Gray could not abide
him.' Sir Egerton Brydges, quoted in Gosse's _Gray_, iii. 371. For the
epithet _bear_ applied to Johnson see _ante_, ii. 66, 269, note i, and
iv. 113, note 2. Boswell wrote on June 19, 1775:--'My father harps on my
going over Scotland with a brute (think, how shockingly erroneous!), and
wandering (or some such phrase) to London.' _Letters of Boswell_,
p. 207.
[1043] It is remarkable that Johnson in his _Life of Blackmore_
[_Works_, viii. 42] calls the imaginary Mr. Johnson of the _Lay
Monastery_ 'a constellation of excellence.' CROKER.
[1044] Page 121. BOSWELL. See also _ante_, iii. 336.
[1045] 'The late Sir Alexander Boswell,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'was a
proud man, and, like his grandfather, thought that his father lowered
himself by his deferential suit and service to Johnson. I have observed
he disliked any allusion to the book or to Johnson himself, and I have
heard that Johnson's fine picture by Sir Joshua was sent upstairs out of
the sitting apartments at Auchinleck.' _Croker Corres_. ii. 32. This
portrait, which was given by Sir Joshua to Boswell (Taylor's _Reynolds_,
i. 147), is now in the possession of Mr. Charles Morrison.
[1046] 'I have always said that first Whig was the devil.' _Ante_, iii.
326
[1047] See _ante_, ii. 26.
[1048] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 266) has paid this tribute.
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