A Dear, Good Boy
THIS Samuel Johnson was no relation to his great namesake, though he knew him. His 'mother was the sister of Sir Joshua Reynolds and his father was a quite remarkably bad lot. Sam was a delightful boy who lived to be ordained but not to complete his twenty-fifth year. We know him only from his letters to his mother and sisters written between the years 1769 and 1778. Charming letters they are, full of gaiety, affection, and solicitude. The burden of poverty and a sense of family disgrace weighed at times upon his fragile young shoulders, but for the most part he enjoys his life in London and at Oxford very much indeed.
Sir Joshua had forgiven a good deal to his bad brother-in- law, but by the time Sam was sixteen he was sick and tired of him. No sooner had the scamp made away with his own, his wife's and much of other people's money than he deserted his home and children and went to live nearby with a family of ill-repute and in illicit relations with one of the daughters of the house. Sir Joshua was deeply incensed at the insult offered to his sister. His well-founded dislike of a bad father extended for , a while to his good son. Sam himself was partly to blame or rather to praise for this, for his loyalty made him inclined to take offence. Through thick and thin he tried to screen the scoundrel, even writing to his eldest sister (the beautiful Elizabeth who sat to Sir Joshua for "Fortitude ") begging her to show her father what respect she could and to keep the details of his disgrace from the little ones.
Sam's was a happy disposition. He was eager to share his pleasures, and having lived at home till he was fifteen he never lost the habit of intimacy with his mother and sisters. He does not care for London at first—it is" as black as a coal" —but when "my uncle Reynolds desires my company," he goes out to dinner full of delightful expectation. He meets Dr. Johnson, the Thrales, the Sheridans, she "the greatest beauty in England and most agreeable woman." He goes with his aunt to walk in Kensington Gardens and delights to describe the rank and fashion who there parade. No one is seen "in this garden" who has not his own coach, for it is "too far to walk" and hackney coaches are not admitted.
But no money comes to poor Sam from home. He has- not too much to eat and he has far too little to wear. "I
buy a pair of socks or a stock as I am driven to it, but my purse does not hold to a shirt." His health is obviously very bad : he cannot afford to take care of it. He has to refuse a tempting invitation to stay with his distinguished relations in Leicester Square because he could not bear that his aunt's laundress should see the torn state of his linen. He may be sorry to be excluded from the pleasures of the rich, but he can enjoy life all the same. He goes to an " Assembly " at Islington, "a place quite distinct from London," together with a friend who lends him lace ruffles for the occasion. The two boys walk home together in the middle of the night, pleasantly excited by the thought of probable highwaymen. One day he writes to describe "The greatest collection of curiosities in the world," called the British Museum. At another, he makes a really wonderful picture of the "Thames Regatta." He goes to see The Beggar's Opera, about which. opinions differed amusingly even then. Dr. Johnson said that he did not believe "that a man was ever made a rogue by being present at its representation," while "Gibbon thought that it had increased the number of highwaymen, but that it had refined their manners " ! For a while he takes a place as usher in a boys' school at Houndslow, a place quite in the country and more infested by robbers even than Islington. He begs his sisters to be careful when they write that "the direction be written in a steady good hand and the letter made up and sealed like a gentleman's," because "they know nothing of me, and my connections only will determine them in what rank to place me."
This school experience is a very happy one. He loves the master and mistress and only wishes his own young brother could be with him : this is just the place "for compleating " Richard. He has seventy-nine boys "under his protection," some of them "as big as myself and nearly as old."
Finally, the family fortunes improve. An elder brother, "Billy," sends money from India, Elizabeth married, Richard is completed, but, alas ! before half the good things happen, poor Sam is gone.
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