missas, ficus, uvas, non admodum maturas, ita voluit anni intemperies, cum malis Persicis, iis tamen duris. Non lætus accubui, cibum modicè sumpsi, ne intemperantiâ ad extremum peccaretur. Si recte memini, in mentem venerunt epulæ in exequiis Hadoni celebratæ. Streathamiam quando revisam[1]?
- ↑ Oct. 6, Sunday, 1782. I dined at Streatham on a roast leg of lamb with spinach chopped fine, the stuffing of flour with raisins, a sirloin of beef, and a turkey poult; and after the first course figs, grapes not very ripe owing to the bad season, with peaches – hard ones. I took my place in no joyful mood, and dined moderately that I might not at the last fall into the sin of intemperance. If I am not mistaken, the banquet at the funeral of Hadon came into my mind. When shall I see Streatham again?
I have looked in vain in an old cookery-book for a recipe for 'farcimen farinaceum cum uvis passis.' See Piozzi's Anec., p. 102, for Johnson's liking for 'veal-pie with plums and sugar.' Perhaps Mrs. Thrale had ordered his favourite sauce. It seems odd that the lamb, beef and turkey were not followed by a pudding or sweets. There is a passage in Miss Austen's Pride and Prejudice (ch. xx) which shows that a dinner, excluding the dessert, often consisted of but one course. 'Mrs. Bennet,' she writes, 'had been strongly inclined to ask them to stay and dine there that day; but, though she always kept a very good table, she did not think any thing less than two courses could ... satisfy the appetite and pride of one who had ten thousand a year.' Johnson defines dessert as 'the last course at an entertainment; the fruit or sweetmeats set on the table after the meat.' Addison in the Guardian, No. 163, makes the tart and sweetmeats part of the dessert. It is in this sense that the word is still used in New England.
'Hadonus' is, I conjecture, Walter Haddon, who is mentioned in Johnson's Life of Milton (Works, vii. 68): – 'Haddon and Ascham, the pride of Elizabeth's reign, however they have succeeded in prose, no sooner attempt verse than they provoke derision.'
The following description by Susan Burney shows what Johnson lost in losing Streatham: –
'We arrived at Streatham at a very little past eleven. As a place it surpassed all my expectations. The avenue to the house, plantations, &c. are beautiful; worthy of the charming inhabitants. It is a little Paradise, I think. Cattle, poultry, dogs, all running freely about, without annoying each other. Sam opened the chaise door, and told my father breakfast was not quite over, and I had no sooner got out than Mr. Thrale appeared at a window close to the door, – and, indeed, my dear Fanny, you did not tell me anything about him which I did not find entirely just. With regard to his reception of me, it was particularly polite. I followed my father into the library, which was much such a room as I expected; – a most charming one. There sat Mrs. Thrale and Dr. Johnson, the latter finishing his breakfast upon peaches. Mrs. Thrale immediately rose to meet me very sweetly, and to welcome me to Streatham. Dr. Johnson, too, rose. "How do, dear lady?" My father told him it was not his Miss, but another of his own bant-
