of title, he ought to assume such title as he
himself had.

[829] The eminent painter, representative of the ancient family of
Homfrey (now Humphry) in the west of England; who, as appears from their
arms which they have invariably used, have been, (as I have seen
authenticated by the best authority,) one of those among the Knights and
Esquires of honour who are represented by Holinshed as having issued
from the Tower of London on coursers apparelled for the justes,
accompanied by ladies of honour, leading every one a Knight, with a
chain of gold, passing through the streets of London into Smithfield, on
Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, being the first Sunday after
Michaelmas, in the fourteenth year of King Richard the Second. This
family once enjoyed large possessions, but, like others, have lost them
in the progress of ages. Their blood, however, remains to them well
ascertained; and they may hope in the revolution of events, to recover
that rank in society for which, in modern times, fortune seems to be an
indispensable requisite. BOSWELL.

[830] Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson. BOSWELL. In the first two editions
after 'Paterson' is added 'eminent for his knowledge of books.' See
_ante_, iii. 90.

[831] Humphry, on his first coming to London, poor and unfriended, was
helped by Reynolds. Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 174.

[832] On April 21 he wrote:--'After a confinement of 129 days, more than
the third part of a year, and no inconsiderable part of human life, I
this day returned thanks to God in St. Clement's Church for my
recovery.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 365.

[833] On April 26 he wrote:--'On Saturday I showed myself again to the
living world at the Exhibition; much and splendid was the company, but
like the Doge of Genoa at Paris [Versailles, Voltaire, _Siecle de Louis
XIV_, chap, xiv.], I admired nothing but myself. I went up the stairs to
the pictures without stopping to rest or to breathe,

"In all the madness of superfluous health."

[Pope's _Essay on Man_, iii. 3.] The Prince of Wales had promised to be
there; but when we had waited an hour and a half, sent us word that he
could not come.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 367. 'The first Gentleman in
Europe' was twenty-one years old when he treated men like Johnson and
Reynolds with this insolence. Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 244)
says that it was at this very dinner that 'Johnson left his seat by
desire of the Prince of Wales, and went to the