Johnson, the day after he recorded his 'doubt,' wrote that he was 'troubled with Baxter's scruple' (ante, ii. 477). The 'scruple' was, perhaps, the same as the 'doubt.' In his Dictionary he defines scruple as doubt; difficulty of determination; perplexity; generally about minute things.
Oxford in 1782.
(Vol. iii, p. 13, n. 3.)
The Rev. C. P. Moritz (ante, p. liv) gives a curious account of his visit to Oxford. On his way from Dorchester on the evening of a Sunday in June, he had been overtaken by the Rev. Mr. Maud, who seems to have been a Fellow and Tutor of Corpus College[3], and who was returning from doing duty in his curacy. It was late when they arrived in the town. Moritz, who, as I have said, more than once had found great difficulty in getting a bed, had made up his mind to pass the summer night on a stonebench in the High Street. His comrade would not hear of this, but said that he would take him to an ale-house where 'it is possible they mayn't be gone to bed, and we may yet find company.' This ale-house was the Mitre.
'We went on a few houses further, and then knocked at a door. It was then nearly twelve. They readily let us in; but how great was my astonishment when, on being shown into a room on the left, I saw a great number of clergymen, all with their gowns and bands on, sitting round a large table, each with his pot of beer before him. My travelling companion introduced me to them as a German clergyman, whom he could not sufficiently praise for my correct pronunciation of the Latin, my orthodoxy, and my good walking.
'I now saw myself in a moment, as it were, all at once transported into the midst of a company, all apparently very respectable men, but all strangers to me. And it appeared to me extraordinary that I should thus at midnight be in Oxford, in a large company of Oxonian clergy, without well knowing how I had got there. Meanwhile, however, I took all the pains in my power to recommend myself to my company, and in the course of conversation I gave them as good an account as I could of our German universities, neither denying nor concealing that now and then we had riots and disturbances. "Oh, we are very unruly here, too," said one of the clergymen, as he took a hearty draught out of his pot of beer, and knocked on the table with his hand. The conversation now became louder, more general, and a little confused. ... At last, when morning drew near, Mr. Maud suddenly exclaimed, "D-n me, I must read prayers this morning at All Souls!" "D-n me" is an abbreviation of "G-d d-n me," which in England does not seem to mean more mischief or harm than any of our or their common expletives in conversation, such as "O gemini!" or "The deuce take me!" ... I am almost ashamed to own, that next morning, when I awoke, I had got so dreadful a headache from the copious and numerous toasts of my jolly and reverend friends that I could not possibly get up. --Travels in England in 1782, by C. P. Moritz, p. 123.
[Footnote 3: No such person appears in the Catalogue of Graduates.]
Dr. Lettsom.
(Vol. in, p. 68.)
Boswell in an Ode to Mr. Charles Dilly, published in the Gent. Mag. for 1791, p. 367, says that Dr. Lettsom 'Refutes pert Priestley's nonsense.'
William Vachell.
(Vol. iii, p. 83, n. 3.)
Mr. George Parker of the Bodleian Library informs me that William Vachell had been tutor to Prince Esterhazy, and that for many years he held the appointment of 'Pumper,' or Lessee of the baths at Bath. In 1776 and 1777 he paid as rental for them to the Corporation L525. He died on November 26, 1789. According to Mr. Ivor Vachell (Notes and Queries, 6th S. vii. 327), it was his eldest son who signed the Round Robin.
Johnson and Baretti.
(Vol. iii, p. 96, n. 1.)
Baretti in his Tolondron, p. 145, gives an account of a difference between himself and Johnson. Johnson sent to ask him to call on him, but Baretti was leaving town. When he returned the time for a reconciliation had passed, for Johnson was dead.
English pulpit eloquence.
(Vol. iii, p. 248.)
'Upon the whole, which is preferable, the philosophic method of the English, or the rhetoric of the French preachers? The first (though less glorious) is certainly safer for the preacher. It is difficult for a man to make himself ridiculous, who proposes only to deliver plain sense on a subject he has thoroughly studied. But the instant he discovers the least pretensions towards the sublime or the pathetic, there is no medium; we must either admire or laugh; and there are so many various talents requisite to form the character of an orator that it is more than probable we shall laugh.' --Memoirs of Edward Gibbon, ed. 1827, i. 118.
Bishop Percy's communications to Boswell relative to Johnson.
(Vol. iii, p. 278, n. 1.)
'JAMES BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY.
"9 April, 1790.
"As to suppressing your Lordship's name when relating the very few anecdotes of Johnson with which you have favoured me, I will do anything to oblige your Lordship but that very thing.