Grampian Club > Boswelliana

BOSWELLIANA. 217
writer that lie owes anything he has. Sir, had not Derrick been
a writer, lie would have been sweeping the crosses in the streets,
and asking halfpence from everybody that passed/ "
" A good-natured, stupid man, at Bath, wanted to appear a
man of some consequence by talking often with Mr. Quin,*
although he had nothing earthly to say more than ' Your servant,
Mr. Quin ! I hope you are well.' Quin bore with him for
some time, but at last he lost patience, and one day when the
gentleman came up to him with a ' Mr. Quin, I hope you are
well ! ' Quin replied, ' Yes, sir, I am very well, and intend to be
so for six months to come ; so, sir, till that time I desire you
may not again ask me that question.' "
Mr. Eose, at Utrecht.
"Mr. Samuel Johnson and Boswell slept in one room at
Chichester. A moth flew round the candle for some time, and
burnt itseK to death. ' That creature,' said Mr. Johnson, ' was
its own tormentor, and I believe its name was Boswell.' " f
" Mr. Fordyce J said that a man of public character who falls
into disgrace in England receives immediate punishment from
the mob ; and is a greater man than Orpheus, who only made
live animals follow him, whereas the rogue makes dead cats
come after him." I was present.
"Baldie Eobertson, a Scotch advocate, asked Boswell to
* James Quin, the player, was extremely pugnacious ; he fought
two duels, in one of which he killed his antagonist. His latter years,
on his partial retirement from the stage, were spent at Bath. He died
on the 21st January, 1766, aged seventy-three.
•f- Boswell has published this anecdote in his " Life of Johnson."
J Boswell was on terms of friendship -with the Eev. Dr. James
Fordyce, author of " Addresses to the Deity." He died at Bath on
the 1st October, 1796. His nephew. Dr. George Fordyce, an eminent
physician in the metropolis, became in 1774 a member of the Literary
Club. He published numerous professional works, and died 25th
May, 1802.