[854] Mr. Langton thinks this must have been the hasty expression of a splenetick moment, as he has heard Dr. Johnson speak of Mr. Spence’s judgment in criticism with so high a degree of respect, as to shew that this was not his settled opinion of him.  Let me add that, in the preface to the Preceptor, he recommends Spence’s Essay on Papers Odyssey, and that his admirable Lives of the English Poets are much enriched by Spence’s Anecdotes of Pope.  BOSWELL.  For the Preceptor see ante, i. 192, and Johnson’s Works, v. 240.  Johnson, in his Life of Pope (ib. viii. 274), speaks of Spence as ’a man whose learning was not very great, and whose mind was not very powerful.  His criticism, however, was commonly just; what he thought he thought rightly; and his remarks were recommended by his coolness and candour.’  See ante, iv. 9, 63.

[855] ’She was the only interpreter of Erse poetry that I could ever find.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 134.  See ante, p. 241.

[856] ’After a journey difficult and tedious, over rocks naked and valleys untracked, through a country of barrenness and solitude, we came, almost in the dark, to the sea-side, weary and dejected, having met with nothing but waters falling from the mountains that could raise any image of delight.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 170.  ’It is natural, in traversing this gloom of desolation, to inquire, whether something may not be done to give nature a more cheerful face.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 136.

[857] Ante, p. 19.

[858] See ante, i. 521.

[859] See ante, p. 212.

[860] Sir William Blackstone says, in his Commentaries, that ’he cannot find that ever this custom prevailed in England;’ and therefore he is of opinion that it could not have given rise to Borough-English.  BOSWELL.  ’I cannot learn that ever this custom prevailed in England, though it certainly did in Scotland (under the name of mercketa or marcheta), till abolished by Malcolm III.’ Commentaries, ed. 1778, ii. 83.  Sir H. Maine, in his Early History of Institutions, p. 222, writes:—­’Other authors, as Blackstone tells us, explained it ["Borough English”] by a supposed right of the Seigneur or lord, now very generally regarded as apocryphal, which raised a presumption of the eldest son’s illegitimacy.’

[861] ’Macquarry was used to demand a sheep, for which he now takes a crown, by that inattention to the uncertain proportion between the value and the denomination of money, which has brought much disorder into Europe.  A sheep has always the same power of supplying human wants, but a crown will bring, at one time more, at another less’.  Johnson’s Works, ix. 139.

[862] ’The house and the furniture are not always nicely suited.  We were driven once, by missing a passage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, after a very liberal supper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found an elegant bed of Indian cotton, spread with fine sheets.  The accommodation was flattering; I undressed myself, and felt my feet in the mire.  The bed stood upon the bare earth, which a long course of rain had softened to a puddle.’ Works, ix. 98.