“N.B.  The ‘Tour to the Western Isles’ was written an twenty days, and the ‘Patriot’ in three; ‘Taxation no Tyranny,’ within a week:  and not one of them would have yet seen the light, had it not been for Mrs. Thrale and Baretti, who stirred him up by laying wagers.”

“April 8th.—­Dined with Thrale, where Dr. Johnson was, and Boswell (and Baretti as usual).  The Doctor was not in as good spirits as he was at Dilly’s.  He had supped the night before with Lady ——­, Miss Jeffries, one of the maids of honour, Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c., at Mrs. Abington’s.  He said Sir C. Thompson, and some others who were there, spoke like people who had seen good company, and so did Mrs. Abington herself, who could not have seen good company.”

Boswell’s note, alluding to the same topic, is: 

“On Saturday, April 8, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale’s, where we met the Irish Dr. Campbell.  Johnson had supped the night before at Mrs. Abington’s with some fashionable people whom he named; and he seemed much pleased with having made one in so elegant a circle.  Nor did he omit to pique his mistress a little with jealousy of her housewifery; for he said, with a smile, ’Mrs. Abington’s jelly, my dear lady, was better than yours.’”

The next year is chiefly memorable for the separation from Baretti, thus mentioned in “Thraliana”: 

“Baretti had a comical aversion to Mrs. Macaulay, and his aversions are numerous and strong.  If I had not once written his character in verse,[1] I would now write it in prose, for few people know him better:  he was—­Dieu me pardonne, as the French say—­my inmate for very near three years; and though I really liked the man once for his talents, and at last was weary of him for the use he made of them, I never altered my sentiments concerning him; for his character is easily seen, and his soul above disguise, haughty and insolent, and breathing defiance against all mankind; while his powers of mind exceed most people’s, and his powers of purse are so slight that they leave him dependent on all.  Baretti is for ever in the state of a stream dammed up:  if he could once get loose, he would bear down all before him.

“Every soul that visited at our house while he was master of it, went away abhorring it; and Mrs. Montagu, grieved to see my meekness so imposed upon, had thoughts of writing me on the subject an anonymous letter, advising me to break with him.  Seward, who tried at last to reconcile us, confessed his wonder that we had lived together so long.  Johnson used to oppose and battle him, but never with his own consent:  the moment he was cool, he would always condemn himself for exerting his superiority over a man who was his friend, a foreigner, and poor:  yet I have been told by Mrs. Montagu that he attributed his loss of our family to Johnson:  ungrateful and ridiculous! if it had not been for his mediation, I would not so long have borne trampling on, as I did for the last two years of our acquaintance.