last.  I am now writing in the room where his venerable remains exhibit a spectacle, the interesting solemnity of which, difficult as it would be in any sort to find terms to express, so to you, my dear Sir, whose own sensations will paint it so strongly, it would be of all men the most superfluous to attempt to—.’—­CROKER.  The interruption of the note was perhaps due to a discovery made by Langton.  Hawkins says, ’at eleven, the evening of Johnson’s death, Mr. Langton came to me, and in an agony of mind gave me to understand that our friend had wounded himself in several parts of the body.’  Hawkins’s Life, p. 590.  To the dying man, ’on the last day of his existence on this side the grave the desire of life,’ to use Murphy’s words (Life, p. 135), ‘had returned with all its former vehemence.’  In the hope of drawing off the dropsical water he gave himself these wounds (see ante, p. 399).  He lost a good deal of blood, and no doubt hastened his end.  Langton must have suspected that Johnson intentionally shortened his life.

[1270] Servant to the Right Honourable William Windham.  BOSWELL.

[1271] Sir Joshua Reynolds and Paoli were among the mourners.  Among the Nichols papers in the British Museum is preserved an invitation card to the funeral.

[1272] Dr. Burney wrote to the Rev. T. Twining on Christmas Day, 1784:—­’The Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey lay all the blame on Sir John Hawkins for suffering Johnson to be so unworthily interred.  The Knight’s first inquiry at the Abbey in giving orders, as the most acting executor, was—­“What would be the difference in the expense between a public and private funeral?” and was told only a few pounds to the prebendaries, and about ninety pairs of gloves to the choir and attendants; and he then determined that, “as Dr. Johnson had no music in him, he should choose the cheapest manner of interment.”  And for this reason there was no organ heard, or burial service sung; for which he suffers the Dean and Chapter to be abused in all the newspapers, and joins in their abuse when the subject is mentioned in conversation.’  Burney mentions a report that Hawkins had been slandering Johnson. Recreations and Studies of a Country Clergyman of the XVIII Century, p. 129.  Dr. Charles Burney, jun., had written the day after the funeral:—­’The executor, Sir John Hawkins, did not manage things well, for there was no anthem or choir service performed—­no lesson—­but merely what is read over every old woman that is buried by the parish.  Dr. Taylor read the service but so-so.’  Johnstone’s Parr, i. 535.

[1273] Pope’s Essay on Man, iv. 390.  See ante, iii. 6, and iv. 122.