to proceed against him. Mr. Duppa in editing this Journal received assistance from Mrs. Piozzi, 'who,' he says (Preface, p. xi), ‘explained many facts which could not otherwise have been understood.' A passage in one of her letters dated Bath, Oct. 11, 1816, shows how unfriendly were the relations between her and her eldest daughter, Johnson's Queeny, who had married Admiral Lord Keith. I am sadly afraid,' she writes, 'of Lady K.'s being displeased, and fancying I promoted this publication. Could I have caught her for a quarter-of-an-hour, I should have proved my innocence, and might have shown her Duppa's letter; but she left neither note, card, nor message, and when my servant ran to all the inns in chase of her, he learned that she had left the White Hart at twelve o'clock. Vexatious! but it can't be helped. I hope the pretty little girl my people saw with her will pay her more tender attention.' Three days later she wrote:-Johnson's Diary is selling rapidly, though the contents are bien maigre, I must confess. Mr. Duppa has politely suppressed some sarcastic expressions about my family, the Cottons, whom we visited at Combermere, and at Lleweney.' Hayward's Piozzi, ii. 176–9. Mr. Croker in 1835 was able to make ‘a collation of the original MS., which has supplied many corrections and some omissions in Mr. Duppa's text.' Mr. Croker's text I have generally followed.

When I went with Johnson to Lichfield, and came down to breakfast at the inn, my dress did not please him, and he made me alter it entirely before he would stir a step with us about the town, saying most satirical things concerning the appearance I made in a riding-habit ; and adding, "'Tis very strange that such eyes as yours cannot discern propriety of dress; if I had a sight only half as good, I think I should see to the centre."' Piozzi's Anec. p. 288.

For Mrs. (Miss) Porter, Mrs. (Miss) Aston, Mr. Green, Mrs. Cobb, Mr. (Peter) Garrick, Miss Seward, and Dr. Taylor, see ante, ii. 529–542. Το

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To Mr. Newton's. To Mrs. Cobb's.

Dr. Darwin's'. I went again to Mrs. Aston's. She was

sorry to part.

JULY 9.

Breakfasted at Mr. Garrick's.

Visited Miss Vyse'.

Miss Seward.

Went to Dr. Taylor's.

I read a little on the road in Tully's Epistles and Martial. Mart. 8th, 44, 'lino pro limo'.'

JULY 10.

Morning, at church. Company at dinner.

JULY 11.

At Ilam. At Oakover. I was less pleased with Ilam than when I saw it first, but my friends were much delighted.

JULY 12.

At Chatsworth. The Water willow. The cascade shot

' Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the physiologist and poet, grandfather of Charles Darwin. Mrs. Piozzi when at Florence wrote:-'I have no roses equal to those at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect counting eighty-four within my own reach; it grew against the house of Dr. Darwin.' Piozzi's Journey, i. 278.

* See ante, iii. 141, for mention of her father and brother.

• The verse in Martial is :

'Defluat, et lento splendescat turbida limo.'

In the common editions it has the number 45, and not 44. Duppa. • See ante, iii. 213.

out

490

Oakover.

[1774.

out from many spouts. The fountains'. The water tree'. The smooth floors in the highest rooms. Atlas, fifteen hands inch and half'.

River running through the park. The porticoes on the sides support two galleries for the first floor.

My friends were not struck with the house. It fell below my ideas of the furniture. The staircase is in the corner of the house. The hall in the corner the grandest room, though only a room of passage.

On the ground-floor, only the chapel and breakfast-room, and a small library; the rest, servants' rooms and offices'. A bad inn.

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At dinner at Oakover; too deaf to hear, or much conMrs. Gell.

verse.

The chapel at Oakover. The wood of the pews grossly painted. I could not read the epitaph. Would learn the old hands.

JULY 15.

At Ashbourn. Mrs. Diot and her daughters came in the morning. Mr. Diot dined with us. We visited Mr. Flint.

Τὸ πρῶτον Μῶρος, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον εἶ εν Ἐρασμὸς,

Τὸ τρίτον ἐκ Μουσῶν στέμμα Μίκυλλος ἔχει.

'Johnson wrote on Nov. 27, 1772, 'I was yesterday at Chatsworth. They complimented me with playing the fountain and opening the cascade. But I am of my friend's opinion, that when one has seen the ocean cascades are but little things.' Piozzi's Letters, i. 69.

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A water-work with a concealed spring, which, upon touching, spouted out streams from every bough of a willow-tree.' Piozzi MS. CROKER.

3

'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.' DUPPA. For Johnson's last visit to Chatsworth, see ante, iv. 412, 423. From the Muses, Sir Thomas More bore away the first crown, Erasmus the second, and Micyllus has the third.' In the MS. Johnson has introduced pev by the side of eier. DUPPA. 'Jacques Molt

JULY 16.

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