Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/38

 18 after "single speech" Hamilton had left, "the only person out of the Thrale's house that voluntarily communicates with him." The gruff old doctor, who was more than ordinarily out of humour at this time, liked Metcalfe, and Miss Burney adds the observation that Metcalfe is "very clever and entertaining when he pleases."

Johnson asked him for his company in a trip to Chichester to see the cathedral and they also visited Petworth and Cowdray "the venerable seat of the lords Montacute. Sir, said Dr. Johnson to him, I should like to stay here four and twenty hours. We see here how our ancestors lived." Metcalfe found so many places of curiosity in the district that Johnson was detained in the country longer than he anticipated and had to write a letter of apology to Mrs. Thrale for his delay in finding his way back to London. It was during this visit to Brighton that Johnson repeated to him the verses from the collection entitled Pope's Miscellany (II., 1727, p. 237) which contained a prophetic anticipation of the changes in religion of Gibbon as "now Protestant and Papist now," and then "infidel or atheist." It was probably through the closer intimacy brought about by this prolonged stay "at Brighthelmstone" that Johnson was encouraged to ask him not infrequently for money for the relief of those in distress. When Metcalfe offered what Johnson thought was too much the comment on taking less than was proffered was the phrase "no, no, sir, we must not pamper them."

Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale in October of the following year that Metcalfe had taken him out for an airing and in April 1784 that two of their friends Metcalfe and Crutchley "without knowing each other are both members of parliament for Horsham." He was one of the mourners who attended Johnson's funeral at Westminster Abbey on 20 December 1784 and his name has been suggested as that of the friend who filled up the blanks of the doctor's