London’s Golden Age: Sex and Scandal in Georgian Britain (Part 2)

March 12, 2026·1 hr 9 min·6 clips

James Boswell fantasizes about women during a church sermon, exposing the scandalous mind of 18th-century London's most famous diarist.

Johnson is delighted. It starts with Boswell reporting an answer about Greek mythology, and Johnson is pleased that people on London's taxi boats still care about learning. Greenwich does not quite win them over. They walk in the park and admire it, but Boswell says it is not equal to Fleet Street. Johnson agrees. Trees lose to bustle. That small judgment puts Johnson exactly where he belongs here: in love with a busy street and a good conversation. Then the cold sets in. Boswell shivers on the late return, while Johnson's robust frame seems untouched, and the older man scolds the younger as if trembling were paltry effeminacy. It is funny, with an edge. The joke has roughness in it, the kind where sympathy and rebuke sit in the same boat and arrive at the Strand together. They keep talking. At the Turk's Head coffee house, Boswell feels ready to share intimacies and confidences, including the castle at Affleck and the pain of leaving. Johnson listens, then makes the moment larger. He says he must see Boswell out of England and will accompany him to Harwich, a promise Boswell takes as a signal mark of honour. Harwich becomes the measure of the whole thing. The aside that no one would go there voluntarily makes the grand gesture feel human, which is why it works. Boswell stays gloomy. Johnson, who knows depression and melancholy himself, sees it and rallies him with manly, spirited conversation. The scene is about companionship. Its power is not scandal or spectacle, but the careful movement of friendship: Greek mythology, a walk, a cold journey, a coffee house confession, and then a surprising act of loyalty.

As heard by us

A witty Georgian London walk where conversation does the heavy lifting.

This episode treats Georgian London as a lived-in map, with Fleet Street, Greenwich, the Strand, and the Turk's Head each doing some of the work.

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Why you'd press play

Want Boswell and Johnson at their most intimate, argumentative, and quietly melancholy?

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