LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 335 



■eminent person whose biograpliy has occasioned your kind reference 

 to me, I beg to say that my acquaintance with him commenced 1808, 

 and that I have always regarded him as one of my most valued 

 friends. "We visited Spain together in that year ; and I retain 

 always the strongest admiration of his noble qualities." 



I should be proud if I could exhibit a letter in Johnson's hand- 

 writing. Such documents are occasionally to be met with in London, 

 but considerable sums must be paid for them. I have some fragments, 

 however, in Mrs. Thi-ale's handwriting, the lady to whom Dr. John- 

 son was for sixteen years and more indebted for much care and kind- 

 ness, and for whom he entertained a high esteem. We are told that 

 he said of her, that if not the wisest of women in the world, she was 

 undoubtedly one of the wisest. Mrs. Thrale's maiden name was 

 Salusbury; Mr. Tlirale, her first husband, was owner of the great 

 Brewery in South wark, since known as that of Barclay and Perkins. 

 The marriage seems to have been one of convenience rather than 

 deep affection. Tlirale sat for Southwark in Parliament, and was 

 very wealthy. At his town house in Southwark and his country 

 villa at Streatham, a room Avas set apart for the especial accommoda- 

 tion of Dr. Johnson. "When Mr. Thrale died, his widow, as we all 

 know, married an Italian musical composer and vocalist, named 

 Piozzi. She afterwards published a volume of anecdotes of Dr. 

 Johnson, and other works. It was her habit to make on the margin 

 of books that she read, numerous manuscript notes ; and after anno- 

 tating one copy, she would sometimes take up another of the same 

 work and enter the same observations. Mr. Bohn, the eminent 

 bookseller of London, had a copy of Boswell's "Life of Johnson," anno- 

 tated by Mrs. Piozzi, in which the remarks were identical with those 

 11 Dr. "Wellesley's copy of the same book. In a letter written by 

 her at Bath, in 1818, to Sir James Fellowes, of Adbury House, 

 Hants, she speaks of one Dr. Hales, who " on last Sunday foi-tnight 

 said confidently in the pulpit that the world would end that day 

 sixty-two years." She then adds: "You will find innumerable reflec- 

 tions on that event in King's " Morsels of Criticism," which I have 

 loaded, if not deformed, by numberless notes — manuscript, but legible 

 enough, for I looked them over since Hales' sermon, as I thought 

 they would amuse you. 'Tis almost a pity," she then observes, " you 

 should suffer them to be sold after my death." She had bequeathed 

 to him ail her annotated books. The handwriting in her marginal 



