Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: Boswell, Goldsmith, Garrick, Reynolds…

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.
-Samuel Johnson

We visited Samuel Johnson’s house today, hence the plethora of Johnsonisms. It’s another red brick Georgian house (a personal favorite) in the middle of a section of town that was built in the late 17th century and is still quite old and charming.

I admire Johnson’s wit, his generosity, and his mind-boggling intelligence, but what I think I like best about him is the knack he had for surrounding himself with the best of the best of England. His list of friends is basically a Who’s Who of the 18th century intellectual and artistic elite! For a man who lived modestly he had quite the dinner parties, oh to have been a fly on that wall… Sometimes I have this fantasy that if I had lived in the 18th century I would have been clever enough to set up a salon or society that attracted people the way he did, but I don’t know if I would have been able to. There are some people who just have the talent for drawing in best people, it’s a goal I aspire to.