Hector never married, and Mrs. Careless, a
clergyman's widow, Hector's own sister, and Johnson's "first love,"
resided with him, and appears by the burial register of St. Philip's to
have died in October, 1788, and to have been buried there, probably in
the vault in which her brother was afterwards interred. In the month of
November, 1784, just a month before his own decease, Johnson passed a
few days with his friend, Hector, at his residence in the Old Square,
who, in a letter to Boswell, thus speaks of the visit:--"He" (Johnson)
"was very solicitous with me, to recollect some of our most early
transactions, and to transmit them to him, for I perceived nothing gave
him greater pleasure than calling to mind those days of our innocence. I
complied with his request, and he only received them a few days before
his death." Johnson arrived in London from Birmingham on the 16th of
November, and on the following day wrote a most affectionate letter to
Mr. Hector, which concludes as follows:--
"Let us think seriously on our duty. I send my kindest respects to
dear Mrs. Careless. Let me have the prayers of both. We have all lived
long, and must soon part.
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