204. For the quarrel between the City and the
Court, see _ante_, iii. 201.
[1019] See _ante_, i. 387.
[1020] Knox in _Winter Evenings_, No. xi. (_Works_, ii. 348), attacks
Johnson's biographers for lowering his character by publishing his
private conversation. 'Biography,' he complains, 'is every day
descending from its dignity.' See _ante_, i. 222, note 1.
[1021] _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 256.
[1022] Johnson wrote on April 15:--'I am still very weak, though my
appetite is keen and my digestion potent. ... I now think and consult
to-day what I shall eat to-morrow. This disease likewise will, I hope,
be cured.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 362. Beattie, who dined with
Johnson on June 27, wrote:--'Wine, I think, would do him good, but he
cannot be prevailed on to drink it. He has, however, a voracious
appetite for food. I verily believe that on Sunday last he ate as much
to dinner as I have done in all for these ten days past.' Forbes's
_Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 315. It was said that Beattie latterly indulged
somewhat too much in wine. _Ib_. p. 432.
[1023] Horace Walpole wrote in April 1750 (_Letters_, ii.
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