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Wales.

fall, which is very high, and in rainy weather very Tour to copious There is a reservoir made to supply it-In its fall, it has perforated a rock-There is a room built for entertainment-There was some difficulty in climbing to a near view-Lord Lyttelton' came near it, and turned back-When we came back, we took some cold meat, and notwithstanding Doctor [Worthington's] importunities, went that day to Shrewsbury.

Saturday, 10th September. I sent for Gwynn", and he showed us the town-The walls are broken, and narrower than those of Chester-The town is large, and has many gentlemen's houses, but the streets are narrow-I saw Taylor's library-We walked in the Quarry; a very pleasant walk by the river-Our inn was not bad.

Sunday, 11th September.-We were at St. Chads, a very large and luminous church-We were on the Castle Hill.

Monday, 12th September.-We called on Dr. Adams, and travelled towards Worcester, through Wenlock; a very mean place, though a boroughAt noon, we came to Bridgenorth, and walked about the town, of which one part stands on a high rock, and part very low, by the river-There is an old tower, which, being crooked, leans so much, that it is frightful to pass by it-In the afternoon we came through Kinver', a town in Staffordshire, neat and

[Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton.-DUPPA.]

[Mr. Gwynn was an architect of considerable celebrity. He was a native of Shrewsbury, and was at this time completing a bridge across the Severn, called the English Bridge. Besides this bridge, he built one at Atcham, over the Severn, near to Shrewsbury; and the bridges at Worcester, Oxford, and Henley, are all built by him.-DUPPA. See ante, v. ii. p. 25, and pest, 19th March, 1776. ED.]

3 [The master of Pembroke College, Oxford; who was also rector of St. Chads, in Shrewsbury.-DUPPA.]

[There must have been some unexplained reason why they left the straight high-road from Bridgenorth to Hartlebury, through Kidderminster, to call at the little village of Kinver.-ED.]

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Tour to closely built-I believe it has only one street-The road was so steep and miry, that we were forced to stop at Hartlebury, where we had a very neat inn, though it made a very poor appearance.

Tuesday, 13th September.-We came to Lord Sandys's, at Ombersley, where we were treated with great civility-The house is large-The hall is a very noble room.

Thursday, 15th September.-We went to Worcester, a very splendid city-The cathedral is very noble, with many remarkable monuments-The library is in the chapter-house-On the table lay the Nuremberg Chronicle, I think, of the first edition o. We went to the china warehouse-The cathedral has a cloister-The long aisle is, in my opinion, neither so wide nor so high as that of Lichfield.

Friday, 16th September.-We went to Hagley, where we were disappointed of the respect and kindness that we expected 3.

Saturday, 17th September.-We saw the house and park, which equalled my expectation-The house is one square mass-The offices are below-The rooms of elegance on the first floor, with two stories of bedchambers, very well disposed above it-The bedchambers have low windows, which abates the dignity of the house-The park has an artificial ruin, and wants water; there is, however, one tem

[It was here that Johnson had as much wall-fruit as he wished, and, as he told Mrs. Thrale, for the only time in his life.-DUPPA. See ante, v. i. p. 482. It seems they spent here Wednesday, the 14th Sept.-ED.]

2

[The first edition was printed July 12, 1493. The author, or rather compiler of this chronicle, was one Hartman Schedel, of Nuremberg, a physician. -DUPPA.]

3 [This visit was not to Lord Lyttelton, but to his uncle [called Billy Lyttelton, afterwards, by successive creations, Lord Westcote, and Lord Lyttelton], the father of the present lord, who lived at a house called Little Hagley.DUPPA. This gentleman was an intimate friend of Mr. Thrale, and had some years before invited Johnson (through Mrs. Thrale) to visit him at Hagley, ante, v. ii. p. 131.--ED.]

porary cascade'-From the farthest hill there is a Tour to very wide prospect.

Sunday, 18th September.-I went to churchThe church is, externally, very mean, and is therefore diligently hidden by a plantation-There are in it several modern monuments of the Lytteltons.

There dined with us Lord Dudley, and Sir Edward Lyttelton, of Staffordshire, and his lady-They were all persons of agreeable conversation.

I found time to reflect on my birthday, and offered a prayer, which I hope was heard.

Monday, 19th September.-We made haste away from a place where all were offended-In the way we visited the Leasowes-It was rain, yet we visited all the waterfalls-There are, in one place, fourteen falls in a short line-It is the next place to Ilam gardens--Poor Shenstone never tasted his pension— It is not very well proved that any pension was obtained for him—I am afraid that he died of misery. We came to Birmingham, and I sent for Wheeler 3, whom I found well.

Tuesday, 20th September.-We breakfasted with Wheeler, and visited the manufacture of Papier mache-The paper which they use is smooth whited brown; the varnish is polished with rotten stoneWheeler gave me a teaboard--We then went to

["He was enraged at artificial ruins and temporary cascades, so that I wonder at his leaving his opinion of them dubious; besides he hated the Lytteltons, and would rejoice in an opportunity of insulting them."-Piozzi MS.-See post, sab 1781, the Life of Lyttelton.-ED.]

[Mrs. Lyttelton, ci-devant Caroline Bristow, forced me to play at whist against my liking, and her husband took away Johnson's candle that he wanted to read by at the other end of the room. Those, I trust, were the offences."Piozzi MS.]

3 [Dr. Benjamin Wheeler; he was a native of Oxford, and originally on the foundation of Trinity College; afterwards he became a Fellow of Magdalene College, Canon of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of Divinity. He took his degree of A. M. Nov. 14, 1758, and D. D. July 6, 1770; and was a man of extensive learning. Dr. Johnson, in his letters to Mrs. Thrale, styles him "My learned friend, the man with whom I most delighted to converse."-Lett. -DUPPA.]

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Tour to Boulton's', who, with great civility, led us through his shops I could not distinctly see his enginery-Twelve dozen of buttons for three shillings--Spoons struck at once.

Wednesday, 21st September.-Wheeler came to us again We came easily to Woodstock.

Thursday, 22d September.-We saw Blenheim and Woodstock park-The park contains two thousand five hundred acres; about four square miles. It has red deer-- Mr. Bryant showed me the library with great civility-Durandi Rationale, 14592. Lascaris' Grammar of the first edition, well printed, but much less than later editions 3-The first Batrachomyomachia -The duke sent Mr. Thrale partridges and fruit-At night we came to Oxford.

3

Friday, 23d September.-We visited Mr. Coulson-The ladies wandered about the university. Saturday, 24th September.-Ka9.-We dine with

[See post, 22d March, 1776.-ED.]

2[This is a work written by William Durand, Bishop of Mende, and printed on vellum, in folio, by Fust and Schoeffer, in Mentz, 1459. It is the third book that is known to be printed with a date, and is considered as a curious and extraordinary specimen of early printing. An imperfect copy was sold at Dr. Askew's sale, Feb. 22, 1775, for sixty-one pounds, to Mr. Elmsly, the bookseller.-DUPPA.]

3 [Dr. Johnson, in another column of his Diary, has put down, in a note, "First printed book in Greek, Lascaris's Grammar, 4to. Mediolani, 1476." The imprint of this book is, Mediolani Impressum per Magistrum Dionysium Paravisinum. M.CCCC.LXXVI. Die xxx Januarii. This edition is very rare, and it is probable that Dr. Johnson saw it now for the first time. A copy was purchased for the king's library at Dr. Askew's sale, 1775, for twenty-one pounds ten shillings.

This was the first book that was ever printed in the Greek character. The first book printed in the English language was the Historyes of Troye, printed in 1471; an imperfect copy of which was put up to public sale in 1812, when there was a competition amongst men eminent for learning, rank, and fortune; and, according to their estimation of its value, it was sold for the sum of 10607. 10s.-DUPPA.]

4 [The Battle of the Frogs and Mice. The first edition was printed by Laonicus Cretensis, 1486. This book consists of forty-one pages, small quarto, and the verses are printed with red and black ink alternately. A copy was sold at Dr. Askew's sale, 1775, for fourteen guineas.-DUPPA.]

5 ["Of the dinner at University College I remember nothing, unless it was there that Mr. Vansittart, a flourishing sort of character, showed off his graceful form by fencing with Mr. Seward, who joined us at Oxford. We had a grand dinner at Queen's College, and Dr. Johnson made Miss Thrale and me observe the ceremony of the grace cup; but I have but a faint remembrance of it, and

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Mr. Coulson-Vansittart told me his distemper Tour to -Afterwards we were at Burke's [at Beaconsfield], where we heard of the dissolution of the parliament 3 -We went home.

[“Dr. Johnson had always a very great personal Anec. regard and particular affection for Mr. Burke; and P. 186. when at this time the general election broke up the delightful society in which we had spent some time at Beaconsfield, Dr. Johnson shook the hospitable master of the house kindly by the hand, and said, 'Farewell, my dear sir, and remember that I wish you all the success which ought to be wished you, which can possibly be wished you, indeed, by an honest man."]

can in nowise tell who invited us, or how we came by our academical honour of hearing our healths drank in form, and I half believe in Latin."-Piozzi MS. The Editor suspects that Mrs. Piozzi, writing after a lapse of forty years, mentioned Queen's by mistake for University College.-ED.]

[Mr. Coulson was a senior Fellow of University College; in habit and appearance somewhat resembling Johnson himself, and was considered in his time as an Oxford character. He took his degree of A. M. April 12, 1746. After this visit, Dr. Johnson told Mrs. Thrale that he was the man designated in the Rambler, under the name of Gelidus the philosopher.-DUPPA. It was Mrs. Piozzi's confusion of names, as she herself admits in her MS. letters to Mr. Duppa, which gave rise to the unfounded idea that Gelidus was meant for Professor Colson, of Cambridge (see ante, v. i. p. 72 and 192); Mrs. Piozzi meant Mr. Coulson, Fellow of University; but even as to this Mr. Coulson, of Oxford, Mrs. Piozzi must have been in some degree of error. Coulson was a humourist, and Johnson may have caught some hints from him; but the greater number of the points of the character of Gelidus could have no resemblance to him. Lord Stowell informs the editor that he was very eccentric. He would on a fine day hang out of the college windows his various pieces of apparel to air, which used to be universally answered by the young men hanging out from all the other windows quilts, carpets, rags, and every kind of trash, and this was called an illumination. His notions of the eminence and importance of his academic situation were so peculiar that, when he afterwards accepted a college living, he expressed to Lord Stowell his doubts whether, after living so long in the great world, he might not grow weary of the comparative retirement of a country parish.-ED.]

[See ante, v. ii. p. 185 and 187 n. The distemper was no doubt a tendency to depression of spirits, which Dr. Johnson alludes to in the last cited passage. ED.]

3 [Dissolved the 30th September, 1774.—ED.]

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