Tuesday 7 July [actually 5 July] 1763: Quarreld with Tom Terrie who behaved rudely.
Wednesday 8 [6 July] left his house & took up my residence in the Temple. Mr. Johnson said I might either oblige Terrie to let me off for a quarter’s rent; or if the lodgings must be mine for a year, I might make what use I pleased of [’]em. So Sir (said he) you may quarter two life-guard men upon him: or you may pick up the greatest Scoundrel you can find, & send into his house. Or you may say that you want to make some experiments, & may burn a quantity of Assa fœtida in his house. — At night the Mitre was considered as my lodgings. I was Landlord. I had with me Mr. Johnson, Doctor Goldsmith, Ogilvie, Davies and Mr. Eccles a Gentleman of fortune in Ireland. Johnson was immense. Goldie was shiny. Gilvie was piteous. Davies was decent. Eccles Ditto in a less degree. Boswell[,] composed quiet chearfull[,] kept matters going with life. Ogilvie said we had some noble wild prospects in Scotland. Yes (said Johnson) You have some noble wild Prospects. Norway too has some noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But Sir, I believe the noblest prospect that a Scotsman ever sees, is the road that leads him to England. He said that Flloyd1 a poor Author was stroling thro’ the Streets one night when up starts Derrick from a bulk!2 ‘My dear Flloyd! I am sorry to see thee without a lodging. Will you go home with me?’ Dempster supt at Allmack’s.3 Hall4 said I hate that fellow David Hume he’s such a monarchical Dog. Is it not a d-mn’d thing that a fellow who does not fear God should fear a King. Chaiss Price said Politicks was just a game at tennis only take care of your Chaiss. Ay said Dempster take care of your Chaiss, & keep up your Price & there’s no fear of you.5 One said he saw a Gentleman walk down the Hay-market with a W—r6 under his Arm like a Gizzard. Rather (said Miss Dempster) like an ill liver.
Friday 8. Supt at the Queen’s Head in Holbourn with Flexney our Bookseller & Chandler our Printer. F. said ‘When shall we three meet again’ With types & ink (I added) & Letters vain.7 F said C was a Chandelier that did not shine. C. laughed much. C. said From Capt. Erskine’s countenance you præconceived that he was morose, but when he spoke it was quite the reverse. F. said that Thomson the Author of the Meretriciad asked him what would sell best; & he said a volume of letters. Thomson said he had such a thing.8 In a week after E— & B’s were offered to the Cow.9 F said when Churchill came to him first, he took him for a Staymaker. 10 He swore a good deal; but told F— when he wrote to him to put on Rev.11 by way of Ornament. He writes immediatly for the Press — just as much as will make a sheet at a time — & so on, only he never will write till it is just wanted for the Press. He said a copy of our letters was gone to Antigua. We were very merry. Each Man drank his bottle of the Sparkling wine — Brought from the fruitfull banks of Rhine — with Sugar. Our toasts were Churchill[,] Johnson[,] Captain Erskine[,] Dr. Chandler &c. They saw me to the rolls — & F said he hop’d I’d have one for breakfast. He looked bold. I said he would turn P Vaillant.12
Saturday 9 Dempster & I dined with Lord Eglintoune. My Lord was running his rig on E— & B’s publications. Only think said B— of a Man’s criticising Performances, who can scarcely read his own name. He look’d foolish for the space of one Minute. Thursday 14 The great Phersy13 and I dined at Bettys. I said the English were a fine open people[.] ‘Od damme’ said he — Open! their mouths indeed are open to Gluttony to fill their Bellys. At night Johnson & I supt at the Mitre. He said you need not fear your Fathers forcing you to be a practising Lawyer. It is not in his power. For, as the Proverb says, One Man may lead a horse to the water, but twenty cannot make him drink. He said My Dear Boswell! I do love you very much. I shall be glad to hear from you, Ubicunque terrarum fueris.14 He advised me to keep a Journal fair & undisguised; said it was a good exercise, and would give me infinite pleasure when the ideas were fading from my Remembrance. I told him I had done so ever since my leaving Scotland & would certainly continue it. I gave him a Specimen. He laughed placid, & said very well. After this, O My Journal wilt thou not flourish tenfold? I told him Phersy’s curious method of railing at all established Systems. So would he tumble in a Hogstye (said Johnson) as long as you look at him, & cry to him to come out. But let him alone, never mind him, & he’ll soon give it over. He said he would probably give us more of Juvenal. The rest of our conversation was large legs of Beef & Mutton, not fit for a Minc’d pye.
Monday 18 Sometime ago Dempster presented an Address at Court. He disliked the Subordination. He was hurt by seeing the keen & clever Lord Marchmont there bowing like the rest. He said he was like a chained Eagle at a Gentleman’s gate. Wednesday 20 Mr. Johnson, Dempster and Doctor Boswell supt with me at my chambers. Dempster defended Donaldson, and said he made the means of learning cheap to poor Students. Well then (said Johnson) he is no better than Robin Hood who stole from the rich in order to give it to the poor. Come (said the Doctor,) Here is a health to bold Robin Hood. He said the Structure of David Humes sentences was quite french. Now that structure and the english structure may in the nature of things be equaly good. But if you allow that the English language is established, he is wrong. My name might have been Nicholson originaly as well as Johnson. But if you were to call me Nicholson now, you would call me very absurdly. Dempster argued on Rousseau’s plan, that internal merit would procure you most respect. No Sir said Johnson. Money will procure you more. Sir you may make the experiment. Go to the street, & give one man a moral lecture, & another a shilling, & see who will respect you most. Sir, Money to be sure of itself has no value; for it’s only value is to part with it Sir. But in civilized Society, it will gain you respect from individuals — You may indeed analyze this, & say what is in it. But that is not fair Sir. Pound St. Paul’s Church to Atoms, and consider every single Atom. It is to be sure good for nothing. But put em all together, & you have St. Paul’s Church. So it is with human felicity. He supported the real value of rank in civilized Society, where being a Nobleman is just as real a cause for respect as Genius. (Honourable Andrew of Kelly mind this.) Dempster try’d his levelling System. But it’s heels were soon tript up. Were respect merely to go by personal Abilitys we should be constantly fighting. We could never settle the degrees of internal merit. And why not rather allow it to Bodily strength? Were you once all levelled, you would find those who had got most strength, would not permit it long. But, Sir, civilized Society has settled rank upon a plain, invariable footing. Let Nobility have it’s due weight, and let Genius have it’s due weight. Let beautifull & pleasing order be preserved — (There, Dash, is sound sense.) —
Friday 22 Mr. Johnson said that All your sceptical innovators wanted to gratify Vanity, & found that mankind were allready in possession of truth; So that they could not have a crop of Vanity from that. Therefore they exercise their ingenuity in support of error. Sir, Truth is a Cow which will yeild such people no more Milk; & so they are gone to milk the Bull. At night he & I met at the Turks head Coffee-house, & had a room to ourselves. He said he liked the young Dogs of this age, for they had more wit[,] humour & knowledge of life, than young men had when he was young. But then he said the Dogs were not so good Scholars. He said he told Mrs. Macaulay that he was quite a convert to her republican System, & he begged that her servant might sit down to dinner with them. Sir, your levellers count down only their own length. They want to have people under them; & surely they may be content to have people above them. Sir I would no more deprive a Nobleman of his due respect than of his Money. I would act as a part of the great System, & do to others as I would have them do to Me. I would use a Nobleman, as I would expect to be used, by him, were I a Nobleman, & he Sam. Johnson. Sir, low jocularity is a poor thing. You ought no more to think it enough if you laugh; than you would think it enough if you speak. You may laugh in as many ways as you speak; & surely every kind of speaking that is practised cannot be admired. He drank Sir David Dalrymple’s health in a Bumper, & considers him as a very worthy Man, a Scholar, and a Man of Wit. He said my Dear Boswell, I will keep an eye upon you till you return. I will corespond with you. I should be very unhappy at parting, did I think we were not to meet again.
1. Flloyd: Thomas Floyd, miscellaneous author, translator and compiler. His three-volume compilation Bibliotheca Biographica: A Synopsis of Universal Biography, Ancient and Modern, which (largely a translation of a French work) appeared in 1760.
2. a bulk: Johnson’s Dictionary defines ‘bulk’ as ‘A part of a building jutting out’.
3. Allmack’s: William Almack (d. 1781) began a dining club in Pall Mall in January 1762. He later built larger assembly rooms, which opened in 1765, behind his house in King Street, St James’s.
4. Hall: John Hall Stevenson (1718–85), poet and satirist. Born John Hall, he assumed his wife’s surname in addition to his own on marrying the heiress Anne Stevenson (d. 1790) of Manor House, Lanchester, near Durham. He was a friend of Wilkes and Sterne, and the model for ‘Eugenius’ in Tristram Shandy. His bawdy collection of stories and adaptations, Crazy Tales, appeared in 1762.
5. tennis … fear of you: Dempster’s puns (on ‘chase’ and ‘price’) refer to the term ‘chase’ in the sport of real tennis and to ‘price’ as the amount of a political bribe. (Compare Dempster’s remarks in the journal entry for 2 February 1763, and its n. 4.) Speaking of ‘Patriots’ in the opposition party, Sir Robert Walpole said, ‘All those men have their price’ – a well-known remark (often misquoted as ‘All men have their price’) which Dempster may have in mind (William Coxe, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford … (1798), vol. 2, p. 757).
6. W—r: Whore.
7. When … vain: Parody of the First Witch’s speech with which Macbeth opens: ‘When shall we three meet again? / In thunder, lightning, or in rain?’
8. Thomson … such a thing: The Meretriciad, by Edward Thompson (d. 1786), a verse satire on ‘Kitty’ Fisher (d. 1767), a famous courtesan, appeared anonymously in 1761, and a fourth edition had appeared this year. Thompson was a naval officer. His Sailor’s Letters, describing his voyages and naval engagements, appeared in two volumes in 1766–7, with Flexney as one of the co-publishers.
9. the Cow: Flexney is twitting Boswell about the poor sales of Letters Between the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and James Boswell Esq., pretending that the remaining stock of the book had been used as cattle feed.
10. took him for a Staymaker: That is, took him for a tradesman, of something like the lower middle class. A staymaker was a specialist tailor who made women’s ‘stays’ – more commonly now known as corsets – an undergarment stiffened usually at this time with whalebone and laced at the back.
11. Rev.: Churchill had indeed been ordained. He was curate of Rainham, Essex, and lecturer of St John’s, Smith Square, from 1756.
12. P Vaillant: Paul Vaillant the younger (1716–1802), a London bookseller of French Huguenot descent. A pun on pot valiant (French, ‘brave as a result of drinking alcohol’).
13. the great Phersy: James Macpherson.
14. Ubicunque terrarum fueris: Latin, meaning essentially ‘wherever in the world [you may be]’, playfully adapting phrasing about the universality of the Church (‘fueris’ for ‘fuerint’) that occurs in Catechismus (1570) by Alexander Nowell (c.1516/17–1602).