in town, during which period he expended his own 500l., and received nothing in return for his instruction, but the participation of a good table, and 150l. by way of presents.  Instead of his letters to Mrs. Piozzi in the ’European Magazine,’ had he told this plain unvarnished tale, he would have convicted that lady of avarice and ingratitude, without incurring the danger of a reply, or exposing his memory to be insulted by her advocates.”

He was less than three years in the family.  As he had a pension of 80l. a year, besides the interest of his 500l., he did not want money.  If he had been allowed to want it, the charge of avarice would lie at Mr., not Mrs., Thrale’s door; and his memory was exposed to no insult beyond the stigma which (as we shall presently see) his conduct and language necessarily fixed upon it.  All his literary friends did not entertain the same high opinion of him.  An unpublished letter from Dr. Warton to his brother contains the following passage: 

“He (Huggins, the translator of Ariosto) abuses Baretti infernally, and says that he one day lent Baretti a gold watch, and could never get it afterwards; that after many excuses Baretti, skulked, and then got Johnson to write to Mr. Huggins a suppliant letter; that this letter stopped Huggins awhile, while Baretti got a protection from the Sardinian ambassador; and that, at last, with great difficulty, the watch was got from a pawnbroker to whom Baretti had sold it.”

This extract is copied from a valuable contribution to the literary annals of the eighteenth century, for which we are indebted to the colonial press.[1] It is the diary of an Irish clergyman, containing strong internal evidence of authenticity, although nothing more is known of it than that the manuscript was discovered behind an old press in one of the offices of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.  That such a person saw a good deal of Johnson in 1775, is proved by Boswell, whose accuracy is frequently confirmed in return.  In one marginal note Mrs. Thrale says:  “He was a fine showy talking man.  Johnson liked him of all things in a year or two.”  In another:  “Dr. Campbell was a very tall handsome man, and, speaking of some other High-bernian, used this expression:  ’Indeed now, and upon my honour, Sir, I am but a Twitter to him.’"[2]

[Footnote 1:  Diary of a Visit to England in 1775.  By an Irishman (the Rev. Doctor Thomas Campbell, author of “A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland.”) And other Papers by the same hand.  With Notes by Samuel Raymond, M.A., Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.  Sydney.  Waugh and Cox. 1854.]

[Footnote 2:  He is similarly described in the “Letters,” vol. i. p. 329.]

Several of his entries throw light on the Thrale establishment: 

“14th.—­This day I called at Mr. Thrale’s, where I was received with all respect by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale.  She is a very learned lady, and joins to the charms of her own sex, the manly understanding of ours.  The immensity of the brewery astonished me.”