rd Sandys', at
Ombersley, where we were treated with great civility." It was here,
as he told Mrs. Thrale, that for the only time in his life he had as
much wall fruit as he liked; yet she says that he was in the habit of
eating six or seven peaches before breakfast during the fruit season
at Streatham. Swift was also fond of fruit: "observing (says Scott)
that a gentleman in whose garden he walked with some friends, seemed
to have no intention to request them to eat any, the Dean remarked
that it was a saying of his dear grandmother:

"'Always pull a peach
When it is within your reach;'

and helping himself accordingly, his example was followed by the
whole company." Thomson, the author of the "Castle of Indolence," was
once seen lounging round Lord Burlington's garden, with his hands in
his waistcoat pockets, biting off the sunny sides of the peaches.

Johnson's dislike to the Lyttletons was not abated by his visit to
Hagley, of which he says, "We made haste away from a place where all
were offended." Mrs. Thrale's explanation is: "Mrs. Lyttelton,
_ci-devant_ Caroline Bristow, forced me to play at whist against my
liking, and her husband took away Johnson's candle that he wanted to
read by at the other end of the room. Those, I trust, were the
offences."

He was not in much better humour at Combermere Abbey, the seat of her
relative, Sir Lynch Cotton, which is beautifully situated on one of
the finest lakes in England. He commends the place grudgingly, passes
a harsh judgment on Lady Cotton, and is traditionally recorded to
have made answer to the baronet who inquired what he thought of a
neighbouring peer (Lord Kilmorey): "A dull, commonplace sort of man,
just like you and your brother."

In a letter to Levet, dated Lleweny, in Denbighshire, August 16,
1774, printed by Boswell, is this sentence: "Wales, so far as I have
yet seen of it, is a very beautiful and rich country, all enclosed
and planted." Her marginal note is: "Yet to please Mr. Thrale, he
feigned abhorrence of it."

I am indebted to an intelligent and accurate in-formant for a curious
incident of the Welsh tour:

"Dr. Johnson was taken by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale to dine at Maesnynan,
with my relation, Mr. Lloyd, who, with his pretty young daughter
(motherless), received them at the door. All came out of the carriage
except the great lexicographer, who was crouching in what my uncle
jokingly called the Poets' Corner, deeply interested evidently w