as, "I am to set out to-morrow on another journey," I soon afterwards discovered was no less than a tour to France with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. This was the only time in his life that he went upon the Continent.

"TO MR. ROBERT LEVET.

"Calais, 18th Sept. 1775.

"DEAR SIR, -We are here in France, after a very pleasing passage of no more than six hours. I know not when I shall write again, and therefore I write now, though you cannot suppose that I have much to say. You have seen France yourself. From this place we are going to Rouen, and from Rouen to Paris, where Mr. Thrale designs to stay about five or six weeks. We have a regular recommendation to the English resident, so we shall not be taken for vagabonds. We think to go one way and return another, and see as much as we can. I will try to speak a little French; I tried hitherto but little, but I spoke sometimes. If I heard better, I suppose I should learn faster. I am, sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO THE SAME.

"Paris, 22d October, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-We are still here, commonly very busy in looking about us. We have been to day at Versailles. You have seen it, and I shall not describe it. We came yesterday from Fontainbleau, where the court is now. We went to see the king and queen at dinner, and the queen was so impressed by Miss, that she sent one of the gentlemen to inquire who she was. I find all true that you have ever told me at Paris. Mr. Thrale is very liberal, and keeps us two coaches, and a very fine table; but I think our cookery very bad. Mrs. Thrale got into a convent of English nuns, and I talked with her through the grate, and I am very kindly used by the English Benedictine friars. But upon the whole I cannot make much acquaintance here; and though the churches, palaces, and some private houses are very magnificent, there is no very great pleasure after having seen many, in seeing more; at least the pleasure, whatever it be, must some time have an end, and we are beginning to think when we shall come home. Mr. Thrale calculates that as we left Streatham on the fifteenth of September, we shall see it again about the fifteenth of November.

"I think I had not been on this side of the sea five days before I found a sensible improvement in my health. I ran a race in the rain this day, and beat Baretti. retti is a fine fellow, and speaks French, I think, quite as well as English.

1 Miss Thrale.-BOSWELL. VOL. II.

2

Ba

"Make my compliments to Mrs. Williams; and give my love to Francis; and tell my friends that I am not lost. I am, dear sir, your affectionate humble, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, 24th October, 1775. "MY DEAR SIR,-If I had not been informed that you were at Paris, you should have had a letter from me by the earliest opportunity, announcing the birth of my son, on the 9th instant; I have named him Alexander 2, after my father. I now write, as I suppose your fellow-traveller, Mr. Thrale, will return to London this week, to attend his duty in parliament, and that you will not stay behind him.

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I send another parcel of Lord Hailes's 'Annals.' I have undertaken to solicit you for a favour to him, which he thus requests in a letter to me: I intend soon to give you The Life of Robert Bruce,' which you will be pleased to transmit to Dr. Johnson. I wish that you could assist me in a fancy which I have taken, of getting Dr. Johnson to draw a character of Robert Bruce, from the account that I give of that prince. If he finds materials for it in my work, it will be a proof that I have been fortunate in selecting the most striking incidents.'

"I suppose by The Life of Robert Bruce,' his lordship means that part of his Annals' which relates the history of that prince, and not a separate work.

"Shall we have A Journey to Paris,' from you in the winter? You will, I hope, at any rate, be kind enough to give me some account of your French travels very soon, for I am very impatient. What a different scene have you viewed this autumn, from that which you viewed in autumn 1773! I ever ani, my dear sir, your much obliged and affectionate humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL."

'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

" 16th November, 1775. "DEAR SIR, I am glad that the young laird is born, and an end, as I hope, put to the only difference that you can ever have

2 [The Editor had the pleasure of his acquaintance. He was a high-spirited, clever, and amiable gentleman; and, like his father, of a frank and social disposition; but it is said that he did not relish the recollections of our authour's devotion to Dr. Johnson: like old lord Auchinleck, he seemed to think it a kind of derogation. He was created a baronet in 1821, but was unfortunately killed in a duel, arising from a political dispute, near Edinburgh, on the 26th March, 1822, by Mr. Stuart, of Dunearn. He left issue a son and two daughters.-ED.]

not love me; but I intend to persist in wishing her well till I get the better of her.

"Paris is, indeed, a place very different from the Hebrides, but it is to a hasty traveller not so fertile of novelty, nor affords so many opportunities of remark. I cannot pretend to tell the publick any thing of a place better known to many of my readers than to myself. We can talk of it when we meet.

the

"I shall go next week to Streatham, from whence I purpose to send a parcel of the History' every post. Concerning character of Bruce, I can only say, that I do not see any great reason for writing it; but I shall not easily deny what Lord Hailes and you concur in desiring.

"I have been remarkably healthy all the journey, and hope you and your family have known only that trouble and danger which has so happily terminated. Among all the congratulations that you may receive, I hope you believe none more warm or sincere than those of, dear sir, your most affectionate, "SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD 2. "16th November, 1775.

"DEAR MADAM,-This week I came home from Paris. I have brought you a little box, which I thought pretty; but I know not whether it is properly a snuff-box, or a box for some other use. I will send it, when I can find an opportunity. I have been through the whole journey remarkably well. My fellow-travellers were the same whom you saw at Lichfield, only we took Baretti with us. Paris is not so fine a place as you would expect. The palaces and churches, however, are very splendid and magnificent; and what would please you, there are many very fine pictures; but I do not think their way of life commodious or pleasant.

"Let me know how your health has been all this while. I hope the fine summer has given you strength sufficient to encounter the winter..

"Make my compliments to all my friends; and, if your fingers will let you, write to me, or let your maid write, if it be

1 This alludes to my old feudal principle of preferring male to female succession.-BOSWELL.

2 There can be no doubt that many years previous to 1775, he corresponded with this lady, who was his stepdaughter, but none of his earlier letters to her have been preserved.-BOSWELL. Since the death of the authour, several of Johnson's letters to Mrs. Lucy Porter, written before 1775, were obligingly communicated to me by the Rev. Dr. Vyse, and are printed in the present edition. MALONE. [Several others, as has been already stated (ante, vol. i. p. 80), are added to this edition.-ED.]

your most affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO THE SAME.

"December, 1775. "DEAR MADAM,-Some weeks ago I wrote to you, to tell you that I was just come home from a ramble, and hoped that I should have heard from you. I am afraid winter has laid hold on your fingers, and hinders you from writing. However, let somebody write, if you cannot, and tell me how you do, and a little of what has happened at Lichfield among our friends. 1 hope you are all well.

"When I was in France, I thought myself growing young, but am afraid that cold weather will take part of my new vigour from me. Let us, however, take care of ourselves, and lose no part of our health by negligence.

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"I never knew whether you received the Commentary on the New Testament, and the Travels, and the glasses.

"Do, my dear love, write to me; and do not let us forget each other. This is the season of good wishes, and I wish you all good. I have not lately seen Mr. Porter 3, nor heard of him. Is he with you?

"Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Adey, and Mrs. Cobb, and all my friends; and when I can do any good, let me know. I am, dear madam, yours most affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."

It is to be regretted, that he did not write an account of his travels in France; for as he is reported to have once said, that "he could write the life of a broomstick 4," so,

notwithstanding so many former travellers have exhausted almost every subject for remark in that great kingdom, his very accurate observation, and peculiar vigour of thought and illustration, would have produced a wonderful work. During his visit to it, which lasted about two months, he wrote notes or minutes of what he saw. He promised to show me them, but I neglected to put him in mind of it; and the greatest part of them has been lost, or perhaps destroyed in a precipitate burning of his papers a few days before his death, which must ever be lamented; one small paper book, however, entitled, "France II.," has been preserved, and is in my possession. It is a diurnal register of his life and observations, from the 10th of October

3 Son of Mrs. Johnson, by her first husband. -BOSWELL.

4 It is probable that the authour's memory here deceived him, and that he was thinking of Stella's remark, that Swift could write finely upon a broomstick.-See Johnson's Life of Swift.J. BOSWELL.

to the 4th of November, inclusive, being twenty-six days, and shows an extraordinary attention to various minute particulars. Being the only memorial of this tour that

remains, my readers, I am confident, will peruse it with pleasure, though his notes are very short, and evidently written only to assist his own recollection.

. Tour in

"We visited the Observatory, a large building of a great height-The upper stones of the parapet very large, but not cramped with iron 3The flat on the top is very extensive; but on the insulated part there is no parapet-Though it was broad enough, I did not care to go upon it-Maps were printing in one of the rooms.

"We walked to a small convent of the Fathers of the Oratory-In the readingdesk of the refectory lay the Lives of the Saints.

"Wednesday, 11th October. We went to see Hôtel de Chatlois 4, a house not very large, but very elegant-One of the rooms was gilt to a degree that I never saw before -The upper part for servants and their masters was pretty.

"Thence we went to Mr. Monville's, a house divided into small apartments, furnished with effeminate and minute elegance -Porphyry.

"Thence we went to St. Roque's church, which is very large-The lower part of the pillars incrusted with marble-Three chapels behind the high altar; the last a mass of low arches-Altars, I believe, all round.

"We passed through Place de Vendôme, a fine square, about as big as Hanoversquare-Inhabited by the high families Louis XIV. on horseback in the middle 5. "Monville is the son of a farmer-general

1 [Alluding, probably, to the fine grilles so frequent in France. He had, probably, just seen that of the Hôtel des Invalides, which is one of the finest.-ED.]

2 [The contrary has been the general opinion; and Johnson was certainly a bad judge in that point, if he believed that his own taste was delicate.--ED.]

3 [There was neither iron nor wood originally used in any part of the building. An iron rail was afterwards added to the great stairs.-ED.] 4 [This seems to be a mistake; probably for the Hôtel de Chatelet.-ED.]

5 [Of one block.-ED.]

"We dined with Bocage 6, the Marquis Blanchetti, and his lady-The sweetmeats taken by the Marchioness Blanchetti, after observing that they were dear 7-Mr. Le Roy, Count Manucci, the abbe, the prior, and Father Wilsons, who staid with me, till I took him home in the coach. "Bathiani is gone.

"The French have no laws for the maintenance of their poor-Monk not necessarily a priest-Benedictines rise at four; are at church an hour and a half; at church again half an hour before, half an hour after, dinner; and again from half an hour after seven to eight-They may sleep eight hours -bodily labour wanted in monasteries.

"The poor taken into hospitals, and miserably kept-Monks in the convent fifteen: accounted poor.

"Thursday, 12th October.-We went to the Gobelins-Tapestry makes a good picture-imitates flesh exactly-One piece with a gold ground-the birds not exactly coloured-Thence we went to the king's cabinet; very neat, not, perhaps, perfect-Gold ore-Candles of the candle tree-Seeds -Woods-Thence to Gagnier's 9 house, where I saw rooms nine, furnished with a profusion of wealth and elegance which I never had seen before-Vases-PicturesThe dragon china-The lustre said to be of crystal, and to have cost 3,5007.-The whole furniture said to have cost 125,0007.

Damask hangings covered with pictures -Porphyry-This house struck me-Then we waited on the ladies to Monville'sCaptain Irwin with us 10-Spain-County towns all beggars-At Dijon he could not

6 [Madame Du Bocage.-See post.--ED.]

7 [Johnson seems to suggest, that it would have been better bred not to have eaten what was dear; but the want of good-breeding (if any, which would depend on the context) was in alluding to the dearness, and not in eating what was on the table.-ED.]

8 [Who the Abbé was does not appear. The two latter gentlemen were probably members o the English Benedictine convent.-ED.]

9 [Perhaps Gagny, Intendant des Finances, who had a fine house in the Rue de Varennes.--ED.] 10 The rest of this paragraph appears to be a minute of what was told by captain Irwin.-BosWELL. [And is therefore marked as quotation -ED.]

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Friday, 13th October. I staid at home all day, only went to find the prior, who was not at home-I read something in Canus-Nec admiror, nec multum laudo. Saturday, 14th October.-We went to the house of M. [D'] Argenson, which was almost wainscotted with looking-glasses, and covered with gold-The ladies' closet wainscotted with large squares of glass over painted paper-They always place mirrours to reflect their rooms.

"Then we went to Julien's 2, the treasurer of the clergy-30,000l. a year-The house has no very large room, but is set with mirrours, and covered with goldBooks of wood here, and in another library.

"At D*********s 3 I looked into the books in the lady's closet, and in contempt showed them to Mr. Thrale-Prince Titi 4; Bibl. des Fées,' and other books— She was offended, and shut up, as we heard afterwards, her apartment.

"Then we went to Julien le Roy, the king's watch-maker, a man of character in his business, who showed a small clock made to find the longitude-A decent man.

"Afterwards we saw the Palais Marchand 5 and the courts of justice, civil and

1 Melchior Canus, a celebrated Spanish Dominican, who died at Toledo, in 1560. He wrote a treatise "De Locis Theologicis," in twelve books.-BOSWELL. [He was celebrated for the beauty of his Latinity: "Melchior Canus parlait Latin comme Ciceron."-Vigneul Marvilliana, v.i. p. 161.-ED.]

2 [M. de St. Julien, Receveur général du clergé Mém. de Bachaumont, v. viii. p. 180. -ED.]

3 [D'Argenson's.-ED.]

4 [The history of Prince Titi was said to be the auto-biography of Frederick, Prince of Wales, but was probably written by Ralph, his secretary. See Park's Roy. and Nob. Auth. vol. i. p. 171.-ED.] [A ludicrous error of the Editor's, illustrative of the vice of annotators, whose optics are too apt to behold mysteries in very plain matters. The History of Prince Titi was a child's book with that title.-F.J.]

5 [Dr. Johnson is in error in applying, as he always does, the name of Palais-Marchand to the whole of that vast building called generally the Palais, which from being the old palace of the kings of France had (like our own palace of Westminster) become appropriated to the sittings of the parliament and the courts of justice; and

criminal-Queries on the Selette 6—This building has the old Gothic passages, and a great appearance of antiquity-Three hundred prisoners sometimes in the gaol.

"Much disturbed; hope no ill will be 7.

"In the afternoon I visited Mr. Freron the journalist-He spoke Latin very scantily, but seemed to understand me-His house not splendid, but of commodious size-His family, wife, son, and daughter, not elevated, but decent-I was pleased with my reception-He is to translate my books, which I am to send him with notes.

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Sunday, 15th October.-At Choisi, a royal palace on the banks of the Seine, about 7m. from Paris-The terrace noble along the river-The rooms numerous and grand, but not discriminated from other palaces-The chapel beautiful, but smallChina globes-Inlaid tables-LabyrinthSinking table 8-Toilet tables.

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Monday, 16th October.-The Palais Royal very grand, large, and lofty-A very great collection of pictures-Three of Ra phael-Two Holy Family-One small piece of M. Angelo-One room of Rubens-I thought the pictures of Raphael fine.

"The Thuilleries-Statues-VenusEn. and Anchises in his arms-NilusMany more-The walks not open to mean persons-Chairs at night hired for two sous a piece-Pont tournant 9.

"Austin Nuns 10-Grate-Mrs. Fermor, Abbess-She knew Pope, and thought him disagreeable-Mrs. has many books— has seen life-Their frontlet disagreeableTheir hood-Their life easy-Rise about five; hour and half in chapel-Dine at ten

Another hour and half in chapel; half an

the Conciergerie of that palace (like the Gatehouse of ours) became a prison. The Palais Marchand was only the stalls (like what are now called bazars) which were placed along some of the galleries and corridors of the Palais.-ED.]

6 [The selette was a stool on which the crimiInal sat while he was interrogated-questioned by the court. This is what Johnson means by "queries."-ED.]

This passage, which so many think superstitious, reminds me of "Archbishop Laud's Diary."-BOSWELL. [It, perhaps, had no superstitious meaning. He felt, it would seem, his mind disturbed, and may naturally have been apprehensive of becoming worse.-ED.]

8 [A round table, the centre of which descended by machinery to a lower floor; so that supper might be served and removed without the presence of servants. It was invented by Louis XV. during the favour of Madame du Barri.-ED.]

9 [Before the revolution, the passage from the garden of the Thuilleries into the Place Louis XV. was over a pont tournant, a kind of drawbridge. ED.]

10 [The English convent of Notre Dame d Sion, of the order of St. Augustine, situated n the Rue des Fossés St. Victor.-ED.]

[Livres] 63-21. 12s. 6d. ster. "We heard the lawyers plead-N. As many killed at Paris as there are days in the year-Chambre de question Tournelle at the Palais Marchand 3-An old venerable building.

"The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of Condé-Only one small wing shown-lofty-splendid-gold and glass The battles of the great Cond' are painted in one of the rooms-The present prince a grandsire at thirty-nine 4.

"The sight of palaces, and other great buildings, leaves no very distinct images, unless to those who talk of them-As I entered, my wife was in my mind 5: she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to please, I am little pleased.

"N. In France there is no middle rank 6.

1 [Young ladies, who paid for their education. Before the revolution, there were no boarding schools, and all young ladies were educated in the convents.-ED.]

2 [This was one of the rooms of the Conciergerie, where la question-torture-was applied.-ED.]

3 [Again he mistakes, by introducing the word Marchand. The word Tournelle designated that portion of the parliament of Paris which tried criminal causes, and that part of the Palais in which they sat.-ED.]

4 [The Prince de Condé was born in 1736, and died in 1819. The grandson was the celebrated and unfortunate Duke d'Enghein, born in 1755, murdered in 1804. The father, "restes infortunés du plus beau sang du monde," still lives under his former title of Duc de Bourbon.-ED.] 5 His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are many evidences in his "Prayers and Meditations," appears very feelingly in this passage.-BosWELL.

6 [This observation, which Johnson afterwards repeats, was unfounded in the sense in which he appears to have understood it. France was in theory divided (as England is) into the clergy, the nobles, and the commons, and so it might be said that there was no middle rank; but not only did the theoretical constitution of society thus resemble that of England, but so did its practical details. There were first the peers of France, who

"So many shops open, that Sunday is little distinguished at Paris. The palaces of Louvre and Thuilleries granted out in lodgings.

"In the Palais de Bourbon, gilt globes o. metal at the fireplace.

"The French beds commended-Much of the marble only paste.

"The colosseum 7 a mere wooden building, at least much of it.

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Wednesday, 18th October.-We went to Fontainbleau, which we found a large mean town, crowded with people-The forest thick with woods, very extensive-Manucci secured us lodgings The appearance of the country pleasant-No hills, few streams, only one hedge-I remember no chapels no crosses on the road-Pavement still, and rows of trees.

"N. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris.

“Thursday, 19th October.-At court we saw the apartments-The king's bed-chamber and council-chamber extremely splendid -Persons of all ranks in the external rooms through which the family passes-servants and masters-Brunet 8 with us the second time.

"The introductor came to us-civil to -Presenting-I had scruples-Not ne

me

had seats and voices in the parliament, but were of little weight as a political body, from the smallness of their numbers, and because their parliament had only continued to be, what we still call ours, a high court, and had lost its legislative functions ;-next came the noblesse-the gentilhommes-answering to our gentry;-then the middle classes of society, composed of the poorer gentry, lawyers, medical men, inferior clergy, literary men, merchants, artists, manufacturers, notaries, shopkeepers, in short, all those who in every country constitute the middle classes, and they undoubtedly existed in France in their due proportion to the gentry on the one hand, and the working classes on the other. Johnson's remark is the stranger, because it would seem that his intercourse while in Paris was almost exclusively with persons of this middle class; but it must be observed, that his intercourse and his consequent sources of information were not extensive. Mrs. Piozzi says to him, talking of the progress of refinement of manners in England, "I much wonder whether this refinement has spread all over the continent, or whether it is confined to our own island: when we were in France we could form little judgment, as our time was chiefly passed among the English."-Lett.-ED.]

7 [This building, which stood in the Faubourg St. Honoré, was a kind of Ranelagh, and was destroyed a few years after. The "Memoires de Bachaumont" call it "monument monstreux de la folie Parisienne."-V. i. p. 311.--ED.]

8 [Perhaps M. J. L. Brunet, a celebrated ad vocate of the parliament of Paris, author of se veral distinguished professional works.-ED.] 9 [It was the custom previous to court present