[1323] Mrs. Rudd. She and the two brothers Perreau were charged with forgery. She was tried first and acquitted, the verdict of the jury being 'not guilty, according to the evidence before us.' The Ann. Reg. xviii. 231, adds:—'There were the loudest applauses on this acquittal almost ever known in a court of justice.' 'The issue of Mrs. Rudd's trial was thought to involve the fate of the Perreaus; and the popular fancy had taken the part of the woman as against the men.' They were convicted and hanged, protesting their innocence. Letters of Boswell, pp. 223-230. Boswell wrote to Temple on April 28:—'You know my curiosity and love of adventure; I have got acquainted with the celebrated Mrs. Rudd.' Ib P. 233—Three days later, he wrote:— 'Perhaps the adventure with Mrs. Rudd is very foolish, notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's approbation.' Ib p. 235. See post, iii. 79, and April 28, 1778.
[1324] See post, May 15, 1784, where Johnson says that Mrs. Montagu has 'a constant stream of conversation,' and a second time allows that 'Burke is an extraordinary man.' Johnson writes of 'a stream of melody.' Works, viii. 92. For Burke's conversation see post, April 7, 1778, 1780 in Mr. Langton's Collection, March 21, 1783, and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15.
[1325] See ante, ii. 16.
[1326] According to Boswell's record in Boswelliana, p. 273, two sayings are here united. He there writes, on the authority of Mr. Langton:—'Dr. Johnson had a very high opinion of Edmund Burke. He said, "That fellow calls forth all my powers"; and once when he was out of spirits and rather dejected he said, "Were I to see Burke now 'twould kill me."'
[1327] See ante, ii. 100, iii. 24, and under May 8, 1781.
[1328] In a note on the Dunciad, ii. 50, the author of this epigram is said to be Dr. Evans.
[1329] Capability Brown, as he was called. See post, Oct. 30, 1779.
[1330] Such an 'impudent dog' had Boswell himself been in Corsica. 'Before I was accustomed to the Corsican hospitality,' he wrote. 'I sometimes forgot myself, and imagining I was in a publick house, called for what I wanted, with the tone which one uses in calling to the waiters at a tavern. I did so at Pino, asking for a variety of things at once, when Signora Tomasi perceiving my mistake, looked in my face and smiled, saying with much calmness and good nature, "una cosa dopo un altra, Signore. One thing after another, Sir."' Boswell's Corsica, ed. 1879, p. 151. A Corsican gentleman, who knows the Tomasi family, told me that this reply is preserved among them by tradition.
[1331] Sir John Hawkins has preserved very few Memorabilia of Johnson. There is, however, to be found, in his bulky tome [p. 87], a very excellent one upon this subject:—'In contradiction to those, who, having a wife and children, prefer domestick enjoyments to those which a tavern affords, I have heard him assert, that a tavern chair was the throne of human felicity.—"As soon," said he, "as I enter the door of a tavern, I experience an oblivion of care, and a freedom from solicitude: when I am seated, I find the master courteous, and the servants obsequious to my call; anxious to know and ready to supply my wants: wine there exhilarates my spirits, and prompts me to free conversation and an interchange of discourse with those whom I most love: I dogmatise and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinions and sentiments I find delight."' BOSWELL.
[1332] We happened to lie this night at the inn at Henley, where Shenstone wrote these lines. BOSWELL. I give them as they are found in the corrected edition of his Works, published after his death. In Dodsley's collection the stanza ran thus:—