[1196] H.S.E.

MICHAEL JOHNSON,

Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque; paterfamilias apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias, vel castas laesisset, aut dolor, vel voluptas unquam expresserit.

Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi,

Anno MDCLVI.

Obiit MDCCXXXI.

Apposita est SARA, conjux,

Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate praecellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem:  aeternitati semper attentam, omne fere virtutis nomen commendavit.

Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, Anno MDCLXIX;

Obiit MDCCLIX.

Cum NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, cum vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII, vitam brevem pia morte finivit.  Johnson’s Works, i. 150.

[1197] Hawkins (Life, p. 590) says that he asked that the stone over his own grave ‘might be so placed as to protect his body from injury.’  Harwood (History of Lichfield, p. 520) says that the stone in St. Michael’s was removed in 1796, when the church was paved.  A fresh one with the old inscriptions was placed in the church on the hundredth anniversary of Johnson’s death by Robert Thorp, Esq., of Buxton Road House, Macclesfield.  The Rev. James Serjeantson, Rector of St. Michael’s, suggests to me that the first stone was never set up.  It is, he says, unlikely that such a memorial within a dozen years was treated so unworthily.  Moreover in 1841 and again in 1883, during reparations of the church, a very careful search was made for it, but without result.  There may have been, he thinks, some difficulty in finding the exact place of interment.  The matter may have stood over till it was forgotten, and the mason, whose receipted bill shews that he was paid for the stone, may have used it for some other purpose.

[1198] See ante, i. 241, and iv. 351.

[1199] ‘He would also,’ says Hawkins (Life, p. 579), ’have written in Latin verse an epitaph for Mr. Garrick, but found himself unequal to the task of original poetic composition in that language.’

[1200] In his Life of Browne, Johnson wrote:—­’The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die; and it has appeared that our author’s fortitude did not desert him in the great hour of trial.’ Works, vi. 499.

[1201] A Club in London, founded by the learned and ingenious physician, Dr. Ash, in honour of whose name it was called Eumelian, from the Greek [Greek:  Eumelias]; though it was warmly contended, and even put to a vote, that it should have the more obvious appellation of Fraxinean, from the Latin.  BOSWELL.  This club, founded in 1788, met at the Blenheim Tavern, Bond-street.  Reynolds, Boswell, Burney, and Windham were members.  Rose’s Biog.  Dict. ii. 240. [Greek:  Eummeliaes] means armed with good ashen spear.