As he wrote for the book fellers, we, at the club, looked on him as a mere literary drudge, equal to the task of compiling and tranflating, but little capable of original, and still lefs of poetical compofition: he had, nevertheless, unknown to us, written and addreffed to the countefs, afterwards duchefs, of Northumberland, one of the finest poems of the lyric kind that our language has to boaft of, the ballad • Turn gentle Hermit of the dale;' and furprised us with The Traveller,' a poem that contains fome particulars of his own hiftory. Johnson was fuppofed to have affifted him in it; but he contributed to the perfection of it only four lines: his opinion of it was, that it was the best written poem fince the time of Pope.

Of the bookfellers whom he ftyled his friends, Mr. Newbery was one. This perfon had apartments in Canonbury-house, where Goldfmith often lay concealed from his creditors. Under a preffing neceffity he there wrote his Vicar of Wakefield, and for it received of Newbery forty pounds.

Of a man named Griffin, a book feller in Catherineftreet in the Strand, he had borrowed by two and three guineas at a time, money to the amount of two hundred pounds; to discharge this debt he wrote the Deferted Village, but was two years about it. Soon after its publication, Griffin declared, that it had dif charged the whole of his debt.

* Printed in his poetical works, vol. I. That this beautiful poem now exifts, we owe to Dr. Chapman a phyfician now refident at Sudbury. Soon after he had wrote it, Goldfmith fhewed it to the Doctor, and was by him hardly diffuaded from throwing it into the fire.

His

His poems are replete with fine moral fentiments, and befpeak a great dignity of mind; yet he had no fense of the shame, nor dread of the evils, of poverty. In the latter he was at one time fo involved, that for the clamours of a woman, to whom he was indebted for lodging, and for bailiffs that waited to arreft him, he was equally unable, till he had made himself drunk, to ftay within doors, or go abroad to hawk among the bookfellers a piece of his writing, the title whereof my author does not remember. In this diftrefs he fent for Johnfon, who immediately went to one of them, and brought back money for his relief.

In his dealings with the bookfellers, he is faid to have acted very difhoneftly, never fulfilling his engagements. In one year he got of them, and by his plays, the fum of 18ool. which he diffipated by gaming and extravagance, and died poor in 1774.

He that can account for the inconfiftencies of character above-noted, otherwife than by fhewing, that wit and wifdom are feldom found to meet in the fame mind, will do more than any of Goldfmith's friends were ever able to do. He was buried in the Temple Church-yard. A monument was erected for him in the Poets corner in Westminster Abbey, by a subscription of his friends, and is placed over the entrance into St. Blase's chapel. The infcription thereon was written by Johnson. This I am able to say with certainty, for he fhewed it to me in manufcript.

The members of our club that remain to be fpoken of, were perfons of lefs celebrity than him abovementioned, but were better acquainted with the

world, and qualified for focial intercourse. Mr. Beauclerk, was the fon of lord Sidney Beauclerk of the St. Alban's family, and took his chriftian name from Mr. Topham of Windfor, the famous collector of pictures and drawings. To the character of a scholar, and a man of fine parts, he added that. of a man of fashion, of which his dress and equipage. fhewed him to be emulous. In the early period of his life he was the exemplar of all who wifhed, without incurring the cenfure of foppery, to become confpicuous in the gay world. Travel, and a long refidence at Rome, and at Venice, had given the laft polish to his manners, and ftored his mind with entertaining information. In painting and sculpture his taste and judgment were accurate; in claffic literature, exquifite; and in the knowledge of hiftory, and the study of antiquities, he had few equals. His converfation was of the most excellent kind; learned, witty, polite, and, where the fubject required it, ferious; and over all his behaviour there beamed fuch a funshine of chearfulness and good humour, as communicated itfelf to all around him. He was a great collector of books, and left at his death a library, which, at a fale by auction, yielded upwards of five thousand pounds.

Mr. Anthony Chamier was defcended from a French Proteftant family, that has produced one or more very eminent divines, and were refugees in this country at the end of the last century. He was bred to the profeffion of a flock-broker; but, having had a liberal education, his deportment and manner of tranfa&ting bufinefs diftinguished him greatly from moft others of that calling. He had acquired a

know

knowledge of the modern languages, particularly of the Spanish, in the ftudy whereof he took great delight. His connections, at his fetting out in the world, were of the best kind, for very early in his life, he was employed by those liberal-minded brothers the Van Necks, whofe riches, and general munificence, have ranked them in the fame class of wealthy men with the Fuggers of Augfburg, a company of money dealers, who, in their time, held the balance of the Antwerp exchange, and by their tranfactions at that mart, influenced the politics of all the courts of Europe *. By his dealings in the funds, and, it was fuppofed, with the advantage of intelligence which, previous to the conclufion of the peace before the last, he had obtained, he acquired fuch a fortune as enabled him, though young, to quit bufinefs, and become, what indeed he feemed by nature intended for, a gentleman. At the begining of his prefent Majesty's reign, he had a prospect of going fecretary to an embaffy to Spain, and was preparing for it, by the improvement of himself in the language of that country; but a change in the ap-' pointment of an ambaffador kept him at home, and gave him opportunity of becoming acquainted with Ford Weymouth, who, upon his being made fecretary of ftate, took him for one of his under-fecretaries. In this ftation he was continued by his fucceffor lord Hilfborough, and remained till the time of his death.

It was Johnson's original intention, that the number of this our club fhould not exceed nine; but Mr.

* A curious account of these three brothers may be feen in Moreri's Dictionary, art. Fugger ou Foucker. Mention of them is also made in the Journal of Edward VI. inferted in an appendix to one of the volumes of biflop Burnet's Hiftory of the Reformation.

Dyer, a member of that in Ivy-lane, before spoken of, and who for fome years had been abroad, made his appearance among us, and was cordially received. By the recommendation of Mr. Belchier the banker, and member for Southwark, he had obtained an appointment to be one of the commiffaries in our army in Germany; but, on the conclufion of the peace, he returned to England, very little the better for an employment which few have been known to quit without having made a fortune,

The hours which Johnfon fpent in this fociety feemed to be the happieft of his life he would often applaud his own fagacity in the felection of it, and was so constant at our meetings as never to abfent himself. It is true, he came late, but then he stayed late, for, as has been already said of him, he little regarded hours. Our evening toast was the motto of Padre Paolo, Efto perpetua.' A lady, diftinguished by her beauty, and tafte for literature, invited us two fucceffive years to a dinner at her house. Curiofity was her motive, and poffibly a defire of intermingling with our converfation the charms of her own. She affected to confider us as a fet of literary men, and perhaps gave the first occafion for diftinguishing the fociety by the name of the Literary Club, an appellation which it never affumed to itself.

At these our meetings, Johnfon, as indeed he did every where, led the converfation, yet was he far from arrogating to himself that fuperiority, which, fome years before, he was difpofed to contend for. He had feen enough of the world to know, that refpect was not to be extorted, and began now to be fatisfied with that degree of eminence to which his writ