8, 22, for mention of Rochester.
[721] Murphy (_Life_, p. 121) says that Johnson visited Oxford this
summer. Perhaps he was misled by a passage in the _Piozzi Letters_ (ii.
302) where Johnson is made to write:--'At Oxford I have just left
Wheeler.' For _left_ no doubt should be read _lost_. Wheeler died on
July 22 of this year. _Gent. Mag_. 1783, p. 629.
[722] This house would be interesting to Johnson, as in it Charles II,
'for whom he had an extraordinary partiality' (_ante_, ii. 341), lay hid
for some days after the battle of Worcester. Clarendon (vi. 540)
describes it 'as a house that stood alone from neighbours and from any
highway.' Charles was lodged 'in a little room, which had been made
since the beginning of the troubles for the concealment of delinquents.'
[723] 'I told Dr. Johnson I had heard that Mr. Bowles was very much
delighted with the expectation of seeing him, and he answered me:--"He
is so delighted that it is shocking. It is really shocking to see how
high are his expectations." I asked him why, and he said:--"Why, if any
man is expected to take a leap of twenty yards, and does actually take
one of ten, everybody will be disappointed, though ten yards may be more
than any other man ever leaped.
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