all consequences, unless the executors of the will who were to hold
the residue of the estate in trust for him had chosen to proceed against
him. Mr. Duppa in editing this Journal received assistance from Mrs.
Piozzi, 'who,' he says (Preface, p. xi), 'explained many facts which
could not otherwise have been understood.' A passage in one of her
letters dated Bath, Oct. 11, 1816, shows how unfriendly were the
relations between her and her eldest daughter, Johnson's Queeny, who had
married Admiral Lord Keith. 'I am sadly afraid,' she writes, 'of Lady
K.'s being displeased, and fancying I promoted this publication. Could I
have caught her for a quarter-of-an-hour, I should have proved my
innocence, and might have shown her Duppa's letter; but she left neither
note, card, nor message, and when my servant ran to all the inns in
chase of her, he learned that she had left the White Hart at twelve
o'clock. Vexatious! but it can't be helped. I hope the pretty little
girl my people saw with her will pay her more tender attention.' Three
days later she wrote:--'Johnson's _Diary_ is selling rapidly, though the
contents are _bien maigre_, I must confess. Mr. Duppa has politely
suppressed some sarcastic expressions about my family, the Cottons, whom
we visited at Combermere, and at Lleweney.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii.
176-9. Mr. Croker in 1835 was able to make 'a collation of the original
MS., which has supplied many corrections and some omissions in Mr.
Duppa's text.' Mr. Croker's text I have generally followed.

[1161] 'When I went with Johnson to Lichfield, and came down to
breakfast at the inn, my dress did not please him, and he made me alter
it entirely before he would stir a step with us about the town, saying
most satirical things concerning the appearance I made in a
riding-habit; and adding, "'Tis very strange that such eyes as yours
cannot discern propriety of dress; if I had a sight only half as good, I
think I should see to the centre."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 288.

[1162] For Mrs. (Miss) Porter, Mrs. (Miss) Aston, Mr. Green, Mrs. Cobb,
Mr. (Peter) Garrick, Miss Seward, and Dr. Taylor, see _ante_,
ii. 462-473.

[1163] Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the physiologist and poet, grandfather of
Charles Darwin. Mrs. Piozzi when at Florence wrote:--'I have no roses
equal to those at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect counting
eighty-four within my own reach; it grew against the house of Dr.
Darwin.' Piozzi's _Journey_, i. 278.

[1164]