'DEAR SIR,
'As Mr. Ryland was talking with me of old friends and past times, we
warmed ourselves into a wish, that all who remained of the club should
meet and dine at the house which once was Horseman's, in Ivy-lane. I
have undertaken to solicit you, and therefore desire you to tell on what
day next week you can conveniently meet your old friends.
'I am, Sir,
'Your most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Bolt-court, Nov. 22, 1783.'
'DEAR SIR,
'In perambulating Ivy-lane, Mr. Ryland found neither our landlord
Horseman, nor his successor. The old house is shut up, and he liked not
the appearance of any near it; he therefore bespoke our dinner at the
Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, where, at half an hour after
three, your company will be desired to-day by those who remain of our
former society.
'Your humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Dec. 3.'
Four met--Johnson, Hawkins, Ryland, and Payne (_ante_, i. 243).
'We dined,' Hawkins continues, 'and in the evening regaled with coffee.
At ten we broke up, much to the regret of Johnson, who proposed
staying; but finding us inclined to separate, he left us with a sigh
that seemed to come from his heart, lamenting that he was retiring to
solitude and cheerless meditation.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 562.
Hawkins is mistaken in saying that they had a second meeting at a tavern
at the end of a month; for Johnson, on March 10, 1784, wrote:--
'I have been confined from the fourteenth of December, and know not when
I shall get out.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 351.