ioo Extracts from
��i the hour of eight, Mrs. Lenox and her husband, and a lady of her acquaintance, now living, as also the [Ivy Lane] club, and J friends to the number of near twenty, assembled. Our supper was elegant, and Johnson had directed that a magnificent hot apple-pye should make a part of it T , and this he would have stuck with bay-leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lenox was an authoress, and had written verses ; and further, he had prepared for her a crown of laurel, with which, but not till he had invoked the muses by some ceremonies of his own invention, he encircled her brows. The night passed, as must be imagined, in pleasant conversation, and harmless mirth, intermingled at different periods with the refreshments of coffee and tea. About five, Johnson's face shone with meridian splendour, though his drink had been only lemonade 2 ; but the far greater part of us had deserted the colours of Bacchus, and were with difficulty rallied to partake of a second refreshment of coffee, which was scarcely ended when the day began to dawn. This phenomenon began to put us in mind of our reckoning 3 ; but the waiters were all so overcome with sleep, that it was two hours before we could get a bill, and it was not till near eight that the creaking of the street-door gave the signal for our departure.
My mirth had been considerably abated by a severe fit of the tooth-ach, which had troubled me the greater part of the night, and which Bathurst 4 endeavoured to alleviate by all the topical remedies and palliatives he could think of ; and I well remember, at the instant of my going out of the tavern-door, the sensation of shame that effected me, occasioned not by reflection on any thing
the nose with a pair of hot tongs. that feeble man who cannot do with-
Opposite to this noted house is out any thing." ' Life, v. 72. Chancery Lane.' Pennant's London, 3 To Hawkins the reckoning must
1790, p. 154. have been peculiarly painful. Of him
1 In memory of this festal night an Dr. Burney records as regards the apple-pie forms part of the suppers Literary Club : * The Knight having of the Johnson Club at its meetings refused to pay his portion of the in one of the Fleet Street taverns. reckoning for supper, because he
2 ' He was angry with me (Bos well usually ate no supper at home, John- writes) for proposing to carry lemons son observed, " Sir John, Sir, is a with us to Sky, that he might be very undubable man." ' Life, i. 480, sure to have his lemonade. " Sir, n. i.
(said he) I do not wish to be thought 4 Ante, i. 390.
evil
�� �
