DR. BURNEY.
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CHAPTER XII.
1799–1805.
Dr. Burney—Publication of Life and Prose Works of Dryden—R. Bell’s late Edition of his Poems—Pope-Visit to Ireland in 1801—Andrew Caldwell—Mr. Wraxall and Lord Whitworth—Disappointed in a public appointment—William Gifford—Sale of part of his Books—Letters to his Sister—Notices by Rev. J. Jephson—Letter from Gifford.
While writing notes to a new edition of Boswell, the subject of this memoir wished to describe the interior of Thrale’s house, so immortalized by its many frequenters, and applied to Dr. Burney for his recollections. This information the reader will find below from a note written in December 1798. It is worth its space. Few suburban mansions have acquired so much celebrity. Its site perhaps is too low, but Tooting Common opens pleasantly in front; and often while resident for several years in the vicinity, have I lingered around it for hours as venerated ground.[1]
- ↑ “I would not,” says Burney, “take my corporal of it; but, as far as I can remember, Johnson’s account of the prints in the Thrales’ drawing-room was accurate. The family lived in the library which used to be the parlour. There they breakfasted, &c. Over the bookcases were hung Sir Joshua’s portraits of Mr. Thrale’s friends, of whom Boswell, I believe, has given a lift. From these portraits the room has by painters been called the Thrale Gallery. “The drawing-room, if memory does not deceive me, was hung with plain bright sky-blue paper, ornamented with a very gay border, somewhat tawdry; and the room in which dinner was served when large parties were invited which, I believe, Johnson means, was I believe, hung with prints. Family dinners without company were served in a more small and plain room. I forget now what I said, and of course
