[126] See ib. Aug. 15.
[127] See post, April 28, 29, 1778.
[128] See ante, Jan. 21, 1775, note.
[129] See post, April 28, 1778. That he did not always scorn to drink when in company is shewn by what he said on April 7, 1778:—'I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this.'
[130] Copy is manuscript for printing.
[131] In The Rambler, No. 134, he describes how he had sat deliberating on the subject for that day's paper, 'till at last I was awakened from this dream of study by a summons from the press; the time was now come for which I had been thus negligently purposing to provide, and, however dubious or sluggish, I was now necessitated to write. To a writer whose design is so comprehensive and miscellaneous that he may accommodate himself with a topick from every scene of life, or view of nature, it is no great aggravation of his task to be obliged to a sudden composition.' See ante, i. 203.
[132] See ante, i. 428.
[133] We have here an involuntary testimony to the excellence of this admirable writer, to whom we have seen that Dr. Johnson directly allowed so little merit. BOSWELL. 'Fielding's Amelia was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances,' he said; 'but that vile broken nose never cured [Amelia, bk. ii. ch. 1] ruined the sale of perhaps the only book, which being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night.' Piozzi's Anec. p. 221. Mrs. Carter, soon after the publication of Amelia, wrote (Corres. ii. 71):—'Methinks I long to engage you on the side of this poor unfortunate book, which I am told the fine folks are unanimous in pronouncing to be very sad stuff.' See ante, ii. 49.
[134] Horace Walpole wrote, on Dec, 21, 1775 (Letters, vi. 298):— 'Mr. Cumberland has written an Ode, as he modestly calls it, in praise of Gray's Odes; charitably no doubt to make the latter taken notice of. Garrick read it the other night at Mr. Beauclerk's, who comprehended so little what it was about, that he desired Garrick to read it backwards, and try if it would not be equally good; he did, and it was.' It was to this reading backwards that Dean Barnard alludes in his verses—
'The art of pleasing, teach me, Garrick;
Thou who reversest odes Pindaric,
A second time read o'er.'