Johnson.  ’How foolish was it in Pope to give all his friendship to Lords, who thought they honoured him by being with him; and to choose such Lords as Burlington, and Cobham, and Bolingbroke!  Bathurst was negative, a pleasing man; and I have heard no ill of Marchmont; and then always saying, “I do not value you for being a Lord;” which was a sure proof that he did.  I never say, I do not value Boswell more for being born to an estate, because I do not care.’  Boswell.  ’Nor for being a Scotchman?’ Johnson.  ’Nay, Sir, I do value you more for being a Scotchman.  You are a Scotchman without the faults of a Scotchman.  You would not have been so valuable as you are, had you not been a Scotchman.’

Amongst the numerous prints pasted on the walls of the dining-room at Streatham, was Hogarth’s ‘Modern Midnight Conversation.’  I asked him what he knew of Parson Ford, who makes a conspicuous figure in the riotous group.  Johnson.  ’Sir, he was my acquaintance and relation, my mother’s nephew.  He had purchased a living in the country, but not simoniacally.  I never saw him but in the country.  I have been told he was a man of great parts; very profligate, but I never heard he was impious.’  Boswell.  ‘Was there not a story of his ghost having appeared?’ Johnson.  ’Sir, it was believed.  A waiter at the Hummums, in which house Ford died, had been absent for some time, and returned, not knowing that Ford was dead.  Going down to the cellar, according to the story, he met him; going down again he met him a second time.  When he came up, he asked some of the people of the house what Ford could be doing there.  They told him Ford was dead.  The waiter took a fever, in which he lay for some time.  When he recovered, he said he had a message to deliver to some women from Ford; but he was not to tell what, or to whom.  He walked out; he was followed; but somewhere about St. Paul’s they lost him.  He came back, and said he had delivered the message, and the women exclaimed, “Then we are all undone!” Dr. Pellet, who was not a credulous man, inquired into the truth of this story, and he said, the evidence was irresistible.  My wife went to the Hummums; (it is a place where people get themselves cupped.) I believe she went with intention to hear about this story of Ford.  At first they were unwilling to tell her; but, after they had talked to her, she came away satisfied that it was true.  To be sure the man had a fever; and this vision may have been the beginning of it.  But if the message to the women, and their behaviour upon it, were true as related, there was something supernatural.  That rests upon his word; and there it remains.’

I staid all this day* with him at Streatham.  He talked a great deal, in very good humour.

     * Wednesday, May 13.—­Ed.

Looking at Messrs. Dilly’s splendid edition of Lord Chesterfield’s miscellaneous works, he laughed, and said, ’Here now are two speeches ascribed to him, both of which were written by me:  and the best of it is, they have found out that one is like Demosthenes, and the other like Cicero.’