[512] See ante, ii. 61, and post, Oct. 1.

[513] See ante, i. 268, note 1.

[514] Steele had had the Duke of Marlborough’s papers, and ’in some of his exigencies put them in pawn.  They then remained with the old Duchess, who, in her will, assigned the task to Glover [the author of Leonidas] and Mallet, with a reward of a thousand pounds, and a prohibition to insert any verses.  Glover rejected, I suppose with disdain, the legacy, and devolved the whole work upon Mallet; who had from the late Duke of Marlborough a pension to promote his industry, and who talked of the discoveries which he had made; but left not, when he died, any historical labours behind him.’  Johnson’s Works, viii. 466.  The Duchess died in 1744 and Mallet in 1765.  For more than twenty years he thus imposed more or less successfully on the world.  About the year 1751 he played on Garrick’s vanity.  ’Mallet, in a familiar conversation with Garrick, discoursing of the diligence which he was then exerting upon the Life of Marlborough, let him know, that in the series of great men quickly to be exhibited, he should find a niche for the hero of the theatre.  Garrick professed to wonder by what artifice he could be introduced; but Mallet let him know, that by a dexterous anticipation he should fix him in a conspicuous place.  “Mr. Mallet,” says Garrick in his gratitude of exultation, “have you left off to write for the stage?” Mallet then confessed that he had a drama in his hands.  Garrick promised to act it; and Alfred was produced.’ Ib. p. 465.  See ante, iii. 386.

[515] According to Dr. Warton (Essay on Pope, ii. 140) he received L5000.  ‘Old Marlborough,’ wrote Horace Walpole in March, 1742 (Letters, i. 139), ’has at last published her Memoirs; they are digested by one Hooke, who wrote a Roman history; but from her materials, which are so womanish that I am sure the man might sooner have made a gown and petticoat with them.’

[516] See ante, i. 153

[517] ‘Hooke,’ says Dr. Warton (Essay on Pope, ii. 141), ’was a Mystic and a Quietist, and a warm disciple of Fenelon.  It was he who brought a Catholic priest to take Pope’s confession on his death-bed.’

[518] See Cumberland’s Memoirs, i. 344.

[519] Mr. Croker says that ’though he sold a great tract of land in Harris, he left at his death in 1801 the original debt of L50,000 [Boswell says L40,000] increased to L70,000.’  When Johnson visited Macleod at Dunvegan, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—­’Here, though poor Macleod had been left by his grandfather overwhelmed with debts, we had another exhibition of feudal hospitality.  There were two stags in the house, and venison came to the table every day in its various forms.  Macleod, besides his estate in Sky, larger I suppose than some English counties, is proprietor of nine inhabited isles; and of his isles