[650] ’Law or low signifies a hill:  ex. gr. Wardlaw, guard hill, Houndslow, the dog’s hill.’  Blackie’s Etymological Geography, p. 103.

[651] Pepys often mentions them.  At first he praises them highly, but of one of the later ones—­Tryphon—­he writes:—­’The play, though admirable, yet no pleasure almost in it, because just the very same design, and words, and sense, and plot, as every one of his plays have, any one of which would be held admirable, whereas so many of the same design and fancy do but dull one another.’  Pepys’s Diary, ed. 1851, v. 63.

[652] The second and third earls are passed over by Johnson.  It was the fourth earl who, as Charles Boyle, had been Bentley’s antagonist.  Of this controversy a full account is given in Lord Macaulay’s Life of Atterbury.

[653] The fifth earl, John.  See ante, i. 185, and iii. 249.

[654] See ante, i. 9, and iii. 154.

[655] See ante, ii. 129, and iii. 183.

[656] The young lord was married on the 8th of May, 1728, and the father’s will is dated the 6th of Nov. following.  ‘Having,’ says the testator, ’never observed that my son hath showed much taste or inclination, either for the entertainment or knowledge which study and learning afford, I give and bequeath all my books and mathematical instruments [with certain exceptions] to Christchurch College, in Oxford.’  CROKER.

[657] His Life of Swift is written in the form of Letters to his Son, the Hon. Hamilton Boyle. The fifteenth Letter, in which he finishes his criticism of Gulliver’s Travels, affords a good instance of this ‘studied variety of phrase.’  ‘I may finish my letter,’ he writes, ’especially as the conclusion of it naturally turns my thoughts from Yahoos to one of the dearest pledges I have upon earth, yourself, to whom I am a most

     Affectionate Father,

     ‘ORRERY.’

See ante, i. 275-284, for Johnson’s letters to Thomas Warton, many of which end ‘in studied varieties of phrase.’

[658] The Conquest of Granada was dedicated to the Duke of York.  The conclusion is as follows:—­’If at any time Almanzor fulfils the parts of personal valour and of conduct, of a soldier and of a general; or, if I could yet give him a character more advantageous that what he has, of the most unshaken friend, the greatest of subjects, and the best of masters; I should then draw all the world a true resemblance of your worth and virtues; at least as far as they are capable of being copied by the mean abilities of,

’Sir,

’Your Royal Highness’s

’Most humble, and most

’Obedient servant,

‘J.  DRYDEN.’

[659] On the day of his coronation he was asked to pardon four young men who had broken the law against carrying arms.  ‘So long as I live,’ he replied, ‘every criminal must die.’  ’He was inexorable in individual cases; he adhered to his laws with a rigour that amounted to cruelty, while in the framing of general rules we find him mild, yielding, and placable.’  Ranke’s Popes, ed. 1866, i. 307, 311.