He took his degree as Bachelor of Medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1745, and did not, it should seem, proceed to the higher degree. In 1757 he was at the Havannah, where he died (ante, i. 242, n. i). He was Johnson's beloved friend, of whom 'he hardly ever spoke without tears in his eyes' (ante, i. 190, n. 2). The Proposal, I have no doubt, was either written, or at all events revised, by Johnson. It is quite in his style. It may be assumed that it is in Bathurst's handwriting.
II.
An apologetical letter about some work that was passing through the press; undated, but probably written about the years 1753-5.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]
'DEAR SIR,
'What you tell me I am ashamed never to have thought on--I wish I had known it sooner--Send me back the last sheet; and the last copy for correction. If you will promise me henceforward to print a sheet a day, I will promise you to endeavour that you shall have every day a sheet to print, beginning next Tuesday.
'I am Sir, Your most, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'To Mr. Strahan.'
In all likelihood Johnson is writing about the Dictionary. The absence of a date, as I have already said, is strong evidence that the letter was written comparatively early. As the first edition of the Dictionary was in folio a sheet consisted of four pages. Johnson writing on April 3, 1753 says, 'I began the second vol. of my Dictionary, room being left in the first for Preface, Grammar, and History, none of them yet begun' (ante, i. 255). As the book was published on April 15, 1755 (ante, i. 290, n. 1), the printing must have gone on very rapidly, when a start was once made. By copy he means his manuscript for printing.
III, IV.
Two undated letters about printing the Dictionary.[In the possession of Mr. John Waller, 2, Artesian Road, Westbourne Grove.]
'DEAR SIR,
'I must desire you to add to your other civilities this one, to go to Mr. Millar and represent to him the manner of going on, and inform him that I know not how to manage. I pay three and twenty shillings a week to my assistants, in each instance having much assistance from them, but they tell me they shall be able to pull better in method, as indeed I intend they shall. The Point is to get two Guineas.
'Sir, Your humble Servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' (Address on back.) 'To Mr. Strahan.'
'SIR,
'I have often suspected that it is as you say, and have told Mr. Dodsley of it. It proceeds from the haste of the amanuensis to get to the end of his day's work. I have desired the passages to be clipped close, and then perhaps for two or three leaves it is done. But since poor Stuart's time I could never get that part of the work into regularity, and perhaps never shall. I will try to take some more care but can promise nothing; when I am told there is a sheet or two I order it away. You will find it sometimes close; when I make up any myself, which never happens but when I have nobody with me, I generally clip it close, but one cannot always be on the watch.
'I am Sir, Your most, &c. 'SAM. JOHNSON.'
These letters refer to the printing of the Dictionary, of which Dodsley and Millar were two among the proprietors, and Strahan the printer. Francis Stuart or Stewart was one of Johnson's amanuenses (ante, i. 187). In 1779 Johnson paid his sister a guinea for an old pocket-book of her brother's (ante, iii. 418), and wrote on April 8,1780 (ante, iii. 421):--'The memory of her brother is yet fresh in my mind; he was an ingenious and worthy man.' In February 1784 he gave her another guinea for a letter relating to himself that he had found in the pocket-book (ante, iv. 262). A writer in the Gent. Mag. for 1799, p. 1171, who had been employed in Strahan's printing-works, says that 'Stewart was useful to Johnson in the explanation of low cant phrases; all words relating to gambling and card-playing, such as All-Fours, Catch-honours [not in Johnson's Dictionary], Cribbage [merely defined as A game at cards], were said to be Stewart's corrected by the Doctor.' He adds that after the printing had gone on some time 'the proprietors of the Dictionary paid Johnson through Mr. Strahan at the rate of a guinea for every sheet of MS. copy delivered. The copy was written upon quarto post, and in two columns each page. Johnson wrote in his own hand the words and their explanation, and generally two or three words in each column, leaving a space between each for the authorities, which were pasted on as they were collected by the different amanuenses employed: and in this mode the MS. was so regular that the sheets of MS. which made a sheet of print could be very exactly ascertained.' The same writer states that Stewart in a night ramble in Edinburgh with some of his drinking companions 'met with the mob conducting Captain Porteous to be hanged; they were next day examined about it before the Town Council, when, as Stewart used to say, "we were found to be too drunk to have any hand in the business." He gave an accurate account of it in the Edinburgh Magazine of that time.'
V.