196] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



his friend Garrick. Johnson presented a recommendatory letter 

 from Mr. Walmsley to the Rev. Mr. Colson, whose exertions in his 

 favour were unsuccessful. In July 1737, Johnson went to Green- 

 wich, where he lodged for some time next door to the Golden 

 Hart, Church-street, as appears by a letter from him to Mr. Cave, 

 to whom he sent a specimen of the History of the Council of Trent. 

 Mr. Cave consented to publish the work, and printed twelve sheets 

 of it, for which Johnson received c49. ; but another translation 

 being advertised by a Mr. Samuel Johnson, librarian, of St. Mar- 

 tin's-in-the-Fields, Cave never completed his volume. Johnson 

 now returned to Lichfield, where he continued about three months 

 with his wife, and corrected and prepared Irene for the stage. 

 About this time, he offered himself a candidate for the Mastership 

 of the free-school at Appleby, in Leicestershire, the salary of 

 which was ,60. ; but as it was a requisite to that appointment that 

 the person chosen should be M. A. he was rejected. It required 

 no common degree of fortitude to bear up against these frequent 

 disappointments, but Johnson was yet in possession of part of his 

 wife's fortune, and had great expectations of the success of his 

 tragedy. 



On his return to London with Mrs. Johnson, he offered Irene 

 to Fleetwood, the patentee of Drury Lane Theatre, but was un- 

 successful, and obliged to resume his literary pursuits. He was 

 now in the thirtieth year of his age, unpatronized and unknown as 

 an author, except by Mr. Cave, for whose Magazine he produced 

 a number of essays, biographical sketches, poems, and translations. 

 The Gentleman's Magazine now became a popular publication ; and 

 gradually rose in the estimation of men of taste, from the time 

 that Johnson became a regular writer for it. He was now consi- 

 dered by Cave as the editor, and received from him c100. per 

 annum for his contributions and superintendance. 



From November 19, 1740, till February 1743, he revised the 

 Parliamentary debates for the Gentleman's Magazine, under the 

 name of the Senate of Lilliput. The original manuscript of these 

 debates was for some time supplied by Guthrie the geographer and 

 historian, and underwent the revision of Johnson. But when 

 Guthrie obtained more advantageous employment, our author was 

 obliged to fill up that department of the Magazine from the fertile 

 sources of his own invention, with the occasional aid of scraps 

 .supplied by persons who attended the debates. Thus not only the 

 style, but even the sentiments, were J9hnsonian. In his old age 



