Queeny behaves like an angel about it. Mr. Johnson says the name of
Crutchley comes from _croix lea_, the cross meadow; _lea_ is a
meadow, I know, and _crutch_, a crutch stick, is so called from
having the handle go _crosswise_."
"_September,_ 1781.--My five fair daughters too! I have so good a
pretence to wish for long life to see them settled. Like the old
fellow in 'Lucian,' one is never at a loss for an excuse. They are
five lovely creatures to be sure, but they love not me. Is it my
fault or theirs?"
"_12th October_, 1781.--Yesterday was my wedding-day; it was a
melancholy thing to me to pass it without the husband of my youth.
"'Long tedious years may neither moan,
Sad, deserted, and alone;
May neither long condemned to stay
Wait the second bridal day!!!'[1]
"Let me thank God for my children, however, my fortune, and my
friends, and be contented if I cannot be happy."
[Footnote 1: _Note by Mrs. T._: "Samuel Wesley's verses, making part
of an epithalamium."]
"_15th October_, 1781.--My maid Margaret Rice dreamed last night that
my eldest daughter was going to be married to Mr. Crutchley, but that
Mr. Thrale _himself_ prevented her. An odd thing to me, who think Mr.
Crutchley is his son."
Although the next day but one after Thrale's death Johnson carried
Boswell to dine at the Queen's Arms' Club, his grief was deep and
durable. Indeed, it is expressed so often and so earnestly as to
rebut the presumption that "my mistress" was the sole or chief tie
which bound him to Streatham.
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