402 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
he employs the best painter ; and as for the Queen, I don't imagine she has any other idea of a picture but that it is a thing composed of many colours.'
When Mr. Johnson understood that I had lived some time in Bath, he asked me many questions that led, indeed, to a general description of it. He seemed very well pleased ; but remarked that men and women bathing together as they do at Bath is an instance of barbarity that he believed could not be paralleled in any part of the world x . He entertained us about an hour and a half in this manner; then we took our leave. I must not omit to add, that I am informed he denies himself many conveniences, though he cannot well afford any, that he may have more in his power to give in charities.
��BY DR. LETTSOM.
[From Memorials of John Coakley Lettsom^ London, 1817, 2 vols. ; vol i, part a, p. 78.]
Jan. 13, 1785.
Dr. Johnson was a pious man ; attached, I confess, to estab lished system, but it was from principle. In company I neither found him austere nor dogmatical ; he certainly was not polite, but he was not rude ; he was familiar with suitable company ; but his language in conversation was sententious ; he was sometimes jocular, but you felt as if you were playing with a lion's paw. His body was large, his features strong, his face scarred and furrowed with the scrophula ; he had a heavy look ; but when he spoke it was like lightning out of a dark cloud.
1 Miss Willis in Humphry Clinker in which they fix their handkerchiefs, (ed. 1792, i. 77) describes the bath : to wipe the sweat from their faces.' 4 The ladies wear jackets and petti- See also id. pp. 85, 90. coats of brown linen, with chip hats,
In
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