'I came back last Tuesday from France. Is not mine a kind of life turned
upside down? Fixed to a spot when I was young, and roving the world when
others are contriving to sit still, I am wholly unsettled. I am a kind
of ship with a wide sail, and without an anchor.' _Ante_, ii. 387, note
2.
1776. In the spring of this year everything was settled for his journey
to Italy with the Thrales. Hannah More wrote (_Memoirs_, i. 74):--
'Johnson and Mr. Boswell have this day set out for Oxford, Lichfield,
&c., that the Doctor may take leave of all his old friends previous to
his great expedition across the Alps. I lament his undertaking such a
journey at his time of life, with beginning infirmities. I hope he will
not leave his bones on classic grounds.'