After the alteration of the style, he kept his birthday on the 18th of September, and it is accordingly marked September 7/18 [c] The impression which this interview left on Johnson's fancy, is recorded by Mrs. Piozzi in her anecdotes; and Johnson's description of it is picturesque and poetical.

It had moreover been "long her dearest wish" to see Italy, with Piozzi for a guide.

64; Garrick, praises, v. 245; Essay on Shakespeare, ii. 88; iv. 16, n. 2; v. 245; Boswell's controversy with Mrs. Piozzi about it, ib., n. 2; house, her new, iv. 64, n. 1, 65, n. 1; ill, iii. 434; Johnson, drops, iv. 73; gives her a catalogue of De Foe's works, iii. 267; high praise of her, iv.

Mrs. Piozzi at seventy or eighty was as sprightly, as good-natured, as Mrs. Thrale at thirty or forty.

But she suffered little from the change, was contented to win and accept the flattery of inferior people, and, instead of spending her faculties in soothing the "radically wretched life" of Johnson, used them, perhaps not less happily, in lightening the sufferings of Piozzi during his last years.

" The first pages of the manuscript are occupied by Mrs. Piozzi with an account of her family and of her own early life.