old romances, and had got into her
head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover
like a dog. So, Sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she
could not keep up with me; and, when I rode a little slower, she passed
me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave
of caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore
pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay
between two hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived
that she should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be
in tears.'

This, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial
felicity; but there is no doubt that Johnson, though he thus shewed a
manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the
last moment of Mrs. Johnson's life: and in his Prayers and Meditations,
we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her
never ceased, even after her death.

He now set up a private academy, for which purpose he hired a large
house, well situated near his native city. In the Gentleman's Magazine
for 1736, there is the following advertisement:

'At Edial, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded
and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHNSON.'

But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated
David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely, a young
gentleman of good fortune who died early. The truth is, that he was not
so well qualified for being a teacher of elements, and a conductor in
learning by regular gradations, as men of inferiour powers of mind. His
own acquisitions had been made by fits and starts, by violent irruptions
into the regions of knowledge; and it could not be expected that his
impatience would be subdued, and his impetuosity restrained, so as to
fit him for a quiet guide to novices.

Johnson was not more satisfied with his situation as the master of an
academy, than with that of the usher of a school; we need not wonder,
therefore, that he did not keep his academy above a year and a half.
From Mr. Garrick's account he did not appear to have been profoundly
reverenced by his pupils. His oddities of manner, and uncouth
gesticulations, could not but be the subject of merriment to them;
and, in particular, the young rogues used to listen at the door of his
bed-chamber, and peep through the key-hole, that they mig