[20] Samuel Johnson, b. 1709; d. 1784. Boswell's the standard life of him, and Birkbeck Hill's the best edition of that life. We miss in it, indeed, some of the "Croker" notes, which made such inviting quarry for the sharp huntsmanship of Macaulay. But the editing is done with a love and a tirelessness which are as winning as they are rare. See, also, Leslie Stephen's sketch--which is the best short life. [21] _Ency. Britannica_; Art. Johnson. [22] B. 1698; d. 1743. Poet and dramatist. Collected edit. of his writings published in 1775. His largest claim to distinction is due to the _Life of Richard Savage_, by Samuel Johnson; first published 1744. [23] _Vide_ old edition of _Ency. Britannica_, also Strahan's _Biographical Dictionary_ of 1784; _Biographie Universelle, et al._ [24] See _Notes and Queries_, November and December, 1858. [25] Philip Dormer Stanhope (Earl of Chesterfield), b. 1694; d. 1773, best known by his _Letters to His Son_, first published in 1774. Johnson said they taught "the morals of a courtesan, and the manners of a dancing-master." This was perhaps over-severe. People who do not love to disport in fashionable waters are apt to be severe upon those who spend their faculties upon the coquetries of bathing costume. {101} CHAPTER III. It was a little after the middle of the last century that our story opens again. George II., whose virtues and vices were clock-like in their regularities, was on the throne; Queen Caroline, whom he had always abused and always venerated, was in her grave for twelve or more years past. Outside politics were ripening for that French and English war--in which a Montcalm and a Wolfe figured upon our side the water, and which has been put in picturesque array by Francis Parkman; the geraniums and oleanders were blossoming over the Portuguese grave of Harry Fielding; Thomson had sung his last notes in his _Castle of Indolence_ and was laid to rest--not in Kelso, or Dryburgh, where his body should have mouldered--but in a little Richmond Church, within gunshot of the "Star and Garter." {102} Gray was still studying the scholarly measures of the _Bard_, in his beloved Cambridge; Horace Walpole playing the _élégant_ was fattening on his revenues at Strawberry Hill; while Dr. Johnson--notwithstanding the Dictionary and the _Rambler_--had been latterly (1756) in such sore straits as to appeal to his friend Richardson for the loan of a few guineas to save him from jail; and Richardson, fresh then in his triumphs from _Clarissa Harlowe_ and the great _Grandison_, was not slow to grant the request,[1] and to enjoy all the more his Kingship among the women, in his great house out at Hammersmith. [Sidenote: London streets.]