Grampian Club > Boswelliana

BOSWELLIANA. 297
" Lady Di Beauclerk told me that Langton had never been to
see her since she came to Eichmond, his head was so full of the
militia and Greek. ' Why,' said I, ' madam, he is of such a length,
he is awkward, and not easily moved.' ' But,' said she, ' if he had
laid himself at his length, his feet had been in London, and his
head might have been here eoclem die.' "
" Lord Chesterfield could indulge himself in making any sort
of pun at a time. Dr. Barnard, now Bishop of Killaloe, was
standing by his lordship in the pump-room at Bath, when the
late Duchess of Northumberland's father was brought in a chair
very unwieldy. The musick was playing. My lord said to
Barnard, * We have a new sort of instrument this morning —
a dull Se3rmour* (dulcimer).'"
From Dr. Barnard, London, 1781.
" Parnellf was miserably addicted to drinking. He could not
refrain even the morning that Swift introduced him to Lord
Oxford.+ My lord pressed through the crowd to get to Parnell.
But he soon perceived his situation. He in a little said to
Swift, ' your friend, I fear, is not very well.' Swift answered, ' He
is troubled with a great shaking.' ' I am sorry,' said the Earl, ' that
he should have such a distemper, but especially that it should
attack him in the morning.' "
From Dr. Barnard, Bishop of Killaloe,
who had it from Dr. Delany.
* Algernon Seymour, who succeeded his mother in 1722 as Baron
Percy, and in 1748 inherited the Dukedom of Somerset. His only
child, Lady Elizabeth Seymour, became Duchess of Northumberland.
t Thomas Parnell, D.D., author of " The Hermit " and other poems,
was an Irish clergyman, and a friend of Swift, who bestowed nn him
a share of his patronage. Early inclined to the excessive use of wine,
he latterly became an habitual drunkard. He died in July, 1718, in
his thirty-ninth year.
X Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Lord High Treasurer, was a
steady promoter of men of letters. His career forms an important
part of the political history of England. He died 21st IMay, 172-1.
The Harleian Collection of books and MSS. in the British Museum
is a monument of his learning and industry.