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170

ANECDOTE OF JOHNSON.

It may be added he walked like a whale; for it was rolling rather than walking. "I met him in Fleet Street," says Boswell, "walking, or rather, indeed, moving along; for his peculiar march is thus described in a very just and picturesque manner, in a short life of him published very soon after his death: 'When he walked the streets, what with the constant roll of his head, and the concomitant motion of his body, he appeared to make his way by that motion independent of his feet.' That he was often much stared at," continues Boswell, "while he advanced in this manner, may be easily believed; but it was not safe to make sport of one so robust as he was. Mr. Langton saw him one day, in a fit of absence, by a sudden start, drive the load off a porter's back, and walk forwards briskly, without being conscious of what he had done. The porter was very angry, but stood still, and eyed the huge figure with much earnestness, till he was satisfied that his wisest course was to be satisfied and take up his burthen again."*

There is another remark on Fleet Street and its superiority to the country, which must not be passed over. Boswell, not having Johnson's reasons for wanting society, was a little overweening and gratuitous on this subject; and on such occasions the doctor would give him a knock. "It was a delightful day," says the biographer; we walked to St. Clement's church, I again remarked that Fleet Street was the most cheerful scene in the world; 'Fleet Street,' said I, 'is in my mind more delightful than Tempè.' Johnson. Ay, sir, but let it be compared with Mull.”” †

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The progress of knowledge, even since Johnson's time, has enabled us to say without presumption, that we differ with this extraordinary person on many important points,

*Boswell, vol. iv. p. 77.

† Id. vol. iii. p. 327.

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without ceasing to have the highest regard for his character. His faults were the result of temperament; perhaps his good qualities and his powers of reflection were, in some measure, so too; but this must be the case with all men. Intellect and beneficence, from whatever causes, will always command respect; and we may gladly compound, for their sakes, with foibles which belong to the common chances of humanity. If Johnson has added nothing very new to the general stock, he has contributed (especially by the help of his biographer) a great deal that is striking and entertaining. He was an admirable critic, if not of the highest things, yet of such as could be determined by the exercise of a masculine good sense; and one thing he did, perhaps beyond any man in England, before or since-he advanced, by the powers of his conversation, the strictness of his veracity, and the respect he exacted towards his presence, what may be called the personal dignity of literature. The consequence has been, not exactly what he expected, but certainly what the great interests of knowledge require; and Johnson has assisted men, with whom he little thought of cooperating, in setting the claims of truth and beneficence above all others.

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East from Fetter Lane, on the same side of the street, is Crane Court the principal house in which, facing the entry, was that in which the Royal Society used to meet, and where they kept their museum and library before they removed to their late apartments in Somerset House. The society met in Crane Court up to a period late enough to allow us to present to our imaginations Boyle and his contemporaries prosecuting their eager inquiries and curious experiments in the early dawn of physical science, and afterwards Newton presiding in the noontide glory of the light which he had shed over

nature.

CHAP. IV.

THE STRAND.

Ancient State of the Strand.

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Butcher Row. - Death of Lee, the

Johnson at an Eating-House.

Essex Street.

dramatic Poet.
House and History of the favourite Earl of Essex. -

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Spenser's Essex Head

Grecian Coffee-House. - Twining the

- Devereux Court. accomplished Scholar. St. Clement Danes.

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Clement's Inn. Falstaff and Shallow. - Norfolk, Arundel, Surrey, and Howard Streets -Norfolk House. - Essex's Ring and the Countess of Nottingham. William Penn. Birch. - Dr. Brocklesby.-Congreve, and his Will. - Voltaire's Visit to him. - Mrs. Bracegirdle. Tragical End of Mountford the Player. - Ancient Cross. Maypole. - New Church of St. Mary-le-Strand. - Old Somerset House. - Henrietta Maria and her French Household. Waller's Mishap at Somerset Stairs. - New Somerset House. - Royal Society, Antiquarian Society, and Royal Academy. Death of Dr. King. Exeter Street. Johnson's first Lodging in London. - Art of living in London. - Catherine Street. Unfortunate Women. - Wimbledon House. - Lyceum and Beef-steak Club. Exeter Change. Bed and Baltimore.

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Anecdotes of the Duchess of Albemarle. - Beaufort Buildings. Lillie the Perfumer. Aaron Hill. Fielding.-Southampton Street. - Cecil and Salisbury Streets. Durham House. Pennant on the Word Place or Palace. - New Exchange. - Don Pantaleon Sa. - The White Milliner.. Adelphi. Garrick and his Wife. Beauclerc. - Society of Arts, and Mr. Barry. - Bedford Street. - George, Villiers, and Buckingham Streets. - York House and Buildings. Squabble between the Spanish and French Ambassadors. Hungerford Market. - Craven Street. - Franklin. - Northumberland House. Duplicity of Henry, Earl of Northampton. Violence of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. - Percy, Bishop of Dromore. - Pleasant Mistake of Goldsmith.

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N going through Fleet Street and the Strand, we seldom think that the one is named after a rivulet, now running under ground, and the other from its being on the banks of the river Thames. As little do most of us fancy that there was once a line of noblemen's houses on the one side, and that, at the

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same time, all beyond the other side, to Hampstead or Highgate, was open country, with the little hamlet of St. Giles's in a copse. So late as the reign of Henry VIII. we have a print containing the village of Charing. Citizens used to take an evening stroll to the well now in St. Clement's Inn.

In the reign of Edward III. the Strand was an open country road, with a mansion here and there, on the banks of the river Thames, most probably a castle or strong-hold. In this state it no doubt remained during the greater part of the York and Lancaster period. From Henry VIIth's time the castles most likely began to be exchanged for mansions of a more peaceful character. These gradually increased; and in the reign of Edward VI. the Strand consisted, on the south side, of a line of mansions with garden walls; and on the north, of a single row of houses, behind which all was field. The reader is to imagine wall all the way from Temple Bar to Whitehall, on his left hand, like that of Kew Palace, or a succession of Burlington Gardens ; while the line of humbler habitations stood on the other side, like a row of servants in waiting.

As wealth increased, not only the importance of rank diminished, and the nobles were more content to recollect James's advice of living in the country (where, he said, they looked like ships in a river, instead of ships at sea), but the value of ground about London, especially on the river side, was so much augmented, that the proprietors of these princely mansions were not unwilling to turn the premises into money. The civil wars had given another jar to the stability of their abodes in the metropolis; and in Charles the Second's time the great houses finally gave way, and were exchanged for streets and wharfs. An agreeable poet of the last century lets us know that he used to think of this great change in going up the Strand.

"Come, Fortescue, sincere, experienc'd friend,

Thy briefs, thy deeds, and e'en thy fees suspend;

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Come, let us leave the Temple's silent walls;
Me, business to my distant lodging calls;
Through the long Strand together let us stray;
With thee conversing, I forget the way.
Behold that narrow street which steep descends,
Whose building to the slimy shore extends;
Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its fame:
The street alone retains the empty name.
Where Titian's glowing paint the canvas warmed,
And Raphael's fair design with judgment charmed,
Now hangs the bellman's song; and pasted here
The coloured prints of Overton appear.

Where statues breathed, the works of Phidias' hands,
A wooden pump, or lonely watch-house, stands.
There Essex' stately pile adorned the shore,

There Cecil's, Bedford's, Villiers', -now no more."

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As the aspect in this quarter is so different from what it was, and the quarter is one of the most important in the metropolis, we may add what Pennant has written on the subject:

"In the year 1353, that fine street the Strand was an open highway, with here and there a great man's house, with gardens to the water's side. In that year it was so ruinous, that Edward III., by an ordinance, directed a tax to be raised upon wool, leather, wine, and all goods carried to the staple at Westminster, from Temple Bar to Westminster Abbey, for the repair of the road; and that all owners of houses adjacent to the highway should repair as much as lay before their doors. Mention is also made of a bridge to be erected near the royal palace at Westminster, for the conveniency of the said staple; but the last probably meant no more than stairs for the landing of the goods, which I find sometimes went by the name of a bridge.

"There was no continued street here till about the year 1533; before that it entirely cut off Westminster from London, and nothing intervened except the scattered houses, and a

* Gay's Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London, book ii.

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