Mr. Murphy, who was intimate with Mr. Thrale, having spoken
very highly of Dr. Johnson, he was requested to make them acquainted.
This being mentioned to Johnson, he accepted of an invitation to dinner
at Thrale's, and was so much pleased with his reception, both by Mr. and
Mrs. Thrale, and they so much pleased with him, that his invitations to
their house were more and more frequent, till at last he became one
of the family, and an apartment was appropriated to him, both in their
house in Southwark, and in their villa at Streatham.
Johnson had a very sincere esteem for Mr. Thrale, as a man of
excellent principles, a good scholar, well skilled in trade, of a sound
understanding, and of manners such as presented the character of a plain
independent English Squire. As this family will frequently be mentioned
in the course of the following pages, and as a false notion
has prevailed that Mr. Thrale was inferiour, and in some degree
insignificant, compared with Mrs. Thrale, it may be proper to give a
true state of the case from the authority of Johnson himself in his own
words.
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