1827, iv. 287.

[1018] I trust that THE CITY OF LONDON, now happily in unison with THE
COURT, will have the justice and generosity to obtain preferment for
this Reverend Gentleman, now a worthy old servant of that magnificent
Corporation. BOSWELL. In like manner, Boswell in 1768 praised the Rev.
Mr. Moore, Mr. Villette's predecessor. 'Mr. Moore, the Ordinary of
Newgate, discharged his duty with much earnestness and a fervour for
which I and all around me esteemed and loved him. Mr. Moore seems worthy
of his office, which, when justly considered, is a very important one.'
_London Mag._ 1783, p. 204. For the quarrel between the City and the
Court, see _ante_, iii. 201.

[1019] See _ante_, i. 387.

[1020] Knox in _Winter Evenings_, No. xi. (_Works_, ii. 348), attacks
Johnson's biographers for lowering his character by publishing his
private conversation. 'Biography,' he complains, 'is every day
descending from its dignity.' See _ante_, i. 222, note 1.

[1021] _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 256.

[1022] Johnson wrote on April 15:--'I am still very weak, though my
appetite is keen and my digestion potent. ... I now think and consult
to-day what I shall eat to-morrow. This disease likewise will, I hope,
be cured.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 362. Beattie, who dined with
Johnson on June 27, wrote:--'Wine, I think, would do him good, but he
cannot be prevailed on to drink it. He has, however, a voracious
appetite for food. I verily believe that on Sunday last he ate as much
to dinner as I have done in all for these ten days past.' Forbes's
_Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 315. It was said that Beattie latterly indulged
somewhat too much in wine. _Ib_. p. 432.

[1023] Horace Walpole wrote in April 1750 (_Letters_, ii. 206):--'There
is come from France a Madame Bocage who has translated Milton: my Lord
Chesterfield prefers the copy to the original; but that is not uncommon
for him to do, who is the patron of bad authors and bad actors. She has
written a play too, which was damned, and worthy my lord's approbation.'
It was this lady who bade her footman blow into the spout of the
tea-pot. _Ante_, ii. 403. Dr. J. H. Burton writes of her in his _Life of
Hume_, ii. 213:--'The wits must praise her bad poetry if they frequented
her house. "Elle etait d'une figure aimable," says Grimm, "elle est
bonne femme; elle est riche; elle pouvait fixer chez elle les gens
d'esprit et de bonne compagnie, sans les mettre dans l'embarras de lui
parler avec peu de si