Samuel Johnson, a man of extraordinary talents, was born, September 18, 1709. His father kept a bookseller's shop here. The house was built by him; partly on waste land of the corporation, under a forty years lease. On the expiration of the lease, August 15, 1767, the bailiffs and citizens of Lichfield, at a Commonhall, ordered that a lease should be granted to Samuel Johnson, LL. D. of the encroachments at his house, for the term of ninety-nine years, at the old rent of 5 s. Of which token of respect the town-clerk informed the Doctor, who died possessed of this property.

Near the church, a very neat modern building attracts the eye by its light and airy appearance. It combines the quality of pleasing with the excellence of its utility, as a market-house, which is well attended on Tuesdays and Fridays, though the latter is the principal market-day.

The adjoining street is known by the name of Bird-street. West of it is a pleasant seat called the FRIARY; which was formerly a monastery, conventual church, or religious house, (of Grey-friars, Franciscans, or Friars-minor *,) founded

"St. Franeis, the founder of this order, in 1209, through an excessive humility, would not suffer the monks

of

A perspective view of a part of the city of Lichfield, including

1. The house in which the late D Sam Johnson was born. 2. Part of the market crofs. 3. Mary's church. 4. Part of the town hall.

Cook julp.

founded about the year 1229, by Alexander Stavensby, then bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. He died at Andover, December 26, 1238, and was buried in his church at Lichfield.

of his order to be called Fratres, i. e. Brethren or Friars, but Fraterculi, i. e. Little Brethren, or Friars-minor. They are also called Grey-friars, on account of the colour of their cloathing. Being zealous friends to the Papal Hierarchy, they in return were distinguished by peculiar privileges, and invested with the treasure of ample indulgences; the distribution of which was committed to them by the Pope, as a rich indemnification for their voluntary poverty. In consequence of this grant, the rule of the founder, which prohibited both personal and collective property, so that neither the individual nor the community were to possess any worldly goods, was considered as too severe, and dispensed with soon after his death. This alteration was the cause of the Franciscans dividing into two parties; the one, embracing the severe discipline of St. Francis, were called Spirituals; and the other, who insisted on mitigating the austere injunctions of their founder, were denominated Brethren of the community. In 1368 these two parties were formed into two large bodies, comprehending the, whole Franciscan order, the Conventual brethren, and the brethren of the Observance. At the dissolution of monasteries, the former of these had about 55 houses, which were under seven custodies, or wardenships; London, York, Cambridge, Bristol, Oxford, Newcastle and Worcester."

The

The religious members of this house, at the first foundation, were clad in a strait, coarse, and short dress, pretending that this dress was enjoined by St. Francis, and that no power on earth had a right to alter it. But their subsequent brethren, less scrupulous of these forms, wore long, loose, and good habits, with large. hoods.

The old house, erected on the free-burgages given by Bishop Stavensby, was destroyed by fire, in the year 1291, and very little of the building saved beside the church.

This conventual church, after the dissolution in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, continued some time desolate, and had a very Gothic appearance, windows of coloured glass, thick walls, and massy gates.

The following beautiful lines, so truly descriptive of a desolate monastery, are extracted

* Part of the pavement of this church, discovered in levelling the ground in the year 1783; also, the models of two Franciscan-friars, in the habits of their order, are to be seen in the Lichfield Museum,

from