WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES: A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON Antiquities, Biography, Beraldry, Bistory, Languages, SELECTED FROM ORIGINAL LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS ADDRESSED DURING THE YEAR 1854, TO THE PUBLISHER, G. WILLIS, GREAT PIAZZA, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. MDCCCL V. AN INDEX TO THE FOURTH VOLUME. * Indicates that woodcuts illustrate those Articles. Abernethy's tongue restraint, 81. American Copyright Memorial, 57. Angelo's Damned Soul? reply, 34. ? Bewick's Chillingham Bull, 2, 11. Branks or Scold's bridle, 37, 40. Burial fees remitted, 24. Butler's Hudibras, 48, 61, 74, 94. Cards in Fifteenth Century, 42. Charles I., Icon Basilicon, 28, 33. Chess, in fifteenth century, 42. Christ's Hospital petition, 40. Chronograms, 15. Church bell inscriptions, 31. Claude's Judgment of Paris? 98. Closing of Churchyards, 94. Coleridge, inedited letters, 53, 54. *Cucking-stools, 9, 21, 29, 30, 79. Devil's Sonata, 24. Grey, Lady Jane, 6. Guizot, 28. Gustavus Adolphus's retort, 79. Gwynne, Nell, 21. Hamlet's Grave, 19. Handel Statue, 60. Harleston Ducking-stool, 30. Harvey's Way to Heaven, 50. Heraclea, discovery, 45. Hewing blocks with razors, 19; re- History, its uncertainties, 73. Dining with Duke Humphrey? reply, 11. Hot-pot? with reply, 30. Divining rod, 48. Dodo, reply, 4. Dog-killing, 88. Dorchester church, 52. Dublin Traders' Token, 44. Edward I., Coronation oath, 33. England's Kinges and Governors, 11. Fontenelle's opinion of Mahomet, 4. Goldsmith's copyrights, 91. Graves bedecked with Roses, 59. Gravesend Ducking-stool, 9. Human figures, with wings? 51. Hydrophobia Cures, 2, 27. Hymnus Melitensium Vespertinus, 2. Intellectual Coincidence, 101. Ipswich ducking-stool, 9. Isabella colour? reply, 35. Jack the Giant-Killer, 41, 50. Jermyn of Rushbroke, 22. Jest, whence derived? replies, 41, 64 Johnson's Dictionary, Suppl. to, 28. Juggernauth car, 32. Juvenal, translated by Johnson, 90. Kenney's daughters' pension, 67. Kilclief Castle, 54. Kingston ducking-stool, 9. Leicestershire poetical signs, 75. Licence for Sunday Sports, 85. Gray's Elegy, omitted verse, 59; Odes, Light and dark sides of God, 94. etc. 90. Great effects from little causes, 51. Great Men's descendants, 58. Lilly, prototype of Sydrophel, 48. London Cries, 102. Long Hair, notes on, 76. Louis, Dauphin of France, 42. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 55. Merit an obstacle, 21. Michaelmas Goose, 79. Milton's descendants, 58. Statue, Vauxhall Gardens, 51. Newton family particulars, 77, 78. Nicolas' widow's pension, 67. Banks, Tho. Christopher, 92. Oriel window explained, 83. Paltock's Peter Wilkins, 90. Percy's Oh Nanny! 64. Copy-right Pharmaceutical, 59, 64, 72. Pickering, William, 43. Pindar's (Dr. Wolcot) Annuity, 92. Turner's Cologne, 44. Tythes paid by clergy, 72. Quebec Parliament house destroyed, 14. Uncle Sam, 68. Quo Fas et Gloria ducunt? 70. Ridley's descendants, 58. Semel insanivimus omnes? reply, 35. Shakespeare and Greyhound, 87. Untranslatable pun, 73. Upcott's Living Authors, 88. Veritas Temporis Filia? 104. Bell-rock Light-house, 88. To a Violet, 67. Man's Life an Hour-Glasse, 52. Waller's Calender, 30. Errata.-P. 98, col. 2, line 3, for eloquence, read elegance. Ibid, line 4 from bottom, for Aberd. read Aberb. or WILLIS'S CURRENT CURRENT NOTES. No. XXXVII.] "Takes note of what is done- NEWTON'S HOUSE, ST. MARTIN'S STREET. No circumstance so readily assists topographical researches, or so indelibly impresses the memory of persons, as the connecting their names with things which are permanent, thus the designating the home of genius, as in this instance, Newton's house,' conveys a determinate idea, that would have long since ceased but from this circumstance. Dr. Johnson has not only expressed the wish, that the dwelling of every author should be known, but he seems to have been pleasurably employed in tracing and recording the local situation of Dryden, and also the residential transitions of Milton. The general opinion of the public, it must be admitted, is in full accordance with that of the great lexicographer, [JANUARY, 1854. but not unfrequently opportunities of submitting such notices in periodical literature occurring but inopportunely, a slight inattention on the part of the observer, to minute particulars, very frequently rendered almost inscrutable to the most acute, occasions a total loss of all details of notice, accelerated by the rapid annihilation that is occasioned by Time, and the almost worse unobserved engulphment of periodical spoliation and destruction. Genius, or more properly speaking inspiration, dignifies every spot on which its energies have been elicited; the home of the philosopher becomes in record academical; and its site may be termed classic ground. Let us then, for a moment, consider the situation of the present pictorial illustration, that the once abode of Newton has rendered pre-eminently conspicuous. The house, the first on the left hand, on entering St. Martin's Street from Leicester Square, was in 1709 the residence of the Danish Envoy. In 1710 it became tenanted by the ever memorable Sir Isaac Newton, his official house as Master of the Mint, being in Haydon Square in the Minories; and as Astronomer Royal at Flamstead House in Greenwich Park. Here he built the Observatory, the square turret shown in the woodcut, and associated with Halley, held frequent disquisitions on the appearances in the starry firmament. He never married, being wholly busied in profound studies during the prime of life, and afterwards engaged in the important business of the Mint; Sir Isaac Newton seemed quite occupied here with the company of distinguished individuals that his merit drew to him, that he was insensible of any vacancy in life, or of the want of a companion at home; in fact, his housekeeper was his niece, Mrs. Catherine Barton,* with The writer of Some Reminiscences of Peter Pindar' relates-I mentioned to Wolcot, that I had known a lady so late as 1814, who had been in a ball room with Pope. "I knew a lady," said Wolcot immediately, "who was grand-niece of Sir Isaac Newton. Her name was Burr, she died at Bath in 1790, about eighty years old. She lived with an aunt for some time, when young, in Newton's house. I asked, if it was true, that he was apt to fly into it with the well known story of the dog, that threw down a passion with those around him, as I could not reconcile the candle, and burned his manuscript, the labour of years, and yet he only reproved the animal with a few words. She replied, both statements were true; that her great relative esteemed a dumb animal not responsible for its actions, but that he considered the case was different with rational creatures." B |