Note 67 — A BOOK FOR A RAINY DAY

The occasion was a dinner at Tom Davies’s in 1762. “Boswell: Does not Gray’s poetry, sir, tower above the common mark? Johnson: Yes, sir; but we must attend to the difference between what men in general cannot do if they would, and what every man may do if he would. Sixteen-string Jack towered above the common mark.” Dr. William Bell, whom Rann robbed, was Rector of Christ Church, London, 1780-99, and treasurer of St. Paul’s Cathedral.