Streatham Park, Streatham, Surrey, England

Dr. Samuel Johnson by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1772..

Their introduction

Arthur Murphy recommended Johnson to the Thrales …

To wish for Dr. Johnson’s conversation, extolling it in terms which that of no other person could have deserved, till we were only in doubt how to obtain his company and find an excuse for the invitation.

Ten years after the single-handed production of his epoch-making English dictionary, Samuel Johnson was introduced to the Thrales on the 9th or 10th of January 1765, invited to meet a guest of the Thrale. The evening was a success and every subsequent Thursday night during the winter of 1764-5 Johnson was a guest.

Fanny Burney in The Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, said …

Mr. Thrale was a sensible, unassuming man, whom Johnson loved and esteemed, and who returned Johnson’s attachment with the sincerest regard.

Johnson’s regard for the Thrales was real, and it was heartily returned. The library became the focal point of Thrale’s social life. Mrs. Thrale had a taste for literary guests. James Boswell described…

The witty and the eminent who assembled in numerous companies.

Mrs Elizabeth Montagu wrote in August 1777 …

On Wednesday I dined at Streatham … We had a most elegant dinner, and the best of all feasts, sense and wit and good humour. Mrs Thrale is a woman of very superior understanding, and very respectable as a Wife, a Mother, a friend and a Mistress of a Family. Mr Thrale has a fruit garden and a kitchen garden that may vie with the Hesperian Gardens for fruit and flowers.

Fanny Burney nicknamed Henry Thrale’s collection the Streatham Worthies - a reference to the celebrated ‘Temple of British Worthies’ at Stowe. Samuel Crisp wrote to Fanny …

Where will you find such another set? Oh, Fanny, set this down as the happiest period of your life.

Residing with the Thrale family

The friendship continued until the summer of 1766 when following a very severe bout of depression, Johnson spent four months recuperating with the Thrales at their Streatham country house.From then there was always a room set aside for Johnson’s use at Streatham and at Brewery House, where he usually stayed in the middle of each week, reserving Friday for his literary club and staying the weekends at his Fleet Street house.After this, Johnson became a part of the Thrale household and Streatham Park became a country retreat for a wide intellectual circle. Johnson was the lion-in-chief.

Samuel Johnson at the Cave's the Publisher, by Henry Wallis..

Verse by Johnson for Thrales

Samuel Johnson wrote:

• verses on Hester's 35^th birthday;
• an Ode to Thrale.

Parting

Hester and Dr. Samuel largely ended their close friendship just before Hester married Gabriel Mario Piozzi on 23 July 1784. the exchanged parting letters.