Laurence Sterne

1713 (Clonmel, Ireland) – 1768 (London)

Garrick was the first in London to pick up on Sterne and became a lifelong friend, though he teased him for saying one thing and doing another. Hume knew Sterne in Paris and in London; d’Holbach helped him stay in France, where he and Crébillon hatched plans to issue a brochure where each would hold up the other’s work to ridicule, thus gaining publicity for both (it came to nothing). Smollett often had him over to lunch in Chelsea with Johnson and Garrick; Garrick was dining with Hume when they heard of Sterne’s death, though neither went to the funeral.