gross, and ignorant; for though in the course of these Memoirs I have been led to mention Dr. Johnson's tenderness towards poor people, I do not wish to mislead my readers, and make them think he had any delight in mean manners or coarse expressions[1]. Even dress itself, when it resembled that of the vulgar, offended him exceedingly; and when he had condemned me many times for not adorning my children with more show than I thought useful or elegant, I presented a little girl to him who came o'visiting one evening covered with shining ornaments, to see if he would approve of the appearance she made. When they were gone home, Well Sir, said I, how did you like little miss? I hope she was fine enough. 'It was the finery of a beggar (said he), and you know it was; she looked like a native of Cow-lane dressed up to be carried to Bartholomew-fair[2].'
His reprimand to another lady for crossing her little child's handkerchief before, and by that operation dragging down its head oddly and unintentionally, was on the same principle. 'It is the beggar's fear of cold (said he) that prevails over such parents, and so they pull the poor thing's head down, and give it the look of a baby that plays about Westminster-Bridge, while the mother sits shivering in a niche[3].
I commended a young lady for her beauty and pretty behaviour one day however, to whom I thought no objections could have been made. 'I saw her (says Dr. Johnson) take a pair of scissars in her left hand though; and for all her father is now
week on ship-board. Loplolly, or Loblolly, is explained in Roderick Random, chap. xxvii. Roderick, when acting as the surgeon's assistant on a man of war, 'suffered,' he says, 'from the rude insults of the sailors and petty officers, among whom I was known by the name of Loblolly Boy.'</ref>
- ↑ Ante, p. 292, n 5.
- ↑ Five Cow Lanes are mentioned in Dodsley's London, 1761, ii. 197.
The fair was held in Smithfield 'at Bartholomew-tide.' Ib. vi. 29.
- ↑ Johnson defines niche 'a hollow in which a statue may be placed.' In many of the recesses on the Bridge were 'pedestals on which was intended [sic] a group of figures.' Ib. vi. 286.
