fancied the billets in the first volume of the Rambler, were sent him by Miss Mulso, now Mrs. Chapone[1]. The papers contributed by Mrs. Carter[2], had much of his esteem, though he always blamed me for preferring the letter signed Chariessa to the allegory, where religion and superstition are indeed most masterly delineated.
When Dr. Johnson read his own satire, in which the life of a scholar is painted, with the various obstructions thrown in his way to fortune and to fame, he burst into a passion of tears one day[3]: the family and Mr. Scott only were present, who, in a jocose way, clapped him on the back, and said, What's all this my dear Sir? Why you, and I, and Hercules, you know, were all troubled with melancholy. As there are many gentlemen of the same name, I should say, perhaps. that it was a Mr. Scott who married Miss Robinson, and that I think I have heard Mr. Thrale call him George Lewis, or George Augustus[4], I have forgot which. He was a very large man, however, and made out the trumvirate with Johnson and Hercules comically enough. The Doctor was so delighted at his odd sally, that he suddenly embraced him, and the subject was immediately changed. I never saw Mr. Scott but that once in my life.
Dr. Johnson was liberal enough in granting literary assistance to others, I think; and innumerable are the prefaces, sermons, lectures, and dedications which he used to make for people who begged of him[5]. Mr. Murphy related in his and my hearing
- ↑ No. 10. For Mrs. Chapone see Life, iv. 246.
- ↑ Nos. 44 and 100. For Mrs. Carter see Life, i. 122.
- ↑ Vanity of Human Wishes, ll. 135-164. 'The deep and pathetic morality of the Vanity of Human Wishes,' says Sir Walter Scott, 'has often extracted tears from those whose eyes wander dry over pages professedly sentimental.' Scott's Misc. Works, ed. 1834, iii. 264.
- ↑ George Lewis Scott, who had been sub-preceptor to George III, when Prince of Wales. Life, iii. 117, n. 4. Horace Walpole wrote on Nov. 19, 1750 (Letters, ii. 232): – 'There is a new preceptor, one Scott, recommended by Lord Bolingbroke.' See also ib. p. 316.
Miss Robinson was Mrs. Montagu's sister. See post in Anecdotes of Hannah More.
- ↑ Boswell quotes this in the Life, iv. 344, in contrast with Mrs. Piozzi's assertion (post, p. 279) that 'Johnson would not stir a finger for the assistance of those to whom he was willing enough to give advice,' &c.
