[637] There are two mistakes in this calculation, both perhaps due to Boswell. Eighty-four should be eighty-eight, and square-yards should be yards square. 'If a wall cost £1000 a mile, £100 would build 176 yards of wall, which would form a square of 44 yards, and enclose an area of 1936 square yards; and £200 would build 352 yards of wall, which would form a square of 88 yards, and inclose an area of 7744 square yards. The cost of the wall in the latter case, as compared with the space inclosed, would therefore be reduced to one half.' Notes and Queries, 1st S. x. 471.
[638] See ante, i. 318.
[639] 'Davies observes, in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had ever planted an orchard.' Johnson's Works, ix.7. 'At Fochabars [in the Highlands] there is an orchard, which in Scotland I had never seen before.' Ib. p. 21.
[640] Miss Burney this year mentions meeting 'Mr. Walker, the lecturer. Though modest in science, he is vulgar in conversation.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 237. Johnson quotes him, Works, viii. 474.
[641] 'Old Mr. Sheridan' was twelve years younger than Johnson. For his oratory, see ante, i. 453, and post, April 28 and May 17, 1783.
[642] See ante, i. 358, when Johnson said of Sheridan:—'His voice when strained is unpleasing, and when low is not always heard.'
[643] See ante, iii. 139.
[644] 'A more magnificent funeral was never seen in London,' wrote Murphy (Life of Garrick, p. 349). Horace Walpole (Letters, vii. 169), wrote on the day of the funeral:—'I do think the pomp of Garrick's funeral perfectly ridiculous. It is confounding the immense space between pleasing talents and national services.' He added, 'at Lord Chatham's interment there were not half the noble coaches that attended Garrick's.' Ib. p. 171. In his Journal of the Reign of George III (ii. 333), he says:—'The Court was delighted to see a more noble and splendid appearance at the interment of a comedian than had waited on the remains of the great Earl of Chatham.' Bishop Horne (Essays and Thoughts, p. 283) has some lines on 'this grand parade of woe,' which begin:—
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'Through weeping London's crowded streets, As Garrick's funeral passed, Contending wits and nobles strove, Who should forsake him last. Not so the world behaved to him Who came that world to save, By solitary Joseph borne Unheeded to his grave.' |
Johnson wrote on April 30, 1782: 'Poor Garrick's funeral expenses are yet unpaid, though the undertaker is broken.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 239. Garrick was buried on Feb. 1, 1779, and had left his widow a large fortune. Chatham died in May, 1778.