144 Anecdotes by Miss Hawkins.
My father and Boswell grew a little acquainted ; and when the Life of their friend came out, Boswell showed himself very uneasy under an injury, which he was much embarrassed in defining. He called on my father, and being admitted, complained of the manner in which he was enrolled amongst Johnson's friends, which was as Mr. James Boswell of Auchinleck 1 . Where was the offence ? It was one of those which a complainant hardly dares to embody in words : he would only repeat, * Well, but Mr. James Boswell ! surely, surely, Mr. James Boswell //'.... ' I know,' said my father, ' Mr. Boswell, what you mean ; you would have had me say that Johnson undertook this tour with THE BOSWELL.' He could not indeed absolutely covet this mode of proclamation ; he would perhaps have been content with 'the celebrated/ or
- the well-known,' but he could not confess quite so much ; he
therefore acquiesced in the amendment proposed, but he was forced to depart without any promise of correction in a sub sequent edition. (Vol. i. p. 235.)
tion.' History of England, ed. 1800, 'Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney.'
iii. 239. See Hume's Letters to Life, \. 190. See ante, ii. 36, in Bos-
Strahan, p. 125, n. 13. well's letter to Malone of March 8,
1 Hawkins described him as 'Mr. 1791, where he tells how he has got
James Boswell, a native of Scotland.' the printer of the Oracle to promise
Hawkins, p. 472. Boswell in return, to mention that some lines by Mr.
in enumerating the members of the Boswell are not by James Boswell^
Ivy Lane Club, described him as Esq. See also Life, ii. 382, n. i.
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