Of this kind, likewise, is that power which is lodged with other officers here, of taking away every grain of snuff, and every leaf of tobacco, brought hither from other countries, tho' only for the temporary use of the person, during his residence here. This is executed with great insolence, and as it is in the dregs of the people, very scandalously: for, under pretence of searching for tobacco and snuff, they are sure to steal whatever they can find, insomuch that when they came on board, our sailors address'd us in the Covent-Garden language, 'Pray, gentlemen and ladies, take care of your swords and watches.' Indeed I never yet saw anything equal to the contempt and hatred which our honest tars every moment express'd for these Portuguese officers.

At Bellisle lies buried Catherine of Arragon, widow of Prince Arthur, eldest son of our Henry VII, afterwards married to, and divorced from, Henry VIII. Close by the church where her remains are deposited, is a large convent of Geronymites, one of the most beautiful piles of building in all Portugal.

In the night at twelve, our ship having received previous visits from all the necessary parties, took the advantage of the tide, and having sailed up to Lisbon, cast anchor there, in a calm, and a moon-shiny night, which made the passage incredibly pleasant to the women, who remained three hours enjoying it, whilst I was left to the cooler transports of enjoying their pleasures at second-hand; and yet, cooler as they may be, whoever is totally ignorant of such sensation, is, at the same time, void of all ideas of friendship.

Wednesday. Lisbon, before which we now lay at anchor, is said to be built on the same number of hills with old Rome; but these do not all appear to the water; on the contrary, one sees from thence one vast high hill and rock, with buildings arising above one another, and that in so steep and almost perpendicular a manner, that they all seem to have but one foundation.

As the houses, convents, churches, &c., are large,

and all built with white stone, they look very beautiful at a distance; but as you approach nearer, and find them to want every kind of ornament, all idea of beauty vanishes at once. While I was surveying the prospect of this city, which bears so little resemblance to any other that I have ever seen, a reflection occurred to me, that if a man was suddenly to be removed from Palmyra hither, and should take a view of no other city, in how glorious a light would the antient architecture appear to him? and what desolation and destruction of arts and sciences would he conclude had happened between the several æras of these cities?

I had now waited full three hours upon deck, for the return of my man, whom I had sent to bespeak a good dinner (a thing which had been long unknown to me) on shore, and then to bring a Lisbon chaise with him to the sea-shore; but, it seems, the impertinence of the providore was not yet brought to a conclusion. At three o'clock, when I was from emptiness rather faint than hungry, my man returned, and told me, there was a new law lately made, that no passenger should set his foot on shore without a special order from the providore; and that he himself would have been sent to prison for disobeying it, had he not been protected as the servant of the captain. He informed me likewise, that the captain had been very industrious to get this order, but that it was then the providore's hour of sleep, a time when no man, except the king himself, durst disturb him.

To avoid prolixity, tho' in a part of my narrative which may be more agreeable to my reader than it was to me, the providore having at last finished his nap, dispatched this absurd matter of form, and gave me leave to come, or rather to be carried, on shore.

What it was that gave the first hint of this strange law is not easy to guess. Possibly, in the infancy of their defection, and before their government could be well established, they were willing to guard against the bare possibility of surprize, of the success of which bare possibility the Trojan horse will remain

112 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO LISBON

for ever on record, as a great and memorable example. Now the Portuguese have no walls to secure them, and a vessel of two or three hundred tons will contain a much larger body of troops than could be concealed in that famous machine, tho' Virgil tells us (somewhat hyperbolically, I believe) that it was as big as a moun

tain.

About seven in the evening I got into a chaise on shore, and was driven through the nastiest city in the world, tho' at the same time one of the most populous, to a kind of coffee-house, which is very pleasantly situated on the brow of a hill, about a mile from the city, and hath a very fine prospect of the river Tajo from Lisbon to the sea.

Here we regaled ourselves with a good supper, for which we were as well charged, as if the bill had been made on the Bath road, between Newbury and London.

And now we could joyfully say,

Egressi optatâ potiuntur Troes arenâ.

Therefore in the words of Horace,

-hic Finis chartæque viæque.

NOTES

(The numbers refer to pages.)

دو

2. Zachary Grey. A noted editor and antiquary (1688–1766). His elaborate edition of Hudibras, "corrected and amended,' appeared in 1744. Ten years later he wrote his Critical, Historical and Explanatory Notes on Shakespeare, of which Johnson remarked that "it were to be wished that they would endeavour to imitate his modesty who have not been able to surpass his knowledge."

Doctor Mead. Richard Mead (1673-1754), vice-president of the Royal Society and physician to George II. He was distinguished as an art collector and as a patron of men of letters.

4. Burnet. Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), bishop of Salisbury, author of the History of My Own Time. In 1685-86 he travelled extensively on the continent and published his Travels through Switzerland in 1687.

Addison. The reference is to Joseph Addison's Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, 1705, of which Johnson unkindly remarks that "they might have been written at home."

5. Ut speciosa dehinc, etc. Horace, De Arte Poetica, 144. 6. I have seen a play. The reference probably is to Aphra Behn's A Night's Intrigue, 1679, in which Mr Tickletext, the "governour " of Sir Signal Buffoon, keeps a ridiculous diary. Mrs Centlivre. Susannah Centlivre (1667–1723), actress and dramatist.

7. my Lord Anson's. A Voyage round the World, 1748, by Admiral Lord Anson (1677-1762).

8. as Mr Richardson observes. In the preface to Clarissa Richardson says "considerate readers will not enter upon the perusal of the piece before them as if it were designed only to divert and amuse."'

affirming the use of the pastry-cook. Spectator, No. 85.

9. the revolution in the Rehearsal. The Rehearsal (1671) by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Act II. Sc. 4.

10. Mr Ranby. John Ranby, principal sergeant-surgeon to George II in 1743, author of a work on The Method of Treating Gunshot Wounds. He is alluded to in Tom Jones, VIII. 13.

Duke of Newcastle. Sir Thomas Pelham-Holles (1693-1768), first Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, First Lord of the Treasury in 1754.

13. my great patron. John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford (1710-1771).

14. my brother. Sir John Fielding, the novelist's blind halfbrother who succeeded him as magistrate, and carried on the campaign against street-robbers.

15. judge Burnet. Sir Thomas Burnet (1694-1753), youngest son of Gilbert Burnet, justice of the common pleas, 1741.

16. Dr Ward. Joshua Ward (1685-1761), a quack doctor celebrated for his drops and pills. Fielding had earlier satirised his nostrums in Tom Jones.

Mr Pelham. Henry Pelham, chancellor of the exchequer, died March 6, 1754.

a little house of mine. The house, called Fordhook, stood on the Uxbridge Road.

17. bishop of Cloyne. George Berkeley (1685–1753), author of the epoch-making Treatise concerning Human Knowledge. In Siris (1744) he advocated the medicinal value of tar-water.

Female Quixote. The title of a novel by Mrs Charlotte Lennox in 1752. The author's memory has been kept green by her association with Johnson and other members of the Literary Club.

18. Sydenham. Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689), the greatest physician of his age and author of many medical works.

19. the captain. One of Fielding's letters gives the captain's name, Richard Veal, and that of his ship, The Queen of Portugal.

21. Fordhook. The name of Fielding's house near Ealing. My wife. Mary Daniel, whom Fielding married in 1747, had been his first wife's maid, a circumstance not overlooked by his literary enemies. According to Lady Mary Montagu she "was an excellent creature, devotedly attached to her mistress, and almost broken-hearted for her loss.... He began to think he could not give his children a tenderer mother, or secure for himself a more faithful housekeeper and nurse....It is certain that her conduct as his wife confirmed it, and fully justified his good opinion."

22. Redriffe. Rotherhithe.

Mr Welch. Saunders Welch after Fielding's death became a Justice of the Peace for Westminster. Johnson calls him "one of my best and dearest friends," and he told Boswell that he attended Welch's court for a whole winter out of "an eager and unceasing curiosity to know human life in all its variety.'

24. Hogarth's... print. The Enraged Musician, 1741. 30. Scrub in the play. Scrub is the name of Squire Sullen's remarkably versatile servant in George Farquhar's comedy, The Beaux' Stratagem, 1707. He acted as coachman, ploughman,

cellarer, etc.

Mr Hunter. William Hunter, first professor of anatomy to the Royal Academy, 1768. He was eclipsed in fame by his younger brother, John Hunter, who at this time was assisting him in London.