Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/158

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150 Narrative by John Hoole.

on the dangerous state of our friend, when it was resolved that Mr. Sastres should write to Heberden * ; but going to his house that night, he fortunately found him at home, and he promised to be with Dr. Johnson next morning.

Sunday, Nov. 28. Went to Dr. Johnson's about two o'clock : met Mrs. Hoole coming from thence, as he was asleep : took her back with me : found Sir John Hawkins with him. The Doctor's conversation tolerably cheerful. Sir John reminded him that he had expressed a desire to leave some small memo rials to his friends, particularly a Polyglot Bible to Mr. Lang- ton 2 ; and asked if they should add the codicil then. The Doctor replied, * he had forty things to add, but could not do it at that time.' Sir John then took his leave. Mr. Sastres came next into the dining-room, where I was with Mrs. Hoole. Dr. Johnson hearing that Mrs. Hoole was in the next room, desired to see her. He received her with great affection, took her by the hand, and said nearly these words : ' I feel great tenderness for you : think of the situation in which you see me, profit by it, and God Almighty keep you for Jesus Christ's sake, Amen.' He then asked if we would both stay and dine with him. Mrs. Hoole said she could not ; but I agreed to stay. Upon my saying to the Doctor that Dr. Heberden would be with him that morning, his answer was, ' God has called me, and Dr. Heberden comes too late.' Soon after this Dr. Heberden came. While he was there, we heard them, from the other room, in earnest discourse, and found that they were talking

over the affair 3 of the K g and C n 4 . We overheard

Dr. Heberden say, * All you did was extremely proper.' After

1 Letters, ii. 95, n. ; Life, iv. 228. Fellow of the College of Physicians.

' Dr. Heberden (as every physician, A. C. Buller's Life of Heberden, 1879,

to make himself talked of, will set up p. 17- For his house built on the

some new hypothesis) pretends that site of Nell Gwynne's, see Letters, ii.

a damp house, and even damp sheets, 3 O2 > n - *

which have ever been reckoned fatal, 2 This was bequeathed. Life, iv.

are wholesome ; to prove his faith 402, n. 2.

he went into his own new house 3 'This alludes to an application

totally unaired, and survived it.' made for an increase to his pension,

Walpole's Letters, vi. 220. He sur- to enable him to go to Italy.' J.

vived it twenty-six years and died at HOOLE. Life, iv. 326.

the age of ninety-one the Senior 4 ' Sic ; but probably an error of

Dr.

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