'
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
Under the copy of this letter I found written, in Johnson's own hand,
'Next day, June 27, he was executed.'
Tuesday, September 16, Dr. Johnson having mentioned to me the
extraordinary size and price of some cattle reared by Dr. Taylor, I rode
out with our host, surveyed his farm, and was shown one cow which he had
sold for a hundred and twenty guineas, and another for which he had
been offered a hundred and thirty. Taylor thus described to me his old
schoolfellow and friend, Johnson: 'He is a man of a very clear head,
great power of words, and a very gay imagination; but there is no
disputing with him. He will not hear you, and having a louder voice than
you, must roar you down.'
In the evening, the Reverend Mr. Seward, of Lichfield, who was passing
through Ashbourne in his way home, drank tea with us. Johnson described
him thus:--'Sir, his ambition is to be a fine talker; so he goes to
Buxton, and such places, where he may find companies to listen to him.
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