| Citation |
PC.773.103
16-23 Aug 1773:1221 (345)
London, June 1. . . On the 3d of May died, at the New-Hall,
in Gawsworth, in Cheshire, in a very advanced age, Mr.
Samuel Johnson, commonly called Lord Flame, a person
formerly well known in many of the adjoining counties, as an
excellent commedian, a famous dancing-master, the author of
a play called Hurlothrumbo, Chrononhotonthologos, and others
of some eminence. He was a man of singular oddities, with
sharp slights of wit, and a keen satirist, even upon his
best friends. He, for above thirty years past, lived in
retirement at the above place, having very little society
with any of his neighbours, kept only one maid, which he
called Goose Eye, who lived with him thirty years, even from
her childhood, 'till a few weeks before his death, when she
fell sick and died. He made a vault in a grove, about a
quarter of a mile from Gawsworth-church, and had made
preparations for building a tomb over her, she in her
sickness (by his persuasion) having agreed to be so buried;
but two of her brothers coming to see her just before she
died, frustrated his design, and buried her at Gawsworth
church. Mr. Johnson's disappointment, and grief for the
death of her, who so long had been a faithful servant to
him, it is thought hastened his dissolution, who, according
to his own desire, had Christian burial at Gawsworth church,
on Wednesday the 5th instant, and was afterwards removed to
the vault which he designed for his maid.
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