'A Right Decent Geezer'

The day before yesterday I was walking around the Samuel Johnson birthplace museum with my brother and walking friends (their first time, and they were impressed). One of the interactive attractions caught my eye – 'Your Letters to Samuel Johnson'. Visitors were invited to take a sheet of paper headed 'Dear S.J.', write the great man a letter, and pin it on a dedicated board. Of those that were legible or made sense, most were not very interesting – but one stood out: this one...'Dear S.J.You seem like a right decent geezer.Sincerely,Ted Reynolds' One might balk at the noun – and Johnson would not have known it – but this seems to me a pretty sound assessment of Johnson's character. I wasn't tempted to write a letter myself. Yesterday we were in Tamworth, where, standing by the obelisk erected in memory of 'The Author of "Little Jim"', I treated my friends to a reading of that classic of Victorian sentimental verse. Their eyes remained resolutely dry. And here is a literary souvenir…