e remarked, that the annoyance we experience from a
loss is seldom entirely regulated by the pecuniary value of the thing
lost.

On the way to Holywell he sets down: "Talk with mistress about
flattery;" on which she notes: "He said I flattered the people to
whose houses we went: I was saucy and said I was obliged to be civil
for two, meaning himself and me.[1] He replied nobody would thank me
for compliments they did not understand. At Gwanynog (Mr.
Middleton's), however, _he_ was flattered, and was happy of course."

[Footnote 1: Madame D'Arblay reports Mrs. Thrale saying to Johnson at
Streatham, in September, 1778: "I remember, Sir, when we were
travelling in Wales, how you called me to account for my civility to
the people; 'Madam,' you said, 'let me have no more of this idle
commendation of nothing. Why is it, that whatever you see, and
whoever you see, you are to be so indiscriminately lavish of praise?'
'Why I'll tell you, Sir,' said I, 'when I am with you, and Mr.
Thrale, and Queeny, I am obliged to be civil for four!'"]

The other entries referring to the Thrales are:

"_August_ 22.--We went to visit Bodville, the place where Mrs. Thrale
was born, and the churches called Tydweilliog and Llangwinodyl, which
she holds by impropriation."

"_August_ 24.--We went to see Bodville. Mrs. Thrale remembered the
rooms, and wandered over them, with recollections of her childhood.
This species of pleasure is always melancholy.... Mr. Thrale purposes
to beautify the churches, and, if he prospers, will probably restore
the tithes. Mrs. Thrale visited a house where she had been used to
drink milk, which was left, with an estate of 200_l._ a year, by one
Lloyd, to a married woman who lived with him."

"_August_ 26.--_Note_. Queeny's goats, 149, I think."

Without Mr. Duppa's aid this last entry would be a puzzle for
commentators. His note is:

"Mr. Thrale was near-sighted, and could not see the goats browsing on
Snowdon, and he promised his daughter, who was a child of ten years
old, a penny for every goat she would show him, and Dr. Johnson kept
the account; so that it appears her father was in debt to her one
hundred and forty-nine pence. _Queeny_ was an epithet, which had its
origin in the nursery, by which (in allusion to _Queen_ Esther) Miss
Thrale (whose name was Esther) was always distinguished by Johnson."
She was named, after her mother, Hester, not Esther.

On September 13, Johnson sets down: "We came, to Lo