His Majesty began by observing that he understood he came sometimes to the library:  and then mentioned his having heard that the Doctor had been lately at Oxford, asked him if he was not fond of going thither.  To which Johnson answered, that he was indeed fond of going to Oxford sometimes, but was likewise glad to come back again.  The King then asked him what they were doing at Oxford.  Johnson answered, he could not much commend their diligence, but that in some respects they were mended, for they had put their press under better regulations, and were at that time printing Polybius.  He was then asked whether there were better libraries at Oxford or Cambridge.  He answered, he believed the Bodleian was larger than any they had at Cambridge; at the same time adding, “I hope, whether we have more books or not than they have at Cambridge, we shall make as good use of them as they do.”  Being asked whether All-Souls or Christ Church library was the largest he answered, “All-Souls library is the largest we have, except the Bodleian.”  “Aye,” said the King, “that is the public library.”

His Majesty inquired if he was then writing anything.  He answered he was not, for he had pretty well told the world what he knew, and must now read to acquire more knowledge.  The king, as it should seem with a view to urge him to rely on his own stores as an original writer, and to continue his labours, then said, “I do not think you borrow much from anybody.”  Johnson said he thought he had already done his part as a writer.  “I should have thought so too,” said the king, “if you had not written so well.”  Johnson observed to me, upon this, that “no man could have paid a handsomer compliment; and it was fit for a king to pay.  It was decisive.”  When asked by another friend, at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s, whether he made any reply to this high compliment, he answered, “No, sir.  When the King had said it, it was to be so.  It was not for me to bandy civilities with my sovereign.”  Perhaps no man who had spent his whole life in courts could have shown a more nice and dignified sense of true politeness than Johnson did in this instance....

During the whole of this interview, Johnson talked to his Majesty with profound respect, but still in his firm, manly manner, with a sonorous voice, and never in that subdued tone which is commonly used at the levee and in the drawing-room.  After the king withdrew, Johnson showed himself highly pleased with his Majesty’s conversation and gracious behaviour.  He said to Mr. Barnard, “Sir, they may talk of the king as they will; but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen.”  And he afterwards observed to Mr. Langton, “Sir, his manners are those of as fine a gentleman as we may suppose Louis the Fourteenth or Charles the Second.”

At Sir Joshua Reynolds’s, where a circle of Johnson’s friends was collected round him to hear his account of this memorable conversation, Dr. Joseph Warton, in his frank and lively manner, was very active in pressing him to mention the particulars.  “Come now, sir, this is an interesting matter; do favour us with it.”  Johnson, with great good humour, complied.