Wales, July 5, 1774, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, and their daughter, now Lady Keith, and returned August 25. On the same morning that he left Streatham, he wrote a letter to his friend, Bennet Langton, in which he informs him of this excursion, and of the state of his health. "I have just begun to print my Journey to the Hebrides, and am leaving the press, to take another journey into Wales, whither Mr. Thrale is going, to take possesion of at least five hundred a year, fallen to his lady. "I have never recovered from the last dreadful illness, but flatter myself that I grow better: much, however, yet remains to mend." In the prosecution of this tour, whatever was his own gratification or disappointment, he appears but little to have gratified the curiosity of others; for Boswell says, " I do not find that he kept any journal, or notes of what he saw in his tour in Wales. All that I heard him say of it was, that instead of bleak and barren mountains, there and fertile ones; and that one were green of the castles in Wales would contain all the castles that he had seen in Scotland." This Diary, which is now for the first time presented to the public, will fill up that chasm in the Life of Johnson, which his biographer was unable to supply. For its authenticity, I will pledge myself: but if there should be any who are desirous to gratify their curiosity, or to satisfy their judgment, the original MS. in the handwriting of Dr. Johnson, is in the possession of the publisher, where it may at any time. be seen. The Editor acknowledges his obligation to Mrs. Piozzi, for her kind assistance in explaining many facts in this Diary, which could not otherwise have been understood. Error in page 40, for spots, read sports. CONTENTS. DR. JOHNSON'S JOURNEY FROM STREATHAM TO LLEWENNEY-HALL, IN DENBIGHSHIRE. |