50, the author of this epigram is said to be Dr. Evans.
[1329] Capability Brown, as he was called. See post, Oct. 30, 1779.
[1330] Such an 'impudent dog' had Boswell himself been in Corsica. 'Before I was accustomed to the Corsican hospitality,' he wrote. 'I sometimes forgot myself, and imagining I was in a publick house, called for what I wanted, with the tone which one uses in calling to the waiters at a tavern. I did so at Pino, asking for a variety of things at once, when Signora Tomasi perceiving my mistake, looked in my face and smiled, saying with much calmness and good nature, "una cosa dopo un altra, Signore. One thing after another, Sir."' Boswell's Corsica, ed. 1879, p. 151. A Corsican gentleman, who knows the Tomasi family, told me that this reply is preserved among them by tradition.
[1331] Sir John Hawkins has preserved very few Memorabilia of Johnson. There is, however, to be found, in his bulky tome [p. 87], a very excellent one upon this subject:--'In contradiction to those, who, having a wife and children, prefer domestick enjoyments to those which a tavern affords, I have heard him assert, that a tavern chair was the throne of human felicity.--"As soon," said he, "as I enter the door of a tavern, I experience an oblivion of care, and a freedom from solicitude: when I am seated, I find the master courteous, and the servants obsequious to my call; anxious to know and ready to supply my wants: wine there exhilarates my spirits, and prompts me to free conversation and an interchange of discourse with those whom I most love: I dogmatise and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinions and sentiments I find delight."' BOSWELL.
[1332] We happened to lie this night at the inn at Henley, where Shenstone wrote these lines. BOSWELL. I give them as they are found in the corrected edition of his Works, published after his death. In Dodsley's collection the stanza ran thus:--
'Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Whate'er his various tour has been, May sigh to think how oft he found His warmest welcome at an Inn.' BOSWELL.
[1333] See Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 29.
[1334] See Shenstone's Works, iii. 311. Rev. Richard Graves, author of The Spiritual Quixote. He and Shenstone were fellow-students at Pembroke College, Oxford.
[1335] 'He too often makes use of the abstract for the concrete.' SHENSTONE. BOSWELL.
[1336] 'I asked him why he doated on a coach so, and received for answer, that in the first place the company was shut in with him there, and could not escape as out of a room; in the next place he heard all that was said in a carriage, where it was my turn to be deaf.' Piozzi's Anec. p. 276. See post, iii, 5, 162. Gibbon, at the end of a journey in a post-chaise, wrote (Misc. Works, i. 408):--'I am always so much delighted and improved with this union of easeand motion, that, were not the expense enormous, I would travel every year some hundred miles, more especially in England.'
[1337] Johnson (Works, viii. 406) tells the following 'ludicrous story' of The Fleece. 'Dodsley the bookseller was one day mentioning it to a critical visitor with more expectation of success than the other could easily admit. In the conversation the author's age was asked; and, being represented as advanced in life, "He will," said the critic, "be buried in woollen."' To encourage the trade in wool, an Act was passed requiring the dead to be buried in woollen, Burke refers to this when he says of Lord Chatham, who was swathed in flannel owing to the gout:-- 'Like a true obeyer of the laws, he will be buried in woollen.' Burke's Corres, ii. 201. Hawkins (Life, p. 231) says:--'A portrait of Samuel Dyer [see post, 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection] was painted by Sir Joshua, and from it a mezzotinto was scraped; the print whereof, as he was little known, sold only to his friends. A singular use was made of it; Bell, the publisher of The English Poets, caused an engraving to be made from it, and prefixed it to the poems of Mr. John Dyer.'
[1338] Such is this little laughable incident, which has been often related. Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who was an intimate friend of Dr. Grainger, and has a particular regard for his memory, has communicated to me the following explanation:--
'The passage in question was originally not liable to such a perversion; for the authour having occasion in that part of his work to mention the havock made by rats and mice, had introduced the subject in a kind of mock heroick, and a parody of Homer's battle of the frogs and mice, invoking the Muse of the old Grecian bard in an elegant and well-turned manner. In that state I had seen it; but afterwards, unknown to me and other friends, he had been persuaded, contrary to his own better judgement, to alter it, so as to produce the unlucky effect above-mentioned.'
The above was written by the Bishop when he had not the Poem itself to recur to; and though the account given was true of it at one period, yet as Dr. Grainger afterwards altered the passage in question, the remarks in the text do not now apply to the printed poem.