different persuasions. Before the first cup was handed round,
one of these reverend gentlemen put it to the other, with all due
solemnity, whether he chose to _say anything_. It seems it is the custom
with some sectaries to put up a short prayer before this meal also. His
reverend brother did not at first quite apprehend him, but upon an
explanation, with little less importance he made answer that it was not
a custom known in his church.' _Essay on Grace before Meat_.

[384] He could not bear to have it thought that, in any instance
whatever, the Scots are more pious than the English. I think grace as
proper at breakfast as at any other meal. It is the pleasantest meal we
have. Dr. Johnson has allowed the peculiar merit of breakfast in
Scotland. BOSWELL. 'If an epicure could remove by a wish in quest of
sensual gratification, wherever he had supped he would breakfast in
Scotland.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 52.

[385] Bruce, the Abyssinian Traveller, found in the annals of that
region a king named _Brus_, which he chooses to consider the genuine
orthography of the name. This circumstance occasioned some mirth at the
court of Gondar. WALTER SCOTT.

[386] See _ante_, ii. 169, note 2, and _post_, Sept. 2. Johnson, so far
as I have observed, spelt the name _Boswel_.

[387] Sir Eyre Coote was born in 1726. He took part in the battle of
Plassey in 1757, and commanded at the reduction of Pondicherry in 1761.
In 1770-71 he went by land to Europe. In 1780 he took command of the
English army against Hyder Ali, whom he repeatedly defeated. He died in
1783. Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. x. 236. There is a fine description of
him in Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, iii. 385.

[388] See _ante_, iii. 361.

[389] Reynolds wrote of Johnson:--'He sometimes, it must be confessed,
covered his ignorance by generals rather than appear ignorant' Taylor's
_Reynolds_, ii. 457.

[390] 'The barracks are very handsome, and form several regular and good
streets.' Pennant's _Tour_, p. 144.

[391] See _ante_, p. 45.

[392] Here Dr. Johnson gave us part of a conversation held between a
Great Personage and him, in the library at the Queen's Palace, in the
course of which this contest was considered. I have been at great pains
to get that conversation as perfectly preserved as possible. It may
perhaps at some future time be given to the publick. BOSWELL. For 'a
Great Personage' see _ante_, i. 219; and for the conversation, ii. 33.

[393] See _ante_, ii