第15章

Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey to London.Garrick,evidently meaning to embellish a little,said one day in my hearing,'we rode and tied.'And the Bishop of Killaloe informed me,that at another time,when Johnson and Garrick were dining together in a pretty large company,Johnson humorously ascertaining the chronology of something,expressed himself thus:'that was the year when I came to London with two-pence half-penny in my pocket.'Garrick overhearing him,exclaimed,'eh?what do you say?with two-pence half-penny in your pocket?'--JOHNsON,'Why yes;when I came with two-pence half-penny in MY pocket,and thou,Davy,with three half-pence in thine.'--BOSWELL.

They were recommended to Mr.Colson,an eminent mathematician and master of an academy,by the following letter from Mr.Walmsley:

'TO THE REVEREND MR.COLSON.

'Lichfield,March 2,1737.

'Dear Sir,I had the favour of yours,and am extremely obliged to you;but I cannot say I had a greater affection for you upon it than I had before,being long since so much endeared to you,as well by an early friendship,as by your many excellent and valuable qualifications;and,had I a son of my own,it would be my ambition,instead of sending him to the University,to dispose of him as this young gentleman is.

'He,and another neighbour of mine,one Mr.Samuel Johnson,set out this morning for London together.Davy Garrick is to be with you early the next week,and Mr.Johnson to try his fate with a tragedy,and to see to get himself employed in some translation,either from the Latin or the French.Johnson is a very good scholar and poet,and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedy-writer.If it should any way lie in your way,doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and assist your countryman.

'G.WALMSLEY.'

How he employed himself upon his first coming to London is not particularly known.'

One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr.John Nichols.Mr.Wilcox,the bookseller,on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an authour,eyed his robust frame attentively,and with a significant look,said,'You had better buy a porter's knot.'He however added,'Wilcox was one of my best friends.'--BOSWELL.

He had a little money when he came to town,and he knew how he could live in the cheapest manner.His first lodgings were at the house of Mr.Norris,a staymaker,in Exeter-street,adjoining Catharine-street,in the Strand.'I dined (said he)very well for eight-pence,with very good company,at the Pine Apple in New-street,just by.Several of them had travelled.They expected to meet every day;but did not know one another's names.It used to cost the rest a shilling,for they drank wine;but I had a cut of meat for six-pence,and bread for a penny,and gave the waiter a penny;so that I was quite well served,nay,better than the rest,for they gave the waiter nothing.'He at this time,I believe,abstained entirely from fermented liquors:a practice to which he rigidly conformed for many years together,at different periods of his life.

His Ofellus in the Art of Living in London,I have heard him relate,was an Irish painter,whom he knew at Birmingham,and who had practised his own precepts of oeconomy for several years in the British capital.He assured Johnson,who,I suppose,was then meditating to try his fortune in London,but was apprehensive of the expence,'that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible.He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen.He said a man might live in a garret at eighteen-pence a week;few people would inquire where he lodged;and if they did,it was easy to say,"Sir,I am to be found at such a place."By spending three-pence in a coffeehouse,he might be for some hours every day in very good company;he might dine for six-pence,breakfast on bread and milk for a penny,and do without supper.On clean-shirt-day he went abroad,and paid visits.'Ihave heard him more than once talk of this frugal friend,whom he recollected with esteem and kindness,and did not like to have one smile at the recital.'This man (said he,gravely)was a very sensible man,who perfectly understood common affairs:a man of a great deal of knowledge of the world,fresh from life,not strained through books.He amused himself,I remember,by computing how much more expence was absolutely necessary to live upon the same scale with that which his friend described,when the value of money was diminished by the progress of commerce.It may be estimated that double the money might now with difficulty be sufficient.'

Amidst this cold obscurity,there was one brilliant circumstance to cheer him;he was well acquainted with Mr.Henry Hervey,one of the branches of the noble family of that name,who had been quartered at Lichfield as an officer of the army,and had at this time a house in London,where Johnson was frequently entertained,and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company.Not very long before his death,he mentioned this,among other particulars of his life,which he was kindly communicating to me;and he described this early friend,'Harry Hervey,'thus:'He was a vicious man,but very kind to me.If you call a dog HERVEY,I shall love him.'

He told me he had now written only three acts of his Irene,and that he retired for some time to lodgings at Greenwich,where he proceeded in it somewhat further,and used to compose,walking in the Park;but did not stay long enough at that place to finish it.