The Norwich Road: An East Anglian HighwayHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Norwich Road: An East Anglian Highway
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
England -- Description and travel; Norwich Road
Two years later, in 1763, we find Dr Johnson and his inevitable Boswell
journeying down the road; Boswell on his way to Harwich for Utrecht,
and the Doctor good-naturedly accompanying him as far as that seaport.
They set out by coach on the 5th of August, early in the morning;
among their fellow-travellers a fat, elderly gentlewoman and a young
Dutchman, both inclined to conversation. Dining at an inn on the way,
the lady remarked that she had done her best to educate her children,
and particularly that she never suffered them to be a moment idle.
"I wish, madam," said Johnson, "you would educate me too; for I have
been an idle fellow all my life."
"I am sure, sir," said she, "you have not been idle;" which was a
mere empty compliment, for she had not the least idea whom she was
addressing.
"Nay, madam," rejoined the Doctor, "it is very true; and that gentleman
there," pointing to Boswell, "has been idle. He was idle at Edinburgh.
His father sent him to Glasgow, where he continued to be idle. He then
came to London, where he has been very idle; and now he is going to
Utrecht, where he will be as idle as ever."
At this, Boswell was very wroth, and asked Johnson, in an aside, how he
could expose him so.
"Pooh, pooh," retorted the immortal Samuel, "they know nothing about
you, and will think of it no more." Nor, in all probability, did they.
In this manner they travelled, the gentlewoman talking violently
against the Roman Catholics and the horrors of the Inquisition;
Johnson, to the astonishment of all the passengers, save Boswell, who
knew his ways, defending the Inquisition and its methods with "false
doctrines." This would appear to have annoyed the rest of the company,
for Boswell relates that Johnson presently appeared to be very intent
upon ancient geography. Not so intent, however, but that he noticed
Boswell giving a shilling to the coachman at the end of one of the
stages, when it was the custom to give only sixpence. The great man
took Boswell aside and scolded him for it, saying that what he had
done would make the coachman dissatisfied with all the rest of the
passengers, who had given him no more than his due.
They stopped at Colchester a night, at an inn unfortunately not
specified, Johnson talking of the town with veneration for having stood
a siege for Charles the First.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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