day;
and as I was not in London, I had no opportunity of enjoying his company
and recording his conversation. To supply this blank, I shall present
my readers with some Collectanea, obligingly furnished to me by the Rev.
Dr. Maxwell, of Falkland, in Ireland, sometime assistant preacher at the
Temple, and for many years the social friend of Johnson, who spoke of
him with a very kind regard.

'His general mode of life, during my acquaintance, seemed to be pretty
uniform. About twelve o'clock I commonly visited him, and frequently
found him in bed, or declaiming over his tea, which he drank very
plentifully. He generally had a levee of morning visitors, chiefly
men of letters; Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Murphy, Langton, Steevens,
Beaucherk, &c. &c., and sometimes learned ladies, particularly I
remember a French lady of wit and fashion doing him the honour of a
visit. He seemed to me to be considered as a kind of publick oracle,
whom every body thought they had a right to visit and consult; and
doubtless they were well rewarded. I never could discover how he found
time for his compositions. He declaimed all the morning, then went to
dinner at a tavern, where he commonly staid late, and then drank his tea
at some friend's house, over which he loitered a great while, but seldom
took supper. I fancy he must have read and wrote chiefly in the night,
for I can scarcely recollect that he ever refused going with me to
a tavern, and he often went to Ranelagh, which he deemed a place of
innocent recreation.

'He frequently gave all the silver in his pocket to the poor, who
watched him, between his house and the tavern where he dined. He walked
the streets at all hours, and said he was never robbed, for the rogues
knew he had little money, nor had the appearance of having much.

'Though the most accessible and communicative man alive; yet when he
suspected he was invited to be exhibited, he constantly spurned the
invitation.

'Two young women from Staffordshire visited him when I was present, to
consult him on the subject of Methodism, to which they were inclined.
"Come, (said he,) you pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the
Mitre, and we will talk over that subject;" which they did, and after
dinner he took one of them upon his knee, and fondled her for half an
hour together.

'Johnson was much attached to London: he observed, that a man stored his
mind better there, than any where else; and that in remote situations a
ma