intention, but all circumstances
considered, it was no matter of surprise to me when I heard that the
great Dr. Johnson had, in the month of December 1783, formed a sixpenny
club at an ale-house in Essex-street, and that though some of the
persons thereof were persons of note, strangers, under restrictions, for
three pence each night might three nights in a week hear him talk and
partake of his conversation.'

Miss Hawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 103) says:--

'Boswell was well justified in his resentment of my father's designation
of this club as a sixpenny club, meeting at an ale-house. ... Honestly
speaking, I dare say my father did not like being passed over.'

Sir Joshua Reynolds, writing of the club, says:--

'Any company was better than none; by which Johnson connected himself
with many mean persons whose presence he could command. For this purpose
he established a club at a little ale-house in Essex-street, composed of
a strange mixture of very learned and very ingenious odd people. Of the
former were Dr. Heberden, Mr. Windham, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Steevens, Mr.
Paradise. Those of the latter I do not think proper to enumerate.'
Taylor's _Life of Reynolds_, ii. 455.

It is possible that Reynolds had never seen the Essex Head, and that the
term 'little ale-house' he had borrowed from Hawkins's account. Possibly
too his disgust at Barry here found vent. Murphy (_Life of Johnson_, p.
124) says:--

'The members of the club were respectable for their rank, their talents,
and their literature.'

The 'little ale-house' club saw one of its members, Alderman Clarke
(_ante_, p. 258), Lord Mayor within a year; another, Horsley, a Bishop
within five years; and a third, Windham, Secretary at War within ten
years. Nichols (_Literary Anecdotes_, ii. 553) gives a list of the
'constant members' at the time of Johnson's death.

APPENDIX E.

(Page 399.)

Miss Burney's account of Johnson's last days is interesting, but her
dates are confused more even than is common with her. I have corrected
them as well as I can.

'Dec. 9. He will not, it seems, be talked to--at least very rarely. At
times indeed he re-animates; but it is soon over and he says of
himself:--"I am now like Macbeth--question enrages me."'

'Dec. 10. At night my father brought us the most dismal tidings of dear
Dr. Johnson. He had thanked and taken leave of all his physicians. Alas!
I shall lose him, and he will take no leave of me. My father was deeply
depre