He has been accused of treating Lord Lyttelton roughly in his life of him ; he assured a friend, however, that he kept back a very ridiculous anecdote of him, relative to a question he put to a great divine of his time *.
Johnson's account of Lord Lyttelton's envy to Shenstone for his improvements in his grounds, &c. 8 , was confirmed by an in genious writer. Spence was in the house for a fortnight with the Lytteltons, before they offered to shew him Shenstone's place.
When accused of mentioning ridiculous anecdotes in the lives of the poets, he said, he should not have been an exact bio grapher if he had omitted them. The business of such a one, ( said he, is to give a complete account of the person whose life is writing, and to discriminate him from all other persons any peculiarities of character or sentiment he may happen to have 3 .
He spoke Latin with great fluency and elegance. He said, indeed, he had taken great pains about it 4 .
A very famous schoolmaster said, he had rather take Johnson's
1 'Dr. Johnson, in \\\<=>Lifeof Lyttel- of a walk to detect a deception ; in to;*, suppressed an anecdote which juries of which Shenstone would would have made his memory ridi- heavily complain.' Works, viii. 410. culous. He was a man rather melan- 3 Malone, recording a conversa- choly in his disposition, and used to tion with Johnson about the account declare to his friends, that when he he gave of Addison's reclaiming his went to Vauxhall he always supposed loan to Steele by an execution, con- pleasure to be in the next box to his tinues : ' I then mentioned to him at least, that he himself was so that some people thought that Mr. unhappily situated as always to be Addison's character was so pure, that in the wrong box for it.' European the fact, though trtte, ought to have Magazine, 1798, p. 376. been suppressed. He saw no reason
For the Life of Lyttelton see Life, for this. " If nothing but the bright
iv. 57, 64. side of characters should be shewn,
2 * For a while the inhabitants of we should sit down in despondency,
Hagley affected to tell their ac- and think it utterly impossible to
quaintance of the little fellow that imitate them in any thing."' Life,
was trying to make himself admired; iv. 53. ' M'Leod asked, if it was not
but when by degrees the Leasowes wrong in Orrery to expose the defects
forced themselves into notice, they of a man with whom he lived in
took care to defeat the curiosity intimacy. JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir,
which they could not suppress, by after the man is dead ; for then it is
conducting their visitants perversely done historically." ' Ib. v. 238.
to inconvenient points of view, and See also ib. i. 9, 30, 32.
introducing them at the wrong end 4 Ib. ii. 125, 404. Ante, \. 417.
B 2 opinion
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