��A necdotes.
��than that which he said had the notions or manners of a gentleman I : which character I have heard him define with accuracy, and describe with elegance. ' Officers (he said) were falsely supposed to have the carriage of gentlemen ; whereas no profession left a stronger brand behind it than that of a soldier ; and it was the essence of a gentleman's character to bear the visible mark of no profession whatever 2 .' He once named Mr. Beren- ger 3 as the standard of true elegance ; but some one objecting that he too much resembled the gentleman in Congreve's come dies, Mr. Johnson said, ' We must fix them upon the famous Thomas Hervey 4 , whose manners were polished even to acuteness and brilliancy, though he lost but little in solid power of reasoning, and in genuine force of mind.' Mr. Johnson had however an avowed and scarcely limited partiality for all who bore the name or boasted the alliance of an Aston or a Hervey 5 ; and when
��1 Mrs. Piozzi, I conjecture, meant to say, ' that which said he had,' &c.
2 ' Dr. Johnson denied that mili tary men were always the best bred men. " Perfect good breeding, he observed, consists in having no par ticular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners ; whereas, in a military man, you can commonly distinguish the brand of a soldier, Fhomme (Tepee"' Life, ii. 82.
In a note on Airs Well that Ends Wells, Act ii. sc. I, he says : ' Every man has observed something peculiar in the strut of a soldier.'
3 ' Richard Berrenger, Esq., many years Gentleman of the Horse, and first Equerry to his present Majesty.' Life, iv. 90. His salary as Gentle man of the Horse was ^256. Court and City Calendar, 1766, p. 91. His History and Art of Horsemanship is reviewed in the Annual Register for 1771,1!. 260. In Dodsley's Collection of Poems, ed. 1758, vi. 271, are some verses of his To Mr. Grenville on his intended Resignation. He compares
��Grenville to a man intending to drown himself, who hears a voice exclaiming :
' Consider well, pray, what you do, And think what numbers live in
you;
If you go drown, your woes to ease, Pray who will keep your lice and
fleas?'
The poem ends : ' Oh, Grenville, then this tale apply, Nor drown yourself lest I should die ; Compassionate your louse's case, And keep your own to save his
place.'
He seems a strange ' standard of true elegance.'
4 ' Tom Hervey,' said Johnson, 'though a vicious man, was one of the genteelest men that ever lived.' Life, ii. 341. See also ib. ii. 32.
5 Thomas Hervey 's brother Henry had married Catherine Aston. Ib. i. 83, n. 4. Of him Johnson said : ' He was a vicious man, but very kind to me. If you call a dog Hervey I shall love him.' Ib. i. 1 06.
Mr.
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