eight years, with the aid of six copyists, for whose use Johnson had an upper room "fitted up like a counting-house." Boswell, Bishop Percy, and Sir John Hawkins, Johnson's literary executor, have have given different accounts of the compilation; the last named may be quoted—

"The several articles he collected by incessantly reading the best authors in each language, in the practice whereof his method was to score with a blacklead pencil the words by him selected. The books he used for this purpose were what he had in his own collection, a copious but miserably ragged one, and all such as he could borrow; which latter, if ever they came back to those who lent them, were so defaced as to be scarce worth owning, and yet some of his friends were glad to receive and entertain them as curiosities."

It was during Dr. Johnson's residence in Gough Square that his wife died, in 1752. There, too, he was arrested in a time of need for a paltry debt of £5 18s., which the kindly Samuel Richardson paid off.

Carlyle wrote (for once) an amusing account of an expedition to Johnson's house some seventy years ago—

"We ourselves, not without labour and risk, discovered Gough Square, and the very house wherein the English Dictionary was compiled., . stout, old-fashioned, oak-balustraded house. I have spent many a pound and a penny on it since then,' said the worthy landlord; here, you see, this bedroom was the Doctor's study; that was the garden (a plot of delved ground somewhat larger than a bed-quilt) where he walked for exercise, these three great bedrooms (where his six copyists sat and wrote) were the place he kept his pupils in.' Tempus edax rerum! Yet ferox also; for our friend now added, with a wistful look, which strove to seem merely historical, "I let it all in lodgings, to respectable gentlemen; by the quarter or the month, it's all one to me."

W. B.

GOLDSMITH'S HOUSE IN WINE OFFICE

TH

COURT

HIS old house, situated in a narrow court off Fleet Street, was pulled down in 1903, and its loss would have occasioned small regret but for the association it claimed with Oliver Goldsmith. I am aware that the claim is disputed. The facts absolutely known are that Goldsmith left his wretched habitation in Green Arbour Court, near the Old Bailey, in the later months of 1760, for Wine Office Court, where he had "respectable lodgings" for nearly a couple of years.

That

Forster says the house belonged to a relative of Newbery, the publisher, and that Goldsmith occupied two rooms. this was the identical building rests rather upon tradition than on actual evidence, but there seems no adequate reason to assume that tradition is false. The poet died only in 1774, and for very many years before its demolition the dwelling bore the inscription Goldsmith's House upon its front.

An event which had an important influence on Goldsmith's life occurred when he was living in Wine Office Court. Dr. Johnson, no doubt, had already recognised his genius ("Is there a man, sir, now, who can pen an essay with such care and elegance as Goldsmith?" he asked in later years), but they had not met. The poet's friend, Dr. Percy, arranged a meeting, and in honour of his distinguished visitor Goldsmith gave a supper in his rooms. Percy, calling to take up Johnson in

Inner Temple Lane, found him dressed in a new suit of clothes and a new wig powdered, and inquired the cause of this unusual smartness.

"Why, sir," said Johnson, "I hear that Goldsmith, who is a great sloven, justifies his disregard of cleanliness and decency by quoting my practice; and I am desirous this night to show him a better example." The supper took place on May 31st, 1761, and as there was no Boswell present to record the conversation it has gone into oblivion.

Goldsmith worked on "The Vicar of Wakefield " when in Wine Office Court, having brought some sheets of it with him from his earlier home in Green Arbour Court. This lodging off Fleet Street has also been given as the scene of the encounter between Goldsmith and his enraged landlady, when Johnson, being called in, looked over the manuscript of the immortal novel, and was able to arrange a sale to Francis Newbery for £60, and so relieve the imprisoned poet's most pressing needs; but all that most probably took place at Islington.

"Goldsmith's House" stood about midway up the court, on the left-hand side, and the site is covered by new buildings of the Press Club. Often must Johnson and "Old Noll" have passed together along this narrow passage, but their shades would find little to recognise in the Wine Office Court of to-day. It survives merely as an artery in the busy world of newspapers. W. B.