1768.

fected by compassion, he had shortly before we discover the been known at midnight to latter to have gone for a sumabandon his rest, in order to mer retreat into a cottage eight procure relief and an asylum for miles down the Edgewarea poor dying object who was left road, "at the back of destitute in the streets; pro-"Canons." He had taken Æt. 40. ceeds thus: "He is however sup- it in connection with his neigh"posed to have been often soured bour in the Temple, Mr. Bott; "by jealousy or envy; and many and they kept it for some little "little instances are mentioned time. It was very small, and "of this tendency in his charac- very absurdly decorated; and, "ter: but whatever appeared of as a set-off to his Shoemaker's "this kind was a mere momen- Holiday, he used to call this his "tary sensation, which he knew Shoemaker's Paradise, one of "not how like other men to con- that craft having built it, and "ceal. It was never the result of laid it out with flying Mercuries, "principle, or the suggestion of iets d'eau, and other preposterous "reflection; it never embittered ornaments, though the ground "his heart, nor influenced his it stood upon, with its two rooms "conduct." Let this emphatic on a floor, its garden and all, language be the comment on any covered considerably less than future record of such "little in- half an acre. The friends would "stances;" and when Johnson occasionally drive down to this ridicules, hereafter, his friend's retreat, even after dining in Lonignorance of things, let it be don, goodnatured Mr. Bott being taken with Cooke's odd illustra- also one of those respectable tion of his supposed ignorance of men who kept a horse and gig: words.

CHAPTER III.

and Grub-Street.
1768.

*

and a curious letter is said to be in existence written by Goldsmith shortly before his death, thanking him again and again The Edgeware Cottage, St. Stephen's, for timely pecuniary help, rendered in his worst straits; saying it is to Bott he entirely owes that HENRY GOLDSMITH'S death he can sit down in safety in his would seem to have been made chambers without the terrors of known to his brother Oliver arrest hanging momentarily over * Percy Memoir, 117. Beyond a doubt him; and recalling such whimthis was written by the bishop himself. sical scenes of past days as when But, as if it were impossible to let even such an avowal stand uncoupled with they used to drive down the something of depreciation, the writer Edgeware-road at night, and, adds: "Nothing could be more amiable both their necks being brought "than the general features of his mind; to imminent peril by the gig's

"those of his person were not, perhaps,

'so engaging."

Europ. Mag. XXIV. 94.

1768.

descent into a ditch, the driver engaged, Goldsmith seems to (Bott) would exhaust all his pro- have passed the greater part of fessional eloquence to prove that the summer, apparently not much at that instant they were moved by what was going on exactly in the centre of the elsewhere. Walpole, mourning Æt. 40. road.* for the loss of his Lady Hervey Here the History of Rome, un- and his Lady Suffolk, was readdertaken for Davies, was at ing his tragedy of the Mysterious leisure proceeded with; here the Mother to his lady-friends who new poem, worked at in the ad- remained, and rejoicing that he joining lanes, and in pleasant did not need to expose himself strolls along the shady hedges, to "the impertinencies of that began to grow in importance; "jackanapes Garrick, who lets here, thus tuning his exquisite "nothing appear but his own song outside the bars of his Lon-"wretched stuff, or that of creadon prison, he might with him-"tures still duller, who suffer self enjoy that sense of liberty "him to alter their pieces as he for which it so delighted him to "pleases;" - but Goldsmith's listen to the songs of other un- withers are unwrung. Hume was caged birds; ** and here, so receiving a considerable increase to his pension, with significant

See Percy Memoir, 112, note.

Here scattered oft, the earliest of the year,

By hands unseen, are showers of violets found,

The red-breast loves to build and warble here,

And little footsteps lightly print the

ground.

** See ante, I. 257. I will here add, as a supplement to the exquisite passage as that the reader should see them here, there quoted from the Animated Nature, that stanza on the red-breast which Gray another, hardly less pleasing (IV. 260), on expunged from the Elegy, and which the Robin Redbreast. Goldsmith is talk- made Lord Byron wonder that he could ing of the sagacity of the nightingale, have had the heart to do it. which however he seems to doubt; and continues: "It is but to have high re66 putation for any one quality, and the "world is ready enough to give us fame "for others to which we have very small 66 pretensions. But there is a little bird "rather celebrated for its affection to "mankind than its singing, which how"ever, in our climate, has the sweetest "note of all others. The reader already "perceives that I mean the Redbreast, "the well-known friend of man, that is "found in every hedge, and makes it "vocal. The note of other birds is "louder, and their inflections more capri"cious; but this bird's voice is soft, "tender, and well-supported; and the 66 'more to be valued as we enjoy it the "greatest part of the winter. If the "nightingale's song has been compared ff to the fiddle, the red-breast's voice has "all the delicacy of the flute." I take the opportunity of adding, as well for the mere pleasure of transcribing the lines

Two most charming lines I am tempted to add to these, because neither are they to be found in the ordinary editions of Gray's poems. They were made by Mr. Gray, says Nicholls (Works, v. 34), as we were walking in the spring in the neighbourhood of Cambridge.

There pipes the wood-lark, and the song-thrush there

Scatters his loose notes in the waste of air.

*Coll. Lett. v. 199. His audience consisted of Lady Aylesbury, Lady Lyttelton, and Miss Rich; his friend Conway assisting on the occasion.

"James.

1768.

intimation of the royal wish that not yet see the shadow of his he should apply himself to the own early decay. Gray, who had continuation of his English His- in vain solicited the Cambridge tory; while great lords were professorship of modern fondly dandling Robertson into history* while he yet had the good graces of the book- the health it would have Et. 40. sellers, the Chief Justice was ad-"who were speaking about him: the miringly telling the Duke of Bed- "Duke of Roxburgh, the Earl of March, ford that 4500l. was to be paid "the Earl of Ossory, the Duke of Grafhim for his History of Charles the "ton, Mr. Garrick, Mr. Hume, and Mr. 'John,' said my master, 'go Fifth, and Walpole was reason-"and inquire how Mr. Sterne is toably sneering at what Scotch day. I went, returned, and said, ‘I "went to Mr. Sterne's lodging-the mispuffing and partiality might do;* "tress opened the door-I enquired -but the humbler historian at "how he did. She told me to go up to Edgeware pursues his labours" the nurse; I went into the room, and unbribed and undisturbed. The "he was just a-dying. I waited ten "minutes; but in five, he said, "Now it Sentimental Journey was giving ""is come!" He put up his hand, as if pleasure to not a few; even Wal-“ 'to stop a blow, and died in a minute.' pole was declaring it "infinitely "and lamented him very much." "The gentlemen were all very sorry, 'preferable to the tiresome Tris-Life of a Footman; or the Travels of James "tram Shandy;" while, within a Macdonald, 8vo. 1790. (1852.) I may few months, at a grand dinner- now refer to Mr. Fitzgerald's very lively, interesting, and carefully written Life of table round which were seated Sterne, for the sad and shocking incident two dukes, two earls, Mr. Gar-that closed this terrible tragedy. 1870. rick, and Mr. Hume, a footman in attendance was announcing Sterne's lonely death in a common lodging-house in Bondstreet; **but Goldsmith does

*Coll. Lett. v. 223.

The

From Lord Bute. See Walpole's Coll. Lett. v. 342. "As this," says Mason, “was the only application Mr. Gray ever 'made to the ministry, I thought it 'necessary to insert his own account of "it." His own account of it is in a letter

66

to Dr. Wharton (Works, III. 301). After describing his application, to which he says he was "cockered and spirited up ** I quote from a curious. volume "by some friends," he continues: "I rebased on facts undoubtedly authentic:"ceived my answer very soon, which "In the month of January, 1768, we set "was what you may easily imagine, but "off for London. We stopped for some "joined with great professions of his de"time at Almack's house, in Pall-mall."sire to serve me on any future occasion, My master afterwards took Sir James "and many more fine words that I pass "Gray's house in Clifford-street, who "over, not out of modesty, but for an"was going ambassador to Spain. He "other reason. So you see I have made now began housekeeping, hired a "my fortune, like Sir Fr. Wronghead." "French cook, house-maid, and kitchen- The tutor of Sir James Lowther, a great maid, and kept a great deal of the best ministerial man, got the place. For the 66 company. About this time, Mr. Sterne, affecting expressions of gratitude with "the celebrated author, was taken ill at which Gray received at last the tardy "the silk-bag shop in Old Bond-street. gift which he enjoyed for so short a time, "He was sometimes called Tristram see Works, iv. 120-125. I ought perhaps "Shandy, and sometimes Yorick, a very to add that five years before his unsuc great favourite of the gentlemen's. One cessful application to Lord Bute, the day my master had company to dinner, Duke of Devonshire (then Lord Cham

1768.

given him spirit to enjoy, and smith has never been much inwas now about to receive it from terested in Boswell, and Paoli is the Duke of Grafton when no not very likely to increase his longer able to hold it,* interest. Having made this unwas wondering at a new availing effort to empty his head Et. 40. book about Corsica in of Corsica, Boswell himself had which he found a hero portrayed visited London in the spring,* by a green goose, and where he had followed Johnson to Oxford, had the comfort of feeling that and was now making him the what was wise in it must be true, hero of dinner parties at the for the writer was too great a Crown and Anchor in the Strand, fool to invent it; **-but Gold- where Percy was quite unberlain) offered him the office of Poet warrantably attacked, RobertLaureate, at that time in very low son slighted, and Davies turned esteem, which he respectfully had de- into ridicule;-but Goldsmith is clined. Works, III. 186. And see Cor-doubtless well content, for a time,

respondence with Mason, 112-14.

** Poor Gray! even his quiet scholarly to escape his chance of being life could not protect him against the also “tossed and gored. "** scurrility of the time, from which Gold

66

66.

smith so sorely suffered. "My friend Mr. "Paoli. He is a man born two thousand Gray," says Walpole's friend Cole, "a"years after his time! The pamphlet "" 'man devoid of all ambitious views, be-"proves what I have always maintained, cause his friend Mr. Stonehewer had "that any fool may write a most valuable pointed him out as a most proper per-"book by chance, if he will only tell us "son to the Duke of Grafton for the pro- what he heard and saw with veracity. "fessorship of modern history, without "Of Mr. Boswell's truth I have not the "the least application or thought of it"least suspicion, because I am sure he "himself, met with the most illiberal "could invent nothing of this kind. The "abuse in the public papers," ," &c. &c."true title of this part of his work is, a Cole's MSS. xxxII. 12. Cavendish Debates, "Dialogue between a Green-Goose and a I. 621. And see Wooll's Warton, 335-6. "Hero." Feb. 25, 1768.

**"When Boswell published his ac- *It was now that Hume described แ 'count of Corsica, I found Mr. Gray read- him as "a young gentleman, very good"ing it. 'With this,' he said, 'I am "humoured, very agreeable, and very "much pleased, because I see that the au-"mad." Hume's Priv. Cor. 131. For two ""thor is too foolish to have invented it."" Nicholls's Reminiscences of Gray (Works, v. 47), one of the most charming papers, at once for fulness and brevity, ever contributed to our knowledge of a celebrated man. Of Boswell's Corsica, Gray expressed a similar opinion to Walpole (Works, IV. 113), and I quote the passage, because it so exactly hits at once the littleness and the greatness of Boswell, and, nearly twenty years before the masterpiece of English biography was written, shows us the possibility of a green goose doing justice to a hero. "Mr. Boswell's book I was going to re"commend to you, when I received your "letter: it has pleased and moved me "strangely, all (I mean) that relates to

wonderfully ridiculous letters of Boswell's, written during his recent foreign tour to Andrew Mitchell, the English minister at Berlin, who was a great friend of old Auchinleck, and had been appealed to to check James's extravagances, see Mitchell's Memoirs and Papers, II. 351-8. I may also add, with special reference to the "dinners" so abundantly mentioned in the text, what Wilkes some years later wrote of him (Letters, IV. 5). "The earth," says the patriot, describing a drought, "is as thirsty as Boswell, and "as cracked in many places as he cer"tainly is in one."

**When I called upon Dr. Johnson "next morning, I found him highly satis"fied with his colloquial prowess the pre

1768.

Æt. 40.

Kindness he could not escape so of such profligate turmoil pereasily, if Reynolds had it in his haps never degraded our Enggift. For this, too, was the lish annals. The millennium of year when the great painter, rioters as well as libellers entering the little room where a seemed to have come. party of his brother artists were The abandoned recklessin council over a plan for an ness of public men was seen reAcademy of Arts, was instantly, acting through all the grades of all of them rising to a man, society; and in the mobs of saluted "president;"* and the Stepney-fields and St. George's year had not closed before the were reflected the knaves and royal patronage was obtained for bullies of White's and St. James's. the scheme, and that great in- Having glanced at the causes stitution was set on foot which that had made inevitable some has since so greatly flourished, such consequence, it only reyet has had no worthier or more mains to state it. The election famous entry on its records than for a new Parliament, the old one the appointment of Samuel John- dying of its seventh year in son as its first Professor of March, let loose every evil eleAncient Literature, and of Oliver ment; and Wilkes found his work Goldsmith as its first Professor half done before he threw himof History. self into it. His defeat for LonWhether the clamour of poli-don, his daring and successful tics, noisiest when emptiest, attempt on Middlesex, his imfailed meanwhile to make its way prisonment pending the arguinto the Shoemaker's Paradise, ments on his outlawry (when may be more doubtful. A year Reynolds, an old friend, but one can hardly think a congenial one, "ceding evening. 'Well,' said he, seems to have dined with him),* the result of those arguments, his election as alderman, and *Northcote's Life, 1. 166. Cunningham's Life, 256-8. The great movers in clumsy alternations of rage and the project were Chambers, West, Cotes, fear in his opponents, confirmed and Moser; Reynolds at first holding him at last the representative of less friendly biographer somewhat un- Liberty; and amid tumult, murfairly alleges, that the countenance of der, and massacre, the sacred fear that the mistakes of "The Incor- Cap was put upon his head.** "porated Society of Artists" might again be committed. It was after West had taken to him a proposed list of thirty members, and explained to him enough to show that the new society started from a basis of their own which might fairly be made to include all the higher objects of such an institution, that Reynolds consented to join.

we

""had good talk.' BOSWELL: 'Yes, sir; "you tossed and gored several perBoswell, III. 58.

"" "sons." "

himself aloof, from a doubt, not as his

the court would be wanting, but from a

Oliver Goldsmith's Life and Times. II.

Life by Leslie and Taylor, I. 291. ** It is curious to mark the eagerness with which the French welcomed anything of this sort, little dreaming of what was in store for themselves. "2 Août, "1768. Il nous est venu d'Angleterre des "mouchoirs à la Wilkes; ils sont d'une "très-belle toile. Au lieu de fleurs ils

7