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A DIARY OF A JOURNEY 
 
 INTO 
 
 NORTH WALES, 
 
 IN THE YEAR 1774; 
 3Y SAMUEL JOHNfON, LL. D. 
 
 EDITED, WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES, 
 
 BY R. DUPPA, LL. B. 
 
 Barrister at Law. 
 
FOR SALE 
 
 AT THE 
 
 PORT FOLIO OFFICE. 
 
 the lay preacher, by Joseph Derinie. 
 the descent of liberty, by Leigh Hunt. 
 moore's melodies, and Sacred Songs. 
 hall's Law Journal, 5 vols. 
 
 Emeirgon. 
 
 — Practice of the Admiralty Courts. 
 
 the pastor's fire side, anew novel by 
 
 Miss Porter. 
 tales of my landlord, attributed to 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 And generally 
 
 All the New Publications of merit, 
 
VSde P. 37. 
 
 Y^*L v^M^-, <^L 7\v^ L/VL, 
 
 Y 
 
 fa, -,ts /////, /y __/. '/(>//-//.jf'//,> rut /u/ sr?//s //a 
 
DIARY OF A TOUR 
 
 IN 
 
 NORTH WALES, 
 
 IN THE YEAR 1774. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D, 
 
 I should like to read ALL that Ogden has written. 
 
 Johnson 
 
 if \/ 
 
 \%^ 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PUBLISHED BY HARRISON HALL, 
 
 AT THE PORT FOLIO OFFICE. 
 J. Maxwell, Printer. 
 
 1817, 
 
 c 
 

- 
 
 TO EDWARD SWINBURNE, Esq. 
 
 From an uninterrupted intimacy of 
 nearly twenty years, I claim the privi- 
 lege of dedicating these pages to you. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, for his moral and ethi- 
 cal writings, has been too long celebrat- 
 ed, to give his name any additional 
 claim to your attention: but when you 
 read his comparison of the beauties of 
 Hawkestone and Ham, you will per- 
 ceive, perhaps for the first time, that he 
 was equally interested in those beauties 
 of nature which have so often delighted 
 you, and which you have so often ex- 
 quisitely represented. 
 
 a2 
 
This fragment, as a literary curio- 
 sity, I hope will not disappoint you; for 
 although it may not contain any striking 
 and important facts, or luminous pas- 
 sages of fine writing, it cannot be unin- 
 teresting to know how the mind of such 
 a man as Johnson received new impres- 
 sions, or contemplated for the first time 
 scenes and occupations unknown to him 
 before. 
 
 Accept, therefore, this gift from one 
 who has great pleasure in subscribing 
 himself 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 R. DUPPA. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn y Sept. 18, 1816. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 To publish whatever has fallen from 
 the pen of a celebrated author has been 
 reckoned among the vices of our time; 
 but those who admire great or extraor- 
 dinary qualities have also a desire to 
 know the individual to whom they be- 
 long, and to have his likeness and his 
 portrait, as if he were one of ourselves. 
 
 This Journal of Dr. Johnson exhi- 
 bits his mind when he was alone, when 
 no one was looking on, and when no one 
 was expected to adopt his thoughts, or 
 to be influenced by them: in this re- 
 spect it differs from the conversations 
 and anecdotes already published: it has 
 also another value, highly interesting; it 
 shows how his mind was influenced bv 
 
the impression of external things, and 
 in what way he recorded those facts, 
 which he laid up for future reflection. 
 
 His "Journey to the Western Isl- 
 ands of Scotland," was probably com- 
 posed from a diary not more ample: for 
 of that work he says, " I deal more in 
 notions than in facts:" and this is the ge- 
 neral character of his mind; though 
 when Boswell expressed a fear, lest his 
 journal should be encumbered with 
 too many minute particulars, he said, 
 " There is nothing, sir, too little for so 
 little a creature as man. It is by study- 
 ing little things that we attain the great 
 art of having as little misery, and as 
 much happiness, as possible." 
 
 Dr. Johnson commenced his journey 
 into Wales, July 5, 1774, in company 
 with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, and their 
 daughter, now lady Keith, and returned 
 August 25th. 
 
On the same morning that he left 
 Streatham, he wrote a letter to his friend, 
 Bennet Langton, in which he informs 
 him of this excursion, and of the state 
 of his health. 
 
 "I have just begun to print my 
 Journey to the Hebrides, and am leav- 
 ing the press, to take another journey 
 into Wales, whither Mr* Thrale is go- 
 ing, to take possession of at least five 
 hundred a year, fallen to his lady. 
 
 " I have never recovered from the 
 last dreadful illness, but I flatter myself 
 that I grow better: much, however, yet 
 remains to mend." 
 
 In the prosecution of this tour, what- 
 ever was his own gratification or disap- 
 pointment, he appears but little to have 
 gratified the curiosity of others; for Bos- 
 well says, " I do not find that he kept 
 
10 
 
 any journal, or notes of what he saw in 
 his tour in Wales. All that I heard him 
 say of it was, that instead of bleak and 
 barren mountains, there were green and 
 fertile ones; and that one of the castles 
 in Wales would contain all the castles 
 that he had seen in Scotland." 
 
 This Diary, which is now for the 
 first time presented to the public, will 
 fill up the chasm in the Life of Johnson, 
 which his biographer was unable to 
 supply. 
 
 For its authenticity, I will pledge 
 myself: but if there should be any who 
 are desirous to gratify their curiosity, or 
 to satisfy their judgment, the original 
 MS. in the hand-writing of Dr. John- 
 son, is in the possession of the publisher, 
 where it may at any time be seen. 
 
 The editor acknowledges his obli- 
 gation to Mrs. Piozzi, for her kind as- 
 
11 
 
 sistance in explaining many facts in this 
 Diary, which could not otherwise have 
 been understood. 
 
A JOURNEY 
 
 * INTO 
 
 NORTH WALES, 
 
 IN 
 THE YEAR 1774. 
 
 July 5, Tuesday. We left Strea- 
 tham* 11 a. m. 
 
 Price of 4 horses 2s. a mile. 
 
 6. Barnet 1 40' p. m. 
 
 On the road I read Tally's Epistles. 
 
 At night at Dunstable. 
 
 * A village in Surry, about six miles from 
 London; the residence of Mr. Thrale. During 
 the life of Mr. Thrale, his house was the resort 
 of the most eminent and distinguished charac- 
 ters of his time. Here Johnson was domesti- 
 cated, and Garrick, and Goldsmith, and Burke? 
 and sir Joshua Reynolds, were often found. 
 
14 
 
 To Lichfield, 83 miles. 
 To the Swan.* 
 7. To the cathedral. 
 To Mrs. Porter's.f 
 
 * When at this place Mrs. Thrale gives an 
 anecdote of Johnson, to show his minute atten- 
 tion to things which might reasonably have been 
 supposed out of the range of his observation. 
 " When I 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, i '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.' " 
 
 Johnson has contrived to introduce the city 
 of Lichfield into his dictionary of the English 
 language, from its having been the place of his 
 birth. " Lichfield, the field of the dead, a city 
 in Staffordshire, so named from martyred chris- 
 tians. Salve magna parens," 
 
 t Mrs. Lucy Porter. A step-daughter to 
 Dr. Johnson. Her brother, a captain in the 
 navy, had left her a fortune of ten thousand 
 
IS 
 
 To Mrs. Aston's.* / 
 
 To Mr. Green's.f 
 Mr, Green's museum was much ad- 
 mired, and 
 
 Mr. Newton's! china. 
 
 pounds; about a third of which she laid out in 
 building a stately house, and making a hand- 
 some garden, in an elevated situation in Lich- 
 field. Johnson, when he visited Lichfield alone, 
 lived at her house. She reverenced him, and 
 he had a parental tenderness for her. Appen- 
 dix 1. 
 
 * Mrs. Elizabeth Aston, a daughter of sir 
 Thomas Aston. She lived at Stow Hill, an emi- 
 nence adjoining to Lichfield. Appendix 2. 
 
 t Mr. Richard Green was an apothecary, 
 and related to Dr. Johnson He had a consider- 
 able collection of antiquities, natural curiosi- 
 ties, and ingenious works of art. He had all the 
 articles accurately arranged, with their names 
 upon labels, and on the stair-case leading to it 
 was a board, with the names of contributors 
 marked in gold letters. A printed catalogue of 
 the collection was to be had at a bookseller's. 
 
 % Mr. Newton was a gentleman, long resi- 
 
16 
 
 8. To Mr. Newton's. To Mrs. 
 Cobb's.* 
 
 Dr. Darwin's.f I went again to 
 Mrs. Aston's. She was very sorry to 
 part. 
 
 dent in Lichfield, who had acquired a large for- 
 tune in the East Indies. 
 
 * Mrs. Cobb was a widow lady, who lived 
 at a place called the Friary, close to Lichfield. 
 She was a great admirer ol Johnson, though it 
 would seem, if miss Seward's statement be 
 correct, he had but little admiration for her. 
 " Mrs. Cobb knows nothing, has read nothing; 
 and where nothing is put into the brain, nothing 
 can come out of it to any purpose of rational 
 entertainment." Miss Seward, however, ob- 
 serves, that although she was illiterate, her un- 
 derstanding was strong, her perceptions quick, 
 her wit shrewd, comic, sarcastic, and original. 
 
 t Dr. Erasmus Darwin. At this time he 
 lived at Lichfield, where he had practised as a 
 physician from the year 1756, and did not settle 
 at Derby till after his second marriage with 
 Mrs. Pool, in the year 1781. 
 
17 
 
 9. Breakfasted at Mr. Garrick's.* 
 Visited miss Vyse.f 
 Miss Seward. $ 
 
 Miss Seward says, that although Dr, John- 
 son visited Lichfield while Dr. Darwin lived 
 there, they had only one or two interviews, and 
 never afterwards sought each other. Mutual 
 and strong dislike subsisted between them. Dr. 
 Darwin died April 18, 1802. in the sixty-ninth 
 year of his age, 
 
 * This gentleman was Mr. Peter Garrick, 
 brother to David Garrick, and bore a striking 
 resemblance to him. Johnson speaking of him 
 to Boswell says, " Sir, I don't know but if Peter 
 had cultivated all the arts of gayety as much as 
 David has done, he might have been as brisk 
 and lively. Depend upon it, sir, vivacity is 
 much an art, and depends greatly on habit." 
 
 t A daughter of the Rev. archdeacon Vjse, 
 of the diocess of Lichfield and Coventry. 
 
 ^ Miss Seward was the daughter of the Rev. 
 Thomas Seward, canon-residentiary of the cathe- 
 dral of Lichfield. Six volumes of letters by 
 this lady, published since her death, have put 
 the public in full possession of the kind of inti- 
 
 b2 
 
18 
 
 Went to Dr. Taylor's.* 
 
 I read a little on the road in Tully's 
 
 Epistles and Martial, 
 
 Mart. 8th, 44, lino pro linio.f 
 
 Morning, at church. Company at 
 
 dinner. 
 
 11. At Ham. At Oakover. I was 
 
 less pleased with Ham than when I saw 
 it first, but my friends were much de- 
 lighted 4 , 
 
 macy, or friendship which subsisted between 
 her and Dr. Johnson. 
 
 * Dr. Taylor, of Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. 
 Dr. Johnson's old friend and schoolfellow; of 
 whom he said, — " He is better acquainted with 
 my heart than any man or woman now living.'' 
 Afifi. 3. 
 
 t The verse in Martial is 
 " Defluat, et lento splendescat turbida limo." 
 The epigram is addressed to Flaccus, and in 
 the common editions of Martial it has the num- 
 ber 45, and not 44. 
 
 \ Ham is the celebrated residence of Mr. 
 Porte, at the entrance of Dovedale. Notwith- 
 
19 
 
 12. At Chatsworth. The water 
 willow. The cascade, shot out from 
 many spouts. The fountains. The 
 
 standing Johnson was less pleased with his se- 
 cond visit to Ham than the first, yet he has in 
 this Diary given very ample proof that he en- 
 joyed its beauties. 
 
 In July, 1777, Dr. Johnson took Boswell to 
 see this place, which would seem to be the third 
 time, at least, that he had been there; and this 
 is the account Boswell gives of the visit. " I 
 recollect a very fine amphitheatre, surrounded 
 with hills, covered with woods, and walks neatly 
 formed along the side of a rocky steep, on the 
 quarter next the house, with recesses under pro- 
 jections of rock, overshadowed with trees; in 
 one of which recesses, we were told, Congreve 
 wrote his "Old Bachelor." We viewed a remark- 
 able natural curiosity at Ham; two rivers bursting 
 near each other from the rock, not from imme- 
 diate springs, but after having run for many miles 
 under ground. Plott, in his " History ot Staf- 
 fordshire," gives an account of this curiosity; 
 but Johnson would not believe it, though we had 
 the attestation of the gardener, who said, he had 
 put in corks, where the river Manyfold sinks 
 
20 
 
 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 fur- 
 niture. 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 
 aftd the breakfast-room, and a small li- 
 
 into the ground* and had catched them in a net 
 placed before one of the openings where the 
 water burst out, 
 
 * This was a race-horse, which was very 
 handsome and very gentle, and attracted so much 
 of Dr Johnson's attention, that he said; |C of all 
 the duke*s possessions, I like Atlas best,'* 
 
21 
 
 brary; the rest, servants' rooms and of- 
 fices/ 
 
 A bad inn. 
 
 13. At Matlock. 
 
 14. At dinner at Oakover; too deaf 
 to hear, or much converse, f Mrs. Gell. 
 
 The chapel at Oakover. The wood 
 
 * This is the second time Johnson had visited 
 Chatsworth. He saw it, Nov. 26, 1772; and in 
 a letter to Mrs Thrale, he says, " Chatsworth is 
 a very fine house. I wish you had been with 
 me to see it; for then, as we are apt to want 
 matter of talk, we should have gained something 
 new to talk on. 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." 
 
 t Dr. Johnson's hearing was very defective, 
 and a cold made him too deaf to enjoy society. 
 In a letter to Mrs. Thrale, Sept. 14, 1773, he 
 says, " I have a cold, and am miserably deaf;" 
 and on the 2 1 st he says, " I am now too deaf to 
 take the usual pleasure in conversation." 
 
22 
 
 of the pews grossly painted. I could 
 not read the epitaph. Would learn the 
 old hands. 
 
 15. At Ashbourn. Mrs. Diot and 
 her daughters came in the morning. 
 Mrs. Diot dined with us. We visited 
 Mr. Flint. 
 
 16. At Dovedale, with Mr. Langley 
 and Mr. Flint. It is a place that de- 
 serves a visit; but did not answer my 
 expectation. The river is small, the 
 rocks are grand. Reynard's hall is a 
 
 * « From the Muses, sir Thomas More bore 
 away the first crown, Erasmus the second, and 
 Micyllus has the third." 
 
 Jacobus Micyllus, whose real name was Mel- 
 eher,died 1558, aged 55, In the MS. Johnson 
 has introduced yg tv by the side of el**** as if he 
 were doubtful whether that tense ought not to 
 have been adopted. 
 
23 
 
 cave very high in the rock; it goes back- 
 ward several yards, perhaps eight. To 
 the left is a small opening, through 
 which I crept, and found another cavern, 
 perhaps four yards square; at the back 
 was a breach yet smaller, which I could 
 not easily have entered, and, wanting 
 light, did not inspect. 
 
 I was in a cave yet higher, called 
 Reynard's Kitchen. There is a rock 
 called the Church, in which I saw no re- 
 semblance that could justify the name, * 
 
 Dovedale is about two miles long. 
 We walked towards the head of the 
 Dove, which is said to rise about five 
 miles above two caves called the Dog- 
 holes, at the foot of Dovedale. 
 
 In one place, where the rocks ap- 
 proached, I proposed to build an arch 
 
 * This rock is supposed rudely to resemble 
 a tower; hence, it has been called the Church. 
 
24 
 
 from rock to rock over the stream, with 
 a summer-house upon it. 
 
 The water murmured pleasantly 
 among the stones. 
 
 I thought that the heat and exercise 
 mended my hearing. I bore the fatigue 
 of the walk, which was very laborious, 
 without inconvenience. 
 
 There were with us Gilpin* and Par- 
 ker, f Having heard of this place be- 
 fore, I had formed some imperfect idea, 
 to which it did not answer. Brown says 
 he was disappointed. I certainly expect- 
 ed a large river where I found only a 
 clear quick brook. I believe I had ima- 
 
 * Mr. Gilpin was an accomplished youth, at 
 this time an undergraduate at Oxford. His fa- 
 ther was a silversmith in London. 
 
 t John Parker, of Brownsholme, in Lanca- 
 shire, Esq. 
 
25 
 
 gincd a valley enclosed by rocks, and 
 terminated by a broad expanse of water. 
 
 He that has seen Dovedale has no 
 need to visit the Highlands** 
 
 In the afternoon we visited old Mrs. 
 Dale.f 
 
 17. Sunday morning, at church — 
 
 Afternoon, at Mr. Diot's. 
 
 18. Dined at Mr. Gell's.J 
 
 * Mr, Whately, who visited Dovedale at 
 this time, has given a finished description of it, 
 and he felt the beauties of nature, and described 
 them better, than any author I am acquainted 
 with. See Afifi. 4. 
 
 t Mrs. Dale was at this time 93 years of 
 age. 
 
 \ Mr. Gell, of Hopton hall, a short distance 
 from Carsington, in Derbyshire; the father of 
 sir William Gell, well known for his topogra- 
 phy of Troy, and other literary works; born 
 1775. « July 12, 1775, Mr. Gell is now re- 
 joicing, at fifty-seven, for the birth of an heir- 
 male." Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale. 
 
26 
 
 19. We went to Kedleston* to see 
 lord Scarsdale's new house, which is 
 very costly, but ill contrived. The hall 
 is very stately, lighted by three skylights; 
 it has two rows of marble pillars, dug, as 
 I hear from Langley, in a quarry of 
 
 * In the year 1777, Dr. Johifson and Bos- 
 well visited Kedleston together: and it is inter- 
 esting to compare Boswell's account with this 
 which is written by Johnson himself when he 
 visited it three years before that time. 
 
 " Friday, September 19, after breakfast, 
 Dr. Johnson and I set out in Dr. Taylor's 
 chaise to go to Derby. The day was fine, and 
 we resolved to go by Kedleston, the seat of 
 lord Scarsdale, that I might see his lordship's 
 fine house. I was struck with the magnificence 
 of the building; and the extensive park, with 
 the finest verdure, covered with deer, and cattle, 
 and sheep, delighted me. The number of old 
 oaks, of an immense size, filled me with a sort 
 of respectful admiration: for one of them sixty 
 pounds was offered. The excellent smooth gra- 
 vel roads; the large piece of water formed by 
 his lordship from some small brooks, with a 
 
27 
 
 Northamptonshire; the pillars are very 
 large and massy, and take up too much 
 room; they were better away. Behind 
 the hall is a circular saloon, useless, and 
 therefore ill contrived. 
 
 The corridors that join the wings to 
 the body are mere passages through seg- 
 ments of circles. The state bedcham- 
 
 handsome barge upon it; the venerable Gothic 
 church, now the family chapel, just by the 
 house; in short, the grand group of objects agi- 
 tated and distended my mind in a most agreea- 
 ble manner. " One should think (said I) that 
 the proprietor of all this must be happy." "Nay, 
 sir, (said Johnson,) all this excludes but one 
 evil — poverty." 
 
 " Our names were sent up, and a well-drest 
 elderly housekeeper, a most distinct articulator, 
 showed us the house. Dr. Johnson thought bet- 
 ter of it to-day, than when he saw it before;* for 
 he had lately attacked it violently, saying, " it 
 would do excellently for a town-hall. The large 
 room with the pillars (said he) would do for the 
 
 * This relates to the time when this Diary was made. 
 
28 
 
 ber was very richly furnished. The di- 
 ning parlour was more splendid with 
 gilt plate than any that I have seen. 
 There were many pictures. The gran- 
 deur was all below. The bedchambers 
 were small, low, dark, and fitter for a 
 prison than a house of splendour. The 
 kitchen has an opening into the gallery, 
 
 judges to sit in at the assizes; the circular room 
 for a jury chamber; and the room above for 
 prisoners." Still he thought the large room ill 
 lighted, and of no use but for dancing in; 
 and the bedchambers but indifferent rooms; and 
 that the immense sum which it cost was injudi- 
 ciously laid out. Dr. Taylor had put him in 
 mind of his afifiearing pleased with the house, 
 " But (said he) that was when lord Scarsdale 
 was present. Politeness obliges us to appear 
 pleased with a man's works when he is present. 
 No man will be so ill bred as to question you. 
 You may therefore pay compliments without 
 saying what is not true. I should say to lord 
 Scarsdale of his large room: i My lord, this is 
 the most costly room that I ever saw>' which is 
 true." 
 
29 
 
 by which its heat and its fumes are dis- 
 persed over the house. There seemed 
 in the whole more cost than judgment. 
 
 We went then to the silk mill at 
 Derby, where I remarked a particular 
 manner of propagating motion from a 
 horizontal to a vertical wheel. 
 
 We were desired to leave the men 
 only two shillings. Mr. Thrale's bill 
 at the inn for dinner was eighteen shil- 
 lings and tenpence. 
 
 Dr* Manningham, physician in London, who 
 was visiting at lord Scarsdale's, accompanied 
 us through many of the rooms, and soon after- 
 wards my lord himself, to whom Dr. Johnson was 
 known, appeared, and did the honours of the 
 house. We talked of Mr. Langton. Johnson, 
 with a warm vehemence of regard, exclaimed* 
 " The earth does not bear a worthier man than 
 Bennet Langton. We saw a good many fine pic- 
 tures. We were shown a pretty large library. 
 In his lordship's dressing-room lay Johnson's 
 small dictionary: he showed it to me with some 
 c2 
 
30 
 
 At night I went to Mr. Langley's. 
 Mrs. Wood's. Captain Astle, &c. 
 
 20. We left Ashboum and went to 
 Buxton, thence to Pool's Hole, which is 
 narrow at first, but then rises into a high 
 arch; but is so obstructed with crags, 
 that it is difficult to walk in it. There 
 are two ways to the end, which is, they 
 say, six hundred and fifty yards from the 
 mouth. They take passengers up the 
 higher way, and bring them back the 
 lower. The higher way was so difficult 
 and dangerous, that, having tried it, I de- 
 sisted. I found no level part. 
 
 At night we came to Macclesfield, 
 a very large town in Cheshire, little 
 
 eagerness, saying, " Look'ye! Que regio in terris 
 nostri non plena laboris." He observed, also, 
 Goldsmith's " Animated Nature;" and said, 
 " Here's our friend! The poor doctor would 
 have been happy toliear of this." 
 
31 
 
 known. It has a silk mill: it has a hand- 
 some church, which, however, is but a 
 chapel, for the town belongs to some 
 parish of another name, * as Stourbridge 
 lately did to Old Swinford. 
 
 Macclesfield has a town-hall, and is, 
 I suppose, a corporate town.f 
 
 We came to Congleton, where there 
 is likewise a silk mill. Then to Mid- 
 dlewich, a mean old town, without any 
 manufacture, but, I think, a corpora- 
 tion. Thence we proceeded to Nampt- 
 wich, an old town; from the inn, I saw 
 scarcely any but black timber houses. 
 I tasted the brine water, which contains 
 more salt than the sea water .J By slow 
 
 * The parish of Prestbury. 
 
 t The corporation consists of twenty-four 
 aldermen, and has such rights and privileges as 
 commonly appertain to corporate towns. 
 
 X Sea water, in its natural state, is but a weak 
 brine; but its saltness varies in different seas, 
 
32 
 
 evaporation, they make large crystals of 
 salt; by quick boiling, small granula- 
 tions. It seemed to have no other pre- 
 paration. 
 
 At evening we came to Comber- 
 mere,* so called from a wide lake. 
 
 and at different depths. In the Baltic, the pro- 
 portion of common salt, and other saline ingre- 
 dients, to the water in which they are held in so- 
 lution, is as one to forty; in the British Channel, 
 as one to thirty; and at a great depth near the 
 Equator, as one to twenty-three: but the average 
 may be estimated as one to twenty-eight. The 
 brine in our salt works undergoes a process 
 which is called graduation, by which its strength 
 Is greatly increased before it is submitted to eva- 
 poration. The colour of salt ought to be of a 
 delicate blue-whiteness; any approach to yellow 
 shows that the brine has been contaminated by 
 the presence of iron. 
 
 * At this time the seat of sir Lynch Salus- 
 bury Cotton, now, of lord Combermere, his 
 grandson, from which place he takes his title. It 
 is situated in Cheshire, twenty-two miles from 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
33 
 
 22. We went up the Mere. I pull- 
 ed a bulrush of about ten feet.* I saw 
 no convenient boats upon the Mere. 
 
 23. We visited lord Kilmorey's 
 house. It is large and convenient, with 
 many rooms, none of which are magni- 
 ficently spacious.f The furniture was 
 not splendid. The bed- curtains were 
 guarded. Lord Kilmorey showed the 
 place with too much exultation. He 
 has no park, and little water. 
 
 24. We went to a chapel,J built by 
 
 * Great Cats'-tail, or Reed-mace. The Ty- 
 +iha latifolia of Linnaeus. — See Classes and Or* 
 ders of Linn <z us, vol. iii. p. 434. 
 
 t This house, which is called Shavington 
 hall, is in Shropshire, twenty-one miles from 
 Shrewsbury, and, like Wrottesley hall in the 
 adjoining county, is said to have as many win- 
 dows, doors, and chimnies, as correspond in 
 number to the days, weeks, and months, in a 
 year. 
 
 i This chapel is at Burleydam in Cheshire, 
 
34 
 
 sir Lynch Cotton for his tenants. It is 
 consecrated, and therefore, I suppose, 
 endowed. It is neat and plain. The 
 communion plate is handsome. It Ms 
 iron pales and gates of great elegance, 
 brought from Lleweney, " for Robert 
 has laid all open. "* 
 
 We saw Hawkestone, the seat of sir 
 Rowland Hill,f and were conducted by 
 miss Hill over a large tract of rocks and 
 woods, a region abounding with stri- 
 king scenes and terrific grandeur. We 
 were always on the brink of a precipice, 
 
 close to Combermere, built by sir Lynch Salis- 
 bury Cotton, Mrs. Thrale's uncle. 
 
 * This remark has reference to family con- 
 versation. Robert was the eldest son of sir 
 Lynch Salusbury Cotton, and lived at Lleweney 
 at this time. 
 
 t Now belonging to sir John Hill, Bart, fa- 
 ther of lord Hill. It is twelve miles from 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
35 
 
 or at the foot of a lofty rock; but the 
 steeps were seldom naked: in many 
 places, oaks of uncommon magnitude 
 shot up from the crannies of stone; and 
 where there were no trees, there were 
 underwoods and bushes. 
 
 Round the rocks is a narrow path 
 cut upon the stone, which is very fre- 
 quently hewn into steps; but art has 
 proceeded no further than to make the 
 succession of wonders safely accessible. 
 The whole circuit is somewhat labori- 
 ous; it is terminated by a grotto cut in 
 the rock to a great extent, with many 
 windings, and supported by pillars, not 
 hewn into regularity, but such as imi- 
 tate the sports of nature, by asperities 
 and protuberances. 
 
 The place is without any dampness, 
 and would afford an habitation not un- 
 
36 
 
 comfortable. There were from space 
 to space seats cut out of the rock. 
 Though it wants water, it excels Dove- 3 
 dale by the extent of its prospects, the 
 awfulness of its shades, the horrors of 
 its precipices, the verdure of its hollows, 
 and the loftiness of its rocks: tfre ideas 
 which it forces upon the mind are, the 
 sublime, the dreadful, and the vast. 
 Above is inaccessible altitude, below is 
 horrible profundity. But it excels the 
 garden of Ham only in extent. 
 
 Ham has grandeur, tempered with 
 softness; the walker congratulates his 
 own arrival at the place, and is grieved 
 to think he must ever leave it. As he 
 looks up to the rocks, his thoughts are 
 elevated; as he turns his eyes on the 
 vallies, he is composed and soothed. 
 
 He that mounts the precipices at 
 
37 
 
 Hawkestone, wonders how he came 
 thither, and doubts how he shall return. 
 His walk is an adventure, and his depar- 
 ture an escape. He has not the tran- 
 quillity, but the horrors, of solitude; a 
 kind of turbulent pleasure, between 
 fright and admiration. 
 
 Ham is the fit abode of pastoral vir- 
 tue, and might properly diffuse its shades 
 over Nymphs and Swains. Hawke- 
 stone can have «° fitter inhabitants than 
 giants of ^ghty bone and bold em- 
 prise;* men °f lawless courage and 
 heroic violence. Hawkestone should 
 be described by Milton, and Ham by 
 ParneLf 
 
 * Paradise Lost, book xi, v. 642. 
 
 t It ought to be remembered, that Johnson 
 has already said that he was less pleased with 
 Ham on this second visit than when he first saw 
 it; and yet, in 1777, three years subsequent to 
 
38 
 
 Miss Hill showed the whole succes- 
 sion of wonders with great civility. The 
 house was magnificent, compared with 
 the rank of the owner. 
 
 26. We left Combermere, where we 
 have been treated with great civility. 
 
 the time when this account was written, he still 
 continued to have the same admiration for its 
 beauties: and wh&t Boswell says upon this sub- 
 ject is the more interesting, as he was wholly 
 ignorant of the existen^ f this Diary, which 
 was written in 1774. 
 
 « Dr. Johnson obligingly pr^ ose( j to carry 
 me to see Ham, a romantie scene, * ow belong 
 to a family of the name of Porte, but tu. mer i v 
 the seat of the Congreves. Johnson descried 
 it distinctly and vividly, at which I could not bui 
 express to him my wonder; because, though my 
 eyes, as he observed, were better than his, I 
 could not by any means equal him in represen- 
 ting visible objects. I said, the difference be- 
 tween us in this respect was as that between a 
 man who has a bad instrument, but plays well 
 on it, and a man who has a good instrument, on 
 which he can play very imperfectly.' ' 
 
39 
 
 The house is spacious, but not mag- 
 nificent; built at different times, with 
 different materials; part is of timber, part 
 of stone or brick, plastered and painted 
 to look like timber. It is the best house 
 that I ever saw of that kind- 
 
 The Mere, or lake, is large, with a 
 small island, on which there is a sum- 
 mer-house, shaded with great trees; 
 some, were hollow, and have seats in 
 their trunks.* 
 
 * Combermere stands on the site of an old 
 abbey of Benedictine monks, which was found- 
 ed 1 133; and, about the year 1540, at the disso- 
 lution of the monasteries, was granted, with a 
 great part of the estates of the abbey, to George 
 Cotton, Esq., an ancestor of the present lord 
 Combermere. The library, which is forty feet 
 by twenty-seven, is supposed to have been the 
 refectory. The lake, or mere, is about three 
 quarters of a mile long, but of no great width; 
 it is skirted with woods, and from some situa- 
 tions it has the appearance of a river. 
 
40 
 
 In the afternoon we came to West- 
 Chester; (my father went to the fair, 
 when I had the small-pox). We walk- 
 ed round the walls, which are com- 
 plete, and contain one mile three quar- 
 ters, and one hundred and one yards; 
 within them are many gardens: they are 
 very high, and two may walk very com- 
 modiously side by side. On the inside 
 is a rail. There are towers from space 
 to space, not very frequent, and, I think 
 not all complete. 
 
 27. We staid at Chester and saw 
 the cathedral, which is not of the first 
 rank. The castle. In one of the rooms 
 the assizes are held, and the refectory 
 of the old abbey, of which part is a 
 grammar school. The master seemed 
 glad to see me. The cloister is very sol- 
 emn; over it are chambers in which the 
 singing men live. 
 
41 
 
 In one part of the street was a sub- 
 terranean arch, very strongly built; in 
 another, what they called, I believe right- 
 ly, a Roman hypocaust.* 
 
 Chester has many curiosities. 
 
 28. We entered Wales, dined at 
 Mold,f and came to Lleweney.J 
 
 29. We were at Lleweney. 
 
 * See Afifi. 5. 
 
 t Mold is a small market town, consisting 
 principally of one long and wide street. 
 
 | Lleweney hall, as I have already observed, 
 was the residence of Robert Cotton, Esq. Mrs. 
 Thrale's cousin german. Here Mr. and Mrs. 
 Thrale and Dr. Johnson staid three weeks, 
 making visits and short excursions in the neigh- 
 bourhood and surrounding country. Pennant 
 gives this description of its situation. " Lleweney 
 lies on a flat, has most pleasing views of the 
 mountains on each side of the vale, and the 
 town and castle of Denbigh form most capital 
 objects at the distance of two miles." It now be- 
 longs to Mr. Hughes of Kinmel, who lately 
 purchased it, with the estate, for/. 150,000. 
 d 2 
 
42 
 
 In the lawn at Lleweney is a spring 
 of fine water, which rises above the sur- 
 face into a stone basin, from which it 
 runs to waste, in a continual stream 
 through a pipe. 
 
 There are very large trees. 
 The hall at Lleweney is forty feet 
 long, and twenty-eight broad. The gal- 
 lery one hundred and twenty feet long, 
 (all paved). The library forty-two feet 
 long and twenty-eight broad. The 
 dining-parlours thirty-six feet long, and 
 twenty-six broad. 
 
 It is partly sashed, and partly has 
 casements. 
 
 30. We went to Bachy Graig; where 
 we found an old house, built 1567, in 
 an uncommon and incommodious form. 
 My mistress chattered about cleaning,* 
 
 * Bach y Graig had been the residence of 
 Mrs Thrale's ancestors for several generations; 
 
43 
 
 but I prevailed on her to go to the top. 
 The floors have been stolen: the windows 
 are stopped. 
 
 The house was less than I seemed 
 to expect; the river Clwyfl is a brook 
 with a bridge of one arch, about one 
 third of a mile. 
 
 The woods have many trees, generally 
 young; but some, which seem to decay.* 
 
 but her father did not live there, and it fell to 
 decay, and on this visit Mrs. Thrale found it 
 very dirty, particularly the stairs, and she re- 
 quired some persuasion to go up, but was at last 
 prevailed upon. My Mistress, was Johnson's 
 familiar epithet for Mrs. Thrale. 
 
 * From a letter to Mrs. Thrale, Sept. 13, 
 1777, Johnson would seem to imply, that Wales 
 had only these woods to attract the attention of 
 a stranger. " Boswell wants to see Wales; but 
 except the woods of Bach y Graig, what is there 
 in Wales, that can fill the hunger of ignorance, 
 or quench the thirst of curiosity?" Had he been 
 writing to Boswell, instead of Mrs. Thrale, he 
 would probably have been told, that in Scotland 
 
44 
 
 They have been lopped. The house 
 never had a garden. The addition of an- 
 other story would make an useful house, 
 but it cannot be great. Some build- 
 ings which Clough, the founder, inten- 
 ded for warehouses, would make store- 
 chambers and servants 5 rooms.* The 
 ground seems to be good. I wish it 
 well. 
 
 there was little else to make an impression on 
 the traveller, but high hills, which, by constant- 
 ly bounding the view, forced the mind to find 
 entertainment for itself, in contemplating hope- 
 less sterility, or useless vegetation. 
 
 * Pennant gives a description of this house, 
 in a tour he made into North Wales in 1780. 
 
 " Not far from Dymerchion, lies half buried 
 in woods the singular house of Bach y Graig. It 
 consists of a mansion of three sides, inclosing a 
 square court. The first consists of a vast hall 
 and parlour: the rest of it rises into six wonder- 
 ful stories, including the cupola^ and forms from 
 the second floor the figure of a pyramid: the 
 rooms are small and inconvenient. The bricks 
 
45 
 
 31. We went to church at St. Asaph. 
 The cathedral, though not large, has 
 something of dignity and grandeur. 
 The cross aisle is very short. It has 
 scarcely any monuments. The quire 
 has, I think, thirty-two stalls of antique 
 workmanship. On the backs were Can- 
 okicus, Prebend, Cancellarius, 
 Thesaurarius, Precentor. Th.e 
 constitution I do not know, but it has all 
 the usual titles and dignities. The ser- 
 vice was sung only in the psalms and 
 hymns. 
 
 The bishop was very civil.* We 
 are admirable, and appear to have been made in 
 Holland; and the model of the house was proba- 
 bly brought from Flanders, where this kind of 
 building is not unfrequent. It was built by sir 
 Richard Clough, an eminent merchant, in the 
 reign of queen Elizabeth. The initials of his 
 name are in iron on the front, with the date 1 567, 
 and on the gate-way 1569. 
 
 * The bishop at this time was Dr. Shipley, 
 Cither to the present dean of St. Asaph. Upon 
 
46 
 
 went to his palace, which is but mean. 
 They have a library, and design a room. 
 There lived Lloyd* and Dodwell. 
 
 August 1. We visited Denbigh, and 
 the remains of its castle. 
 
 another occasion, when he dined in company 
 with Dr. Shipley, he said he was knowing and 
 conversiblc. Their difference in politics would 
 hardly admit of more praise from Johnson. 
 
 * Lloyd was raised to the see of St. Asaph in 
 1680. He was one of the seven bishops who 
 were sent to the tower in 1688, for refusing to 
 permit the publication of the royal declaration 
 for liberty of conscience, and was a zealous pro- 
 moter of the revolution. lie died bishop of 
 Worcester, August 30, 1717, at 91 years of 
 
 age. 
 
 Dodwell was a man of extensive learning, 
 and an intimate friend of Lloyd, and, like him, a 
 great friend to the revolution. He also enter- 
 tained religious opinions which were for the 
 greater part of his life, inconvenient to him: but 
 when he became an old man, his reason prevail- 
 ed over those scruples, which his skill in con- 
 troversy, in the vigour of his life, had given 
 more importance to than they deserved. 
 
47 
 
 The town consists of one main 
 street, and some that cross it, which I 
 have not seen. The chief street ascends 
 with a quick rise for a great length: the 
 houses are built, some with rough stone, 
 some with brick, and a few of timber. 
 
 The castle, with its whole enclo- 
 sure, has been a prodigious pile; it is 
 now so ruined, that the form of the in- 
 habited part cannot easily be traced. 
 
 There are, as in all old buildings, 
 said to be extensive vaults, which the 
 ruins of the upper works cover and con- 
 ceal, but into which boys sometimes find 
 a way. To clear all passages, and trace 
 the whole of what remains, would re- 
 quire much labour and expense. We 
 saw a church, which was once the 
 chapel of the castle, but is used by the 
 town; it is dedicated to St. Hilary, and 
 has an income of about — 
 
48 
 
 At a small distance is the ruin of a 
 church said to have been begun by the 
 great earl of Leicester,* and left unfin- 
 ished at his death. One side, and I think 
 the east end, are yet standing. There 
 was a stone in the wall, over the door 
 way, which it was said would fall and 
 crush the best scholar in the diocess. 
 One Price would not pass under it. They 
 have taken it down. 
 
 We then saw the chapel of Llewen- 
 ey, founded by one of the Salusburies: 
 it is very complete: the monumental 
 stones lie in the ground. A chimney 
 has been added to it, but it is otherwise 
 not much injured, and might be easily 
 repaired.! 
 
 * By Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, in 
 1579. He died Sept. 4, 1588. 
 
 t The late sir Robert Salusbury Cotton| 
 had no taste for antiquity of any kind; and this 
 
49 
 
 We went to the parish church of 
 Denbigh, which, being near a mile from 
 the town, is only used when the parish 
 officers are chosen. 
 
 In the chapel, on Sundays, the ser- 
 vice is read thrice, the second time only 
 in English, the first and third ill Welsh. 
 
 The bishop came to survey the cas- 
 tle, and visited likewise St. Hilary's 
 chapel, which is that which the town 
 uses. The hay- barn, built with brick pil- 
 lars from space to space, and covered 
 with a roof. A more elegant and lofty 
 hovel. 
 
 The rivers here, are mere torrents 
 which are suddenly swelled by the rain 
 to great breadth and great violence, but 
 
 chapel was not regarded by him as being in any 
 respect better than a barn, or fit for any other 
 purpose; and the present proprietor applies it to 
 that use. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 have very little constant stream; such 
 are the Clwyd and the Elwy.* There 
 are yet no mountains. The ground is 
 beautifully embellished with woods, and 
 diversified with inequalities. 
 
 In the parish church of Denbigh is a 
 has relief of Lloyd the antiquary, who was 
 
 * Here we see Johnson simply describing, 
 the character of these streams; and this descrip- 
 tion is interesting when compared with a pas- 
 sage in his Journey to the Western Islands,, 
 where the same facts become important from' 
 the language in which they are given. 
 
 " We passed many rivers and rivulets,<> 
 which commonly ran with a clear shallow stream? 
 over a hard pebbly bottom. These channels,, 
 which seem so much wider than the water that 
 they convey would naturally require, are formed 
 by the violence of wintry floods, produced by the 
 accumulation of innumerable streams that fall 
 in rainy weather from the hills, and bursting 
 away with resistless impetuosity, make them- 
 selves a passage proportionate to their mass." 
 
51 
 
 before Camden. He is kneeling at his 
 prayers.* 
 
 2. We rode to a summer-house of 
 Mr. Cotton, which has a very extensive 
 prospect: it is meanly built, and unskil- 
 fully disposed.f 
 
 We went to Dymerchion church, J 
 where the old clerk acknowledged his 
 mistress. It is the parish church of Bach 
 y Graig. § A mean fabric: Mr. Salusbu- 
 ry|| was buried in it. Bach y Graig 
 has fourteen seats in it. 
 
 * Humphry Llwyd was a native of Denbigh, 
 and practised there as a physician, and also re- 
 presented the town in parliament. He died 
 1568, aged 41. 
 
 t This summer-house is in the grounds be- 
 longing to Lleweney, and their ride to it was to 
 see the prospect; the situation commands a very 
 beautiful view. 
 
 \ Dymerchion is three miles from St. Asaph. 
 
 § Bach y Graig is the name of one of three 
 townships of the parish of Dymerchion. 
 
 || Mr. Thrale's father. 
 
52 
 
 As we rode by, I looked at the 
 house again. We saw Llannerch, a 
 house not mean, with a small park very 
 well watered. There was an avenue cf 
 oaks, which, in a foolish compliance 
 with the present mode, has been cut 
 down, A few are yet standing. The 
 owner's name is Davies.* 
 
 The way led through pleasant lanes, 
 and overlooked a region beautifully di- 
 versified with trees and grass. 
 
 At Dymerchion church there is 
 English service only once a month. 
 This is about twenty miles from the 
 English border. 
 
 The old clerk had great appear- 
 ance of joy at the sight of his mistress, 
 and foolishly said, that he w r as now will- 
 
 * Robert Davics, Esq. At his house there 
 was an extensive library. 
 
53 
 
 ing to die. He had only a crown given 
 him by my mistress.* 
 
 At Dymerchion church the texts on 
 the walls are in Welsh. 
 
 3. We went in the coach to Holy- 
 well. 
 
 Talk with mistressf about flatteryj* 
 
 * In the MS. in Dr. Johnson's hand writing, 
 lie has first entered in his diary, " The old 
 clerk had great appearance of joy at seeing his 
 mistress, and foolishly said that he was now wil- 
 ling to die:" he afterwards wrote in a separate 
 column, on the same leaf, under the head 
 of notes and omissions, " He had a crown;" and 
 then he appears to have read over his diary at 
 a future time, and interlined the paragraph with 
 the word — " on" " lygiven him by my mistress," 
 which is written in ink of a different colour. 
 This shows that he read his diary over after he 
 wrote it, and that where his feelings were not 
 accurately expressed, he amended them. 
 
 t Mrs. Thralc. 
 
 \ Johnson had no dislike to those commen- 
 dations which are commonly imputed to flattery. 
 e 2 
 
54 
 
 Holywell is a market town, neither 
 very small nor mean. The spring call- 
 ed Winifred's Well is very clear, and 
 so copious, that it yields one hundred 
 tons of water in a minute. It is all at once 
 a very great stream, which, within per- 
 haps thirty yards of its eruption, turns 
 a mill, and in a course of two miles, 
 
 Upon one occasion he said to Mrs. Thrale, 
 " What signifies protesting so against flattery! 
 when a person speaks well of one, it must be ei- 
 ther true or false, you know; if true, let us 
 rejoice in his good opinion; if he lies, it is a 
 proof at least that he loves more to please 
 me, than to sit silent when he need say nothing. 
 Though I like flattery, a little too much al- 
 ways disgusts me: that fellow, Richardson, 
 on the contrary, could not be content to glide 
 o^ietly down the stream of reputation, with 
 out longing to taste the froth from every stroke 
 of the oar." 
 
 " The difference between praise and flatte- 
 ry is the same as between that hospitality that 
 sets wine enough before the guest, and that 
 which forces him to drink/' 
 
55 
 
 eighteen mills more. In descent, it is 
 very quick. It then falls into the sea. 
 The well is covered by a lofty circular 
 arch, supported by pillars; and over this 
 arch is an old chapel, now a school. 
 The chancel is separated by a wall. The 
 bath is completely and indecently open. 
 A woman bathed while we all looked on. 
 
 In the church, which makes a good 
 appearance, and is surrounded by gal- 
 leries to receive a numerous congrega- 
 tion, we were present while ^ child was 
 christened in Welch. 
 
 We went down by the stream to see 
 a prospect, in which I had no part. 
 We then saw a brass work, where the 
 lapis calaminaris is gathered, broken, 
 washed from the earth and the lead, 
 though how the lead was separated I 
 did not see; then calcined, afterwards 
 
56 
 
 ground fine, and then mixed by fire 
 with the copper. 
 
 We saw several strong fires with 
 melting pots, but the construction of 
 the fire-places I did not learn. 
 
 At a copper- work which receives its 
 pigs of copper, I think, from Warring- 
 ton, we saw a plate of copper put hot 
 between steel rollers, and spread thin: 
 I know not whether the upper roller was 
 set to a certain distance, as I suppose* 
 or acted only by its weight. 
 
 At an iron- work I saw round bars 
 formed by a knotched hammer and an- 
 vil. There I saw a bar of about half 
 an inch, or more, square cut with shears 
 worked by w T ater, and then beaten hot 
 into a thinner bar. The hammers all 
 worked, as they were, by water, acting 
 upon small bodies, moved very quick, 
 as quick as by the hand. 
 
57 
 
 I then saw wire drawn, and gave a 
 shilling. I have enlarged my notions, 
 though not being able to see the move- 
 ments; and having not time to peep 
 closely, I knew less than I might. I 
 was less weary, and had better breath, 
 as I walked farther. 
 
 4. Ruthin castle is still a very noble 
 ruin; all the walls still remain, so that 
 a complete platform, and elevations, not 
 very imperfect, may be taken. It en- 
 closes a square of about thirty yards. 
 The middle space was always open. 
 
 The wall is, I believe, about thirty 
 feet Jhigh, very thick, flanked with six 
 round towers, each about eighteen feet r 
 or less in diameter. Only one tower 
 had a chimney, so that there was com- 
 modity of living. It was only a place 
 of strength. The garrison had, perhaps, 
 tents in the area. 
 
58 
 
 Stapylton's house is pretty:* there 
 are pleasing shades about it, with a con- 
 stant spring that supplies a cold bath* 
 We then went to see a cascade, 
 
 I trudged unwillingly, and was not 
 sorry to find it dry. The ivater was, 
 however, turned on, and produced a ve- 
 ry striking cataract. They are paid aa 
 hundred pounds a year for permission to 
 divert the stream to the mines. The 
 river, for such it may be termed, rises 
 from a single spring, which, like that of 
 Winifred's, is covered with a building. 
 
 We called then at another house 
 belonging to Me. Lloyd, which made a 
 
 * The name of this house is Bodryddan; for- 
 merly the residence of the Stapyltons, the pa- 
 rents of five co-heiresses, of whom Mrs. Cotton,, 
 afterwards lady Salusbury Cotton, was one; but 
 in the year 1774, it was the residence of Mr. 
 Shipley, dean of St. Asaph, who still lives there:. 
 
59 
 
 handsome appearance. This country 
 seems full of very splendid houses. 
 
 Mrs. Thrale lost her purse. She ex- 
 pressed so mu^h uneasiness, that I con- 
 cluded the sum to be very great; but 
 when I heard of only seven guineas, I 
 was glad to find that she had so much 
 sensibility of money. 
 
 I could not drink this day either cofr 
 fee or tea after dinner. I know not 
 when I missed before* 
 
 5. Last night my sleep was remark - 
 bly quiet. I know not whether by fa- 
 tigue in walking, or by forbearance of 
 tea* 
 
 I gave the ipecacuanha. Vin. emet. 
 had failed; so had tartar emet. 
 
 I dined at Mr. Mvddleton's, of 
 Gwaynynog. The house was a gentle- 
 man's house, below the second rate, per- 
 
60 
 
 haps below the third, built of stone 
 roughly cut. The rooms were low, and 
 the passage above stairs gloomy, but the 
 furniture was good. The table was well 
 supplied, except that the fruit was bad. 
 It was truly the dinner of a country gen- 
 tleman.* Two tables were filled with 
 company, not inelegant. 
 
 After dinner, the talk was of pre- 
 serving the Welsh language. I offered 
 them a scheme. Poor Evan Evans was 
 mentioned, as incorrigibly addicted to 
 
 * Johnson affected to be a man of very nice 
 discernment in the art of cookery. Boswell ob- 
 serves, upon one occasion he alarmed a lady, at 
 vr hose house he was to sup, by this declaration 
 of his skill: " I, madam, who live at a variety of 
 good tables, am a much better judge of cook- 
 ery, than any person who has a very tolerable 
 cook, but lives much at home; for his palate is 
 gradually adapted to the taste of his cook; 
 
61 
 
 strong drink. Washington was com- 
 mended. Myddleton is the only man, 
 who, in Wales, has talked to me of lite- 
 rature. I wish he were truly zealous. 
 I recommended the republication of 
 David ap Rhees's Welsh Grammar. 
 
 Two sheets of Hebrides came to me 
 for correction to-dav, F. G.* 
 
 6. 2*9\ i$. I corrected the two sheets. 
 My sleep last night was disturbed. 
 
 Washing at Chester and here, 5s. Id. 
 
 whereas, madam, in trying by a wider range, I 
 can more exquisitely judge." When invited 
 to dine, even with an intimate friend, he was not 
 pleased if something better than a plain dinner 
 was not prepared for him. — Aftfi, 6. 
 
 * F. G. are the printer's signatures, by 
 which it appears that at this time five sheets 
 had already been printed. The MS. was sent 
 to press June 1 lth.— Boswell's Life of Dr. 
 Johnson, vol. ii. fi. 288. 
 
62 
 
 I did not read. 
 
 I saw to-day more of the out-houses 
 at Llevveney. It is, in the whole, a very 
 spacious house. 
 
 7. I was at church at Bodfari. 
 There was a service used for a sick wo- 
 man, not canonically, but such as I have 
 heard, I think formerly at Lichfield, ta- 
 ken out of the visitation. KccB: fA&rym. 
 
 The church is mean, but has a 
 square tower for the bells, rather too state- 
 ly for a church. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Dixit injustus, Ps. 36, has no rela- 
 tion to the English, 
 
 Preserve us, Lord, has the name of 
 Robert Wisedome, 1618. — Barker** 
 Bible. 
 
63 
 
 Battologiam ab iteratione, recte dis- 
 tinguit Erasmus. — Mod. Orandi Deum, 
 p. 56 — 144. 
 
 Southwell's Thoughts of his own 
 Death. 
 
 Baudius on Erasmus.* 
 
 8. The bishop and much company 
 dined at Llewcney.f Talk of Greek — 
 
 * This work, which Johnson was now read- 
 ing, was, most probably, a little book, entitled 
 Baudi Efdstol<£) as, in his life of Milton, he has 
 made a quotation from it. Speaking of Milton's 
 religious opinions, when he is supposed to have 
 vacillated between Calvinism and Arminianism, 
 he observes, " What Baudius says of Erasmus 
 seems applicable to him, magis habuit quod fu- 
 gcrtt qua?n quod sequcreter." 
 
 t During Johnson's stay at this place, Mrs, 
 Thrale gives this trait of his character. When 
 we went into Wales together, and spent some 
 time at Mr. Cotton's at Lleweney, one day at din- 
 ner, I meant to please Mr. Johnson particular- 
 ly, with a dish of very young peas. < Are not 
 they charming?' said I to him, while he was 
 
64 
 
 and the army. The duke of Marlbo- 
 rough's officers useless. Read Phocyli- 
 dis,* distinguished the paragraphs. I 
 looked in Leland: an unpleasant book 
 of mere hints, f 
 
 Lichfield school, ten pounds; and 
 five pounds from the hospital. 
 
 10. At Lloyd's, of Maesmynnan; a 
 good house, and a very large walled 
 garden. I read Windus's Account of 
 his Journey to Mequinez, and of Stew- 
 art's Embassy.! I had read in the morn- 
 eating them. * Perhaps they would be so— to a 
 pig.' This is given only as an instance of the 
 peculiarity of his manner, and which had in it 
 no intention to offend. 
 
 * The title of the poem is nctvfta nvS-eltyJv. 
 
 t Leland's Itinerary, published by Thomas 
 Hearne, in nine very thin octavo volumes, 1710. 
 
 | This book is entitled, " A Journey to Me- 
 quinez, the residence of the present emperor of 
 Fez and Morocco, on the occasion of commo- 
 
65 
 
 ing Wasse's Greek Trochaics to Bent- 
 ley. They appear inelegant, and made 
 with difficulty. The Latin elegy con- 
 tains only common-place, hastily expres- 
 sed, so far as I have read, for it is long. 
 They seem to be the verses of a scholar, 
 who has no practice of writing. The 
 Greek I did not always fully understand. 
 I am in doubt about sixth and last para- 
 graphs, perhaps they are not printed right, 
 for ivroMv perhaps iv<flo%Qv. q? 
 
 The following days I read here and 
 there. The Bibliotheca Literaria was so 
 little supplied with papers that could in- 
 terest curiosity, that it could not hope 
 for long continuance.* Wasse, the 
 
 dore Stewart's embassy thither, for the redemp- 
 tion of the British captives, in the year 1721." 
 8vo. 
 
 * The Bibliotheca Literaria was publisked 
 in London, 1722-4, in 4to numbers, but only ex- 
 tended to ten numbers. 
 F 2 
 
66 
 
 chief contributor, was an unpolished 
 scholar, who, with much literature, had 
 no art or elegance of diction, at least in 
 English, 
 
 14. At Bodfari I heard the second 
 lesson read, and the sermon preached in 
 Welsh, The text was pronounced both 
 in Welsh and English. The sound of the 
 Welsh, in a continued discourse, is not 
 unpleasant. 
 
 The letter of Chrysostom, against 
 transubstantiation. Erasmus to the nuns, 
 full of mystic notions and allegories. 
 
 15. K*9*. Imbecillitas genuum non 
 sine aliquantulo doloris inter ambulan- 
 dum, quern a prandio magis sensi.f 
 
 * By this expression it would seem, that on 
 this day Johnson ate sparingly. 
 
 t " A weakness of the knees, not without 
 ome pain in walking, which I feel increased af- 
 ter I haye dined." 
 
67 
 
 18. We left Lleweney, and went for- 
 wards on our journey. 
 
 We came to Abergeley, a mean 
 town, in which little but Welsh is spo^ 
 
 Throughout this Diary, when Johnson is 
 obliged to turn his thoughts to the state of his 
 health, he always puts his private memoranda in 
 the learned languages; as if to throw a slight 
 veil over those ills which he would willingly 
 have hid from himself. 
 
 The day after this memorandum was made, 
 he wrote a letter to his medical friend, Mr. Ro- 
 bert Levet. 
 
 " To Mr. Robert Levet. 
 
 " Lleweney, in Denbighshire, 
 August 16, 1774. 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " Mr. Thrale's affairs have kept him here 
 a great while, nor do I know exactly when we 
 shall come hence. I have sent you a bill upon 
 Mr. Strahan. 
 
 " I have made nothing of the ipecacuanha, but 
 have taken abundance of pills, and hope that 
 they have done me good. 
 
 " Wales, so far as I have yet seen of it, is a 
 very beautiful and rich country, all enclosed and 
 
63 
 
 ken, and divine service is seldom per* 
 formed in English. 
 
 Our way then lay to the sea-side, at 
 the foot of a mountain, called Penmaen 
 Rhos. Here the way was so steep, that 
 we walked on the lower edge of the hill, 
 to meet the coach, that went upon a road 
 higher on the hill. Our walk was not 
 long, nor unpleasant: the longer I walk, 
 the less I feel its inconvenience. As I 
 grow warm, my breath mends, and I 
 think my limbs grow pliable. 
 
 We then came to Conway ferry, 
 and passed in small boats, with some 
 passengers from the stage coach, among 
 
 planted. Denbigh is not a mean town. Make 
 my compliments to all my friends, and tell 
 Frank I hope he remembers my advice. When 
 his money is out, let him have more. I am, 
 sir, 
 
 " Your humble servant, 
 
 "Sam. Johnson.*' 
 
69 
 
 whom were an Irish gentlewoman, with 
 two maids and three little children, of 
 which the youngest was only a few 
 months old. The tide did not serve the 
 large ferry-boat, and therefore our coach 
 could not very soon follow us. We 
 were therefore to stay at the inn. It is 
 now the day of the race at Conway, and 
 the town was so full of company, that 
 no money could purchase lodgings. 
 We were not very readily supplied with 
 cold dinner. We would have staid at 
 Conway if we could have found enter- 
 tainment, for we were afraid of passing 
 Penmaen Mawr, over which lay our way 
 to Bangor, but by bright daylight, and 
 the delay of our coach, made our depar- 
 ture necessarily late. There was, how- 
 ever, no stay on any other terms, than 
 of sitting up all night. 
 
70 
 
 The poor Irish lady was still more 
 distressed. Her children wanted rest. 
 She would have been contented with one 
 bed, but, for a time, none could be had. 
 Mrs. Thrale gave her what help she 
 could. At last two gentlemen were per- 
 suaded to yield up their room, with two 
 beds, for which she gave half a guinea. 
 
 Our coach was at last brought, and 
 we set out with some anxiety, but we 
 came to Penmaen Mawr by daylight; 
 and found a way, lately made, very easy 
 and very safe.* It was cut smooth, and en- 
 closed between parallel walls; the outer of 
 
 * Penmaen Mawr, is a huge rock, rising 
 nearly 1550 feet perpendicular above the sea. 
 Along a shelf of this precipice, is formed an ex- 
 cellent road, well guarded, toward the sea, by 
 a strong wall, supported in many parts by arches 
 turned underneath it. Before this wall was 
 built, travellers sometimes fell down the preci- 
 pice. 
 
71 
 
 which, secures the passenger from the 
 precipice, which is deep and dreadful. 
 This wall is here and there broken, by- 
 mischievous wantonness. The inner 
 wall preserves the road from the loose 
 stones, which the shattered steep above 
 it would pour down. That side of the 
 mountain seems to have a surface of 
 loose stones, which every accident may 
 crumble. The old road was higher, 
 and must have been very formidable. 
 The sea beats at the bottom of the way. 
 At evening the moon shone eminent- 
 ly bright; and our thoughts of danger be- 
 ing now past, the rest of our journey 
 was very pleasant. At an hour some 
 what late, we came to Bangor, where 
 we found a very mean inn, and had some 
 difficulty to obtain lodging, I lay in a 
 room, where the other bed had two men. 
 
72 
 
 19. We obtained boats to convey us 
 to Anglesey, and saw lord Bulkeley's 
 house, and Beaumaris castle. 
 
 I was accosted by Mr. Lloyd, the 
 schoolmaster of Beaumaris, who had seen 
 me at University college; and he, with 
 Mr. Roberts, the register of Bangor, 
 whose boat we borrowed, accompanied 
 tis. Lord Berkeley's house is very mean, 
 but his garden is spacious, and shady 
 with large trees and smaller interspersed. 
 The walks are straight, and cross each 
 other, with no variety of plan; but they 
 have a pleasing coolness, and solemn 
 gloom, and extend to a great length,* 
 
 * Baron Hill, is the name of lord Bulkeley's 
 house which is situated just above the town of 
 Beaumaris, at the distance of •£ of a mile, com- 
 manding so fine a view of the sea, and the coast 
 of Caernarvon, that it has been sometimes com- 
 pared to Mount Edgecombe, in Devonshire, 
 
The castle is a mighty pile; the 
 outward wall has fifteen round towers, 
 besides square towers at the angles. 
 There is then a void space between the 
 wall and the castle, which has an area 
 enclosed with a wall, which again has 
 towers, larger than those of the outer 
 wall. The towers of the inner castle are, 
 I think, eight. There is likewise a cha- 
 pel entire, built upon an arch as I sup- 
 pose, and beautifully arched with a stone 
 roof, which is yet unbroken. The en- 
 trance into the chapel is about eight or 
 nine feet high, and was, I suppose, high- 
 er, when there was no rubbish in the 
 area. 
 
 This castle corresponds with all the 
 representations of romancing narratives. 
 
 Lord Lyttelton, speaking of the house and gar- 
 dens, says, — " The house is a bad one, but the 
 gardens are made in a very fine taste." 
 
 G 
 
74 
 
 Here is not wanting the private passage, 
 the dark cavity, the deep dungeon, or 
 the lofty tower. We did not discover 
 the well. This is the most complete 
 view that I have yet had of an old cas- 
 tle. It had a moat. 
 
 The towers. 
 
 We went to Bangor. 
 
 20. We went by water from Bangor 
 to Caernarvon, where we met Paoli* and 
 sir Thomas Wynne. f Meeting by chance 
 with one Troughton^ an intelligent and 
 
 * General Pasquale dePaoli, the distinguish- 
 ed patriot of Corsica, who, after all his exertions 
 failed to render his native country any service, 
 retired to England in 1769, and died in London 
 Feb. 5, 1 807, in the eighty-second year of his age. 
 •~-See Johnson's fir st interview with him, Ajifi, 8. 
 
 t Sir Thomas Wynne, created lord New- 
 borough, July U, 1776. Died October 12, 1807. 
 Father to the present lord Newborough. 
 
 \ This gentlemen was a lieutenant in the 
 navy* 
 
loquacious wanderer, Mr. Thrale invited 
 him to dinner. He attended us to the 
 castle, an edifice of stupendous magni- 
 tude and strength; it has in it all that we 
 observed at Beaumaris, and much grea- 
 ter dimensions: many of the smaller 
 rooms floored with stone are entire; of 
 the larger rooms, the beams and planks 
 are all left: this is the state of all build- 
 ings left to time. We mounted the 
 Eagie tower by one hundred and six* 
 ty-nine steps, each often inches.* We 
 
 * Johnson, as appears in the course of this 
 Diary, often amused himself with minute com- 
 putation, and this was much the habit of his 
 mind. In a letter to Mrs. Thrale, Oct. 6, he 
 says, " Mr. Langton bought at Nottingham fair 
 fifteen ton of cheese; which, at an ounce a-piece, 
 will suffice after dinner for four hundred and 
 eighty thousand men." At another time he 
 says," Nothing amuses more harmlessly than 
 computation, and nothing is oftener applicable 
 to real business or speculative inquiries." 
 
T6 
 
 did not find the well; nor did I trade 
 the moat; but moats there were, I be- 
 lieve, to all castles on the plain, which 
 not only hindered access, but prevented 
 mines. We saw but a very small part 
 of this mighty ruin, and in all these old 
 buildings, the subterraneous works are 
 concealed by the rubbish. 
 
 To survey this place would take 
 much time: I did not think there had 
 been such buildings; it surpassed my 
 ideas. 
 
 21. We were at church; the service 
 in the town is always English; at the 
 parish church at a small distance, always 
 Welsh. The town has by degrees, I 
 suppose, been brought nearer to the sea 
 side. 
 
 We received an invitation to Dr. 
 Worthington. We then went to dinner 
 
44 
 
 at sir Thomas Wynne's, — the dinner 
 mean, sir Thomas civil, his lady nothing. 
 Paoli civil. 
 
 We supped with colonel Wynne's 
 lady, who lives in one of the towers of 
 the castle. 
 
 I have not been very well. 
 
 22. We went to visit Bodville, the 
 place where Mrs. Thrale was born, and 
 the churches called Tydweilliog and 
 Llangwinodyl, which she holds by im- 
 propriation. 
 
 We had an invitation to the house 
 of Mr. Griffiths of Bryn o dol, where 
 we found a small neat new built house, 
 with square rooms: the walls are of un- 
 hewn stone, and therefore thick; for the 
 stones not fitting with exactness, are not 
 strong without great thickness. He had 
 planted a great deal of young wood in 
 walks. Fruit trees do not thrive; but ha- 
 
 G 2 
 
78 
 
 ving grown a few years, reach some bar- 
 ren stratum and wither. 
 
 We found Mr. Griffiths not at home; 
 but the provisions were good. Mr. 
 Griffiths came home the next day. He 
 married a lady who has a house and es- 
 tate at , over against Anglesea, 
 
 and near Caernarvon, where she is more 
 delighted, as it seems, to reside, than at 
 Bryn o dol. 
 
 I read Lloyd's account of Mona, 
 which he proves to be Anglesea. 
 
 In our way to Bryn o dol, we saw 
 at Llanerk a church built crosswise, 
 very spacious and magnificent for this 
 country. We could not see the parson, 
 and could get no intelligence about it. 
 :■ 24. We went to see Bodville. Mrs. 
 Thrale remembered the rooms, and wan- 
 dered over them with recollection of her 
 childhood. This species of pleasure is 
 
79 
 
 always melancholy. The walk was cut 
 down, and the pond was dry. Nothing 
 was better.* 
 
 We surveyed the churches, which 
 are mean, and neglected to a degree 
 scarcely imaginable. They have no pave- 
 ment, and the earth is full of holes. The 
 seats are rude benches; the altars have 
 no rails. One of them has a breach in 
 the roof. On the desk, I think, of each, 
 lay a folio Welsh bible of the black let- 
 ter, which the curate cannoteasily read.f 
 
 * Afifi. 8. 
 
 t In this tour, Mrs. Thrale records an an- 
 ecdote of the ignorance of a clergyman in Wales, 
 which upon this occasion, was very probably in 
 Johnson's mind. 
 
 " A Welsh parson of mean abilities, though 
 a good heart, struck with reverence at the sight 
 of Dr. Johnson, whom he had heard of as the 
 greatest man living, could not find any words 
 to answer his inquiries concerning a motto round 
 somebody's arms which adorned a tomb-stone in 
 
80 
 
 Mr. Thrale purposes to beautify the 
 churches; and if he prospers, will pro- 
 bably restore the tithes. The two pa- 
 rishes are, Llangwinodyl* and Tydweil- 
 liog.* The Methodists are here very 
 
 Ruabon* churchyard. If I remember right, the 
 words were, 
 
 Heb Dw, Hcb Dym, 
 Dw o' diggon. 
 
 And though of no very difficult construction, the 
 gentleman seemed wholly confounded, and una- 
 ble to explain them; till Mr. Johnson, having 
 picked out the meaning by little and little, said 
 to the man, ' Heb is a preposition, I believe, sir, 
 is it not?' My countryman recovering some 
 spirits upon the sudden question, cried out, 
 " So I humbly presume, sir," very comically. 
 
 * These two parishes are perpetual cura- 
 cies, endowed with the small tithes, which in 
 1809 amounted to six pounds sixteen shillings 
 and sixpence in each parish; but these sums are 
 increased by queen Ann's bounty; and in 1 809 the 
 whole income for Llangwinodyl, including sur- 
 
 * Ruabon is also written Rhia Abon. It is a very con- 
 siderable vicarage, within four miles of Wrexham, 
 
81 
 
 prevalent. A better church will impress 
 the people with more reverence of pub- 
 lic worship. 
 
 Mrs. Thrale visited a house where 
 she had been used to drink milk, which 
 was left, with an estate of two hundred 
 pounds a year, by one Lloyd,* to a mar- 
 ried woman who lived with him. 
 
 We went to Pwllheli, a mean old 
 town, at the extremity of the country. 
 Here we bought something, to remem- 
 ber the place. 
 
 plice fees, amounted to forty-six pounds two shiU 
 lings and twopence, and for Tydweilliog, forty- 
 three pounds nineteen shillings and tenpence; 
 so that it does not appear that Mr. Thrale car- 
 ried into effect his good intention. 
 
 * Mr. Lloyd was a very good-natured man; 
 and when Mrs. Thrale w r as a little child, he was 
 used to treat her with sweetmeats and milk; but 
 what was now remarkable was, that she should 
 recollect the house, which she had not seen 
 nee she was five years old 
 
82 
 
 25. We returned to Caernarvon, 
 where we ate with Mrs. Wynne. 
 
 26. We visited, with Mrs. Wynne, 
 Llyn Badarn and Llyn Beris, two lakes, 
 joined by a narrow strait. They are 
 formed by the waters which fall from 
 Snowdon, and the opposite mountains. 
 On the side of Snowdon are the remains 
 of a large fort, to which we climbed with 
 great labour. I was breathless and ha- 
 rassed. The lakes have no great breadth, 
 so that the boat is always near one bank 
 or the other. 
 
 Note. Queeny's goats, one hundred 
 and forty-nine, I think.* 
 
 * Mr. Thrale was near-sighted, and could not 
 see the goats browsing on Snowdon, and he pro- 
 mised his daughter, who was a child often years 
 old, a penny for every goat she would show him; 
 and Dr. Johnson kept the account; so that it ap- 
 pears her father was in debt to her one hundred 
 
83 
 
 27. We returned to Bangor, where 
 Mr. Thrale was lodged at Mr. Robert's, 
 the register. 
 
 28. We went to worship at the ca- 
 thedral. The quire is mean, the service 
 was not well read. 
 
 29. We came to Mr. Myddelton's, 
 of Gwaynynog, to the first place, as my 
 mistress* observed, where we have 
 been welcome. 
 
 Note. On the day when we visited 
 
 Bodville, we turned to the house of Mr. 
 
 Griffiths, of Kefnam-wycllh, a gentleman 
 
 of large fortune, remarkable for having 
 
 made great and sudden improvements 
 
 in his seat and estate. He has enclosed 
 
 ». 
 
 and forty-nine pence. Queeny was the epithet, 
 which had its origin in the nursery, by which 
 miss Thrale was always distinguished by John- 
 son. 
 
 * Mrs. Thrale. 
 
84 
 
 a large garden with a brick wall. He is 
 considered as a man of great accomplish- 
 ments. He was educated in literature 
 at the university, and served some time 
 in the army, then quitted his commis- 
 sion, and retired to his lands. He is 
 accounted a good man, and endeavours 
 to bring the people to church. 
 
 In our way from Bangor to Conway, 
 we passed again the new road upon the 
 edge of Penmaen Mawr, which would 
 be verv tremendous, but that the wall 
 shuts out the idea of danger. In the 
 wall are several breaches, made, as Mr. 
 Thrale very reasonably conjectures, by 
 fragments of rocks which roll down the 
 mountain, broken perhaps by frost, or 
 worn through by rain. 
 
 We then viewed Conway. 
 
 To spare the horrors at Penmaen 
 Rh&s, between Conway and St. Asaph, 
 
85 
 
 we sent the coach over the road cross the 
 mountain with Mrs. Thrale, who had 
 been tired with a walk sometime before; 
 and I, with Mr. Thrale and miss, walk- 
 ed along the edge, where the path is 
 very narrow, and much encumbered by- 
 little loose stones, which had fallen down, 
 as we thought, upon the way since we 
 passed it before. 
 
 At Conway we took a short survey 
 of the castle, which afforded us nothing 
 new. It is larger than that of Beauma- 
 ris, and less than that of Caernarvon. It 
 is built upon a rock so high and steep, 
 that it is even now very difficult of ac- 
 cess. We found a round pit, which 
 was called the well; it is now almost fil- 
 led, and therefore dry. We found the 
 well in no other castle. There are some 
 remains of leaden pipes at Caernarvon, 
 which, I suppose, only conveyed water 
 
86 
 
 from one part of the building to another. 
 Had the garrison had no other supply, 
 the Welsh, who must know where the 
 pipes were laid, could easily have cut 
 them. 
 
 29. We came to the house of Mr. 
 Myddelton, (on Monday,) where we 
 staid to September 6, and were very 
 kindly entertained. How we spent our 
 time, I am not very able to tell.* 
 
 * However this may have been, he was both 
 happy and amused, during his stay at Gwayny- 
 nog, and Mr. Myddelton was flattered by the 
 honour of his visit. To perpetuate the recol- 
 lection of it, he erected an urn on the banks of| 
 a rivulet, in the park, where Johnson delighted 
 to stand and recite verses; on which is this in- 
 scription: 
 
 This spot was often dignified by the presence of 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. i). 
 whose Moral Writings, exactly conformable to the 
 Precepts of Christianity, 
 gave ardour to Virtue, and confidence to Truth. 
 
37 
 
 We saw the wood, which is diversi- 
 fied and romantic. 
 
 September 4, Sunday, We dined 
 with Mr. Myddelton, the clergyman, at 
 Denbigh, where I saw the harvest-men 
 very decently dressed, after the after- 
 noon service, standing to be hired. On 
 other days, they stand at about four in the 
 morning. They are hired from day to 
 day. 
 
 5. We lay at Wrexham; a busy, ex- 
 tensive, and well built town. It has a 
 very large and magnificent church. It 
 has a famous fair. 
 
 7. We came to Chirk castle. 
 
 In 1777, it would appear from a letter by 
 Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, that he was informed 
 that Mr. Myddelton meditated this honour, which 
 seemed to be but little to his taste. " Mr. Myd- 
 delton's erection of an urn, looks like an inten- 
 tion to bury me alive; I would as willingly see 
 my friend, however benevolent and hospitable, 
 
88 
 
 8. Thursday. We came to thev 
 house of Dr. Worthington,* at Llanrh- 
 aiadr. Our entertainment was poor, 
 though the house was not bad. The 
 situation is very pleasant, by the side of 
 a small river, of which the bank rises 
 high on the other side, shaded by gradu- 
 al rows of trees. The gloom, the stream, 
 and the silence, generate thoughtfulness. 
 
 The town is old, and very mean, but 
 has, I think, a market. In this town, the 
 Welsh translation of the Old Testament 
 was made. The Welsh singing psalms 
 were written by archdeacon Price, They 
 
 quietly inurned. Let him think, for the present, 
 of some more acceptable memorial." 
 
 * Dr. William Worthington, a man of dis- 
 tinguished learning, and an author of many 
 works on religious subjects. He enjoyed con- 
 siderable ptre ferment in the church, and lived at 
 Llanrhaiadr; of which parish he was the rector. 
 He died October 6, 1778, aged 75. 
 
89 
 
 are not considered as elegant, but as 
 very literal, and accurate. 
 
 We came to Llanrhaiadr,* through 
 Oswestry; a town not very little, nor 
 very mean. The church, which I saw 
 only at a distance, seems to be an edi- 
 fice much too good for the present state 
 of the place, 
 
 9. We visited the waterfall, which is 
 very high, and in rainy weather very co- 
 pious. There is a reservoir made to 
 supply it. In its fall, it has perforated 
 a rock. There is a room built for en- 
 tertainment. There was some difficul- 
 ty in climbing to a near view. Lord 
 Lytteltonf came near it, and turned 
 back. 
 
 * Llanrhaiadr, being translated into English, 
 is The Village of the Fountain, and takes its 
 name from a spring, about a quarter of a mile 
 from the church. 
 
 f Thomas, the second lord Lyttelton, 
 h 2 
 
[)0 
 
 When we came back, we took some 
 cold meat, and notwithstanding the doc- 
 tor's importunities, went that day to 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
 10. IsentforGwynn,* and he show- 
 ed us the town. The walls are broken, 
 and narrower than those of Chester. The 
 town is large, and has many gentlemen's 
 houses, but the streets are narrow. I saw 
 Taylor's library. We walked in the 
 quarry; a very pleasant walk by the ri- 
 ver. Our inn was not bad. 
 
 11. Sunday. We were at St. Chads, 
 a very large and luminous church. We 
 were on the castle hill. 
 
 * Mr. Gwynn was an architect of consider- 
 able celebrity. He was a native of Shrewsbury, 
 and was at this time completing a bridge across 
 the Severn, called the English bridge: besides 
 this bridge, he built one at Acham, over the Se- 
 
91 
 
 12. We called on Dr. Adams,* and 
 travelled towards Worcester, through 
 Wenlock; a very mean place, though a 
 borough. At noon we came to Bridge- 
 north, and walked about the town, of 
 which, one part stands on a high rock; 
 and part very low, by the river. There 
 is an old tower, which being crooked, 
 leans so much, that it is frightful to pass 
 by it. 
 
 In the afternoon we came through 
 Kinvcr, a town in Staffordshire; neat and 
 closely built. I believe it has only one 
 street 
 
 The road was so steep and miry, 
 that we were forced to stop at Hartlebu- 
 
 vern, near to Shrewsbury; and the bridges at 
 Worcester, Oxford, and Henley, are all built by 
 him. 
 
 * The master of Pembroke college, Oxford, 
 who w as also rector of St. Chads, in Shrews- 
 bury. 
 
92 
 
 ry, where we had a very neat inn, though 
 it made a very poor appearance. 
 
 13. We came to lord Sandy's at \ 
 Ombersley, where we were treated with 
 great civility.* 
 
 The house is large. The hall is a 
 very noble room. 
 
 15. We went to Worcester, a very 
 splendid city. The cathedral is very 
 noble, with many remarkable monu- 
 ments. The library is in the chapter 
 house. On the table lay the Nurern- 
 burg Chronicle, I think, of the first edi- 
 tion, f ' We went to the china w r are- 
 house. $ 
 
 * It was here that Johnson had as much wall- 
 fruit as he wished, and, as he told Mrs. Thrale, 
 for the only time in his life. 
 
 t The first edition was printed July 12, 
 1493. The author, or rather compiler of this 
 chronicle, was one Hartman Schedel, of Nu- 
 remberg, a physician. 
 
 % In 1777, September 19, Johnson took Bos- 
 well to see the china manufactory, at Derby, and 
 
93 
 
 The cathedral has a cloister. The 
 long aisle is in my opinion, neither so 
 wide nor so high as that of Lichfield. 
 
 16. We went to Hagley, w r here we 
 were disappointed of the respect and 
 kindness thai we expected.* 
 
 17. We saw the house and park, 
 which equalled my expectation. The 
 house is one square mass. The offices 
 are below. The rooms of elegance on 
 the first floor, with two stories of bed- 
 
 these are his remarks on that occasion. " The 
 Derby china is very pretty, but I think the gild- 
 ing is all superficial; and the finer pieces are 
 so dear, that perhaps silver vessels, of the same 
 capacity, may be sometimes bought at the same 
 price; and I am not yet so infested with the con- 
 tagion of china-fancy, as to like any thing at that 
 rate, which can so easily be broken." 
 
 * This visit was not to lord Lyttelton, but to 
 his uncle, the father of the present lord Lyttel- 
 ton, who lived at a house called Little Hagley. 
 
94 
 
 chambers, very well disposed above it. 
 The bedchambers have low windows, 
 which abates the dignity of the house. 
 
 The park has an artificial ruin, and 
 wants water; there is, however, one tem- 
 porary cascade. From the farthest hill 
 there is a very \vide prospect. 
 
 18. I went to church. The church 
 is, externally, very mean, and is there 
 fore diligently hidden by a plantation. 
 There are in it several modern monu- 
 ments of the Lytteltons. 
 
 There dined with us, lord Dudley, 
 and sir Edward Lyttelton, of Stafford- 
 shire, and his lady. They were all 
 persons of agreeable conversation. 
 
 I found time to reflect on my birth- 
 day, and offered a prayer, which I hope 
 was heard.* 
 
 * Dr. Johnson particularly disliked to be 
 complimented on his birth-day, or to have the 
 
95 
 
 19. We made haste away from a 
 place, where all were offended. In the 
 way we visited the Leasowes. It was 
 rain, yet we visited all the waterfalls. 
 
 day mentioned, and Boswell frequently annoyed 
 him on that head. In a letter which he wrote 
 to Mrs. Thrale, while he was staying at the 
 Macleods, in the isle of Skie, he says, " Bos- 
 well, with some of his troublesome kindness, 
 has informed this family, and reminded me, that 
 the 18th of September is my birth-day. The 
 return of my birth-day, if I remember it, fills 
 me with thoughts, which it seems to be the ge- 
 neral care of humanity to escape. I can now 
 look back upon three score and four years, in 
 which little has been done, and little has been 
 enjoyed; a life diversified by misery, spent part 
 in the sluggishness of penury, and part under 
 the violence of pain, in gloomy discontent or 
 importunate distress. But perhaps I am better 
 than I should have been, if I had been less af- 
 flicted. With this I will try to be content. 
 
 " In proportion as there is less pleasure in 
 retrospective considerations, the mind is more 
 disposed to wander forward into futurity; but at 
 sixty-four, what promises, however liberal, of 
 
96 
 
 There are, in one place, fourteen falls in 
 a short line. It is the next place to Ham 
 gardens. Poor Shenstone never tasted 
 his pension. It is not very well proved 
 that any pension was obtained for him. 
 I am afraid that he died of misery. 
 
 We came to Birmingham, and I sent 
 for Wheeler, whom I found well. 
 
 20. We breakfasted with Wheeler,* 
 
 imaginary good, can futurity venture to make? 
 yet something will be always promised, and 
 some promises will always be credited. I am 
 hoping, and I am praying, that I may live better 
 in the time to come, whether long or short, than 
 I have yet lived, and in the solace of that hope, 
 endeavour to repose. Dear Queeny's day is 
 next: I hope she at sixty-four will have le ss to 
 regret. 
 
 " I will now complain no more, but teJ 1 my 
 mistress of my travels." 
 
 * Dr. Benjamin Wheeler: he was a native 
 of Oxford, and originally on the foundation of 
 Trinity college; afterwards he became a fellow 
 of Magdalene college, canon of Christ church, 
 
97 
 
 and visited the manufacture of Papier 
 Mache. The paper which they use is 
 smooth whited brown; the varnish is 
 polished with rotten stone. Wheeler 
 gave me a teaboard. We then went to 
 Boulton's, who, with great civility, led 
 us through his shops. I could not dis - 
 tinctly see his enginery. 
 
 Twelve dozen of buttons for three 
 shillings. Spoons struck at once. 
 
 21. Wheeler came to us again. 
 
 We came easily to Woodstock. 
 
 2. We saw Blenheim and Wood- 
 stock park. The park contains two 
 
 and Regius professor of divinity. He took his 
 degree of A M. November 14, 1758, and D. D 
 July 6, 1770, and was a man of extensive learn- 
 ing. Dr. Johnson, in his letters to Mrs. Thrale 
 styles him, " My learned friend, the man with 
 whom I most delighted to converse. 3 ' 
 
98 
 
 thousand five hundred acres; about four 
 square miles. It has red deer.* 
 
 Mr. Bryant showed me the library 
 with great civility. Durandi Rationale, 
 1459. f Lascaris* Grammar of the first 
 edition, well printed, but much less than 
 later editions.^ 
 
 * Dr. Johnson had a great admiration for 
 Blenheim park, the measure of which may be 
 estimated by this observation of his to Boswell, 
 when they visited it together in 1776. "You 
 and I, sir, have, I think, seen together the ex- 
 tremes of what can be seen in Britain — the wild 
 rough island of Mull, and Blenheim park." 
 
 t This is a work written by William Durand, 
 bishop of Mende, and printed on vellum, in folio, 
 by Fust and Schoeffer, in Mentz, 1459. It is 
 the third book that is known to be printed with 
 a date, and is considered as a curious and ex- 
 traordinary specimen of early printing. An im- 
 perfect copy was sold at Dr. Askew's sale, Fe- 
 bruary 22, 1775, for sixty-one pounds, to Mr. 
 Elmsly, the bookseller. 
 
 \ Dr. Johnson, in another column of his 
 Diary, has put down, in a note, " First printed 
 
99 
 
 The first Batrachomyomachia.* 
 The duke sent Mr. Thrale partrid- 
 ges and fruit. 
 
 At night we came to Oxford. 
 
 book in Greek, Lascaris's Grammar, 4to, Me- 
 diolani, 1476." The imprint of this book is, 
 Mtdiolani Imfiressum fier Magistrum IDiony- 
 sium Paravisinum. M.CCCC.LXXVI. Die xxx 
 Januarii, This edition is very rare, and it is 
 probable that Dr. Johnson saw it now for the 
 first time. A copy was purchased for the king's 
 library at Dr. Askew's sale, 1775, for twenty- 
 one pounds ten shillings. 
 
 This was the first book that was ever print- 
 ed in the Greek character. The first book print- 
 ed in the English language was the History es of 
 Troye, printed in \ 1471; an imperfect copy of 
 which was put up to public sale in 1812, when 
 there was a competition amongst men eminent 
 for learning, rank, and fortune; and, according to 
 their estimation of its value, it was sold for the 
 sum of one thousand and sixty pounds ten shil- 
 lings. — rffifiendix 9. 
 
 * The Battle of the Frogs and Mice. The 
 first edition was printed by Laonicus Cretensis, 
 
100 
 
 23, We visited Mr. Coulson. The 
 ladies wandered about the university. 
 
 24. Kafr. We dine with Mr. Coul- 
 son.* 
 
 Vansittartf told me his distemper. 
 Afterwards we were at Burke's, 
 
 1 186. This book consists of forty-one pages, 
 rjin all quarto, and the verses are printed "with 
 i ed and black ink alternately. A copy was sold 
 at Dr. Askew's sale, 1775, for fourteen guineas. 
 
 * Mr. Coulson was a senior fellow of Uni- 
 versity college; in habit and appearance some- 
 what resembling Johnson himself, and was con- 
 hi lered in his time as an Oxford character. He 
 tcokhis degree of A. M. April 12, 1746. After 
 this visit, Dr. Johnson told Mrs. Thrale that he 
 was the man designated in the Rambler, under 
 ihe name of Gelidus the philosopher. — See 
 jlfifiendiX) 10. 
 
 t Dr. Robert Vansittart, fellow of All Souls, 
 and Regius professor of law, uncle to the pre^ 
 sent chancellor of the exchequer. 
 
101 
 where we heard of the dissolution of the 
 parliament. We went home * 
 
 * Mrs. Thrale says, « Dr. Johnson had al- 
 ways a very great personal regard and particu- 
 lar affection for Mr. Burke; and when at this 
 time the general election broke up the delight- 
 ful society in which wc had spent some time at 
 Beaconsfield, Dr. Johnson shook the hospitable 
 master of the house kindly by the hand, and 
 said, < Farewell, my dear sir, and remember that 
 I wish you all the success which ought to be 
 wished you, which can possibly be wished you, 
 by an honest man' * 
 
 I 2 
 
102 
 ©PINIONS AND OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 BY DR. JOHNSON. 
 
 1. Life, to be worthy of a rational 
 being, must be always in progression; 
 we must always purpose to do more and 
 better than in time past. 
 
 2. Of real evils the number is great; 
 of possible evils there is no end. 
 
 3. The desire of fame not regulated, 
 is as dangerous to virtue as that of mo' 
 ney. 
 
 4. Flashy, light, and loud conversa- 
 tion, is often a cloak for cunning; as 
 showy life, and a gay outside, spread 
 now and then a thin covering over ava- 
 liee and poverty. 
 
 5. There are few minds to which 
 tyranny is not delightful; power is no- 
 
103 
 
 thing but as it is felt; and the delight of 
 superiority is proportionate to the resis- 
 tance overcome. 
 
 6. Old times have bequeathed us a 
 precept, to be merry and wise; but who 
 has been able to observe it? Prudence 
 soon comes to spoil our mirth. 
 
 7. The advice that is wanted is com- 
 monly unwelcome, and that which is not 
 wanted is evidently impertinent. 
 
 8. It is very rarely that an author is 
 hurt by his critics. The blaze of repu- 
 tation cannot be blown out, but it often 
 dies in the socket; a very few names 
 may be considered as perpetual lamps 
 that shine unconsumed. 
 
 9. There is no wisdom in useless 
 and hopeless sorrow; but there is some- 
 thing in it so like virtue, that he who is 
 wholly without it, cannot be loved, nor 
 
104 
 
 will, by me at least, be thought worthy of 
 
 esteem. 
 
 10. In the world there is much ten- 
 derness where there is no misfortune, 
 and much courage where there is no 
 
 danger. 
 
 11. He that has less than enough 
 for himself, has nothing to spare; and as 
 every man feels only his own necessi- 
 ties," he is apt to think those of others 
 less pressing, and to accuse them of with- 
 holding what in truth they cannot give. 
 He that has his foot firm upon dry 
 ground may pluck another out of the 
 water; but of those that are all afloat, 
 none has any care but for himself. 
 
 12. Attention and respect give plea- 
 sure, however late or however useless. 
 But they are not useless when they are 
 late; it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day 
 
103 
 
 declines, to find that it has been spent 
 with the approbation of mankind. 
 
 13. Cool reciprocations of esteem 
 are the great comforts of life; hyperboli- 
 cal praise only corrupts the tongue of 
 the one, and the ear of the other. 
 
 14. The fortuitous friendships of 
 inclination or vanity, are at the mercy 
 of a thousand accidents. 
 
 15. A sudden blaze of kindness 
 may, by a single blast of coldness, be 
 extinguished. Esteem of great powers 
 or amiable qualities newly discovered, 
 may embroider a day or a week; but a 
 friendship of twenty years is interwoven 
 w T ith the texture of life. A friend may 
 be often found and lost; but an old friend 
 never can be found, and Nature has pro- 
 vided that he cannot easily be lost. 
 
 16. Incommunicative taciturnity nei- 
 ther imparts nor invites friendship, but 
 
106 
 
 reposes on a stubborn sufficiency self- 
 centered, and neglects the interchange 
 of that social officiousness by which we 
 are habitually endeared to one another. 
 To be without friendship, is to be with- 
 out one of the first comforts of our pre- 
 sent state. To have no assistance from 
 other minds in resolving doubts, in ap- 
 peasing scruples, in balancing delibera- 
 tions, is a very wretched destitution. 
 
 17. Faith in some proportion to 
 fear. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. — Page 15. 
 
 The character of Mrs. Lucy Porter, Dr. John- 
 son's step-daughter; by miss Seward, of Lich- 
 field. 
 
 " When she was in her bloom, she had a 
 round face, and tolerably pretty features, though 
 in the shadeless blankness of flaxen hair and 
 eye-brows, and a clear skin. She had never 
 any elegance of figure; but her rustic prettiness 
 pleased the men. More than once she might 
 have married advantageously; but as to the ena~ 
 moured affections, 
 
 " High Taurus' snow, fann'd by the eastern wind, 
 Was not more cold." 
 
 " She was one of those few beings, who, from 
 a sturdy singularity of temper, and some promi- 
 nent good qualities of head and heart, was ena- 
 bled, even in her days of scanty maintenance to 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 make society glad to receive, and pet the 
 grown spoiled child. Affluence was not her's 
 till it came to her in her fortieth year, by the 
 death of her eldest brother. From the age of 
 twenty till that period, she had boarded in Lich- 
 field with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept 
 that little bookseller's shop, by which her hus- 
 band had supplied the scanty means of existence. 
 Meantime, Lucy Porter kept the best company 
 of our little city, but would make no engagement 
 on market-days! lest Granny, as she called Mrs. 
 Johnson, should catch cold by serving in the 
 shop. There Lucy Porter took her place, stand- 
 ing behind the counter, nor thought it a dis- 
 grace to thank a poor person who purchased 
 from her a penny battledore. 
 
 " With a marked vulgarity of address and 
 language, and but little intellectual cultivation, 
 she had a certain shrewdness of understanding, 
 and piquant humour, with the most perfect truth 
 and integrity. By these good traits in her charac- 
 ter, were the most respectable inhabitants of this 
 place induced to bear, with kind smiles, her 
 mulish obstinacy, and per vers contradictions. 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 Johnson himself, often her guest, set the exam- 
 ple, and extended to her that compliant in- 
 dulgence which he showed not to any other 
 person. I have heard her scold him like a 
 school-boy, for soiling her floor with his shoes; 
 for she was clean as a Dutch woman in her 
 house, and exactly neat in her person. Dress 
 too she loved in her odd way; but we will not 
 assert that the Graces were her hand-maids. 
 Friendly, cordial, and cheerful to those she loved; 
 she was more esteemed, more amusing, and 
 more regretted, than many a polished character, 
 over whose smooth, but insipid surface, the at- 
 tention of those who have mind passes listless 
 and uninterested." 
 
 She died January 13th, 1786, in the seventy- 
 first year of her age. 
 
110 APPENBIX, 
 
 No. II.— Page 15. 
 
 Some account of Mrs. Elizabeth Aston, derived 
 from a conversation between Dr. Johnson and 
 Miss Seward. 
 
 Miss Seward. —"I have often heard ray mo- 
 ther say, doctor, that Mrs. Elizabeth Aston was, 
 in her youth, a very beautiful woman; and that, 
 with all the censoriousness and spiteful spleen 
 of a very bad temper, she had great powers of 
 pleasing; that she was lively, insinuating, and 
 intelligent. 
 
 " I knew her not till the vivacity of her youth 
 had long been extinguished, and I confess I 
 looked in vain for the traces of former ability. 
 I wish to have your opinion, sir, of what she 
 was, you who knew her so well in her best 
 days. 
 
 JDr. Johnson. — " My dear, when thy mother 
 told thee Aston was handsome, thy mother told 
 thee truth: she was very handsome. When thy 
 mother told thee that Aston loved to abuse her 
 neighbours, she told thee truth; but when thy 
 mother told thee that Aston hadany^inarkeci 
 
APPENDIX. Hi 
 
 ability in that same abusive business, that wit 
 gave it zest, or imagination colour, thy mother 
 did not tell thee truth. No, no, madam, Aston's 
 understanding was not of any strength, either na- 
 tive or acquired." 
 
 Miss Seward.—" But, sir, I have heard you 
 Say, that her sister's husband, Mr. Walmsley, 
 was a man of bright parts, and extensive know- 
 ledge; that he was also a man of strong passions, 
 and, though benevolent in a thousand instances, 
 yet irascible in as many. It is well known, that 
 Mr. Walmsley was considerably governed by 
 this lady; as witness Mr. Hinton's constant vi- 
 sits, and presence at his table, in despite of its 
 master's avowed aversion. Could it be, that, 
 without some marked intellectual powers, she 
 could obtain absolute dominion over such a 
 man?" 
 
 Dr. Johnson. — "Madam, I have said, and 
 truly, that Walmsley had bright and extensive 
 powers of mind; that they had been cultivated 
 by familiarity with the best authors, and by con- 
 nexions with the learned and polite. It is a fact, 
 that Aston obtained nearly absolute dominion 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 over his will; it is no less a fact, that his disposi- 
 tion was irritable and violent. But Walmsley 
 was a man: and there is no man who can resist 
 the repeated attacks of a furious woman. Walms- 
 ley had no alternative but to submit, or turn 
 her out of doors," 
 
 No. III.— Page 18. 
 Dr. Taylor of Ashbourn. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, speaking of Dr. Taylor, said, 
 u Taylor is a very sensible, acute man, and has 
 a strong mind; he has great activity, in some 
 respects, and yet he has such a sort of indo- 
 lence, that if you should put a pebble upon his 
 chimney-piece, you would find it there in the 
 same state, a year afterwards. 
 
 " His is a very pleasant house, with a lawn, a 
 lake, and twenty deer and five fawns upon the 
 lawn, and he himself is one of those who finds 
 every hour something new to wish, or to enjoy. 
 
APPENDIX. 113 
 
 " Dr. Taylor was much taken up in agricul* 
 tural pursuits, and had great pleasure in having 
 all the stock on his far of the best quality. 
 In these pursuits, Johnson had no interest; and 
 in his letters to Mr. Thrale, while he was stay- 
 ing at his house, at different times, he says,-— 
 i The Doctor is now all for cattle:— «I have seen 
 the great bull, and very great he is: I have seen 
 likewise his heir-apparent, who promises to in- 
 herit all the bulk, and all the fortunes of his 
 sire. I have seen the man who offered an hun- 
 dred guineas for the young bull, while he was 
 yet little better than a calf. — There has been a 
 man here to-day to take a farm. After some 
 talk, he went to see the bull, and said that he 
 had seen a bigger. Do you think he is likely 
 to get the farm? — Our bulls and cows are all 
 well; but we yet hate the man that had seen a 
 bigger bull. Taylor is now going to have a 
 ram, and then, after Aries and Taurus, we shall 
 have Gemini.— While I think on it, I will tell 
 you what I really saw with my own eyes; Mr. 
 Chaplin of Lincolshire's letter for Dr. Taylor's 
 
 %% 
 
114 APPENDIX. 
 
 cow, accompanied with a draft on Hoarc for one 
 hundred and twenty six pounds to pay for her. 
 
 " < The Doctor is busy in his fields, and goes 
 to bed at nine, and his whole system is so differ- 
 ent from mine, that we seem formed for differ- 
 ent elements.' " 
 
 Dr. Taylor died Feb. 19, 1788. 
 
 No. IV.— Page 25. 
 
 A description of Dovcdale^by Mr. Whateley. 
 
 " Dovedale is about two miles in length, a 
 deep, narrow, hollow valley; both the sides are of 
 rock; and the Dove in its passage between them 
 is perpetually changing in its course, its motion, 
 and appearance. It is never less than ten, nor 
 so much as twenty yards wide, and generally 
 about four feet deep; but transparent to the bot- 
 tom, except when it is covered with a foam of 
 the purest white, under waterfalls which are 
 
APPENDIX. 115 
 
 perfectly lucid: these are very numerous, but 
 very different; in some places they stretch 
 straight across, or aslant the stream; in others 
 they are only partial; and the water either 
 dashes against the stones, and leaps over them: 
 or pouring along a steep, rebounds upon those 
 below; sometimes it rushes through the several 
 openings between them, sometimes it drops 
 gently down; and at other limes it is driven back 
 by the obstruction, and turns into an eddy. 
 
 " In one particular spot, the valley almost clo- 
 sing, leaves hardly a passage for the river, which 
 pent up, and struggling for a vent, rages, and 
 roars, and foams, till it has extricated itself from 
 the confinement. In other parts, the stream, 
 though never languid, is often gentle; flows 
 round a little desert island, glides between aits 
 of bulrushes, disperses itself among tufts of 
 grass, or of moss, bubbles about a water-dock, 
 or plays with the slender threads of aquatic 
 plants which float upon its surface. 
 
 " The rocks all along the dale vary as often 
 in their structure, as the stream in its motion, 
 and do not long present the same figure, or re- 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 lative position: in one place an extended surface 
 gradually diminishes from a broad base, almost 
 to an edge; in another, a heavy top hanging for- 
 wards, overshadows all beneath; sometimes many 
 different shapes are confusedly tumbled to- 
 gether; and sometimes they are broken into slen- 
 der sharp pinnacles, which rise upright, often 
 two or three together, and often in more nu- 
 merous clusters. On one side of the dale, they 
 are universally bare; on the other, they are in- 
 termixed with wood; and the vast height of both 
 the sides, "with the narrowness of the interval 
 between them, produces a further variety: for 
 whenever the sun shines from behind the one, the 
 form of it is distinctly and completely cast upon 
 the other; the rugged surface on which it falls, 
 diversifies the tints; and a strong reflected 
 light often glares on the edge of the deepest 
 shadow. 
 
 " The breadth of the valley is never the 
 same forty yards together; at the narrow pass 
 which has been mentioned, the rocks almost 
 meet at the top, and the sky is seen as through 
 a chink between them: just by this gloomy 
 
APPENDIX. 117 
 
 abyss, is a wider opening, more light, more ver- 
 dure, more cheerfulness, than any where else in 
 the dale. Nor are the forms and the situations 
 of the rocks their only variety; many of them 
 are perforated by large natural cavities; some 
 of which open to the sky, some terminate in 
 dark recesses: and through some, are to be seen 
 several more uncouth arches, and rude pillars, 
 all detached, and retiring beyond each other; the 
 noise of the cascades in the river echoes amongst 
 them; the water may often be heard at the same 
 time gurgling near, and roaring at a distance; 
 but no other sounds disturb the silence of the 
 spot; the only trace of men is a blind path, but 
 lightly and but seldom trodden by those whom 
 curiosity leads to see the wonders they have 
 been told of Dovedale." 
 
 No. V.— Page 41. 
 
 The Roman Hyfiocaust at Chester^ described, 
 
 " The Hypocaust is of a triangular figure, 
 supported by thirty-two pillars, two feet ten 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 inches and a half high, and about eighteen inches 
 distant from each other. Upon each is a tile 
 eighteen inches square, as if designed for a capi- 
 tal; and over them a perforated tile, two feet 
 square. Such are continued ail over the pillars. 
 Above these are two layers; one of coarse mor- 
 tar, mixed with small red gravel, about three 
 inches thick; and the other of finer materials, 
 between four and five inches thick; these seem 
 to have been the floor of the room above. The 
 pillars stand on a mortar floor, spread over the 
 rock. On the south side, between the middle 
 pillars, is the vent for the smoke, about six 
 inches square, which is at present open to the 
 height of sixteen inches. Here is also an an- 
 techamber, exactly of the same extent with 
 the Hypocaust, with an opening in the middle 
 into it. This is sunk nearly two feet below the 
 level of the former, and is of the same rectan- 
 gular figure; so that both together are an exact 
 square. This was the room allotted for the 
 slaves who attended to heat the place; the other 
 was the receptacle of the fuel designed to heat 
 the room above the concamerata sudatio, or 
 
APPENDIX. 119 
 
 sweating-chamber; where people were seated, 
 either in niches, or on benches, placed one 
 above the other, during the time of the opera- 
 tion. Such was the object of this Hypocaust; 
 for there were others of different forms, for the 
 purpose of heating the water destined for the 
 use of the bathers. 
 
 *** See Vitruvius, book v. c. 10 and 11 ; and the 
 plates at the end of Newton's translation, vol. i. 
 
 No. VI.— Page 61. 
 
 Dr. Johnson's Pleasures of the Table^ as given 
 by Mrs. Thrale. 
 
 " His favourite dainties were, a leg of pork 
 foiled till it dropped from the bone, a veal-pye, 
 with plums and sugar, or the outside cut of a salt 
 buttock of beef. With regard to drink, his li- 
 king was for the strongest, as it was not the fla- 
 vour, but the effect he sought for, and professed 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 to desire; and when I first knew him, he used to 
 pour capillaire into his port wine. For the last 
 twelve years, however, he left off all fermented 
 liquors. To make himself some amends, in- 
 deed, he took his chocolate liberally, pouring in 
 large quantities of cream, or even melted but- 
 ter; and was so fond of fruit, that though he 
 usually ate seven or eight peaches of a morn- 
 ing before breakfast began, and treated them 
 with proportionate attention after dinner again, 
 yet I have heard him protest that he never had 
 quite so much as he wished of wall-fruit, ex- 
 cept once in his life, and that was when we were 
 all together at Ombersley, the seat of my lord 
 Sandys.* 
 
 " Upon excess in eating, Johnson thus ex- 
 presses himself: " Gluttony is, Ithink, less com- . 
 mon among women, than among men. Women 
 commonly eat more sparingly, and are less cu- 
 rious in the choice of meat; but if once you find 
 a woman gluttonous, expect from her very lit- 
 
 * Sept. 13, 1774, page 92. 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 tie virtue. Her mind is enslaved to the lowest 
 and grossest temptation. " 
 
 No. VII.— Page 74. 
 
 General Pasquale de Paolu His first Inter- 
 view with Dr. Johnson, October 10, 1769. 
 
 " In this interview, the general spoke Italian, 
 and Dr. Johnson, English; and the interview is 
 thus described by Boswell. 
 
 " Upon Johnson's approach, the general 
 said, ' From what I have read of you works, sir, 
 and from what Mr. Boswell has told me of you, 
 I have long held you in great veneration.' The 
 general talked of languages being formed on 
 the particular notions and manners of a people, 
 without knowing which, we cannot know the 
 the language. We may know the direct sig- 
 nification of single words; but by these, no beau- 
 ty of expression, no sally of genius, no wit, is 
 conveyed to the mind. All this must be by allu- 
 
 L 
 
222 APPENDIX. 
 
 sion to other ideas. ' Sir, (said Johnson,) you 
 talk of language, as if you had never done any 
 thing else but study it, instead of governing a 
 nation.' The general said, ' Questo e un trop- 
 po gran complimento:' this is too great a com- 
 pliment. Johnson answered, i I should have 
 thought so, sir, if I had not heard you talk.' 
 The general asked him what he thought of the 
 spirit of infidelity which was so prevalent. — 
 Johnson. ' Sir, this gloom of infidelity, I hope, 
 is only a transient cloud passing through the he- 
 misphere, which will soon be dissipated, and 
 the sun break forth with his usual splendour/ 
 — ' You think then (said the general,) that they 
 will change their principles like their clothes. 3 
 — Johnson. i Why, sir, if they bestow no more 
 thought on principles than on dress, it must be 
 so.' The general said, that < a great part of the 
 fashionable infidelity was owing to a desire of 
 showing courage. Men who have no opportu- 
 nities of showing it as to things in this life, take 
 death and futurity, as objects on which to dis- 
 play it.'— Johnson. i That is mighty foolish 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 affectation. Fear is one of the passions of human 
 nature, of which it is impossible to divest it. 
 You remember that the emperor Charles V. 
 when he read upon the tomb-stone of a Spanish 
 nobleman, 4 Here lies one who never knew 
 fear,' wittily said, < Then he never snuffed a 
 candle with his fingers.' 
 
 " He talked a few words of French to the gen- 
 eral; but finding he did not do it with facility, he 
 asked for pen, ink, and paper, and wrote the fol- 
 lowing note: 
 
 " ' J'ai lu dans la geographie de Lucas de 
 Linda un Pater-noster ecrit dans une langue tout- 
 d-fait differente de l'ltalienne, et de toutes autres 
 lesquelles se derivent du Latin. L'auteur l'ap- 
 pelle linguam Corsica rusticam: elle a peut-etre 
 passe, peu a peu; mais elle a certainement pre- 
 value autrefois dans les montagnes et dans la 
 campagne. Le meme auteur dit la meme chose 
 en parlant de Sardaigne; qu'il y a deux langues 
 dans l'isle, une des villes, l'autre de la cam- 
 pagne.* 1 
 
 " The general immediately informed him 
 that the lingua rustica was only in Sardinia. 
 
124 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Dr. Johnson went home with me, and drank 
 tea till late in the night. He said, ' general 
 Paoli had the loftiest port of any man he had 
 ever seen. 5 " 
 
 No. VII I.— Page 79. 
 
 On recollecting fiast Times. 
 
 " Johnson's reflections on Mrs. Thrale's 
 visiting the house where she was born, tinged 
 his mind with gloom: " such pleasures are al- 
 ways melancholy:" there were times, however, 
 when he himself enjoyed this retrospective plea- 
 sure. " I would have been glad to go to Hag- 
 ley, in compliance with Mr. Lyttleton's kind in- 
 vitation; for beside the pleasure of his conversa- 
 tion, I should have had the opportunity of re- 
 collecting past times, and wandering fier montes 
 notos et Jlumina nota, of recalling the images of 
 sixteen, and reviewing my conversations with 
 
APPENDIX. 125 
 
 poor Ford. But this year will not bring this 
 gratification within my power." July 8, 1771. 
 
 No. IX.— Page 99. 
 
 On early Printing. 
 
 The first book ever printed, with a date, is 
 a Latin psalter, in black letter; printed by Fust 
 and Schoeffer, in Mentz; August 14, 1457. 
 
 The first Latin classic ever printed, was Ci-^ 
 cero's Offices, printed in Mentz, 1465. 
 
 The first Greek book that was printed, is 
 Lascaris's Greek Grammar, printed in Milan, 
 January 30, 1476. 
 
 The first Greek classic that was printed was 
 an edition of the Iliad and the Odyssey, printed 
 in Florence, 14S8, in 2 vols, folio. 
 
 The first book printed in the English lan- 
 guage, is the Recueyell of the History es of 
 Troye> in 1471; but the first book printed in 
 England, is the Game of Chess, in 1474: both 
 printed in black tetter, by Caxton. 
 12 ■ 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 Down to the year 1540, the university of 
 Oxford had printed but one classic, which was 
 a book of Tully's epistles, printed at the ex- 
 pense of cardinal Wolsey. Cambridge has not 
 printed any classic at this time. 
 
 The first Greek book printed in England, 
 was the Homilies, printed in 1543, at the ex- 
 pense of sir John Cheke, who established the 
 Greek lecture at Cambridge. 
 
 From these facts, England, with its two splen- 
 did universities, together with all its resources 
 of wealth and learning, was sixty- seven years 
 later than Milan, in adding to Greek literature 
 from its own press; and, after Mentz had printed 
 a Latin classic, Oxford followed at the respect- 
 ful distance of seventy-five years. 
 
 That commercial cities on the continent at 
 this aera should have so far-outstripped us in 
 emulation, is extraordinary; when, in the nine- 
 teenth century, to collect the scattered frag- 
 ments of early typography, without limitation 
 of expense, and without discrimination of their 
 worth, has been sufficient to confer distinction 
 on men of the first rank and fortune of our time 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 Upon this subject, the reader may be amused 
 and instructed in Mr. D'Israeli's Curiosities of 
 Literature. An author, from whose various 
 works much pleasure and information is always 
 to be found; and his romance of Mejnoun and 
 Leila, gives him a place in that department of 
 English Literature, which is not contested by 
 any writer of the present day. 
 
 No. X.— Page 100. 
 
 Mr. Coulson, Fellow of University College. His 
 character designated under the name of Geli- 
 dus, in the Rambler, No. 24. 
 
 " Gelidus is a man of great penetration, 
 and deep researches. Having a mind naturally 
 formed for the abstruser sciences, he can compre- 
 hend intricate combinations without confusion; 
 and being of a temper naturally cool and equal, 
 he is seldom interrupted by his passions, in the 
 pursuit of the longest chain of unexpected con- 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 sequences. He has, therefore, a long time in- 
 dulged hopes, that the solution of some pro- 
 blems, by which the professors of science have 
 been hitherto baffled, is reserved for his genius 
 and industry. He spends his time in the high- 
 est room of his house, into which none of his 
 family are suffered to enter; and when he comes 
 down to his dinner, or his rest, he walks about 
 like a stranger, that is there only for a day, with- 
 out any tokens of regard or tenderness. He has 
 totally divested himself of all human sensa- 
 tions; he has neither eye for beauty, nor ear for 
 complaint; he neither rejoices at the good for- 
 tune of his nearest friend, nor mourns for any 
 public or private calamity. Having once receiv- 
 ed a letter, and given it to his servant to read, 
 he was informed, that it was written by his bro- 
 ther, who, being shipwrecked, had swam naked 
 to land, and was destitute of necessaries in a fo- 
 reign country. Naked and destitute ! says Geli- 
 dus; reach down the last volume of meteorolo- 
 gical observations, extract an exact account of 
 the wind, and note it carefully in the diary of the 
 weather. 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 w The family of Gelidus once broke into his 
 study, to show him that a town at a small dis- 
 tance was on fire, and in a few moments a ser- 
 vant came to tell him, that the flame had caught 
 so many houses on both sides, that the inhabi- 
 tants were confounded, and began to think of ra- 
 ther escaping with their lives, than saving their 
 dwellings. What you tell me, says Gelidus, is 
 very probable, for fire naturally acts in a circle. 
 
 " Thus lives this great philosopher, insensi~ 
 ble to every spectacle of distress, and unmoved 
 by the loudest call of social nature, for want of 
 considering that men are designed for the suc- 
 cour and comfort of each other; that though 
 there are hours which may be laudably spent 
 upon knowledge not immediately useful, yet the 
 first attention is due to practical virtue; and that 
 he may be justly driven out from the commerce 
 of mankind, who has so far abstracted himself 
 from the species, as to partake neither of the 
 joys nor griefs of others, but neglects the en- 
 dearments of his wife, and the caresses of his 
 children, to count the drops of rain, note the 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 changes of the wind, and calculate the eclipses 
 of the moons of Jupiter." 
 
 THK END 
 
CONSIDERATIONS ON CORN, 
 
 BY 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. 
 
The little essay on the Corn Laws, by Dr. 
 Johnson is in the very best style of that great 
 master of reason. It was written so early as 
 1766; and, at a period when subjects of this 
 kind were but imperfectly understood, even by 
 those who devoted themselves to their study. 
 It is truly admirable to see with what vigorous 
 alacrity his powerful mind could apply itself to 
 an investigation so foreign from his habitual oc- 
 cupations. We do not know that a more sound 
 and enlightened argument, in favour of the 
 bounty on exportation, could be collected from 
 all that has been since published on the sub- 
 ject; and convinced, as we ourselves are, of the 
 radical insufficiency of that argument, it is im- 
 possible not to be delighted with the clearness 
 and force of the statement. There are few of 
 his smaller productions that show the great 
 range of Johnson's capacity in a more striking 
 light than this short essay. 
 
 From the Edinburgh Review— Oct. 1809. 
 
 M 
 
CONSIDERATIONS ON CORN, 
 
 By SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. 
 
 By what causes the necessaries of life 
 have risen to a price at which a great part of 
 the people are unable to procure them, how 
 the present scarcity may be remedied, and ca- 
 lamities of the same kind may for the future be 
 prevented, is an inquiry of the firstjimportance; 
 an inquiry before which all the considerations 
 which commonly busy the legislature vanish 
 from the view. 
 
 The interruption of trade, though it may 
 distress part of the community, leaves the rest 
 power to communicate relief; the decay of one 
 manufacture may be compensated by the ad- 
 
136 
 
 vancement of another; a defeat may be repaired 
 by victory; a rupture with one nation may be 
 balanced by an alliance with another. These 
 are partial and slight misfortunes, which leave 
 us still in the possession of our chief comforts. 
 They may lop some of our superfluous plea- 
 sures, and repress some of our exorbitant hopes; 
 but we may still retain the essential part of 
 civil and of private happiness,— the security 
 of law, and the tranquillity of content. They 
 are small obstructions of the stream, which 
 raise a foam and noise where they happen to 
 be found, but at a little distance are neither 
 seen nor felt, and suffer the main current to 
 pass forward in its natural course. 
 
 But seARciTY is an evil that extends at 
 once to the whole community: that neither 
 leaves quiet to the poor, nor safety to the rich; 
 that in its approaches distresses all the subor- 
 dinate ranks of mankind, and in its extremity 
 must subvert government, drive the populace 
 upon their rulers, and end in bloodshed and 
 massacre. Those who want the supports of 
 life will seek them wherever they can be found. 
 
137 
 
 If in any place there are more than can be fed, 
 some must be expelled, or some must be des- 
 troyed. 
 
 Of this dreadful scene there is no immedi- 
 ate danger; but there is already evil sufficient 
 to deserve and require all our diligence and all 
 our wisdom. The miseries of the poor are such 
 as cannot easily be borne; such as have already 
 incited them in many parts of the kingdom to 
 an open defiance of government, and produced 
 one of the greatest of political evils, — the ne- 
 cessity of ruling by immediate force. 
 
 Caesar declared after the battle of Munda, 
 that he had often fought for victory, but that 
 he had that day fought for life. We have often 
 deliberated how we should prosper; we are now 
 to inquire how we shall subsist. 
 
 The present scarcity is imputed by some 
 to the bounty for exporting corn, which is con- 
 sidered as having a necessary and perpetual 
 tendency to pour the grain of this country into 
 other nations. 
 
 This position involves two questions; whe- 
 ther the present scarcity has been caused 
 m 2 
 
138 
 
 by the bounty, and whether the bounty is likely 
 to produce scarcity in future times. 
 
 It is |an un controverted principle, that sub- 
 lata causa tollitur effectus: if therefore the effect 
 continues when the supposed cause has ceased, 
 that effect must be imputed to some other 
 agency. 
 
 The bounty has ceased, and the exporta- 
 tion would still continue, if exportation were 
 permitted. The true reason of the scarcity 
 is the failure of the harvest; and the cause 
 of exportation is the like failure in other coun- 
 tries, where they grow less, and where they are 
 therefore always nearer to the danger of want. 
 
 This want is such, that in countries where 
 money is at a much higher value than with us, 
 the inhabitants are yet desirous to buy our corn 
 at a price to which our own markets have not 
 risen. 
 
 If we consider the state of those countries, 
 which being accustomed to buy our corn chea- 
 per than ourselves when it was cheap, are now 
 reduced to the necessity of buying it dearer 
 than ourselves when it is dear, we shall yet 
 
139 
 
 have reason to rejoice in our own exemption 
 from the extremity of this wide-extended ca- 
 lamity: and if it be necessary to inquire why 
 we suffer scarcity, it may be fit to consider 
 likewise, why we suffer yet less scarcity than 
 our neighbours. 
 
 That the bounty upon cern has produced 
 plenty, is apparent. 
 
 Because ever since the grant of the bounty, 
 agriculture has increased: scarce a session has 
 passed without a law for enclosing commons 
 and waste grounds: 
 
 Much land has been subjected to tillage., 
 which lay uncultivated with little profit: 
 
 Yet, though the quantity of land has been 
 thus increased, the rent, which is the price of 
 land, has generally increased at the same tim£. 
 
 That more land is appropriated to tillage, 
 is a proof that more corn is raised; and that the 
 rents have not fallen, proves that no more fa 
 raised than can readily be sold. 
 
140 
 
 But it is urged, that exportation, though 
 it increases our produce, diminishes our plenty: 
 that the merchant has more encouragement for 
 exportation, than the farmer for agriculture. 
 
 This is a paradox which all the principles 
 of commerce and all the experience of policy 
 concur to confute. Whatever is done for gain, 
 will be done more as more gain is to be ob- 
 tained. 
 
 Let the effects of the bounty be minutely 
 considered. 
 
 The state of every country with respect to 
 corn is varied by the chances of the year. 
 
 Those to whom we sell our corn, must 
 have every year either more corn than they 
 Want, or as much as they want, or less than 
 they want. We likewise are naturally subject 
 to the same varieties. 
 
 When they have corn equal to their wants, 
 or more, the bounty has no effect; for they will 
 not buy what they do not want, unless our exu- 
 berance be such as tempts them to store it for 
 another year. This case must suppose that our 
 produce is redundant and useless to ourselves; 
 
14L 
 
 and therefore the profit of exportation produces 
 no inconvenience. 
 
 When they want corn, they must buy of 
 us, and buy at a higher price; in this case, if 
 we hare corn more than enough for ourselves, 
 we are again benefited by supplying them. 
 
 But they may want, when we have no su- 
 perfluity. When our markets rise, the bounty 
 ceases; and therefore produces no evil. They 
 cannot buy our corn but at an higher rate than 
 it is sold at home. If their necessities', as noW 
 has happened, force them to give an higher 
 price, that event is no longer to be charged upon 
 the bounty. We may then stop our corn in our 
 ports, and pour it back upon our own markets. 
 
 It is in all cases to be considered, what 
 events are physical and certain, and what are 
 political and arbitrary. 
 
 The first effect of the bounty is the increase 
 of agriculture, and by consequence the promo™ 
 tion of plenty. This is an effect physically good, 
 and morally certain. While men are desirous 
 to be rich, where there is profit there will be 
 diligence. If much corn can be sold, much will 
 be raised. 
 
142 
 
 The second effect of the bounty is the di= 
 minution by exportation of that product which 
 it occasioned. But this effect is political and 
 arbitrary; we have it wholly in our own hands: 
 we can prescribe its limits and regulate its 
 quantity* Whenever we feel want or fear it, 
 we retain our corn, and feed ourselves upon that 
 which was sown and raised to feed other nations. 
 
 It is perhaps impossible for human wisdom 
 to go further, than to contrive a law of which 
 the good is certain and uniform, and the evil, 
 though possible in itself, yet always subject to 
 certain and effectual restraints. 
 
 This is the true state of the bounty upon 
 corn: it certainly and necessarily increases our 
 crops, and can never lessen them but by our 
 own permission. 
 
 That notwithstanding the bounty there have 
 been from time to time years of scarcity, cannot 
 be denied. But who can regulate the seasons? 
 In the dearest years we owe to the bounty that 
 they have not been dearer. We must always 
 suppose part of our ground sown for our own 
 consumption, and part in hope of a foreign sale= 
 
143 
 
 The time sometimes comes, when the product 
 of all this land is scarcely sufficient; but if the 
 whole be too little, how great would have been 
 the deficiency, if we had sown only that part 
 which was designed for ourselves. 
 
 " But perhaps, if exportation were less en- 
 couraged, the superfluous, stores of plentiful 
 years might be laid up by the farmer against 
 years of scarcity?" 
 
 This may be justly answered by affirming, 
 that, if exportation were discouraged, we should 
 have no years of plenty. Cheapness is produced 
 by the possibility of dearness. Our farmers at 
 present plow and sow with the hope that some 
 country will always be in want, and that they 
 shall grow rich by supplying. Indefinite hopes 
 are always carried by the frailty of human na- 
 ture beyond reason. While therefore exporta- 
 tion is encouraged, as much corn will be raised 
 as the farmer can hope to sell, and therefore 
 generally more than can be sold at the price of 
 which he dreamed, when he plowed and sowed. 
 
 The greatest part of our corn is well known 
 to be raised by those who pay rent for the 
 
144 
 
 ground which they employ, and of whom few 
 can bear to delay the sale of one year's produce 
 to another. 
 
 It is therefore vain to hope that large stocks 
 of grain will ever remain in private hands: he 
 that has not sold the corn of last year will with 
 diffidence and reluctance till his field again; the 
 accumulation oi a few years would end in a 
 vacation of agriculture, and the husbandman 
 would apply himself to some more profitable 
 calling. 
 
 If the exportation of corn were totally pro- 
 hibited, the quantity possible to be consumed 
 among us would be quickly known, and being 
 known, would rarely be exceeded; for why 
 should corn be gathered which cannot be sold? 
 We should therefore have little superfluity in 
 the most favourable seasons; for the farmer, like 
 the rest of mankind, acts in hope of success, and 
 the harvest seldom outgoes the expectation of 
 the spring. But for droughts or blights we 
 should never be provided; any intemperature of 
 seasons would reduce us to distress which we 
 
145 
 
 now only read of in our histories: what is now 
 scarcity would then be famine. 
 
 What would be caused by prohibiting ex- 
 portation, will be caused in a less degree by 
 obstructing* it, and in some degree by every de- 
 duction of encouragement: as we lessen hope, 
 we shall lessen labour; as we lessen labour, we 
 shall lessen plenty. 
 
 It must always be steadily remembered, that 
 the good of the bounty is certain, and evil avoida- 
 ble; that by the hope of exportation corn will 
 be increased, and that this increase may be 
 Icept at home. 
 
 Plenty can only be produced by encoura- 
 ging agriculture, and agriculture can be encou- 
 raged only by making it gainful. No influence 
 can dispose the farmer to sow what he cannot 
 sell; and if he is not to have the chance of scar- 
 city in his favour, he will take care that there 
 never shall be plenty. 
 
 The truth of these principles our ancestors 
 discovered by reason, and the French have now 
 found it by experience. In this regulation we 
 have the honour of being masters to those, who 
 
 £ 
 
246 
 
 in commercial policy have been long accounted 
 the masters of the world. Their prejudices, 
 their emulation, and their vanity, have at last 
 submitted to learn of us how to ensure the 
 bounties of nature; and it forms a strange vicissi- 
 tude of opinions, that should incline us to re- 
 peal the law which our rivals are adopting. 
 
 It may be speciously enough proposed, that 
 the bounty should be discontinued sooner. Of 
 this every man will have his own opinion; which, 
 as no general principles can reach it, will al- 
 ways seem to him mere reasonable than that of 
 another. This is a question of which the state 
 is always changing with time and place, and 
 which it is therefore very difficult to state or to 
 discuss. 
 
 It may however be considered, that the 
 change of old establishments is always an evil; 
 and that therefore, where the good of the change 
 is not certain and constant, it is better to pre- 
 serve that reverence and that confidence which 
 is produced by consistency of conduct and per- 
 manency of laws:— - 
 
 That since the bounty was so iixed, the price 
 of money has been much diminished; so that 
 
J 47 
 
 the bounty does not operate so far as when it 
 was first fixed, but the price at which it ceases, 
 though nominally the same, has in effect and 
 in reality gradually diminished. 
 
 It is difficult to discover any reason why 
 that bounty which has produced so much good 
 and has hitherto produced no harm, should be 
 withdrawn or abated. It is possible, that if it 
 were reduced lower, it would still be the mo- 
 tive of agriculture and the cause of plenty; but 
 why we should desert experience for conjec- 
 ture, and exchange a known for a possible good., 
 will not easily be discovered. If by a balance 
 of probabilities, in which a grain of dust may 
 turn the scale, — or by a curious scheme of cal- 
 culation, in which if one postulate in a thou- 
 sand be erroneous, the deduction which promises 
 plenty may end in famine, — if by a specious 
 mode of uncertain ratiocination, the critical 
 point at which the bounty should stop, might 
 seem to be discovered, I shall still continue to 
 believe that it is more safe to trust what we 
 have already tried; and cannot but think bread 
 a product of too much importance to be made 
 
148 
 
 the sport of subtility, and the topic of hypotheti- 
 cal disputation. 
 
 Ttie advantage of the bounty is evident and 
 irrefragable. Since the bounty was given, mul- 
 titudes eat wheat who did not eat it before, and 
 yet the price of wheat has abated. What more 
 is to be hoped from any change of practice? An 
 alteration cannot make our condition better, and 
 is therefore very likely to make it worse. 
 
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