To the celebrated Dr. Johnson he was respectfully attached; and was fond of having him often as a guest.  Boswell has detailed some pleasing particulars of these interviews; and, after relating one, adds in a note the following remarks:  “Let me here pay a tribute of gratitude to the memory of that excellent person, my intimacy with whom was the more valuable to me, because my first acquaintance with him was unexpected and unsolicited.  Soon after the publication of my ‘Account of Corsica,’ he did me the honor to call on me, and approaching me with a frank, courteous air, said, ’Sir, my name is Oglethorpe, and I wish to become acquainted with you.’  I was not a little flattered to be thus addressed by an eminent man, of whom I had read in Pope from my early years,

  “Or, driven by strong benevolence of soul,
  Will fly like Oglethorpe from pole to pole.”

“I was fortunate enough to be found worthy of his good opinion, insomuch that I was not only invited to make one of the many respectable companies whom he entertained at his table, but had a cover at his hospitable board every day when I happened to be disengaged; and in his society I never failed to enjoy learned and animated conversation, seasoned with genuine sentiments of virtue and religion."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Vol.  III. p. 225.]

Dr. Warton, referring to Oglethorpe, says, “I had the pleasure of knowing him well;” and, in a note upon the couplet quoted from Pope, says, “Here are lines that will justly confer immortality on a man who well deserved so magnificent an eulogium.  He was, at once, a great hero, and a great legislator.  The vigor of his mind and body have seldom been equalled.  The vivacity of his genius continued to great old age.  The variety of his adventures, and the very different scenes in which he had been engaged, made me regret that his life has never been written.  Dr. Johnson once offered to do it, if the General would furnish him the materials.  Johnson had a great regard for him, for he was one of the first persons that highly, in all companies, praised his ‘London.’  His first campaign was made under Prince Eugene against the Turks, and that great General always spoke of Oglethorpe in the highest terms.  But his settlement of the Colony of Georgia gave a greater lustre to his character than even his military exploits.”

With Goldsmith, too, he was intimate.  In the lately published biography of this poet by Prior,[1] referring to the occasional relief contributed to him in his exigences, it is added, “Goldsmith was content, likewise, to be made the channel of conveyance for the bounty of others, as we find by a letter of General Oglethorpe, a distinguished and amiable man, at whose table he met with good society, and spent many agreeable hours, and who now, at an advanced period of life, displayed the same love for the good of mankind, in a private way, that he had exerted on a more extended scale.”  With the letter he sent five pounds, to be distributed in aid of a charitable institution, in whose behalf Goldsmith seems to have taken an active interest; and the letter concluded with this kindly expressed invitation; “If a farm, and a mere country scene will be a little refreshment from the smoke of London, we shall be glad of the happiness of seeing you at Cranham Hall.”