“Tuesday, 24th August, (1773) set out for Dr. Majendie’s at Kew Green. The Doctor told me that he had not seen the king yesterday, but had left a note in writing, to intimate, that I was to be at his house to-day; and that one of the king’s pages had come to him this morning, to say, ‘that his Majesty would see me a little after twelve.’ At twelve, the Doctor and I went to the king’s house at Kew. We had been only a few minutes in the hall, when the king and queen came in from an airing; and as they passed through the hall, the king called to me by name, and asked how long it was since I came from town? I answered about an hour. ‘I shall see you,’ says he, ‘in a little.’ The Doctor and I waited a considerable time, for the king was busy, and then we were called into a large room, furnished as a library, where the king was walking about, and the queen sitting in a chair. We were received in the most gracious manner possible, by both their Majesties. I had the honour of a conversation with them, nobody else being present but Dr. Majendie, for upwards of an hour on a great variety of topics; in which both the king and queen joined, with a degree of cheerfulness, affability, and ease, that was to me surprising, and soon dissipated the embarrassment which I felt at the beginning of the conference. They both complimented me in the highest terms on my ‘Essay,’ which they said was a book they always kept by them; and the king said he had one copy of it at Kew, and another in town, and immediately went and took it down from a shelf. I found it was the second edition. ‘I never stole a book, but one,’ said his Majesty, ‘and that was your’s (speaking to me) I stole it from the queen, to give it to Lord Hertford to read.’ He had heard that the sale of Hume’s ‘Essays’ had failed, since my book was published; and I told him what Mr. Strahan had told me, in regard to that matter. He had even heard of my being in Edinburgh last summer, and how Mr. Hume was offended on the score of my book. He asked many questions about the second part of the ‘Essay,’ and when it would be ready for the press. I gave him, in a short speech, an account of the plan of it; and said my health was so precarious, I could not tell when it might be ready, as I had many books to consult before I could finish it; but, that if my health were good, I thought I might bring it to a conclusion in two or three years. He asked how long I had been in composing my Essay? praised the caution with which it was written; and said he did not wonder that it had employed me five or six years. He asked, about my Poems. I said there was only one poem of my own, on which I set any value (meaning the ‘Minstrel’) and that it was first published about the same time with the ‘Essay.’ My other poems, I said were incorrect, being but juvenile pieces, and of little consequence, even in my own opinion. We had much conversation on moral subjects; from which both their Majesties let it