In her new book, The Chesterton, which I have just
been reading (without admiration) Mrs. Cecil Chesterton emphasises her view of the migration of G. K. C. from Battersea to Beaconsfield by observing that " it was as though, in the days of Queen Anne, it had been proposed to transport Dr. Johnsnn to the Cotswolds." The desolation such an event would have inflicted on the metropolis is a little exaggerated. Master Samuel Johnson had not quite attained the age of five when the sovereign in question was gathered to her fathers. He had not at that period of his life acquired his doctorate, and though he had two years earlier been brought to London from Lichfield to be touched for the King's evil it does not appear that either his arrival or his departure stirred the life of the city pro- foundly. His transport to the Cotswolds in the reign of Queen Anne would have left Burford and Bibury equally unruffled. * * * *
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