Part 11 (2/2)

But soon after the succession of the throne of Hanover, a change took place The supreme power passed to a man who cared little for poetry or eloquence Walpole paid little attention to books, and felt little respect for authors One of the coarse jokes of his friend, Sir Charles Hanbury Willia to him than Thomson's _Seasons_ or Richardson's _Paed by want of money, and debt, and all that, to retire to France, he knew no French; and having obtained a grammar for the purpose of study, his friend Scrope Davies was asked what progress Brummell had made in French He responded, that Brummell had been stopped, like Buonaparte in Russia, by the _Elements_

”I have put this pun into _Beppo_, (says Lord Byron), which is a fair exchange and no robbery, for Scrope made his fortune at several dinners, (as he owned hi occasionally, as his own, some of the buffooneries hich I had encountered hi”

JOHNSON'S CLUB-ROOM

In a paper in the _Edinburgh Reviee find this cabinet picture:--The club-room is before us, and the table, on which stands the oent, and the lemons for Johnson There are assembled those heads which live for ever on the canvas of Reynolds There are the spectacles of Burke, and the tall thin for s his snuff-box, and Sir Joshua with his truure which is as fa e have been brought up--the gigantic body, the huge massy face, seamed with the scars of disease; the brown coat, the black worsted stockings, the grey ith the scorched foretop; the dirty hands, the nails bitten and pared to the quick We see the eyes and nose ; we hear it puffing; and then comes the ”Why, sir!” and the ”What then, sir?” and the ”No, sir!” and the ”You don't see your way through the question, sir!”

DR CHALMERS'S INDUSTRY

In October, 1841, Dr Chalmers commenced two series of biblical coularity till the day of his decease, May 31, 1847 Go where he ed, each week-day had its few verses read, thought over, written upon--for what he denominated ”Horae Biblicae Quotidianae:” each Sabbath-day had its two chapters, one in the Old and the other in the New Testament, with the two trains ofof the what he denominated ”Horae Biblicae Sabbaticae” When absent from home, or when the manuscript books in which they were ordinarily inserted were not beside hi as thus written in the larger volumes afterwards Not a trace of haste nor of the extreme pressure from without, to which he was so often subjected, is exhibited in the handwriting of these volumes There are but feords oeneral characteristic of his compositions His lectures on the Epistle to the Ro the most hurried and overburthened period of his life And when, iven out to be copied for the press, scarcely a blot, or an erasure, or a correction, was to be found in theinally been written

In preparing the ”Horae Biblicae Quotidianae,” Chalmers had by his side, for use and reference, the ”Concordance,” the ”Pictorial Bible,”

”Poole's Synopsis,” ”Henry's Commentary,” and ”Robinson's Researches in Palestine” These constituted what he called his ”Biblical Library”

”There,” said he to a friend, pointing, as he spoke, to the above-naether on his library-table, with a volu, lying open beside them,--”There are the books I use--all that is Biblical is there I have to do with nothing besides in my Biblical study” To the consultation of these few voluhout restricted himself

The whole of the MSS were purchased, after Dr Chale suh, her Majesty's printer; and were in due tiiven to, and most favourably received by, the public

LATEST OF DR JOHNSON'S CONTEMPORARIES[6]

In the autumn of 1831, died the Rev Dr Shaw, at Chesley, Sohty-three: he is said to have been the last surviving friend of Dr Johnson

On the 16th of January, in the above year, died Mr Richard Clark, chamberlain of the City of London, in the ninety-second year of his age

At the age of fifteen, he was introduced by Sir John Hawkins to Johnson, whose friendshi+p he enjoyed to the last year of the Doctor's life He attended Johnson's evening parties at the Mitre Tavern, in Fleet-street;[7]

where, a other literary characters he met Dr Percy, Dr Goldsmith, and Dr Haorth A substantial supper was served at eight o'clock; the party seldom separated till a late hour; and Mr Clark recollected that early onehe, with another of the party, accompanied the Doctor to his house, where Mrs Williams, then blind, made tea for them

When Mr Clark was sheriff, he took Johnson to a ”Judges' Dinner,” at the Old Bailey; the judges being Blackstone and Eyre Mr Clark often visited the Doctor, and met him at dinner-parties; and the last time he enjoyed his company was at the Essex Head Club, of which, by the Doctor's invitation, Clark becae, 120

[7] Johnson, by the way, had a strange nervous feeling, which made him uneasy if he had not touched every post between the Mitre Tavern and his own lodgings