years in the family. As he had a pension of
_80l._ a year, besides the interest of his _500l._, he did not want
money. If he had been allowed to want it, the charge of avarice would
lie at Mr., not Mrs., Thrale's door; and his memory was exposed to no
insult beyond the stigma which (as we shall presently see) his
conduct and language necessarily fixed upon it. All his literary
friends did not entertain the same high opinion of him. An
unpublished letter from Dr. Warton to his brother contains the
following passage:

"He (Huggins, the translator of Ariosto) abuses Baretti infernally,
and says that he one day lent Baretti a gold watch, and could never
get it afterwards; that after many excuses Baretti, skulked, and then
got Johnson to write to Mr. Huggins a suppliant letter; that this
letter stopped Huggins awhile, while Baretti got a protection from
the Sardinian ambassador; and that, at last, with great difficulty,
the watch was got from a pawnbroker to whom Baretti had sold it."

This extract is copied from a valuable contribution to the literary
annals of the eighteenth century, for which we are indebted to the
colonial press.[1] It is the diary of an Irish clergyman, containing
strong internal evidence of authenticity, although nothing more is
known of it than that the manuscript was discovered behind an old
press in one of the offices of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
That such a person saw a good deal of Johnson in 1775, is proved by
Boswell, whose accuracy is frequently confirmed in return. In one
marginal note Mrs. Thrale says: "He was a fine showy talking man.
Johnson liked him of all things in a year or two." In another: "Dr.
Campbell was a very tall handsome man, and, speaking of some other
_High_-bernian, used this expression: 'Indeed now, and upon my honour,
Sir, I am but a Twitter to him.'"[2]

[Footnote 1: Diary of a Visit to England in 1775. By an Irishman (the
Rev. Doctor Thomas Campbell, author of "A Philosophical Survey of the
South of Ireland.") And other Papers by the same hand. With Notes by
Samuel Raymond, M.A., Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South
Wales. Sydney. Waugh and Cox. 1854.]

[Footnote 2: He is similarly described in the "Letters," vol. i. p.
329.]

Several of his entries throw light on the Thrale establishment:

"_14th._--This day I called at Mr. Thrale's, where I was received
with all respect by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. She is a very learned lady,
and joins to the c