She, with her sisters, had kept a boarding-school at
Bristol.
[1055] She first saw Johnson in June, 1774. According to her _Memoirs_
(i. 48) he met her 'with good humour in his countenance, and continued
in the same pleasant humour the whole of the evening.' She called on him
in Bolt Court. One of her sisters writes:--'Miss Reynolds told the
doctor of all our rapturous exclamations [about him] on the road. He
shook his scientific head at Hannah, and said, "She was a silly thing."'
_Ib_. p. 49. 'He afterwards mentioned to Miss Reynolds how much he had
been touched with the enthusiasm of the young authoress, which was
evidently genuine and unaffected.' _Ib_. p. 50. She met him again in the
spring of 1775. Her sister writes:--'The old genius was extremely
jocular, and the young one very pleasant. They indeed tried which could
"pepper the highest" [Goldsmith's _Retaliation_], and it is not clear to
me that he was really the highest seasoner.' _Ib_. p. 54. From the Mores
we know nothing of his reproof. He had himself said of 'a literary
lady'--no doubt Hannah More--'I was obliged to speak to Miss Reynolds to
let her know that I desired she would not flatter me so much.
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