422 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
Mrs. Piozzi related to me, that when Dr. Johnson one day observed, that poets in general preferred some one couplet they had written to any other, she replied, that she did not suppose he had a favourite ; he told her she was mistaken he thought his best lines were :
' The encumber'd oar scarce leaves the hostile coast, Through purple billows and a floating host 1 .'
��FROM STEBBING SHAW.
[Anecdotes from Shaw's History of Staffordshire, i. 346, and the Gentleman's Magazine, 1785, p. 495.]
The large willow-tree in the fore-ground of the view of Stow Hill has been generally supposed to have been planted by Dr. John son or his father, but as the Doctor never would admit the fact, it is probable that the vicinity of a building known by the name of the Parchment House occasioned such supposition. The business of parchment-making was carried on by old Mr. John son 2 at that place, until he had greatly enriched his servants and injured his own fortune. ... Dr. Johnson never failed to visit this tree when he came to Lichfield. During his visit here in
dinner again. I took her side and sexes, whom she frequently enter- fomented the quarrel.' Letters, viii. tained at dinner. A service of plate 16. and a table plentifully covered dis- Wraxall wrote of her (Memoirs, posed her guests to admire the ed. 1815, i. 140) : ' Impressed prob- splendour of her Fortune not less ably from the suggestions of her own than the lustre of her Talents.' knowledge of the world, with a deep x ' The dreaded coast.' conviction of that great truth laid Vanity of Human Wishes, 1. 239. down by Moliere which no Man of See Life, i. 272, for his favourite Letters ever disputed, that Le vrai line in his translation of Pope's Amphytrion est celui chez qui Von Messiah.
dine [Le veritable Amphitryon est 2 In connexion with this manu-
1'Amphitryon ou Ton dine], Mrs.Mon- facture he was threatened with a pro-
tagu was accustomed to open her secution by the Excise Board. Life,
house to a large company of both i. 36, n. 5.
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