1762. In the summer of this year his pension was granted, and he henceforth had the means of travelling. Ante, i. 372.
A trip to Devonshire, from Aug. 16 to Sept. 26; six weeks. Ante, i. 377.
Oxford. December. 'I am going for a few days or weeks to Oxford.' Letter of Dec. 21, 1762. Croker's Boswell, p. 129.
1763. Harwich. August, a few days. Ante, i. 464.
Oxford. October, length of visit not mentioned. A letter dated Oxford,
Oct. 27 [1763]. Croker's Boswell, p. 161.
1764. Langton in Lincolnshire, part of January and February. Ante, i. 476.
Easton Maudit in Northamptonshire, part of June, July, and August.
Croker's Boswell, p. 166, note, and ante, i. 486.
Oxford, October. Letter to Mr. Strahan dated Oxford, Oct. 24, 1764. Post, Addenda to vol. v.
Either this year or the next Johnson made the acquaintance of the Thrales. For the next seventeen years he had 'an apartment appropriated to him in the Thrales' villa at Streatham' (ante, i. 493), a handsome house that stood in a small park. Streatham was a quiet country-village, separated by wide commons from London, on one of which a highwayman had been hanged who had there robbed Mr. Thrale (ante, iii. 239, note 2). According to Mrs. Piozzi Johnson commonly spent the middle of the week at their house, coming on the Monday night and returning to his own home on the Saturday (post, iv. 169, note 3). Miss Burney, in 1778, describes him 'as living almost wholly at Streatham' (ante, i. 493, note 3). No doubt she was speaking chiefly of the summer half of the year, for in the winter time the Thrales would be often in their town house, where he also had his apartment. Mr. Strahan complained of his being at Streatham 'in a great measure absorbed from the society of his old friends' (ante, iii. 225). He used to call it 'my home' (ante, i. 493, note 3).
1765. Cambridge, early in the year; a short visit. Ante, i. 487.