Augustan dogs

[Niall Martin]

At 13:46 1-08-97 +0100, you wrote:

[snip]

>Interestingly, on the manuscript version of this page of Boswell's      
>*Life*, he follows Johnson's comment by musing on his father's reaction
>to hearing of a blind preacher: "My father being asked what he thought
>of this answered 'the learned english dog.'"
>

[snip]

Adam, are you pulling my leg, or does Boswell's father really refer to "the
learned english dog"? If you're not, and he does, then I have a couple of
other questions:

1) to or who or what was he referring -- in the mouth of a Scotsman, you
naturally hear the `english' accentuated -- so I immediately suspect it of
being an Edinburgh term for some English politician, or Scottish in-joke.

2) would Pynchon have had to consult the manuscript of the _Life_ if this
was indeed his source, or are there facsimiles available?

Curiouser and curiouser

Niall