in 1783-4 those dinners of the survivors of the Ivy Lane Club, recorded by Hawkins and Mrs. Piozzi. Hic finis chartaque viaque. The reader has now before him an account of the haunts and dwelling-places of Johnson in London, with the sites or whereabouts of most. It is impossible that there should not be omissions. But the march of improvement is so rapid, that even an imperfect attempt at such a record is not without its value,-to say nothing of the fact that, as Boswell himself puts it in a by-no-means too highly-pitched justification, "there is something pleasingly interesting, to many, in tracing so great a man through all his different. habitations." LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS NOTE. In the List of Portraits illustrating these volumes full particulars will be found of the original paintings, and engravings after such paintings, from which the present plates have been reproduced. It was hardly possible to give the same details with regard to the topographical illustrations in the text; a general description of the scheme followed is, however, necessary. Mr. Railton has drawn them from the buildings themselves, in such cases as they still retain the appearance familiar to Dr. Johnson. Many, of course, are now demolished, and others altered out of recognition. Great pains have been taken to find contemporary prints or drawings of these; but although many of these originals are highly-finished drawings, others are either very roughly executed, or mere architectural elevations. Mr. Railton's skill and knowledge of architecture have, however, enabled him, whilst adhering closely to details, to produce a picturesque as well as accurate representation of those interesting buildings so closely associated with the life of Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson PORTRAITS (Photogravure) FRED J. SIMMONS. After the Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted in 1778, and now Topham Beauclerk PAGE Frontispiece · facing 161 From an Engraving by Samuel Bellin, after C. P. Harding. From an Engraving by F. Bartolozzi, after Sir Joshua Reynolds. Frank Barber 225 Lord Chesterfield . Dr. C. Burney From the Water-Colour Drawing by H. Edridge in the Print Room, Dean's Yard, Westminster, in 1730 From a Drawing by Herbert Railton. Henry Thrale From an Engraving by Scriven after the painting by Sir Joshua ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Stairway to Dr. Johnson's House, Gough Square Fanlight in Johnson's House, Gough Square Firegrate in Johnson's Room in Gough Square Sweedon Passage, Grub Street Part of the City of Lichfield, showing the house in which the late Church Street, Greenwich, from the site of the "Golden Hart" Stairway in Hogarth's House St. James's Square in 1760 Goodman's-fields Theatre Tunbridge Wells. The Pantiles in 1748 "The Priory," Dr. Johnson's House at Hampstead Dr. Johnson's House, Gough Square Covent Garden from the Portico of St. Paul's Church, in 1749 Kettel Hall, Oxford Residence of Rev. Dr. Wise at Ellsfield PAGE XXV 8 15 27 50 57 63 87 89 100 104 117 122 137 Grub Street Dr. Johnson's House in Inner Temple Lane. Resided here from 1760 to 1765 215 Door and Staircase to Dr. Johnson's Chambers, Inner Temple Lane Crypt of St. John's, Clerkenwell, visited by Johnson in connection with the "Cock-Lane Ghost" fraud . Room in which the Cock-Lane hoax was practised. Visited by Johnson in 1762. 271 Johnson's House, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street Mr. Thrale's House at Streatham DEDICATION ΤΟ SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS MY DEAR SIR, Εν VERY liberal motive that can actuate an Authour in the dedication of his labours, concurs in directing me to you, as the person to whom the following Work should be inscribed. If there be a pleasure in celebrating the distinguished merit of a contemporary, mixed with a certain degree of vanity not altogether inexcusable, in appearing fully sensible of it, where can I find one, in complimenting whom I can with more general approbation gratify those feelings? Your excellence not only in the Art over which you have long presided with unrivalled fame, but also in Philosophy and elegant Literature, is well known to the present, and will continue to be the admiration of future ages. Your equal and placid temper, your variety of conversation, your true politeness, by which you are so amiable in private society, and that enlarged hospitality which has long made your house a common centre of union for the great, the accomplished, the learned, and the ingenious; all these qualities I can, in perfect confidence of not being accused of flattery, ascribe to you. If a man may indulge an honest pride, in having it known to the world, that he has been thought worthy of particular attention by a person of the first eminence in the age in which he lived, whose company has been universally courted, I am justified in availing myself of the usual privilege of a Dedication, when I mention that there has been a long and uninterrupted friendship between us. If gratitude should be acknowledged for favours received, I have this opportunity, my dear Sir, most sincerely to thank you for the many happy hours which I owe to your kindness,—for the cordiality with which you have at all times been pleased to welcome me,for the number of valuable acquaintances to whom you have introduced me, for the noctes cœnæque Deum, which I have enjoyed under your roof. If a work should be inscribed to one who is master of the subject of it, and whose approbation, therefore, must ensure it credit and success, the Life of Dr. Johnson is, with the greatest propriety, dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was the intimate and beloved friend of that great man; the friend, whom he declared to be "the most invulnerable man he knew; whom, if he should quarrel with him, he should find the most difficulty how to abuse." You, my dear Sir, studied him, and knew him well: you venerated and admired him. Yet, luminous as he was upon the whole, you perceived all the shades which mingled in the grand composition; all the little peculiarities and slight blemishes which marked the literary Colossus. Your very warm commendation of the specimen which I gave in my "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," of my being able to preserve his conversation in an authentick and lively manner, which opinion the Publick has confirmed, was the best encouragement for me to persevere in my purpose of producing the whole of my stores. In one respect, this Work will, in some passages, be different from the former. In my "Tour," I was almost unboundedly open in my communications, and from my eagerness to display the wonderful fertility and readiness of Johnson's wit, freely shewed to the world its dexterity, even when I was myself the object of it. I trusted that I should be liberally understood, as knowing very well what I was about, and by no means as simply unconscious of the pointed effects of the satire. I own, indeed, that I was arrogant enough to suppose that the tenour of the rest of the book would sufficiently guard me against such a strange imputation. But it seems I judged too well of the world; for, though I could scarcely believe it, I have been undoubtedly informed, that many persons, especially in distant quarters, not penetrating enough into Johnson's character, so as to understand his mode of treating his friends, have arraigned my judge |