of land, he began thus:  ’Sir, the superiority of a country-gentleman over the people upon his estate is very agreeable; and he who says he does not feel it to be agreeable, lies; for it must be agreeable to have a casual superiority over those who are by nature equal with us.’  Boswell.  ’Yet, Sir, we see great proprietors of land who prefer living in London.’  Johnson.  ’Why, Sir, the pleasure of living in London, the intellectual superiority that is enjoyed there, may counterbalance the other.  Besides, Sir, a man may prefer the state of the country-gentleman upon the whole, and yet there may never be a moment when he is willing to make the change to quit London for it.’

He talked with regret and indignation of the factious opposition to Government at this time, and imputed it in a great measure to the Revolution.  ’Sir, (said he, in a low voice, having come nearer to me, while his old prejudices seemed to be fermenting in his mind,) this Hanoverian family is isolee here.  They have no friends.  Now the Stuarts had friends who stuck by them so late as 1745.  When the right of the King is not reverenced, there will not be reverence for those appointed by the King.’

He repeated to me his verses on Mr. Levett, with an emotion which gave them full effect; and then he was pleased to say, ’You must be as much with me as you can.  You have done me good.  You cannot think how much better I am since you came in.

He sent a message to acquaint Mrs. Thrale that I was arrived.  I had not seen her since her husband’s death.  She soon appeared, and favoured me with an invitation to stay to dinner, which I accepted.  There was no other company but herself and three of her daughters, Dr. Johnson, and I. She too said, she was very glad I was come, for she was going to Bath, and should have been sorry to leave Dr. Johnson before I came.  This seemed to be attentive and kind; and I who had not been informed of any change, imagined all to be as well as formerly.  He was little inclined to talk at dinner, and went to sleep after it; but when he joined us in the drawing-room, he seemed revived, and was again himself.

Talking of conversation, he said, ’There must, in the first place, be knowledge, there must be materials; in the second place, there must be a command of words; in the third place, there must be imagination, to place things in such views as they are not commonly seen in; and in the fourth place, there must be presence of mind, and a resolution that is not to be overcome by failures:  this last is an essential requisite; for want of it many people do not excel in conversation.  Now I want it:  I throw up the game upon losing a trick.’  I wondered to hear him talk thus of himself, and said, ’I don’t know, Sir, how this may be; but I am sure you beat other people’s cards out of their hands.’  I doubt whether he heard this remark.  While he went on talking triumphantly, I was fixed in admiration, and said to Mrs. Thrale, ’O, for short-hand to take this down!’ ’You’ll carry it all in your head, (said she;) a long head is as good as short-hand.’