Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/240

202 grubber into wholly forgotten facts, to whom all Johnson-lovers owe so much, Dr. Birkbeck Hill, Johnson left Pembroke as a student in 1729, and without a degree. But he frequently revisited it. And he loved it to the very, very last. In June, 1782, Hannah More wrote to her sister: "Who do you think is my principal guide in Oxford. Only Dr. Johnson! And we do so gallant about! You can imagine with what delight he showed me every part of his own College [Pembroke]. After dinner Johnson begged to conduct me to see the College; he would let no one show it me but himself. 'This was my room, this Shenstone's.' Then, after pointing out all the rooms of the poets who had been at this College, 'In short,' he said, 'we were a nest of singing birds!'"

It is an unfailing pleasure to "gallant" about Oxford, with any party, or absolutely alone; but with Johnson and Hannah More it must have been delightful indeed. Alas! no one knows now, positively, where Shenstone and the other singing birds nested. And there is no Johnson, or ghost of Johnson, to tell us.

Johnson's song-birds did not sing in concert; for William Shenstone, whose nest he pointed out so familiarly, did not go up to Pembroke until 1732, some time after Johnson had gone, voluntarily,