ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Page 11, lines 21, 22. Nathanael, who died in his twentyfifth year.]-Nathanael was born in 1712, and died in 1737. Their father, Michael Johnson, was born at Cubley in Derbyshire, in 1656, and died at Lichfield in 1731, at the age of seventysix. Sarah Ford, his wife, was born at King's-Norton, in the county of Warwick, in 1669, and died at Lichfield, in January 1759, in her ninetieth year. M.

Page 13, lines 14, 15. Johnson's mother was a woman of distinguished understanding.]-It was not, however, much cultivated, as we may collect from Dr. Johnson's own account of his early years, published by R. Phillips, 8vo. 1805, a work undoubtedly authentick, and which, though short, is curious, and well worthy of perusal. "My father and mother (says Johnson) had not much happiness from each other. They seldom conversed; for my father could not bear to talk of his affairs; and my mother, being unacquainted with books, cared not to talk of any thing else. Had my mother been more literate, they had been better companions. She might have sometimes introduced her unwelcome topick with more success, if she could have diversified her conversation. Of business she had no distinct conception; and therefore her discourse was composed only of complaint, fear, and suspicion. Neither of them ever tried to calculate the profits of trade, or the expenses of living. My mother concluded that we were poor, because we lost by some of our trades; but the truth was, that my father, having in the early part of his life contracted debts, never had trade sufficient to enable him to pay them, and to maintain his family: he got something, but not enough. It was not till about 1768, that I thought to calculate the returns of my father's trade, and by that estimate his probable profits. This my parents never did." M.

Page 17, lines 27-29.-It has been said, that he contracted this grievous malady from his nurse.]-Such was the opinion of Dr. Swinfen. Johnson's eyes were very soon discovered to be bad, and to relieve them, an issue was cut in his left arm. At the end

of ten weeks from his birth, he was taken home from his nurse,

a poor diseased infant, almost blind." See a work, already quoted, entitled "An Account of the Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, from his birth to his eleventh year; written by himself." 8vo. 1305. M.

Page 18, lines 3, 4. Queen Anne.]—He was only thirty months old, when he was taken to London to be touched for the evil. During this visit, he tells us, his mother purchased for him a small silver cup and spoon. "The cup," he affectingly adds," was one of the last pieces of plate which dear Tetty sold in our distress. have now the spoon. She bought at the same time two tea-spoons, and till my manhood, she had no more.' Ibid. M.

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Page 20, line 10. By means of the rod.]-Johnson's observations to Dr. Rose, on this subject, may be found in a subsequent part of this work. See near the end of the year 1775. B.

Page 23, line 7. Cornelius Ford.-Cornelius Ford, according to Sir John Hawkins, was his cousin-german, being the son of Dr. Joseph [Q. Nathanael] Ford, an eminent physician, who was brother to Johnson's mother.

M.

Page 42, lines 29, 30. We shall see that his most excellent works were struck off at a heat, with rapid exertion.]—He told Dr. Burney, that he never wrote any of his works that were printed, twice over. Dr. Burney's wonder at seeing several pages of his "Lives of the Poets," in manuscript, with scarce a blot or erasure, drew this observation from him. M.

Page 50, line last. Mr. Gilbert Walmsley.]-Sir Thomas Aston, Bart., who died in January 1724-5, left one son, named Thomas also, and eight daughters. Of the daughters, Catharine married Johnson's friend, the Hon. Henry Hervey; Margaret, Gilbert Walmsley. Another of these ladies married the Rev. Mr. Gastrell. Mary, or Molly Aston, as she was usually called, became the wife of Captain Brodie of the Navy. Another sister, who was unmarried, was living at Lichfield in 1776. M.

Page 51, line 23. Bishop Hurd.]-There is here (as Mr. James Boswell observes to me) a slight inaccuracy. Bishop Hurd, in the Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to his Commentary on Horace's Art of Poetry, &c. does not praise Blackwall, but the Rev. Mr. Budworth, head-master of the grammar school at Brewood in Staffordshire, who had himself been bred under Blackwall. See vol. v. near the end, where, from the information of Mr. John Nichols, Johnson is said to have applied in 1736 to Mr. Budworth, to be received by him as an assistant in his school in Staffordshire. M.

Page 52, line 10. Misery.]-It appears from a letter of Johnson's to a friend, which I have read, dated Lichfield, July 27, 1732, that he had left Sir Wolstan Dixie's house, recently before that letter was written. He then had hopes of succeeding either as master or usher, in the school of Ashburne. M.

Page 52, lines 31, 32. Hired lodgings in another part of the town.]-In June 1733, Sir John Hawkins states, from one of Johnson's diaries, that he lodged in Birmingham at the house of a person named Jarvis, probably a relation of Mrs. Porter, whom he afterwards married. M.

Page 61, lines 13, 14. After her first husband's death.]—It appears, from Mr. Hector's letter, that Johnson became acquainted with her three years before he married her. M.

Page 61, lines 28, 29. Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnson.] -Mrs. Johnson's maiden name was Jervis.-Though there was a great disparity of years between her and Dr. Johnson, she was not quite so old as she is here represented, being only at the time of her marriage in her forty-eighth year, as appears by the following extract from the parish register of Great Peatling in Leicestershire, which was obligingly made, at my request, by the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Ryder, Rector of Lutterworth, in that county:

"Anno Dom. 1688-[-9.] Elizabeth, the daughter of William Jervis, Esq. and Mrs. Anne his wife, born the fourth day of February and mané, baptized 16th day of the same month by Mr. Smith, Curate of Little Peatling.

"John Allen, Vicar."

The family of Jervis, Mr. Ryder informs me, once possessed nearly the whole lordship of Great Peatling (about 2000 acres), and there are many monuments of them in the church; but the estate is now much reduced. The present representative of this ancient family is Mr. Charles Jervis, of Hinckley, Attorney at Law. M.

Page 61, lines 30, 31. By no means pleasing to others.]-That in Johnson's eyes she was handsome, appears from the epitaph which he caused to be inscribed on her tomb-stone not long before his own death, and which may be found under the year 1752. M.

Page 61, lines 31, 32. She must have had a superiority of understanding and talents.]-The following account of Mrs. Johnson, and her family, is copied from a paper (chiefly relating to Mrs. Anna Williams) written by Lady Knight at Rome, and transmitted by her to the late John Hoole, Esq. the translator of

Metastasio, &c. by whom it was inserted in the European Magazine for October 1799:

"Mrs. Williams's account of Mrs. Johnson was, that she had a good understanding, and great sensibility, but inclined to be satirical. Her first husband died insolvent; her sons were much disgusted with her for her second marriage, perhaps because they being struggling to get advanced in life, were mortified to think she had allied herself to a man who had not any visible means of being useful to them; however, she always retained her affection for them. While they [Dr. and Mrs. Johnson] resided in Goughsquare, her son, the officer, knocked at the door, and asked the maid, if her mistress was at home. She answered, Yes, sir; but she is sick in bed.' 'O,' says he, if it's so, tell her that her son Jervis called to know how she did;' and was going away. The maid begged she might run up to tell her mistress, and without attending his answer, left him. Mrs. Johnson, enraptured to hear her son was below, desired the maid to tell him she longed to embrace him. When the maid descended, the gentleman was gone, and poor Mrs. Johnson was much agitated by the adventure: it was the only time he ever made an effort to see her. Dr. Johnson did all he could to console his wife, but told Mrs. Williams, 'Her son is uniformly undutiful; so I conclude, like many other sober men, he might once in his life be drunk, and in that fit nature got the better of his pride.'

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The following anecdotes of Dr. Johnson are recorded by the same lady:

"One day that he came to my house to meet many others, we told him that we had arranged our party to go to Westminster Abbey: would not he go with us? No,' he replied, not while I can keep out.

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Upon our saying that the friends of a lady had been in great fear lest she should make a certain match, he said, 'We that are his friends have had great fears for him.'

"Dr. Johnson's political principles ran high, both in church and state: he wished power to the King and to the Heads of the Church, as the laws of England have established; but I know he disliked absolute power; and I am very sure of his disapprobation of the doctrines of the church of Rome; because about three weeks before we came abroad, he said to my Cornelia, You are going where the ostentatious pomp of church ceremonies attracts the imagination; but if they want to persuade you to change, you must remember, that by increasing your faith, you may be persuaded to become Turk.' If these were not the words, I have kept up to the express meaning." M.

Page 68, line 9.

Mr. Colson.]-The Reverend John Colson