P. 671. To the Works of Dr. William King, which were first collected in 1776, I prefixed some Memoirs of his Life; which have since been so elegantly epitomized, that it would be superfluous to enlarge on this article. Some extracts from his ablest Biographer shall therefore supply the place: "William King was born in London in 1663, the son of Ezekiel King, a gentleman. He was allied to the family of Clarendon. From Westminsterschool, where he was a Scholar on the foundation under the care of Dr. Busby, he was at eighteen elected to Christ Church, in 1681. In 1688, he was made Master of Arts; and, engaging in the study of the Civil Law, became Doctor in 1692, and was admitted Advocate at Doctors Commons. Though he was a regular Advocate in the courts of civil and canon law, he did not love his profession, nor indeed any kind of business which interrupted his voluptuary dreams, or forced him to rouse from that indulgence in which only he could find delight. His reputation as a Civilian was yet maintained by his judgments in the Courts of Delegates, and raised very high by the address and knowledge which he discovered in 1700, when he defended the Earl of Anglesea against his Lady, afterwards Duchess of Buckinghamshire, who sued for a divorce, and obtained it. The expence of his pleasures, and neglect of business, had now lessened his revenues; and he was willing to accept of a settlement in Ireland, where, about 1702, he was made Judge of the Admiralty, commissioner of the prizes, Keeper of the Records in Birmingham's tower, and Vicar-general to Dr. Marsh the Primate. But it is vain to put wealth within the reach of him who will not stretch out his hand to take it. King soon found a friend, as idle and thoughtless as himself, in Upton, one of the judges, who had a pleasant house called Mountown, near Dublin, to which King frequently retired; delighting to neglect his interest, forget his cares, and desert his duty. Here he wrote " Mully of Mountown," a poem, by which, though fanciful readers in the pride of sagacity have given it a political interpretation, was meant originally no more than it expressed, as it was dictated only by the author's delight in the quiet of Mountown. In 1708, when Lord Wharton was sent to govern Ireland, King returned to London, his idleness, and his wit. In 1711, competence, if not plenty, was again put into his power. He was, without the trouble of attendance, or the mortification of a request, made gazetteer. He was now again placed in a profitable employinent, and again threw the benefit away. An Act of Insolvency made his business at that time particularly troublesome; and he would not wait till hurry should be at an end, but impatiently resigned it, and returned to his wonted indigence and amusements. One of his amusements at Lambeth, where he resided, was to mortify Dr. Tenison, the Archbishop, by a public festivity, on the surrender of Dunkirk to Hill; an event with which Tenison's political bigotry did not suffer him to be delighted. King was resolved to counteract his sullenness, and at

the

the expence of a few barrels of ale filled the neighbourhood with honest merriment. In the autumn of 1712 his he Ith declined; he grew weaker by degrees, and died on Christmas-day. Though his life had not been without irregularity, his principles were pure and orthodox, and his death was pious. After this relation, it will be naturally supposed that his poems were rather the amusements of idleness than efforts of study; that he endeavoured rather to divert than astonish; that his thoughts seldom aspired to sublimity; and that, if his verse was easy and his images familiar, he attained what he desired. His purpose is to be merry; though perhaps, to enjoy his mirth, it may be soinetimes necessary to think well of his opinions."-I need not repeat that this article is quoted from Dr. Johnson; whom I never can recollect without sentiments of profound and grateful veneration; and of whom a few Reminiscences shall close this note: The following particulars of the unfortunate Mr. Samuel Boyse, I had from his own mouth: “ By addicting himself to low vices, among which were gluttony and extravagance, Boyse rendered himself so contemptible and wretched, that he frequently was without the least subsistence for days together. After squandering away in a dirty manner any money which he acquired, he has been known to pawn all his apparel. Dr. Johnson once collected a sum of money to redeem his cloaths, which in two days after were pawned again. "This," said the Doctor, was when my acquaintances were few, and most of them as poor as myself. The money was collected by shillings." In that state he was frequently confined to his bed, sitting up with his arms through holes in a blanket, writing verses in order to procure the means of existence. It seems hardly credible, but it is certainly true, that he was more than once in that deplorable situation, and to the end of his life never derived any advantage from the experience of his past sufferings. Mr. Boyse translated well from the French; but if any one employed him, by the time one sheet of the work was done, he pawned the original. If the employer redeemed it, a second sheet would be completed, and the book again be pawned; and this perpetually. He had very little learning; but wrote verse with great facility, as fast as most men write prose. He was constantly employed by Mr. Cave, who paid him by the hundred lines, which, after a while his employer wanted to make what is called the long hundred. —A late Collector of Poems (Mr. Giles) says, he was informed by Mr. Sandby the Bookseller, that this unhappy man at last was found dead in his bed, with a pen in his hand, and in the act of writing, in the same manner as above described. This circumstance Dr. Johnson assured me was not true; it being supposed that, in a fit of intoxication, he was run over by a coach; at least, he was brought home in such a condition as to make this probable, but too far gone to give any account of the accident. - See farther particulars of Samuel Boyse in the "Select Collection of Poems," vol. II. p. 163; vol. VIII. p. 288.

The

The following slight sketch of Dr. Johnson when at Oxford, in 1759, was given by himself: «*** is now making tea for me. I have been in my gown ever since I came here. It was at my first coming quite new and handsome. I have swum thrice, which I had disused for many years. I have proposed to Vansittart climbing over the wall, but he has refused me. And I have clapped my hands till they are sore, at Dr. King's speech." -Dr. Johnson at Cambridge, in 1761, was thus at the time described by Dr. John Sharp:-"As to Johnson, you will be surprized to hear that I have had him in the chair in which I am now writing. He has ascended my aërial citadel. He came down on a Saturday evening, with a Mr. Beauclerk, who has a friend at Trinity. Caliban, you may be sure, was not roused from his lair before next day noon, and his breakfast probably kept him till night. I saw nothing of him, nor was he heard of by any one, till Monday afternoon, when I was sent for home to two gentlemen unknown. In conversation I made a strange faux pas about Burnaby Greene's Poem, in which Johnson is drawn at full length. He drank his large potations of tea with me, interrupted by many an indignant contradiction, and many a noble sentiment. He had on a better wig than usual, but one whose curls were not, like Sir Cloudesley's, formed for eternal buckle.' Our conversation was chiefly on books, you may be sure. He was much pleased with a small Milton of mine, published in the Author's life-time, and with the Greek epigram on his own efligics, of its being the picture, not of him, but of a bad painter. There are many manuscript stanzas, for aught I know, in Milton's own hand-writing, and several interlined hints and fragments. We were puzzled about one of the sonnets, which we thought was not to be found in Newton's edition, and differed from all the printed ones. But Johnson cried, "No! no!' repeated the whole sonnet instantly, memoriter, and shewed it us in Newton's book; after which he learnedly harangued on sonnet-writing, and its different numbers. He tells me he will come hither again quickly, and is promised an habitation in Emanuel College.' He went back to town next morning; but, as it began to be known that he was in the University, several persons got into his company the last evening at Trinity, where about twelve, he began to be very great; stripped poor Mrs. Macaulay to the very skin, then gave her for his toast, and drank her in two bumpers. J. SHARP."

Of his birth-place, Lichfield, Dr. Johnson always spoke with a laudable enthusiasm. "Its inhabitants," he said, "were more orthodox in their religion, more pure in their language, and more polite in their manners, than any other town in the kingdom;" and he often lamented, that no city of equal antiquity and worth has been so destitute of a native to record its fame, and transmit its history to posterity." It appears, however, from Dr. Disney's Memoirs of Dr. Sykes, that Dr. Johnson had a dreadful opinion of their Ecclesiastical Courts. "Dr. Johnson

has

has been reported to have shewn the MS. of the former part of his Tragedy of Irene to a friend [Gilbert Walmesley, no doubt] at Lichfield, who was officially connected with the Courts belonging to the Cathedral or Peculiars there. His friend is represented to have expressed his opinion of so much of the Tragedy as he had seen, in terms of the highest approbation, and to have added, that he thought the writer had left no possibility of heightening the catastrophe in the concluding part of the Play. "Sir," replied Johnson, "I have enough in reserve for my purpose; for, in the last act, I intend to put my Heroine into the Ecclesiastical Court of Lichfield, which will fill up the utmost measure of human calamity."

My very learned and benevolent Friend Joseph Cradock, esq. informs me, that he once accompanied Dr. Johnson and Mr. Steevens to Marybone Gardens, to see La Serva Padrona performed. This piece preceded Torre's Fire-works, which at that time attracted much company. Mr. Steevens, being quite weary of the Burletta, exclaimed, “There is no plot; it is merely an old fellow cheated and deluded by his servant; it is quite foolish and unnatural." Johnson instantly replied, "Sir, it is not unnatural, it is a Scene that is acted in my family every day in my life." This did not allude to the Maid Servant, however, so much as to two distressed Ladies whom he generously supported in his house (Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Du Moulin), who were always quarreling. These Ladies presided at Dr. Johnson's table by turns when there was company, which of course would produce disputes. I ventured one day to say, "Surely, Dr. Johnson, Roxana for this time should take place of Statira."—" Yes, Sir,” replied the Doctor; but, in my Family, it has never been decided, which is Roxana, and which is Statira."-This anecdote is preserved, to shew that Dr. Johnson was not that austere companion as was supposed.

66

Dr. Johnson's Literary Clubs have been frequently mentioned, but not always accurately distinguished. The earliest of them was established by our great Moralist in the Winter of 1749, at the King's Head in Ivy Lane, with a view to enjoy literary discussion, and amuse his evening hours. His associates were the Rev. Dr. Salter, father of the Master of the Charter-house; Mr. (afterwards Dr.) John Hawkesworth; Mr. Ryland, a Merchant, a Relation of Johnson's; Mr. John Payne, then a Bookseller, afterwards Chief Accomptant of the Bank; Mr. Samuel Dyer, a learned young man, intended for the Dissenting Ministry; Dr. William M'Ghie, a Scots Physician; Dr. Edmund Barker, a young Physician; Dr. Richard Bathurst, a young Physician; and Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Hawkins. This Club continued to meet till 1756*. - The second, more peculiarly The Literary Club †, was established in 1763, at the Turk's Head in Gerrard *Hawkins's Life of Johnson, 1787, pp. 219, 360.

+ See a List of the Members, in a somewhat sarcastical Letter from Mr. Steevens, Gent. Mag, vol. LV. p. 98.

Street,

Street. The Third, all the Members of which were nominated by Johnson, was held in Essex Street; and consisted of a select number of his friends, who entered very heartily into the scheme, for the pleasure of enjoying his conversation, and of contributing their quota to the general amusement: but it was" principally supported by the great talents of Johnson, who formed the nucleus, round which all the subordinate members revolved *." This Club was first projected in the Winter of 1783, and began to assemble regularly at the beginning of 1784, when a sett of Resolutions†, composed by Johnson, was unanimously confirmed, and prefaced by the following motto:

"To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drench
In mirth, which after no repenting draws."

MILTON.

At Dr. Johnson's Funeral, twelve members of the Gerrard Street Club, and thirteen from that in Essex Street, paid their last sad tribute at his grave.

P. 693. The Rev. William-Thomas Bowles, who married Bridget one of the daughters of Dr. Richard Grey, was Rector of Uphill and Brean in Somersetshire; but his usual residence was at Burton-hill House, Shaftesbury; a beautiful situation, which he had greatly improved by fine plantations; and where he died July 21, 1786, leaving a large family; one of whom, Henry Bowles, M. D. died in 1804, on board the Swiftsure man of war, in his passage from Gibraltar. He had been professionally employed two years in the West Indies, where he was twice attacked with the yellow fever; at the Cape of Good Hope, where he remained twelve months; and since his return had been stationed at the Military Hospital at Gosport; from which duty, notwithstanding his former services, and that there were many Physicians on the Staff who had not been out of England since their appointment, he was ordered on two days notice to Gibraltar. In the garden of the Rev. William-Lisle Bowles, at Bremhill, Wilts, on a gentle ascent, above a cascade, is a funereal urn, embowered in shade, to the memory of his brother. The pedestal is thus inscribed:

"M. S.

Henrici Bowles, M. D.
qui ad Calpen,

Febre ibi exitiali grassante,
ut opem miseris præstaret,
publicè missus,

ipse miserrimè periit;

anno 1804, æt. 39.

Fratri optimo morens P. W. L. B."

I here borrow the impressive words of Sir N. Wraxall, who, in his entertaining and instructive" Historical Memoirs" of his own Time, bas admirably pourtrayed the character of Dr. Johnson, as a prominent Visitor at Mrs. Montagu's Blue stocking Assemblies.

+ See the Rules of the Club, and a List of the Members, Gent.Mag.LV.8,99. See some beautiful verses, highly descriptive of this place, in the Col lection of his Son's elegant Poems; or in "Dorsetshire," vol. II. p. 424.

RECOL