John Nichols, Murphy says that 'his attachment to Dr. Johnson was
unwearied.' _Life of Johnson_, p. 66. He was the printer of _The Lives
of the Poets_ (_ante_, p. 36), and the author of _Biographical and
Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer_, 'the last of the learned
printers,' whose apprentice he had been (_ante_, p. 369). Horace Walpole
(_Letters_, viii. 259) says:--
'I scarce ever saw a book so correct as Mr. Nichols's _Life of Mr.
Bowyer_. I wish it deserved the pains he has bestowed on it every way,
and that he would not dub so many men _great_. I have known several of
his _heroes_, who were very _little_ men.'
The _Life of Bowyer_ being recast and enlarged was republished under the
title of _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_. From 1778 till
his death in 1826 the _Gentleman's Magazine_ was in great measure in his
hands. Southey, writing in 1804, says:--
'I have begun to take in here at Keswick the _Gentleman's Magazine_,
_alias_ the _Oldwomania_, to enlighten a Portuguese student among the
mountains; it does amuse me by its exquisite inanity, and the glorious
and intense stupidity of its correspondents; it is, in truth, a disgrace
to the age and the country.
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