purse to remain longer in London or its vicinage. I had been crossed in my intentions of going abroad[1], and found it convenient, for every reason of health, peace, and pecuniary circumstances, to retire to Bath, where I knew Mr. Johnson would not follow me, and where I could for that reason command some little portion of time for my own use; a thing impossible while I remained at Streatham or at London, as my hours, carriage, and servants had long been at his command, who would not rise in the morning till twelve o'clock perhaps[2], and oblige me to make
threatened to seize upon my Welsh estate if I did not repay her money lent by Sir Thomas Salusbury to my father; money in effect which poor papa had borrowed to give him when he was a student at Cambridge, and your little friend just born. This debt, however, not having been cancelled, stood against me as heiress.' Hayward's Piozzi, ii. 57. 'Aug. 22, 1782. My lawsuit with Lady Salusbury turns out worse in the event and infinitely more costly than I could have dreamed on; £8,000 is supposed necessary to the payment of it.' Ib. i. 169. 'Jan. 29, 1783. I told Dr. Johnson and Mr. Crutchley three days ago... that I would go and live in a little way at Bath till I had paid all my debts and cleared my income. ... I may in six or seven years be freed from all incumbrances, and carry a clear income of £2500 a year and an estate of £500 in land to the man of my heart.' Ib. i. 195.</ref>
- ↑ 'Dec. 1, 1782. The guardians have met upon the scheme of putting our girls in Chancery. I was frighted at the project, not doubting but the Lord Chancellor would stop us from leaving England, as he would certainly see no joke in three young heiresses, his ward, quitting the kingdom to frisk away with their mother into Italy. ... Nobody much applauded my resolution in going, but Johnson and Cator said they would not concur in stopping me by violence. ... Jan. 29, 1783. I told Dr. Johnson and Mr. Crutchley three days ago that I had determined — seeing them so averse to it — that I would not go abroad.' Ib. i. 192-195.
- ↑ See ante, p. 37, where he recorded in 1766 that he had that year persisted in the habit of early rising, till 'I went to Mr. Thrale's; the irregularity of that family broke my habit of rising.' As for his call on her servants she herself has said, 'Dr. Johnson on his own part required less attendance, sick or well, than ever I saw any human creature. Ante, p. 329.
According to Baretti: 'he wanted nothing else from her servants than to be shaved once in three days, as he was almost beardless; and as for her carriage never once during the whole time of their acquaintance did he borrow, much less command it, for any purpose of his own. ... During his acquaintance with the Thrale family he got the habit of rising as early as other folks, nor ever made Mr. Thrale stay a single moment for his breakfast, knowing that his business called him away about ten o'clock every morning.' Croker's Boswell, ed. 1844, x. 36. Baretti left Streatham in June, 1776,
