APPENDIX FF (PAGE 321)

In The Gent. Mag. for August, 1743, p. 416, appeared the following unsigned letter by Johnson. It is quoted in Boswell's Johnson, i. 164. 'MR. URBAN,

'As your collections show how often you have owed the ornaments of your poetical pages to the correspondence of the unfortunate and ingenious Mr. Savage, I doubt not but you have so much regard to his memory as to encourage any design that may have a tendency to the preservation of it from insults or calumnies; and therefore, with some degree of assurance, intreat you to inform the publick, that his life will speedily be published by a person who was favoured with his confidence, and received from himself an account of most of the transactions which he proposes to mention, to the time of his retirement to Swansea in Wales.

'From that period, to his death in the prison of Bristol, the account will be continued from materials still less liable to objection; his own letters, and those of his friends, some of which will be inserted in the work, and abstracts of others subjoined in the margin.

'It may be reasonably imagined, that others may have the same design; but as it is not credible that they can obtain the same materials, it must be expected they will supply from invention the want of intelligence; and that under the title of The Life of Savage, they will publish only a novel, filled with romantick adventures, and imaginary amours. You may therefore, perhaps, gratify the lovers of truth and wit, by giving me leave to inform them in your Magazine, that my account will be published in 8vo by Mr. Roberts, in Warwick-lane.'

Johnson wrote to Cave in an undated letter:-'The Life of Savage I am ready to go upon; and in Great Primer, and Pica notes, I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lye by in your hands till it is done. With the debates, shall not I have business enough? if I had but good pens1.

'Towards Mr. Savage's Life what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, &c., and know whether his defence be at Bristol, and would have his collection of poems, on account of the Preface,The Plain Dealer,-all the magazines that have anything of his, or relating to him.'-Boswell's Johnson, i. 156.

The Life of Savage, price 2s. 6d., is in the Register of Books for February, 1744, in Gent. Mag. p. 112.

Cave was the purchaser of the copyright; the following is a copy of Johnson's receipt for the money :-'The 14th day of December, received of Mr. Ed. Cave the sum of fifteen guineas, in full, for compiling and writing The Life of Richard Savage, Esq., deceased; and in full for all materials thereto applied, and not found by the said Edward Cave.

The Rev. John Hussey (John. Misc. Preface, p. 12) wrote on the margin of his copy of Boswell's John

son [1st ed. i. 83], opposite 'good

pens': 'The original is written but indifferently, and it has been debated whether it is "good Pens" or "good Eyes."

I say, received by me, SAM. JOHNSON. Dec. 14, 1743.' The title-page is as follows: An account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage, son of the Earl Rivers. London. Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick-Lane. MDCCXLIV.' It reached a second edition in 1748, a third in 1767, and a fourth in 1769. A French translation was published in 1771. Boswell's Johnson, i. 165 n.

[Very few alterations were made by Johnson when he included it in the present collection. Works, viii. 96 n.]

'Sir Joshua Reynolds,' writes Boswell, told me that upon his return from Italy he met with it in Devonshire, knowing nothing of its author, and began to read it while he was standing with his arm leaning against a chimney-piece. It seized his attention so strongly, that, not being able to lay down the book till he had finished it, when he attempted to move, he found his arm totally benumbed. The rapidity with which this work was composed is a wonderful circumstance. Johnson has been heard to say, "I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting; but then I sat up all night."' Boswell's Johnson, i. 165, v. 67.

Reynolds sailed for Italy in 1749, and returned in 1752. Leslie and Taylor's Reynolds, i. 35, 87.

This Life in the first edition of The Lives of the Poets was printed in smaller type.

[Johnson's authorities for Savage's birth and early life, in addition to the poet's own statements made to him during their intimacy, were— (1) the account in Jacob's Poetical Register, 1719; (2) information contained in The Plain Dealer, 1724, Nos. 28 and 73; (3) The Life of Mr. Richard Savage, 1727; (4) Savage's Preface to the second edition of his Miscellanies, 1728. See N. & Q. 2 S. vi. 425.

APPENDIX GG (PAGE 322)

Charles Hatton wrote on May 18, 1676 :-'Last night ye Ld Cornwallis and Mr Gerrard, ye Ld Gerrards son, being in drinke, abused ye sentinells in St James Parke, and, after, Mr Gerrard's meeting Capt With's footboy, upon what provocation is not yet known, strucke him soe yt ye boy fell down dead. Ye sentinell cryed out murder; whereupon they both fled, but were pursued into Sr Stephen Fox his house. My Ld Cornwallis appeares and declares yt he wase going up ye staires when ye boy wase killed; but heareing murder cryed he returned to Mr Gerrards and his servants, who said yt their master only hit ye boy a box on the eare of wch he dyed. Mr Gerrard absconds himself, and ther appeares noe bruise on ye boy but just under his eare.'

On May 23 Hatton wrote:-'Ye Lord Cornwallis is put out of ye Guards, upon ye murder of ye boy, of wch I acquainted you in my last, though it wase then reported yt he was killed only wth a box of ye eare; but when ye chirurgions searched ye corps it was found yt his necke was broke. Mr Gerrard is gone into France; but my Ld Cornwallis will stand his tryal, and Sr St Fox hath given in baile for his appearance. The enquest have found it murder.'

On July 2 Lord Cornwallis was tried before the Peers in Westminster Hall. Some witnesses declared that 'Mr Gerrard killed ye boy by taking him by ye sholder and tripping up his heeles and flinging him agt ye ground, and yt ye Lord Cornwallis wase upon ye staires when ye fact was done, and ye boy at a good distance from ye staires. The summe of evidence, in breife, wase yt both ye Ld Cornwallis and Mr Gerrard threatened to kill ye sentinell, and yt one of them, but wch could not be proved, bid ye sentinell kill ye boy, and said :-"We will kill somebody"; and yt presently after, Mr Gerrard killed ye boy.' . . .

'After he had made his defence, and ye Sollicitor summd up ye evidence, upon ye Ld Privy Seales motion ye Lds withdrew for above 3 hours. In ye interim theyr wase brought by ye Ld Cornwallis servants Naples bisquits and wine, wch wase first presented to ye Ld High Steward, and after given about to ye Company.' He was acquitted. Hatton Corres. i. 127, 128, 134.

[Charles Gerard, the second Earl of Macclesfield, was the son of Charles Gerard, first Baron Gerard of Brandon, who was created Viscount Brandon and Earl of Macclesfield in 1679. He succeeded to the Earldom in 1693. His marriage took place in 1683.]

APPENDIX HH (PAGE 322)

See also SAVAGE, 14, 160.

'When his mother, the late Countess of M- d, was big with child f him she publicly declared that the infant then in her womb did not the least appertain to her husband, but to another noble Earl, upon hich a trial was commenced in the House of Lords.' The Life of avage, 1727, p. 3. Boswell, quoting what Johnson says in the text, and his statement 'that she had proclaimed herself an adulteress ' (SAVAGE, 160), continues:-'I have perused the Journals of both Houses of Parliament at the period of her divorce, and there find it authentically ascertained that, so far from voluntarily submitting to the ignominious charge of adultery, she made a strenuous defence by her Counsel.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 171.

Mr. Moy Thomas, in N. & Q. 2 S. vi. pp. 361, 385, 425, 445, has, with great research, disproved much of Savage's story. In 1683 the Earl, then Charles Gerard, by courtesy Viscount Brandon, was married to Anne Mason. In March 1684-5 they separated. For the harsh letter in which he refused to live with her see ib. p. 361. In the divorce proceedings the charge of adultery was that with Earl Riversten years after the separation. Evidence was given of her husband's ill-usage of her. Ib. She pleaded that he had maliciously secluded her from bed and board.' Parl. Hist. v. 1174. He had been convicted—but this was not to his discredit-of taking part in the Rye House Plot. After long imprisonment he was suffered to redeem himself.' MACAULAY, Hist. ii. 290. Reresby recorded:-'The King declared on Dec. 2 [1685] he had reprieved the Lord Brandon, who was to have been executed three days afterwards, which, it must be

owned, was a great act of mercy in his Majesty, this lord having been pardoned in the late reign for breaking a boy's neck, when he was in his cups, of which being convicted he was condemned as guilty of murder.' Reresby's Travels and Memoirs, 1813, p. 319: see Appendix GG.

'It appears from the evidence in the divorce proceedings that his wife made great exertions "both with money and jewels" to obtain this pardon (the second pardon). She joined him in prison, but they soon separated. N. & Q. 2 S. vi. 362.

At each of her confinements she took every precaution to ensure secrecy. Ib. That she was ill-used Savage admitted. Life of Savage, 1727, P. 5.

The character of the Countess's reputed lover was little better than that of her husband. According to the Duchess of Marlborough (Corres. 1838, ii. 129) Lord Rivers 'had gone under the name of Tyburn Dick for many years.'

APPENDIX II (PAGE 323)

For Brett's intimacy with Addison see ante, ADDISON, 115.

Colonel Brett, of Sandywell in Gloucestershire, is described by Cibber in his Apology. For a short time he was one of the patentees of Drury Lane Theatre. He was introduced by a friend to his future wife, 'who had enough in her power to make him easy for life.' The wooing had to be done rapidly, and Brett was too poor to support with ease 'the bare appearance of a gentleman.' One evening Cibber reproached him for 'idling behind the scenes of the theatre before the play was begun,' and for the madness of not improving every moment.' He replied that 'his linen was too much soiled to be seen in company.' The actor, who was dressed for the part of a rake, 'hauled him into his shifting-room,' and changed shirts with him. In about ten days he married the lady. Upon raising of some new regiments he was made Lieutenant-Colonel,' but he soon resigned. Cibber's Apology, pp.

209-15.

In 1701 he was returned to parliament by Bishops Castle, Shropshire. Parl. Hist. v. 1324. 'He was,' said Dr. Young, 'a particular handsome man. The Countess of Rivers [sic], looking out of her window on a great disturbance in the streets, saw him assaulted by some bailiffs. She paid his debt, and soon after married him. When she died she left him more than he expected.' Spence's Anec. p. 355. She lived more than fifty years after their marriage, dying a widow in 1753. Gent. Mag. 1753, P. 491. [Jacob in 1719 describes Mrs. Brett as 'the widow of the late Colonel Brett.' Poet. Reg. i. 297. See also N. & Q. 2 S. vi. 380. On the other hand, the Dict. Nat. Biog, assigns his death to 1724. A will, stated therein to be his, bearing date Sept. 14 and proved on Sept. 16 of that year, is at Somerset House.]

It was of their daughter, Anna Margaretta, that Horace Walpole wrote:-'It was not till the last year or two of his reign that their foreign sovereign [George I] paid the nation the compliment of taking openly an English mistress.' Letters, Preface, p. 105. For her 'frailty' see SAVAGE, 157 n.

The following entries are in Gent. Mag. 1737, pp. 573, 637:- Sept. 17. Sir Wm. Leman of Northall, Bt., to Miss Britt [sic], of Bond Street, an heiress.'

'Oct. 8. Sir Wm. Leman of Northall, Bart., to Miss Brett, half Sister to Mr. Savage, Son to the late E. Rivers.'

Savage, who contributed to the Magazine, no doubt was the author of the second entry. The difference in the dates is curious. For Leman see SAVAGE, 270.

APPENDIX JJ (PAGE 323)

'Earl Rivers himself stood godfather, gave him his own name, and saw it entered accordingly in the Register Book of St. Andrew's, Holborn.' Jacob's Poet. Reg. i. 297. See also Life, 1727, p. 6.

Of Lady Macclesfield's illegitimate children the elder, baptized in 1695, under the name of Anne Savage, died soon after birth. The younger was baptized in Fox Court by the minister of St. Andrew's, on Jan. 18, 1696-7, under the name of Richard Smith, son of John and Mary Smith, in the presence, as the minister said, of 'two godfathers and a gentlewoman that was godmother.' 'From the evidence of another witness it appears that these were Lord Rivers, and a Mr. and Mrs. Ousley,' who had been Rivers's agents in the secret management of both confinements. The child was placed at nurse at Hampstead; six months later, on a report that it was not well, it was fetched away. 'The attempt of Lord Macclesfield to trace the child farther appears to have failed.' N. & Q. 2 S. vi. 363.

Savage, in two letters written shortly before his death, speaks of 'my sister and my niece. . . . For God's sake, call on my dear sister, and let her know the state of my affairs.' Gent. Mag. 1787, pp. 1039-41. This 'sister' must have been one of Lord Rivers's illegitimate children. Elizabeth, the only surviving legitimate daughter of Lord Rivers, married the Earl of Barrymore (SAVAGE, 14 n. 3), and died in 1714. Cokayne's Peerage.

Lord Rivers bequeathed a large sum to "Miss Bessy Savage," a girl under age.' Cunningham's Lives of the Poets, ii. 347. [SAVAGE, 14 n. 3. She married (1) the third Earl of Rochford, (2) Rev. Philip Carter. She died in 1746. Cokayne's Peerage. For Savage's verses to her see Eng. Poets, xli. 259.]

His story was generally accepted. Pope, in a note on The Dunciad, ii. 50, calls him 'the son of the late Earl Rivers'; but he and Savage were intimate (SAVAGE, 110). Horace Walpole describes 'the repudiated wife of the Earl of Macclesfield' as 'the unnatural mother of Savage the poet.' Letters, Preface, p. 105.

In the register of St. Andrew's, under date of Aug. 28, 1770, is the following entry:-'William Chatterton, interred in the graveyard of Shoe Lane Workhouse.' It was the young poet, Thomas Chatterton. Wheatley's London, i. 44.