"I have received four Erse books, without any direction, and suspect that they are intended for the Oxford library. If that is the intention, I think it will be proper to add the metrical psalms, and whatever else is printed in Erse, that the pre. sent may be complete. The donor's name should be told.

"I wish you could have read the book before it was printed, but our distance does not easily permit it. I am sorry Lord Hailes does not intend to publish Walton; I am afraid it will not be done so well, if it be done at all. I purpose now to drive the book forward. Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and let me hear often from you. I am, SAM. JOHNSON."

&c.,

A. M. - Price of four horses two shillings a mile. Barnet 1 40′ P. M.- On the road I read Tully's Epistles-At night at Dunstable. Wednesday, July 6. — To Lichfield, eightythree miles. To the Swan.

This tour to Wales, which was made in company with Mr., Mrs. [and Miss] Thrale, though it no doubt contributed to his health and amusement, did not give an occasion to such a discursive exercise of his mind as our tour to the Hebrides. I do not find that he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there. that I heard him say of it was, that "instead of bleak and barren mountains, there were green and fertile ones; and that one of the castles in Wales would contain all the castles that he had seen in Scotland."1

1 Mr. Boswell was mistaken in supposing that Johnson kept no journal of his Welsh tour: on the contrary, he kept a minute diary of the same kind as that which Mr. Boswell published of his subsequent visit to Paris, and as ample probably as that on which he founded his "Journey to the Hebrides." It was preserved by his servant, Barber, and how it escaped Mr. Boswell's research is not known; but it was first published in 1816, by Mr. Duppa, and with his permission republished by me, for the purpose" of filling up (to use Mr. Duppa's words)" that chasm in the Life of Johnson, which Mr. Boswell was unable to supply." I have added a selection of Mr. Duppa's own notes, and some others communicated to him by Mrs. Piozzi, in MS., too late for his use. The whole affords a chapter in Johnson's life, and many incidental notices of manners, if not very important, at least too curious to be omitted. A collation of the original MS., kindly entrusted to Mr. Murray, for Mr. Wright's edition, by its present proprietor, the Rev. Archdeacon Butler, of Shrewsbury, has supplied many corrections, and some omissions, in Mr. Duppa's text. - CROKER, 1835.

Mr. Richard Green was an apothecary, and related to Dr. Johnson. He had a considerable collection of antiquities, natural curiosities, and ingenious works of art. — DUPPA.

3 Dr. Erasmus Darwin: at this time he lived at Lichfield, where he had practised as a physician from the year 1756. Miss Seward says, that Johnson and Darwin had only one or two interviews. Mutual and strong dislike subsisted between

Monday, July 11. — At Ilam - At Oakover -I was less pleased with Ilam than when I saw it first; but my friends were much delighted.

Tuesday, July 12. At Chatsworth. The water willow 8-The cascade shot out from many spouts The fountains - The water tree-The smooth floors in the highest rooms9 -Atlas fifteen hands inch and half 10- River running through the park - The porticoes on the sides support two galleries for the first floor- My friends were not struck with the house It fell below my ideas of the furniture -The staircase is in the corner of the house -The hall in the corner the grandest room, though only a room of passage-On the groundfloor, only the chapel and breakfast-room, and a small library; the rest, servants' rooms and offices A bad inn.

Wednesday, July 13. — At Matlock. Thursday, July 14.

At dinner at Oakover; too deaf to hear, or much converse — Mrs. Gell- The chapel at Oakover

The

them. Dr. Darwin died April 18. 1802, in his sixty-ninth year. DUPPA.

4" Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David. I think he was an attorney, but he seemed to lead an independent life, and talked all about fishing. Dr. Johnson advised him to read Walton's Angler, repeating some verses from it."— Piozzi MS. - CROKER.

5 Daughter of Archdeacon Vyse, wife afterwards of Madan, Bishop of Peterborough.-CROKER.

6" Dr. Johnson would not suffer me to speak to Miss Seward." Piozzi MS. So early was the coolness between them.CROKER.

7 In the edition of Martial, which he was reading, the last word of the line

"Defluat, et lento splendescat turbida limo," was, no doubt, misprinted lino. — CROKER.

8" There was a water-work at Chatsworth with a concealed spring, which, upon touching, spouted out streams from every bough of a willow tree. I remember Lady Keith (Miss Thrale), then ten years old, was the most amused by it of any of the party."-Piozzi MS. CROKER.

Old oak floors polished by rubbing. Johnson. I suppose, wondered that they should take such pains with the garrets. -Piozzi MS.-CHOKER.

10 This was a race-horse, which was very handsome and very gentle, and attracted so much of Dr. Johnson's attention, that he said, "of all the Duke's possessions, I like Atlas best."-DUPPA.

3

Saturday, July 16. - At Dovedale, with Mr. Langley and Mr. Flint. It is a place that deserves a visit; but did not answer my expectation. The river is small, the rocks are grand. Reynard's Hall is a cave very high in the rock; it goes backward several yards, perhaps eight. To the left is a small opening, through which I crept, and found another cavern, perhaps four yards square; at the back was a breach yet smaller, which I could not easily have entered, and, wanting light, did not inspect. I was in a cave yet higher, called Reynard's Kitchen. There is a rock called the Church, in which I saw no resemblance that could justify the name. Dovedale is about two miles long. We walked towards the head of the Dove, which is said to rise about five miles above two caves called the Dog-holes, at the end of Dovedale. In one place, where the rocks approached, I proposed, to build an arch from rock to rock over the stream, with a summerhouse upon it. The water murmured pleasantly among the stones. —I thought that the heat and exercise mended my hearing. I bore the fatigue of the walk, which was very laborious, without inconvenience.-There were with us Gilpin and Parker.5 Having heard of this place before, I had formed some imperfect idea, to which it did not answer. Brown says he was disappointed. I certainly expected a larger river where I found only a clear quick brook. I believe I had imaged a valley enclosed by rocks, and terminated by a broad expanse of water. He that has seen Dovedale has no need to visit the Highlands. — In the afternoon we visited old Mrs. Dale."

6

July 17. Sunday morning, at churchΚάθ [αρσις] 8 Afternoon at Mr. Dyott's. Monday, July 18. - Dined at Mr. Gell's.9 Tuesday, July 19.- We went to Kedleston to see Lord Scardale's new house, which is very costly, but ill contrived — The hall is very

1 The Dyotts are a respectable and wealthy family, still residing near Lichfield. The royalist who shot Lord Brooke when assaulting St. Chad's Cathedral, in Lichfield, on St. Chad's day, is said to have been a Mr. Dyott.- CROKER.

2" More bore away the first crown of the Muses, Erasmus the second, and Micyllus has the third." Micyllus's real name was Moltzer; see his article in Bayle. His best work was De re Metrica."— CROKER.

3 The Rev. Mr. Langley was master of the grammarschool at Ashbourn; a near neighbour of Dr. Taylor's, but not always on friendly terms with him; which used to perplex their common friend Johnson. - CROKER.

4 Mr. Gilpin was an accomplished youth, at this time an under-graduate at Oxford. His father was an old silversmith near Lincoln's Inn Fields. - Piozzi MS.- CROKER.

5 John Parker, of Brownsholme, in Lancashire, Esq.DUPPA.

stately, lighted by three skylights; it has two rows of marble pillars, dug, as I hear, from Langley, in a quarry of Northamptonshire; the pillars are very large and massy, and take up too much room: they were better away. Behind the hall is a circular saloon, useless, and therefore ill contrived The corridors that join the wings to the body are mere passages through segments of circles - The state bedchamber was very richly furnished The dining parlour was more splendid with gilt plate than any that I have seen — -There were many pictures - The grandeur was all below The bedchambers were small, low, dark, and fitter for a prison than a house of splendour The kitchen has an opening into the gallery, by which its heat and its fumes are dispersed over the house-There seemed in the whole more cost than judgment. We went then to the silk mill at Derby, where I remarked a particular manner of propagating motion from a horizontal to a vertical wheel - We were desired to leave the men only two shillings Mr. Thrale's bill at the inn for dinner was eighteen shillings and tenpence.-At night I went to Mr. Langley's, Mrs. Wood's, Captain Astle, &c.

Wednesday, July 20.-We left Ashbourn 10 and went to Buxton-Thence to Pool's Hole, which is narrow at first, but then rises into a high arch; but is so obstructed with crags, that it is difficult to walk in it-There are two ways to the end, which is, they say, six hundred and fifty yards from the mouthThey take passengers up the higher way, and bring them back the lower-The higher way was so difficult and dangerous, that, having tried it, I desisted-I found no level part.At night we came to Macclesfield, a very large town in Cheshire, little known-It has a silk mill: it has a handsome church, which, however, is but a chapel, for the town belongs to some parish of another name [Prestbury], as Stourbridge lately did to Old SwinfordMacclesfield has a town-hall, and is, I suppose, a corporate town.

Thursday, July 21.-We came to Congleton, where there is likewise a silk mill-Then to Middlewich, a mean old town, without any manufacture, but, I think, a corporation— Thence we proceeded to Namptwich, an old town: from the inn, I saw scarcely any but

Mrs. Piozzi" rather thought" that this was Capability Browne, whose opinion on a point of landscape, probably gathered from Gilpin or Parker, Johnson thought worth recording. -CROKER.

7 Mrs. Dale was at this time 93. - DUPPA.

8 Throughout this diary he veils his notices of his health in the learned languages.-DUPPA. In one of his letters, excusing himself to Mrs. Thrale for narrating some details of his infirmities, he says, "that Dr. Lawrence used to say that medical treatises should be always in Latin.”— CROKER.

9 Mr. Gell, of Hopton Hall, the father of Sir William Gell, well known for his Topography of Troy. - Duppa.

10 It would seem, that from the 9th to the 20th, the headquarter of the party were at Ashbourn, whence they had made the several excursions noted.-CROKER.

rank The castle. In one of the rooms the assizes are held, and the refectory of the old abbey, of which part is a grammar-school The master seemed glad to see me- The cloister is very solemn; over it are chambers in which the singing men live-In one part of the street was a subterranean arch, very strongly built; in another, what they called, I believe rightly, a Roman hypocaust -Chester has many curiosities.

Thursday, July 28.- We entered Wales, dined at Mould, and came to Lleweney.1 Friday, July 29.-We were at Lleweney - In the lawn at Lleweney is a spring of fine water, which rises above the surface into a stone basin, from which it runs to waste, in a continual stream, through a pipe-There are very large trees -The hall at Lleweney is forty feet long, and twenty-eight broad -The dining-parlours thirty-six feet long, and twentysix broad-It is partly sashed, and partly

has casements.

Saturday, July 30. We went to Bâch y Graig, where we found an old house, built 1567, in an uncommon and incommodious form - My mistress chattered about tiring, but I prevailed on her to go to the top-The floors have been stolen: the windows are stoppedThe house was less than I seemed to expect The river Clwyd is a brook with a bridge of one arch, about one third of a mile 3 The woods have many trees, generally young; but some which seem to decay - They have been lopped-The house never had a garden-The addition of another story would make an useful house, but it cannot be great-Some buildings which Clough, the founder, intended for warehouses, would make store-chambers and servants' rooms-The ground seems to be good I wish it well.

monuments

-

Sunday, July 31.-We went to church at St. Asaph-The cathedral, though not large, has something of dignity and grandeur — The cross aisle is very short - It has scarcely any The quire has, I think, thirtytwo stalls of antique workmanship On the backs were Canonicus, Prebend, Cancellarius, Thesaurarius, Præcentor - The constitution I do not know, but it has all the usual titles and dignities The service was sung only in the Psalms and Hymns-The bishop [Dr. Shipley] was very civil-We went to his palace, which is but mean-They have a library, and design a room - There lived Lloyd and Dodwell.4

1 Lleweney-hall, as I have already observed, was the residence of Robert Cotton, Esq., Mrs. Thrale's cousin-german. Here Mr. and Mrs. Thrale and Dr. Johnson staid three weeks, making visits and short excursions in the neighbourhood and surrounding country. — CROKER.

This was the mansion-house of the estate which had fallen to Mrs. Thrale, and was the cause of this visit to Wales. Incredible as it may appear, it is certain that this lady imported from Italy a nephew of Piozzi's, and, making him assume her maiden name of Salusbury, bequeathed to this foreigner (if she did not give it in her life-time) this ancient

--

The town con

and the remains of its castlesists of one main street, and some that cross it, which I have not seen The chief street ascends with a quick rise for a great length: the houses are built some with rough stone, some with brick, and a few are of timber The castle, with its whole enclosure, has been a prodigious pile; it is now so ruined that the form of the inhabited part cannot easily be traced―There are, as in all old buildings, said to be extensive vaults, which the ruins of the upper works cover and conceal, but into which boys sometimes find a way To clear all passages, and trace the whole of what remains, would require much labour and expense -We saw a church, which was once the chapel of the castle, but is used by the town: it is dedicated to St. Hilary, and has an income of about At a small distance is the

-

ruin of a church said to have been begun by the great Earl of Leicester, and left unfinished at his death-One side, and I think the east end, are yet standing-There was a stone in the wall over the doorway, which, it was said, would fall and crush the best scholar in the diocese - One Price would not pass under it. They have taken it down-We then saw the chapel of Lleweney, founded by one of the Salusburies: it is very complete: the monumental stones lie in the ground-A chimney has been added to it, but it is otherwise not much injured, and might be easily repaired. We went to the parish church of Denbigh, which, being near a mile from the town, is only used when the parish officers are chosen - In the chapel, on Sundays, the service is read thrice, the second time only in English, the first and third in Welsh-The bishop came to survey the castle, and visited likewise St. Hilary's chapel, which is that which the town - The hay-barn, built with brick pillars from space to space, and covered with a roof -A more elegant and lofty hovel - The rivers here are mere torrents, which are suddenly swelled by the rain to great breadth and great violence, but have very little constant stream; such are the Clwyd and the Elwy There are yet no mountains-The ground is beautifully embellished with woods, and diversified by inequalities-In the parish church of Denbigh is a bas-relief of Lloyd the antiquary, who was before Camden-He is kneeling at his prayers.5

Tuesday, Aug. 2. We rode to a summerhouse of Mr. Cotton, which has a very extensive prospect; it is meanly built, and unskil

patrimonial estate, to the exclusion of her own children.CROKER.

3 Meaning, probably, one third of a mile from the house. -CROKER.

4 Lloyd was raised to the see of St. Asaph in 1680. He was one of the seven bishops He died Bishop of Worcester, Aug. 30. 1717. - Dodwell was a man of extensive learning, and an intimate friend of Lloyd. - DUPPA.

5 Humphry Llwyd was a native of Denbigh, practised there as a physician, and also represented the town in parliament. He died 1568. - DUPPA.

fully disposed We went to Dymerchion church, where the old clerk acknowledged his mistress It is the parish church of Bâch y Graig; a mean fabric; Mr. Salusbury [Mrs. Thrale's father] was buried in it: Bâch y Graig has fourteen seats in it. As we rode by, I looked at the house again --We saw Llannerch, a house not mean, with a small park very well watered There was an avenue of oaks, which, in a foolish compliance with the present mode, has been cut down- -A few are yet standing; the owner's name is Davies-The way lay through pleasant lanes, and overlooked a region beautifully diversified with trees and grass. At Dymerchion church there is English service only once a month--this is about twenty miles from the English border - The old clerk had great appearance of joy at the sight of his mistress, and foolishly said, that he was now willing to die-He had only a crown given him by my Mistress - At Dymerchion church the texts on the walls are in Welsh.

--

Wednesday, Aug. 3.-We went in the coach to Holywell Talk with mistress about flattery -Holywell is a market town, neither very small nor mean · -The spring called Winifred's Well is very clear, and so copious, that it yields one hundred tuns of water in a minute-It is all at once a very great stream, which, within perhaps thirty yards of its irruption, turns a mill, and in a course of two miles, eighteen mills more-In descent, it is very quick- It then falls into the sea- The well is covered by a lofty circular arch, supported by pillars; and over this arch is an old chapel, now a school-The chancel is separated by a wall -The bath is completely and indecently open A woman bathed while we all looked on In the church, which makes a good appearance, and is surrounded by galleries to receive a numerous congregation, we were present while a child was christened in Welsh- -We went down by the stream to see a prospect, in which I had no part-We then saw a brass work, where the lapis calaminaris is gathered, broken, washed from the earth and the lead, though how the lead was separated I did not see; then calcined, afterwards ground fine, and then mixed by fire with copper- We saw several strong fires with melting pots, but the construction of the fireplaces I did not learnAt a copper-work, which receives its pigs of copper, I think, from Warrington, we saw a plate of copper put hot between steel rollers, and spread thin; I know not whether the upper roller was set to a certain distance, as I suppose, or acted only by its weightAt an iron-work I saw round bars formed by

a notched hammer and anvil - There I saw a bar of about half an inch or more square, cut with shears worked by water, and then beaten hot into a thinner bar-The hammers, all worked, as they were, by water, acting upon small bodies, moved very quick, as quick as by the hand - I then saw wire drawn, and gave a shilling — I have enlarged my notions, though, not being able to see the movements, and having not time to peep closely, I know less than I might I was less weary, and had better breath, as I walked farther.

Thursday, Aug. 4. Rhudlan Castle is still a very noble ruin; all the walls still remain, so that a complete platform, and elevations, not very imperfect, may be taken - It encloses a square of about thirty yards- The middle space was always open- The wall is, I believe, about thirty feet high, very thick, flanked with six round towers, each about eighteen feet, or less, in diameter Only one tower had a chimney, so that there was commodity of livingIt was only a place of strengthThe garrison had, perhaps, tents in the area.

Stapylton's house is pretty 3; there are pleasing shades about it, with a constant spring that supplies a cold bath - We then went to see a cascade-I trudged unwillingly, and was not sorry to find it dry-The water was, however, turned on, and produced a very striking cataract- They are paid a hundred pounds a year for permission to divert the stream to the mines-The river, for such it may be termed, rises from a single spring, which, like that of Winifred's, is covered with a building-We called then at another house belonging to Mr. Lloyd, which made a handsome appearance-This country seems full of very splendid houses - Mrs. Thrale lost her purse- She expressed so much uneasiness, that I concluded the sum to be very great; but when I heard of only seven guineas, I was glad to find that she had so much sensibility of money. I could not drink this day either coffee or tea after dinner- I know not when I missed before.

Friday, Aug. 5.- Last night my sleep was remarkably quiet-I know not whether by fatigue in walking, or by forbearance of tea. I gave [up] the ipecacuanha-Vin. emet. had failed; so had tartar emet. I dined at Mr. Myddleton's, of Gwaynynog-The house was a gentleman's house, below the second rate, perhaps below the third, built of stone roughly cut-The rooms were low, and the passage above stairs gloomy, but the furniture was good-The table was well supplied, except

3 Bodryddan (pronounced, writes Mrs. Piozzi, Potrothan), formerly the residence of the Stapyltons, the parents of five co-heiresses, of whom Mrs. Cotton, afterwards Lady Salusbury Cotton, was one. - DUPPA.

4" He teased Mrs. Cotton about her dry cascade till she was ready to cry."— Piozzi MS. - CROKER.