You put me in mind of Sappho in Ovid.'
Goldsmith told us, that he was now busy in writing a natural history,
and, that he might have full leisure for it, he had taken lodgings, at a
farmer's house, near to the six milestone, on the Edgeware road, and
had carried down his books in two returned post-chaises. He said, he
believed the farmer's family thought him an odd character, similar to
that in which the Spectator appeared to his landlady and her children:
he was The Gentleman. Mr. Mickle, the translator of The Lusiad, and I
went to visit him at this place a few days afterwards. He was not at
home; but having a curiosity to see his apartment, we went in and found
curious scraps of descriptions of animals, scrawled upon the wall with a
black lead pencil.
On Saturday, April 11, he appointed me to come to him in the evening,
when he should be at leisure to give me some assistance for the defence
of Hastie, the schoolmaster of Campbelltown, for whom I was to appear in
the house of Lords.
Pages:
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415