198 



Calne. 



architecture, especially on our Cathedrals, that have yet ever been, 

 published. The account which Britton gives in his autobiography 

 of the extreme awe and trembling with which he approached the 

 great man at Bo wood, and of his astonishment at the extraordinary 

 kindness he met with, is very amusing. Lord Edmond has given 

 many anecdotes of the domestic life in those days, to which the 

 Earl of Shelburne gladly retired from the political anxieties and 

 strife of tongues in London. Among other distinguished visitors 

 were Jeremy Bentham, who has written "Letters from Bowood," 

 Dr. Price, a famous controversialist of the day, and many others. 

 At that time the celebrated " Letters of Junius " were making a 

 great sensation in the country. The real author was not and is not 

 yet known. Some one of the company at Bowood, fancying that 

 the Earl of Shelburne was, from his high position, acquainted with 

 the secret, ventured one day at table to put the question to him. 

 The Earl answered, " I know no more about it than the boy standing 

 behind my chair/'' The boy happened to be a West Indian black — 

 a species of domestic very common at that period. So the black 

 boy always got the nickname of Junius in the household afterwards. 

 He died and was buried in the churchyard at Calne. Some facetious 

 gentlemen there contrived one day to smuggle in to the churchyard 

 and place over the grave a stone with the inscription " Here lies 

 Junius," and some time afterwards, the news about the inscription 

 having found its way to London, two gentlemen posted down all 

 the way to make enquiries, thinking that at Calne the mystery of 

 the authorship of the letters was now to be solved. But the cheat 

 was explained to them and the stone removed. 



It is not generally known that Dr. Johnson, of the Dictionary, 

 was once at Bowood. This is not mentioned in BoswelPs life of 

 him : and perhaps purposely omitted, because it does not tell much 

 in favour of the Doctor's good manners : a want of attention to 

 which was one of the failings of one of the most remarkable men 

 that England ever produced. The story is given in another col- 

 lection of " Johnsoniana." It is this : — " Dr. Johnson, having had 

 a general invitation from Lord Shelburne to see Bowood his 

 Lordship's seat in Wiltshire, he accordingly made him a visit in 



