Sir?" inquired a lady of Johnson. Nayther, Madam," replied he. The great oracle never wholly got rid of his Staffordshire. Garrick, more likely, outlived his, even if originally tinctured, for an actor's ear is sharp. His critics used to complain of his Irvingisms (if the anachronism may be permitted !), but not that he called ' once,' 'woonse,' as Boswell found the Lichfielders did, though Johnson, after a comfortable supper at the Three Crowns, pronounced that they spoke the purest English of any in England. Garrick, it will be remembered, used to take off Dr. Johnson's uncouth way of squeezing a lemon into a bowl while he called out, "Who's for poonch ?" It was stated by Dr. Burney that all Lichfield people, including Garrick himself, said 'shuperior' and 'shupreme.' They are less Hibernian now. Quick and forward Garrick, as a boy, certainly was -his lively, mobile letters prove it-and his memory, that in a few years' time could master twenty leading parts in eight months, must have been exceptional, even when less congenially occupied. At all ages he had strong literary proclivities, and a handy acquaintance with Latin classics. His school-days had an odd interlude, which, as he told his father in a letter, "backened him a good deal" in his studies preparatory for the University. At the tender age of eleven he was shipped to Lisbon by himself to learn his vintner uncle David's trade. In Lisbon he did not long abide, though long enough to acquire a name among the English merchants for amusing recitation. They used, in their convivial way, after dinner, to help the limber elf on to the table, where he would declaim speeches from plays. He was noticed by a noble wine-grower, the Duque d'Aveiro, who, thirty-one years afterwards, was broken on the wheel, and burnt alive. L In Portugal, it was still the Middle Age. In England, it was only the eighteenth century, when a man might be hanged for cutting down a tree. Contemplating the modernity of special individuals and the well-regulated existence of refined Lichfield, it is difficult to remember we are in the century of Hogarth's Warden of the Fleet picture, when so late a person as Memory Rogers recollected to have seen a cartful of young girls on their way to Tyburn to be executed. If we think of the contemporary Penal Code, not only does the savagery of schoolmasters like Hunter become intelligible, but his "This I do to save you from the gallows" bears a different interpretation, the gallows being realised as a punishment for a hundred and sixty separate offences. In adult life, Johnson spoke of Hunter as a good master, but then Johnson, at that period, had no prejudice against the rod. He said it was a wholesomer stimulus than emulation. The Garricks knew everybody' in Lichfield, or 'Litchfield,' as it was more commonly written. There were the Howards, and the Levetts, and Dr. Hector, their earlier doctor, whose son settled in Birmingham, and, from being Johnson's schoolfellow, became his lifelong friend. There was also Dr. James, their second doctor, who, in 1746, blossomed out as patentee of the famous Fever Powders, advertised in Goody Two-Shoes, and celebrated in one of Cumberland's odes. All the world took 'Dr. James' Powder.' Owing to its 'Miraculous' properties (the epithet is Sir William Weller Pepys's 1) George, first Lord Lyttelton, when upon his deathbed, was for over twenty-four hours judged to be recovering. The Honourable Horace Walpole recommended the powder to everyone for everything, swore he should take it if the house were on fire, and was 1A Later Pepys, i. 174. By Miss Gaussen, i. 174. 1904. furious with the doctor who attended Madame du Deffand for not giving it her when she lay dying-he believed it could cure everything but physicians.' In one much discussed case,1 the powder, most obstinately taken against the advice of two practitioners, proved fatal. Even then, the enlightened Horace must write to Mason, "Dr. Goldsmith is dead of a purple fever, and I think he might have been saved if he had continued James's powder but his physician interposed." One would be glad to ascertain whether it was before or after the invention of the patent medicine that Johnson said of 'Jamy'-"no man brings more mind to his profession," for once, at least, in his big-wig days, the fashionable M.D. was singularly undeserving of this commendation. It was when he was sent for to the last person in the world likely to sham illness, Lady Diana Beauclerk. "After she had stated very fully and earnestly her complaint, He damned his Taylor that he had made one Pocket an inch and a half higher than the other without ever having attended to what she said." A third doctor in the Garricks' circle was Samuel Swinfen, Johnson's godfather, who was so indiscreet as to show Lichfield friends young Johnson's Latin diagnosis of his own nervous gloom, and, by so doing, estranged his patient for ever. It was worthy of Johnson that this man's daughter, Mrs. Desmoulins, and her daughter, found, when destitute, a home under his roof. member of the Levett family, Robert Levett, the poor apothecary on whose death he wrote the sacred verses' Thackeray recited in his moving way when lecturing on the Four Georges, was another of his permanent guests. Any link with Lichfield, with all its deep, pensive A 1 An Account of the late Dr. Goldsmith's Illness; so far as related to the Exhibition of Dr. James's Powders. By William Hawes, Apothecary, 1774. (This curious pamphlet passed into several subsequent editions.) memories, was a key to open the gates of Johnson's kindness. And it was kindness indeed. Witness his description of that mixed eleemosynary ménage of his, where "Williams hates everybody; Levett hates Desmoulins and does not love Williams; Desmoulins hates them both." Garrick, too, could be genuinely charitable, if less affectionately so, to anyone who had the claim upon him of Lichfield acquaintanceship. "Sir, a liberal man. He has given away more money than any man in England." Of which, more later. The names already mentioned are those that occur oftenest in young David's letters to his father. There was, too, the Honourable Mrs. Henry Hervey, wife of the Earl of Bristol's fourth son, quartered at Lichfield, about whom David has the gratification of announcing, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey came to see my Mamma . . . she is a very fine Lady, & has return'd but few of her visits' -a manifestation of a sort to which Garrick was constitutionally susceptible. The father of the man adds, "I am a great favourite of both of them and am with them every Day." In years to come, it was of this disdainful lady's husband that Johnson said, "If you call a dog Hervey, I shall love him." Mrs. Hervey herself was Staffordshire, being Sir Thomas Aston's eldest daughter, and she subsequently brought her husband the Aston estate and name. All the best Lichfield company met round Walmesley's table, where a cover was often laid for Johnson. The Bishop's Registrar was specially kindly to young beginners, and thoughtful for their pride and vanities. Thus, he gave 'Davy,' his favourite, 'slyly,' two halfcrowns to tip the butler and groom at 'Mr. Ofley's.' This agreeable opportunity to 'look very grand' meant so much to the shillingless lad who gravitated naturally towards people of consequence that he put in a P.S. to |