thor, when unpatronised by the
Great, has naturally recourse to the bookseller. There cannot be perhaps
imagined a combination more prejudicial to taste than this. It is the
interest of the one to allow as little for writing, and of the other to
write as much as possible; accordingly tedious compilations and
periodical magazines are the result of their joint endeavours.'

[174] In the first number of _The Rambler_, Johnson shews how attractive
to an author is the form of publication which he was himself then
adopting:--'It heightens his alacrity to think in how many places he
shall have what he is now writing read with ecstacies to-morrow.'

[175] Yet he said 'the inhabitants of Lichfield were the most sober,
decent people in England.' _Ante_, ii. 463.

[176] At the beginning of the eighteenth century, says Goldsmith,
'smoking in the rooms [at Bath] was permitted.' When Nash became King of
Bath he put it down. Goldsmith's _Works_, ed. 1854, iv. 51. 'Johnson,'
says Boswell (_ante_, i. 317), 'had a high opinion of the sedative
influence of smoking.'

[177] Dr. Johnson used to practise this himself very much. BOSWELL.

[178] In _The Tatler_, for May 24, 1709, we are told that 'rural
esquires wear shirts half a week, and are drunk twice a day.' In the
year 1720, Fenton urged Gay 'to sell as much South Sea stock as would
purchase a hundred a year for life, "which will make you sure of a clean
shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day."' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 65.
In _Tristram Shandy_, ii. ch. 4, published in 1759, we read:--'It was in
this year [about 1700] that my uncle began to break in upon the daily
regularity of a clean shirt.' In _the Spiritual Quixote_, published in
1773 (i. 51), Tugwell says to his master:--'Your Worship belike has been
used to shift you twice a week.' Mrs. Piozzi (_Journey_, i. 105, date of
1789) says that she heard in Milan 'a travelled gentleman telling his
auditors how all the men in London, _that were noble_, put on a clean
shirt every day.' Johnson himself owned that he had 'no passion for
clean linen.' _Ante_, i. 397.

[179] Scott, in _Old Mortality_, ed. 1860, ix. 352, says:--'It was a
universal custom in Scotland, that, when the family was at dinner, the
outer-gate of the court-yard, if there was one, and if not, the door of
the house itself, was always shut and locked.' In a note on this he
says:--'The custom of keeping the door of a house or chateau locked
during the time of dinner