His ftudies had been fo various, that I am not able to name a man of equal knowledge. His acquaintance with books was great, and what he did not immediately know, he could at leaft tell where to find. Such was his amplitude of learning, and fuch his copiousness of communication, that it may be doubted whether a day now paffes, in which I have ⚫ not fome advantage from his friendship.

At this man's table I enjoyed many chearful and • inftructive hours, with companions, fuch as are not often found; with one who has lengthened, and one who has gladdened life; with Dr. James, whose fkill in phyfic will be long remembered; and with 'David Garrick, whom I hoped to have gratified with ⚫ this character of our common friend: but what are the hopes of man! I am difappointed by that ftroke of death, which has eclipfed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public ftock of harmless pleasure.'

The benevolent perfon, fo gratefully remembered in the above encomium, knowing the abilities of Johnfon, encouraged him in his defign of becoming a teacher of literature: he fuggefted to him the taking a large house, situate in a place adjacent to Lichfield; which, however the name of it be fpelt, the common people call Edjal: thither Johnfon went, and with him young Garrick, who, though he had been educated in Lichfield school, and was then near eighteen years old, having been diverted in the courfe of his ftudies. by a cail to Lifbon, ftood in need of improvement in the Latin and French languages.

The placing Garrick under the tuition of Johnson, was an act of Mr. Walmfley's, and refembles that

politic device of country house-wives, the placing one
egg
in the neft of a hen to induce her to lay more: it
fucceeded fo far, as to draw from the families of the
neighbouring gentry a few pupils, and among the
rest, a son of Mr. Offley, of Staffordshire; a name,
that for centuries paft, may be traced in the history and
records of that country. But, so adverse were his
fortunes in this early period, that this well-planned
scheme of a fettlement difappointed the hopes of
Johnfon and his friends; for, neither his own abilities,
nor the patronage of Mr. Walmsley, nor the exertions
of Mrs. Johnson and her relations, fucceeded farther
than to produce an acceffion of about five or fix pupils ;
fo that his number, at no time, exceeded eight, and
of those not all were boarders.

After waiting a reasonable time in hopes of more pupils, Johnson, finding they came in but flowly, had recourfe to the ufual method of raising a school. In the year 1736, he advertised the inftructing young gentlemen in the Greek and Latin languages, by himself, at his house, defcribing it near Lichfield. * That this notification failed of its end, we can scarce wonder, if we reflect, that he was little more than twenty-feven years of age when he published it, and that he had not the vanity to profefs teaching all sciences, nor the effrontery of thofe, who, in thefe more modern times, undertake, in private boarding-schools to qualify young men for holy orders.

The following is the advertisement which he published upon the occafion: At Edial, near. Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young ⚫ gentlemen are boarded, and taught the Latin and Greek languages by SAMUEL JOHNSON.' Vide Gent. Mag. for 1736, Page 418.

By means of a paper which I have now before me, I am able to furnish, what I take to have been his

method or plan of inftitution; and, as it may be un deemed a curiofity, and may ferve the purpose of future inftructors of youth, I here infert it:

When the introduction or formation of nouns and verbs is perfectly mastered, the pupils learn

Corderius, by Mr. Clarke; beginning at the fame time to translate out of his introduction. They then proceed to

Erafmus, reading him with Clarke's tranflation.
These books form the first class.
Class II.

Read Eutropius and Cornelius Nepos, or
Justin with the tranflation. The first class
to repeat by memory, in the morning,
the rules they had learned before; and,
in the afternoon, the Latin rules of the
nouns and verbs. They are alfo, on
Thursdays and Saturdays to be examined
in the rules they have learned.

The fecond clafs does the fame while
in Eutropius; afterwards, they are to get
and repeat the irregular nouns and verbs;
and also, the rules for making and fcan-
ning verses, in which they are to be ex-
amined as the first class.

Class III. Read Ovid's Metamorphofes in the morning, and Cæfar's Commentaries in the afternoon. Continue the Latin rules till they are perfect in them. Proceed then to Leeds's Greek Grammar, and are examined as before.

They then proceed to Virgil, beginning at the fame time to compose themes D 3 and

and verses, and learn Greek, and from thence pafs on to Horace, Terence, and Salluft. The Greek authors afterwards read are, first, thofe in the Attic dialect, which are Cebes, Ælian, Lucian by Leeds, and Xenophon: next Homer in the Ionic, Theocritus Doric, Euripides Attic and Doric.

From two letters, first inferted in the Gentleman's Magazine, and fince in fundry other publications, from Mr. Walmsley to his friend the reverend Mr. Colfon, a mathematician, and, in his later years, Lucasian profeffor at Cambridge, little is to be learnt refpecting the hiftory of Johnfon and Garrick, at this period: the one wants the date of the month, the other that of the year; and though, in the order of their publication, the one immediately follows the other, there must have been fome interval between the times of writing the firft and the last. The first is dated in 1737, and as it contains a recommendation of Garrick to Mr. Colfon, for inftruction in mathematics, philofophy, and human learning, leads us to fuppofe, that before the time of writing it, Johnson's scheme of taking in boarders had proved abortive. The latter, written in what year we know not, and inferted below, recommends both Johnfon and Garrick to his notice, the former as a good scholar and one that gave hopes of turning out a fine tragedy-writer; and, we are from good authority affured, that in March, in the year Jast above-mentioned, they, on horfe-back, arrived in town together.

Dear

Dear Sir,

Lichfield, March 2,

I had the favour of yours, and am extremely obliged to you; but cannot fay, I had a greater 'affection for you upon it, than I had before, being long fince fo much endeared to you, as well by

an early friendship, as by your many excellent and ' valuable qualifications. And, had I a son of my own, it would be my ambition, instead of fending him to the univerfity, to difpofe of him as this young gentleman is.

་

He and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. S. Johnson, fet out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick is to be with you, early the next week, and Mr. Johnfon to try his fate with a tragedy, and to fee to get himself employed in fome tranflation either from the Latin or the French. Johnfon is a very good fcholar and a poet, and, I have great hopes, will turn out a fine tragedywriter. If it should any ways lay in your way, doubt not but you would be ready to recommend ' and affist your countryman.

G. WALMSLEY.'

The hope fuggefted in this letter is grounded on a circumstance which will lead us back to about the year before he quitted his fchool at Edial. It must be imagined, the inftruction of fo fmall a number of scholars as were under his care, left him at leifure to purfue his private ftudies and amufements, which, for the most part, confifted in defultory reading. Let it not excite wonder in any that fhall peruse these memoirs, to be told, that Burton on Melancholy was a book that he frequently reD 4 forted