[682] I do not see why I might not have been of this club without lessening my character. But Dr. Johnson's caution against supposing one's self concealed in London, may be very useful to prevent some people from doing many things, not only foolish, but criminal. BOSWELL.
[683] See ante, iii. 318.
[684] Johnson defines airy as gay, sprightly, full of mirth, &c.
[685] 'A man would be drowned by claret before it made him drunk.' Ante, iii. 381.
[686] Ante, p. 137.
[687] See ante ii. 261.
[688] Lord Chesterfield wrote in 1747 (Misc. Works, iv. 231):— Drinking is a most beastly vice in every country, but it is really a ruinous one to Ireland; nine gentlemen in ten in Ireland are impoverished by the great quantity of claret, which from mistaken notions of hospitality and dignity, they think it necessary should be drunk in their houses. This expense leaves them no room to improve their estates by proper indulgence upon proper conditions to their tenants, who must pay them to the full, and upon the very day, that they may pay their wine-merchants.' In 1754 he wrote (ib.p.359):—If it would but please God by his lightning to blast all the vines in the world, and by his thunder to turn all the wines now in Ireland sour, as I most sincerely wish he would, Ireland would enjoy a degree of quiet and plenty that it has never yet known.'
[689] See ante, p. 95.
[690] 'The sea being broken by the multitude of islands does not roar with so much noise, nor beat the storm with such foamy violence as I have remarked on the coast of Sussex. Though, while I was in the Hebrides, the wind was extremely turbulent, I never saw very high billows.' Johnson's Works, ix. 65.
[691] Johnson this day thus wrote of Mr. M'Queen to Mrs. Thrale:—'You find that all the islanders even in these recesses of life are not barbarous. One of the ministers who has adhered to us almost all the time is an excellent scholar.' Piozzi Letters, i. 157.