Note 793 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (continued 5)

I was in Scotland when this Club was founded, and during all the winter. Johnson, however, declared I should be a member, and invented a word upon the occasion: 'Boswell (said he) is a very clubable man.' When I came to town I was proposed by Mr. Barrington, and chosen. I believe there are few societies where there is better conversation or more decorum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our great founder was removed by death. Other members were added; and now, above eight years since that loss, we go on happily. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker says 'Johnson had already invented unclubable for Sir J. Hawkins,' and refers to a note by Dr. Burney (ante, i. 480, note I), in which Johnson is represented as saying of Hawkins, while he was still a member of the Literary Club:—'Sir John, Sir, is a very unclubable man.' But, as Mr. Croker points out (Croker's Boswell, p. 164), 'Hawkins was not knighted till long after he had left the club.' The anecdote, being proved to be inaccurate in one point, may be inaccurate in another, and may therefore belong to a much later date.