192 BOYSE. died, after a lingering illness, in obscure lodgings near Shoe-lañe, in the month of May 1749. The manner of bis death is variously related. Mr. Giles, a collector of poems, says he was informed by Mr. Sandby, the bookseller, that Boyse was found dead in his bed, with a pen in his hand, and in the act of writing: and Dr. Johnson informed Mr. Nichols that he was run over by a coach, when in a fit of intoxication; or that he was brought home in such a condition as to make this probable, but too far gone to be able to give any account of the accident. Another of Mr. Nichols's correspondents produces a letter from Mr. Stewart, the son of a bookseller at Edin- burgh, who had long been intimately acquainted with Mr. Boyse, in which the particulars of his death are related in a different manner. "Poor Mr. Boyse was one evening last winter attacked estminster by two or three soldiers, who not only robbed him, but used him so barbarously, that he never recovered the bruises he received, which might very pro- bably induce the consumption of which he died. About nine months before his death he married a cutler's widow a native of Dublin, with whom he had no money; but she proved a very careful nurse to him during his lingering indisposition. She told me, that Mr. Boyse never ima- gined he was dying, as he always was talking of his reco- very; but, perhaps, his design in this might be to 'comfort her, for one incident makes me think otherwise. About foor or five weeks before he breathed his last,' his wife went out in the morning, and was surprised to find a great deal of burnt papers upon the hearth, which he told her were old bills and accompts; but I suppose were his ma- nuscripts, which he had resolved to destroy, for nothing of that kind could be found after his death. Though from this circumstance it may be inferred that he was appre- hensive of death, yet, I must own, that he never intimated it to me, nor did he seem in the least desirous of any spiritual advice. For some months before his end, he had
