ce, matriculation &c., perhaps 2 0 0
His gown (I think) 2 10 0
________
L 23 10 0

'If you send us a Bill for about thirty pounds we shall set out
commodiously enough. You should fit him out with cloaths and linen,
and let him start fair, and it is the opinion of those whom I consult,
that with your hundred a year and the petty scholarship he may live
with great ease to himself, and credit to you.

'Let me hear as soon as is possible.

'In your affair with the university, I shall not be consulted, but I
hear nothing urged against your proposal.

'I am, Sir,
'Your humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Oct. 24, 1764.

'My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.

'To Mr. Strahan, Printer, in New Street, Shoe-lane, London.'

My friend, Mr. C. J. Faulkner, Fellow and Tutor of University College,
has given me the following extracts from the College records:--

'Oct. 30-31, 1764. Candidatis examinatis electi sunt Gulielmus Jones
et Georgius Strahan in vacuas Exhibitiones Dmi Simonis Benet Baronetti.'

Gulielmus Jones is the famous oriental scholar, Sir William Jones, whose
portrait adorns the Hall of his ancient College (_ante_, ii. 25, n. 2).

On April 16, 1767, is found the election of 'Georgium Strahan, sophistam
in perpetuum hujus Collegii Socium.'

He vacated his fellowship in 1773.

The value of a Bennet scholarship in 1764 was ten pounds a year, with
rooms added, the rent of which was reckoned as equal to two pounds more.
A fellowship on the same foundation was worth about twenty pounds, with
a yearly dividend added to it that amounted to about thirty pounds.
'Fines' (_ante_, iii. 323) and other extra payments might easily raise
the value to more than sixty pounds.

The 'caution' is the sum deposited by an undergraduate with the College
Bursar or Steward as a security for the payment of his 'battells' or
account. Johnson in 1728 had to pay at Pembroke College the same sum
(seven pounds) that George Strahan in 1764 had to pay at University
College. _Ante_, i. 58, n. 2.

Johnson wrote four letters to George Strahan, when he was a boy at
school, and one letter when he was at College. (See Croker's _Johnson_,
pp. 129, 130, 161, 168.) In this last letter, dated May 25, 1765, he
writes: 'Do not tire yourself so much with Greek one day as to be afraid
of looking on it the nex