UEL JOHNSON

A toast proposed at the Johnson Birthday Celebration held at the Three
Crowns Inn, Lichfield, in September, 1906.

In rising to propose this toast I cannot ignore what must be in many of
your minds, the recollection that last year it was submitted by a very
dear friend of my own, who, alas! has now gone to his rest, I mean Dr.
Richard Garnett. {3} Many of you who heard him in this place will
recall, with kindly memories, that venerable scholar. I am one of those
who, in the interval have stood beside his open grave; and I know you
will permit me to testify here to the fact that rarely has such brilliant
scholarship been combined with so kindly a nature, and with so much
generosity to other workers in the literary field. One may sigh that it
is not possible to perpetuate for all time for the benefit of others the
vast mass of learning which such men as Dr. Garnett are able to
accumulate. One may lament even more that one is not able to present in
some concrete form, as an example to those who follow, his fine qualities
of heart and mind--his generous faculty for 'helping lame dogs over
stiles.'

Dr. Garnett had not only a splendid erudition that specially qualified
him for proposing this toast, he had also what many of you may think an
equally exceptional qualification--he was a native of Lichfield; he was
born in this fine city. As a Londoner--like Boswell when charged with
the crime of being a Scotsman I may say that I cannot help it--I suppose
I should come to you with hesitating footsteps. Perhaps it was rash of
me to come at all, in spite of an invitation so kindly worded. Yet how
gladly does any lover, not only of Dr. Johnson, but of all good
literature, come to Lichfield. Four cathedral cities of our land stand
forth in my mind with a certain magnetic power to draw even the most
humble lover of books towards them--Oxford, Bath, Norwich, Lichfield,
these four and no others. Oxford we all love and revere as the
nourishing mother of so many famous men. Here we naturally recall Dr.
Johnson's love of it--his defence of it against all comers. The glamour
of Oxford and the memory of the great men who from age to age have walked
its streets and quadrangles, is with us upon every visit. Bath again has
noble memories. Upon house after house in that fine city is inscribed
the fact that it was at one time the home of a famous man or woman of the
past. Through its streets many of our great imagin