BAXTER'S BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS; with the Scientific and English Names, Descriptions, copious Indexes, &c., 509 coloured plates, 6 vols. 8vo. new hf. morocco, £4. 10s (pub. £9.) Oxford, 1834-43 W. and S. having bought the few remaining copies of the above excellent work on advantageous terms, beg to call the attention of their customers to its very low price. It is the only work which presents in a moderate compass the whole of the genera of British Flowering Plants. CAVENDISH SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS; a complete set of these valuable works on Chemical Science, 17 vols. 8vo. and 4to. atlas of engravings, cloth, nearly new, £8. 15s 1848-55 Life and Works of the Hon. Henry Cavendish, by Dr. Wilson 1851 1854 Life and Scientific Researches of John Dalton, by Dr. Henry 1854 Bischof (Professor) Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology, trans. by Paul and Drummond, vol. I Lehman (Prof.) Physiological Chemistry, trans. by Dr. Day, 3 vols. and Supplement in 4to. 1851-3-4 Laurent (Prof.) Chemical Method, Notation, Classification, and No. menclature, trans. by Odling 1855 Gmelin (Prof.) Hand Book of Chemistry, trans. by Watts, 9 vols. 1848-55 DUGDALE'S MONASTICON ANGLICANUM: a History of the Abbeys and other Monasteries, Hos pitals, Friaries, and Cathedral and Collegiate Churches in England and Wales; and of many Scotch, Irish, and French Monasteries, last edition, considerably enlarged by Caley, Ellis, and Bandinel, with 250 fine engravings, thick vols. folio, newly half bound morocco, £21. (pub. at £141. 158) THE GREAT WORK ON COINS. ECKHEL, DOCTRINA NUMORUM VETERUM, cum Supplemento, portrait, 9 vols. 4to. in 8, new half russia gilt, fine copy, £6. 10s Vindob., 1792-1826 "THIS GRAND WORK," says VISCONTI, "in which the author embraces Numismatics in all its branches, has disposed them in the best order, and submitted them to the most learned and ingenious criticism, and dissipated the darkness with which many of them were covered, has carried his reputation to the greatest height." EDWARDS' BOTANICAL REGISTER of Exotic Plants and Shrubs, Cultivated in British Gardens, THE THREE SERIES COMPLETE, continued by Dr. Lindley, with about 3000 BEAUTIFULLY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS, 34 vols. roy. 8vo. new hf. morocco, gilt tops, £25. 1815-47 This fine and valuable work was published, without the binding, at upwards of 60 guineas. EDWARDS' NATURAL HISTORY of Birds, and other Rare and Undescribed Animals, Quadrupeds, Reptiles, Fishes, Insects, &c. with his Gleanings of Natural History, 362 FINE COLOURED and accurate engravings, 7 vols. folio, LARGE PAPER, half calf, £5. 53 1743-64 ORIGINAL COPY, coloured by, or under the immediate inspection of the author. "His writings will always remain of authority from the faithfulness of his descriptions."-SWAINSON. KINGSBOROUGH'S (Lord) ANTIQUITIES of MEXICO, comprising Facsimiles of Ancient Mexican Paintings and Hieroglyphics, preserved in the Royal Libraries of Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and the Vatican at Rome, and various others, the greater part inedited. Also the MONUMENTS OF NEW SPAIN, by M. DUPAIX, illustrated by upwards of 1000 FINELY COLOURED and highly interesting plates, from the originals, 9 vols. impl. folio, half bound morocco, gilt edges, £48. (pub. £90.) 1831-48 THIS IS ONE of the SUPERIOR COPIES of this MAGNIFICENT Work, having all the plates beautifully coloured in exact imitation of the original Paintings and Monuments, and likewise printed on a larger and finer paper: it was published at upwards of £200. BOULLIA! MARTIUS'S PALMS: GENERA et SPECIES PALMARUM, quas in Itinere per Brasiliam, annis 1817-1820, collegit, descripsit et Iconibus illustravit, with 245 very large and most beautifully coloured Plates of these magnificent Trees, 3 vols. impl. folio, in parts, £31. 10s (pub. £100.) Monachii, 1823-50 This is perhaps the finest of all the elaborate botanical works which Germany has given to the world. MARTIUS, NOVA GENERA et SPECIES PLANTARUM, quas in Itinere per Brasiliam, annis 1817-1827, collegit et descripsit, with 300 beautifully coloured plates, 3 vols. folio, £22. 158 Ib., 1823-29 NEW EDITION, JUST COMPLeted, of MEYER'S BRITISH BIRDS and their EGGS, ILLUSTRATIONS OF, containing 422 beautifully coloured plates, with Descriptions, complete, 7 vols. 8vo. new cloth gilt, £9.98 (formerly pub. at £18. 18s) Willis and Sotheran, 1857 This beautiful publication is the only complete History of British Birds and their Eggs with coloured Plates. ORCHIDACEOUS PLANTS, COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS OF, comprising Figures of the most interesting and beautiful Genera, with popular Descriptions and Directions for the Cultivation. Edited by T. Moore, F.L.S., Curator of the Botanic Garden, Chelsea; Author of the History of British Ferns, etc. complete in one large vol. impl. 8vo. with nearly 100 large and most beautiful coloured plates, half morocco, £3. 10s Willis and Sotheran, 1857 ORNAMENTAL FLOWER GARDEN and Shrubbery, containing the most beautiful and curious Flowering Plants and Shrubs cultivated in British Gardens, by R. Sweet, Prof. D. Don, &c. with Descriptions, and the most recent practical Hints on Culture, Propagation, &c. by an eminent Floriculturist, 288 fine coloured plates, 4 vols. royal 8vo. cloth, £4. 4s G. Willis, 1852-4 USEFUL and ORNAMENTAL PLANTS, an Encyclopædia of, consisting of 261 beautiful and accurate coloured Figures of Plants, used in the Arts, in Medicine, and for Ornament, with copious Scientific and Popular Descriptions of each, by the late G. T. Burnett, Prof. of Botany, 2 thick vols. 4to. new hf. morocco, £3. 10s (pub. £8. 88) 1852 One of the most beautiful and interesting Botanical Works ever published. WALLICH, PLANTE ASIATICE RARIORES; or Descriptions and Figures of East Indian Plants, with 300 BEAUTIFULLY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS, 3 vols. impl. folio, half morocco, gilt tops, £18. 10s (pub. £36.) 1830-2 : WOOD'S INDEX TESTACEOLOGICUS : an Illustrated Catalogue of all known Shells, British and Foreign new and entirely Revised Edition, with the Ancient and Modern Appellations, Synonyms, Localities, &c. by S. Hanley, F.L.S., with 3000 figures beautifully coloured, royal 8vo. half mor. £3. 13s 6d Willis and Sotheran, 1856 "This beautiful and valuable work is indispensable to all collectors of Shells."-Athenæum. WOOD'S INDEX ENTOMOLOGICUS: a Complete Illustrated Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Insects of Great Britain: with their Localities, Synonyms, &c. new and revised edition, brought down to the Present Time, with extensive Supplement containing all the new Species of Moths and Butterflies, and 180 New Figures, by J. O. Westwood, in all 2000 beautifully coloured figures, roy. 8vo. half morocco, £4.48 Willis, 1854 The new and important Supplement, illustrated by 190 coloured Figures, can be had separately, price 12s 6d. WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES. No. LXXXI.] "Takes note of what is done- JOHNSON'S RESIDENCE IN INNER TEMPLE LANE. Dr. Johnson's three last residences in the metropolis were No. 1, Inner Temple Lane, No. 7, Johnson's Court, and No. 8, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, where he died. The last has gone; and the former will soon pass. The whole of the building materials of the houses on the west side of Inner Temple Lane are advertised for sale on October 1, immediate demolition to follow, and among them the house in which Johnson resided for some years. Sir John Hawkins observes-Johnson was now become so well known, and had by the Rambler, and other of his writings, given such evidences, not only of great abilities, and of his skill in human life and manners, but of a sociable and benevolent disposition, that many became desirous of his acquaintance, and to this they were further tempted by the character he had acquired of delighting in conversation, and being free and communicative in his discourse. He had removed [from Gray's Inn] about the beginning of the year 1760, to chambers two doors down the Inner Templelane, and I have been told by his neighbour at the [opposite] corner, that during the time he dwelt there, more enquiries were made at his shop for Mr. Johnson, than for all the inhabitants put together of both the Inner and Middle Temple. But it would seem, Johnson was resident there in 1759. Francis Barber, Johnson's former black servant, but had left his service, had been taken by a press-gang, and sent on board the Stag frigate; Johnson on hearing this was greatly distressed, and Smollett, by letter to Wilkes, dated Chelsea, March 16, 1759, implored his aid to set him free. Wilkes instantly applied to his friend, Sir George Hay, then one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and Francis Barber, without any wish of his own, was discharged. He found his old master, Johnson, in chambers in the Inner Temple, and returned to his service.† Boswell relates an amusing incident.-One night, when Beauclerk and Langton had supped at a Tavern, and sat there till about three in the morning, it came into their heads to go and knock up Johnson, and see if they could prevail on him to join them in a ramble. They rapped violently at the door of his chambers in the Temple, till at last he appeared in his shirt, with his little black wig on the top of his head instead of a night cap, and a poker in his hand, imagining, probably, that some ruthans were coming to attack him. When he discovered who they were, and was told their errand, he * Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 1787, 8vo. p. 383. + Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1807, 8vo. Vol. I. p. 329. VOL. VII. [SEPTEMBER, 1857. smiled, and with great good humour agreed to their proposal. What! is it you, you dogs? I'll have a frisk with you! He was soon dressed, and they sallied together into Covent Garden, where the green-grocers and fruiterers were beginning to arrange their hampers, just come in from the country. Johnson made some attempts to help them, but the honest gardeners stared so at his figure and manner, and his odd interference, that he soon saw his services were not relished. They then repaired to one of the neighbouring taverns, and made a bowl of Bishop, a liquor so called, which Johnson had always liked; and he, while in joyous contempt of sleep, from which he had been roused, repeated the festive lines Short, O short then be thy reign, And give us to the world again.* They did not stay long, but walked down to the Thames, took a boat, and rowed to Billingsgate. Beauclerk and Johnson were so well pleased with their amusement, that they resolved to persevere in dissipa tion for the rest of the day; but Langton being engaged to breakfast with some ladies, deserted them. scolded him for leaving his social friends, to go and sit with a set of wretched un-idea'd girls! Garrick being told of this ramble, said to him smartly, I heard of your frolick t'other night. You'll be in the Chronicle.' Upon which Johnson observed-He would not do such a thing, his wife would not let him!† Johnson The Rev. Dr. Maxwell of Falkland, Ireland, later relating the circumstances of his acquaintance with Johnson, which commenced in 1754, and was continued many years, has stated, Johnson was much attached to London; he observed that a man stored his mind better there, than any where else; and that in remote situa * Boswell evidently had the recital of this story from Langton, and he fancied the latter had not recollected, or that Johnson had repeated the passage wrong, the lines in Lord Lansdowne's Drinking Song to Sleep, being — Short, very short be then thy reign, But the fault must have been with Langton; Johnson was For I'm in haste to laugh and drink again. not so drunk, or so forgetful in memory, as to make nonsense of his couplets. ↑ Garrick's threat, 'You'll be in the Chronicle,' was allusive to the possibility of Steevens, then Johnson's neighbour in the Temple, or himself lampooning him in the Universal Chronicle, a weekly paper, in which the Idler' commenced on Saturday, April 15, 1758, and continued on the Saturday in every week for nearly two years following. Davy in all matters rendered obsequious deference to the mandates of Mrs. Garrick; and under her regis Johnson was safe. K tions a man's body might be feasted, but his mind was starved, and his faculties apt to degenerate from want of exercise and competition. No place, said he, cured a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London; for as no man was either great or good per se, but as compared with others not so good or great, he was sure to find in the metropolis many his equals, and some his superiors. He told me, that he had frequently been offered country preferments, if he would consent to take orders; but he could not leave the improved society of the capital, or consent to exchange the exhilarating joys and splendid decorations of public life, for the obscurity, insipidity, and uniformity of remote situations. About twelve o'clock I His general mode of life during my acquaintance seemed to be pretty uniform. commonly visited him, and frequently found him in bed, or declaiming over his tea, which he drank very plentifully. He generally had a levee of morning visitors, chiefly men of letters: Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Murphy, Langton, Steevens, Beauclerk, and others; and sometimes learned ladies, particularly I remember a French lady of wit and fashion doing him the honour of a visit. Two young women from Staffordshire visited him when I was present, to consult him on the subject of Methodism, to which they were inclined. Come,' said he, you pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the Mitre, and we'll talk over that subject;' which they did, and after dinner he took one of them upon his knee, and fondled her for half an hour together. Though the most accessible and communicative man alive, yet when he suspected he was invited to be exhibited, he constantly spurned the invitation. oracle, whom everybody thought they had a right to visit He frequently gave all the silver in his pocket to the poor, who watched him between his house and the ta vern where he dined. He walked the streets at all hours, and said he was never robbed,* for the rogues knew he had little money, nor had the appearance of having much. Boswell, who like many others sought an introduction to Johnson, obtained it in the back parlour of Tom Davies' the bookseller's shop, No. 8, Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, on the evening of Monday, May 16, 1763, and in a few days after, induced by Davies' stating that Johnson would certainly take his calling upon him as a compliment, Boswell so determined. So, upon Tuesday, the 24th of May, after having been enlivened by the witty sallies of Messrs. Thornton, Wilkes, Churchill, and Lloyd, with whom I had passed the morning, I boldly repaired to Johnson. His chambers were on the first floor of No. 1, Inner Temple Lane, and I entered them with an impression given me by the Rev. Dr. Blair, of Edinburgh, who had been introduced by him not long before, and described his having found the Giant in his den.' He received me very courteously. Some gentlemen, whom I do not subse-recollect, were sitting with him; but it must be confessed that his apartment, and furniture, and morning dress were sufficiently uncouth. His brown suit of cloaths looked very rusty; he had on a little, old, shrivelled, unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head, his shirt-neck and knees of his breeches were loose; his black worsted stockings ill drawn up; and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers; but all these slovenly particularities were forgotten the mo He seemed to me to be considered as a kind of public was entertained with his conversation for some time. When * Madame de Boufflers, in April, 1763. Boswell quently learned the particulars of this visit from Beauclerk. -When Madame de Boufflers was first in England, said Beauclerk, she was desirous to see Johnson. I accordingly went with her to his chambers in the Temple, where she our visit was over, she and I left him, and were got into Inner Temple-lane, when all at once I heard a noise like thunder. This was occasioned by Johnson, who it seems, upon a little recollection, had taken it into his head that he ought to have done the honours of his literary residence to a foreign lady of quality, and eager to shew himself a man of gallantry, was hurrying down the staircase in violent In this respect Johnson was very similar to Professor agitation. He overtook us before we reached the Temple Porson, who usually passed his evenings in social hilarity gate, and brushing in between me and Madame de Bouf- at the Cyder Cellar, in Maiden-lane, Covent Garden, flers, seized her hand, and conducted her to her coach. His whence, after midnight, and at all hours in the morning, dress was a rusty brown morning suit, a pair of old shoes often lumpily inebriated, he was wont to pass on his way by way of slippers, a little shrivelled wig sticking on the homeward through Fleet Street, to the London Institution, top of his head, while the sleeves of his shirt, and the knees in Finsbury Circus; his pockets crammed with rare volumes of his breeches were hanging loose. A considerable crowd of classic lore, manuscripts or printers' proofs, irreparable of people gathered round, and were not a little struck by if lost, but he was never robbed.' Well known to the his singular appearance. Well might Beauclerk, on John-girls of our town,' no one dared to molest him, and if too son's obtaining in July, 1762, the grant of his pension of far gone to remember the axiom that strait is the path,' three hundred per annum, utter the admonition, though in two would unhesitatingly escort him, and by linking their Falstaff's phraseology-I hope you'll now purge and live arms with his, endeavour to rectify the Sage in his aptitude cleanly like a gentleman! to deviate on his course. ment that he began to talk. Boswell details further | The place seemed to be very favourable for retirement particulars of this his first interview. On Monday, June 13, Boswell records that he again called on Johnson, and told him he had been to see Johnson ride upon Three horses, behind the Three Hats at Islington. He adds — I had learned that his place of frequent resort was the Mitre Tavern in Fleet-street, where he loved to sit up late, and I begged I might be allowed to pass the evening with him there soon, which he promised I should. A few days afterward, I met him near Templebar, about one o'clock in the morning, and asked him if he would then go to the Mitre. Sir, said he, it is too late; they won't let us in, but I'll go with you another night, with all my heart. On Saturday, June 25, Boswell relates some droll particulars of an altercation between Johnson and an Irish gentleman, at Clifton's eating-house in Butcher row, the dispute arising from the cause why some part of mankind were black; Johnson, overborne by the intemperate expressions of his opponent, gave up the argument and quietly walked away; when, being gone, his antagonist took his revenge, as he thought, by saying- He has a most ungainly figure, and an affectation of pomposity unworthy of a man of genius.' Boswell, who had been unobserved by Johnson, followed him, and they arranged to meet that evening at the Mitre, I called on him, and we went thither at nine. We had a good supper and port wine, of which he then sometimes drank a bottle.' Tuesday, July 18, Mr. Levet this day shewed me Johnson's library which was contained in two garrets over his chambers. 1 found a number of good books, but very dusty, and in great confusion. The floor was strewed with manuscript leaves in Johnson's own handwriting, which I beheld with a degree of veneration, supposing they might contain portions of the Rambler, or of Rasselas. I observed an apparatus for chemical experiments of which Johnson was all his life very fond.t The Mitre Tavern, No. 39 in Fleet Street, it was afterward Macklin's Poets' Gallery, and lastly Saunders' Auction Rooms. In 1829, the house was demolished, and Hoare's banking house extended over its site. The Mitre Tavern now opposite Fetter-lane end, erroneously held as the scene of many incidents in literary history, was then simply known as 'Joe's Coffee-house.' The Mitre Tavern is a more recent assumption. † Hawkins observes- The history of learning furnishes us with many examples of men who have deviated from the study of polite literature to that of the hermetic science, or in plainer English, to that sublime chemistry which leads to the transmutation of metals; and those who may have heard that Johnson exercised himself in chemical proceeses may perhaps think, that his view therein was suddenly to become the possessor of immense riches, but I am able to obviate this suspicion, and assure them, that his motive was only curiosity, and his end mere amusement. At the time he frequented the club in Ivy Lane, Dyer was going through a course of chemistry under Dr. Pemberton, of and meditation. Johnson told me, that he went up thither without mentioning it to [Francis Barber] his servant when he wanted to study, secure from interruption, for he would not allow his servant to say he was not at home, when he really was. Boswell at this time occupied the chambers of his friend Temple, in 'Farrar's Building,' the house now No. 10, at the bottom of Inner Temple-lane. Johnson, who always felt an inclination to do nothing, was abetted in the indulgence of that disposition by his pension, and appears at this time to have busied himself in little beyond preparing his edition of Shakespeare, for which he had long since received subscriptions, and had subsisted upon them. The work was probably finished in Inner Temple-lane, which it would seem he quitted about Midsummer, 1765, or before. He then became Johnson of that Ilk,' by going to reside at No. 7, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street; and the honorary title of Doctor of Civil Law, by which we recognize him as Dr. Johnson, was not conferred upon him by Trinity College, Dublin, till July 23, 1765. His Shakespeare was first published on Oct. 9, in that year. Gresham College, and would sometimes give us descriptions of processes as were very entertaining, particularly to Johnson, who would listen to them attentively. We may suppose, that in the course of his reading, he had acquired some knowledge of the theory of the art, and that he wished for an opportunity of reducing that knowledge into practice; he thought the time now come, and though he had no fitter an apartment for a laboratory than the garret over his chambers in the Inner Temple, he furnished that with an alembic, with retorts, receivers and other vessels his aims were, at first, I know not, having forgotten the adapted to the cheapest and least operose processes. What account he once gave me of the earliest of his chemical operations; but, I have since learned, that they dwindled down to mere distillation, and that from substances of the simplest and coarsest sort, namely, peppermint, and the dregs of strong beer; from the latter whereof, he was able to extract a strong but very nauseous spirit, which all might smell, but few chose to taste. Johnson possibly never told Hawkins or any one else, to what purpose his chemical operations were really directed, and Time only has elicited the fact. The improvement of the manufacture of china-ware or porcelain was at this period an object of sedulous enquiry even with the most distinguished chemists, Johnson imbibed the same predilection and fancied he had discovered all that was required, until his repeated failures in the ovens of the Chelsea china works convinced him he knew nothing of its manufacture, and that his theories were nought. These abortive attempts were probably late in 1762, or early in 1763, as at the close of that year the Chelsea works were altogether discontinued; yet where-ever porcelain was made, Johnson subsequently invariably visited the manufactory, his inveterate longing tended to that course, in which he had signally failed, and his visits to Worcester in 1774, to Sèvres in 1775, and to Derby in 1777, are all recorded facts. |