reputation, lived in a house in Lisson Grove North, "built by Rossi, the academician. It had a spacious painting-room attached, and here the happiest years of Haydon's life were passed." It was while here that he painted his "Christ entering Jerusalem" and "Judgment of Solomon." His painting-room was visited by royal, noble, and famous personages, and his breakfasts and dinners became celebrated for the hospitality displayed and the eminent guests who might be met at them. A quarter of a century after we find him writing to Wordsworth (October 16, 1842):—

Ah my dear old Friend, you and I shall never see such days again! The peaches are not so big now as they were in our days. Many were the immortal dinners which took place in that painting-room, where the food was simple, the wine good, and the poetry first-rate. Wordsworth, Walter Scott, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, David Wilkie, Leigh Hunt, Talfourd, Keats, etc. etc., attended my summons and honoured my table.-Memoirs of B. R. Haydon, by his son, vol. ii. p. 55.

C. Leslie, R.A., succeeded Haydon in his tenancy (1824), and here painted "Shallow courting Ann Page," "Don Quixote," "Uncle Toby and Widow Wadman," and other of his most popular pictures. Leigh Hunt, on his release from Horsemonger Lane Prison, 1815, went to reside at No. 13 Lisson Grove North. Here he was frequently visited by Lord Byron, who on one occasion sat so long that "Lady Byron sent up twice to let him know she was waiting. Her Ladyship used to go on in the carriage to Henderson's nursery-ground to get flowers." "In a room at the end of the garden to this house was a magnificent rocking-horse, which a friend had given my little boy: and Lord Byron, with a childish glee becoming a poet, would ride upon it."2 Here Wordsworth paid Hunt a long visit over an anchovy." Lisson Grove North was the portion north of the Alpha Road. It is now called Lisson Grove only from end to end.

Litchfield Street, SOHO, from Upper St. Martin's Lane to Charing Cross Road. Formerly a street of good houses. Smith relates on the authority of Lord Hinchinbrook that the house occupied by Lady Paulet (No. 3, divided and refronted) was "a mansion originally of high importance." The ceiling of the principal room on the first floor was divided into compartments, painted, as Smith was "much inclined to believe, by the hand of Hogarth." It is more certain that Hogarth engraved a shop-bill for "Peter de la Fontaine, Goldsmith, at the Golden Cup in Litchfield Street, Soho." It exhibits a goldsmith's workshop with customers in conversation.

Literary Club (The), or, "The Club."

The Club was founded in 1764, by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr. Samuel John. son, and for some years met on Monday evenings [at seven]. In 1772 the day of meeting was changed to Friday; and about that time, instead of supping, they agreed to dine together once in every fortnight during the sitting of Parliament. In 1773

1 Memoir of B. R. Haydon, by his son, F. W. 2 Leigh Hunt's Autobiography, pp. 246, 247. Haydon, vol. i. p. 162.

the Club, which, soon after its foundation, consisted of twelve members, was enlarged to twenty; March 11, 1777, to twenty-six; November 27, 1778, to thirty; May 9, 1780, to thirty-five; and it was then resolved that it should never exceed forty. It met originally at the Turk's Head in Gerard Street, and continued to meet there till 1783, when their landlord died, and the house was soon afterwards shut up. They then removed to Prince's in Sackville Street; and on his house being soon afterwards shut up, they removed to Baxter's, which afterwards became Thomas's in Dover Street. In January, 1792, they removed to Parsloe's in St. James's Street; and on February 26, 1799, to the Thatched House in the same street. -Memorandum furnished to Mr. Croker by Mr. Hatchett, the Treasurer of the Club (Croker's Boswell, ed. 1831, vol. i. p. 528).

The centenary of the Club was commemorated at the Clarendon Hotel in 1864.

Literary Fund (Royal), 7 ADELPHI TERRACE, STRAND, instituted 1790, by the untiring exertions of David Williams, Esq., and incorporated 1818. The object of this excellent fund is to administer assistance to authors of merit and good character who may be reduced to distress by unavoidable calamities, or deprived by enfeebled faculties or declining life of the power of literary exertion; and to relieve the widows and orphans of authors who may need assistance. The relief is distributed by the committee, and is done without divulging names. The number of persons relieved in 1887 was sixty-five. Income (1887) £2837.

The rooms of the society were originally at No. 36 Gerrard Street, Soho, and it was in an apartment under its roof that Williams himself was sheltered when he died in 1816. At the dinner of 1822, when Chateaubriand's health was proposed by the Duke of York, as the ambassador of France, he mentioned in his acknowledgment of the toast that he was himself aware of the benevolent character of the fund, for, during the period of the French Revolution, a French literary gentleman was in difficulties, and those difficulties having been represented to the committee by one of his friends, a sum was voted sufficient to relieve him from all anxiety, and that at a time when the Institution was itself struggling into notice. This gentleman, Chateaubriand continued, was thus enabled to maintain his ground. At the Restoration he returned to France to acquire fresh honours as a literary man, and to rise in the favour of his sovereign. He had now returned to England, but in a different capacity-as the ambassador of his sovereign, and He was that man.1

Amongst the possessions of the Fund are two daggers thus inscribed "With this dagger Colonel Blood stabbed Mr. Talbot Edwards, keeper of the Regalia in the Tower of London, on the 9th day of May, 1673. He was seized and disarmed at Traitor's Gate, where the Crown was taken from him." "This dagger was taken from Parrot, who, in company with Blood, was seized and disarmed at Traitor's Gate on the 9th day of May, 1673, with the Globe concealed in his breeches."

1 This anecdote has been questioned. But it was given on sufficient authority. Chateaubriand was relieved from the Fund. The friend who

made known his distress to the Society was Mr. Peltier, whose prosecution by Napoleon I. cause so much excitement.

The daggers are wrongly inscribed; the year should be 1671, not 1673. The same error (curiously enough) occurs in the full and particular account given by Strype from the relation of Talbot Edwards himself. That Blood made his attempt to steal the crown on Tuesday, May 9, 1671, is proved by The London Gazette, No. 572, of that year.

66

Little Britain, ALDERSGATE STREET to DUKE STREET and the entrance to St. Bartholomew's Hospital; off old Britain Street, which took that name," says Stow, "of the Dukes of Brittany lodging there."

1ܝ

Little Britain comes out of Aldersgate Street, by St. Botolph's Aldersgate church, and runs up to the pump; where it openeth into a broad street, and turning northwards, runneth up to Duck Lane; having another turning passage to the Lame Hospital or St. Bartholomew's Hospital. This street is well built, and much inhabited by booksellers, especially from the pump to Duck Lane, which is also taken up by booksellers for old books.-R. B., in Strype, B. iii. p. 122.

Duck Lane has been renamed Little Britain, and this place therefore now leads into Smithfield.

The street called Little Britain, wherein the Church [St. Botolph's, Aldersgate] is situated, was anciently denominated Britain Street, from the City mansion of the Duke of Bretagne, in France, therein situate. Since which time, divers of the Nobility have had their City houses in this parish, viz. at the south-east corner of Little Britain, where the south part of the Hospital is situate, stood the Earl of Peterborough's hous; and on the east side of the said street, and south side of Bartholomew Close, was seated that of Lord Montague.—Maitland, 1739, p. 389. Printers and booksellers inhabited it from a very early date.

Imprinted by John Awdeley dwelling in Little Britayne Streete, 1575. Another imprint makes John Awdeley to be "dwelling by Great St. Bartelmewes beyond Aldersgate."

Sir Thomas Bodley lived in a large house, with a gallery and courtyard in front and a large garden at the back, behind Petty France at Little Britain Gate. This is marked in the curious MS. plans at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In a later plan this house is marked as in the possession of Sir Ralph Winwood.

It may not be amiss to step a little aside to reflect on the vast change in the trade of books between that time and ours [circ. 1670]. Then Little Britain was a plentiful and perpetual emporium of learned authors; and men went thither as to a market. This drew to the place a mighty trade; the rather because the shops were spacious, and the learned gladly resorted to them, where they seldom failed to meet with agreeable conversation. And the booksellers themselves were knowing and conversible men, with whom, for the sake of bookish knowledge, the greatest wits were pleased to converse. And we may judge the time as well spent there, as (in latter days) either in tavern or coffee-house. But now this emporium has vanished, and the trade contracted into the hands of two or three persons.—Roger North's Life of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North.

About the time of his [Dr. Sanderson] printing this excellent preface ["before his last twenty Sermons,” 1655] I met him accidentally in London, in sad-coloured clothes, and, God knows, far from being costly. The place of our meeting was near to Little Britain, where he had been to buy a book, which he then had in his hand. -Izaak Walton's Life of Bishop Sanderson, ed. Oxford, 1824, p. 317.

1 Stow, p. 115.

One that had often seen him [Milton] told me he used to come to a house where he lived, and he has also met him in the street, led by Millington, the man who was so famous an auctioneer of books, about the time of the Revolution, and since. This man was then a seller of old books in Little Britain, and Milton lodged at his house. This was three or four years before he died.-Richardson's Remarks on Milton, 1734, P. 3.

Dr. Tancred Robinson has given permission to use his name, and what I am going to relate he had from Fleet[wood] Shephard at the Grecian Coffee House, and who often told the story. The Earl of Dorset was in Little Britain, beating about for books to his taste; there was Paradise Lost. He was surprised with some passages he struck upon dipping here and there, and bought it; the bookseller begg'd him to speak in its favour if he lik'd it, for that they lay on his hands as waste paper. Jesus!-Shephard was present. My Lord took it home, read it, and sent it to Dryden, who in a short time returned it. "This man (says Dryden) cuts us all out, and the ancients too."-Richardson's Remarks on Milton, 8vo, 1734, p. 119.

I must beg a favour of you in behalf of the University of Oxford, who are now publishing a Tract of Plutarch's concerning Education, and would gladly add another of St. Chrysostom publish't in France by Combesis in Greek, could they meet with the book. Paul's Church-Yard and Little Britain have been search't for it without successe, nor is there now any hopes left but in you.-Dr. Robert Plot to Evelyn, October 2, 1693.

However, as my friends have engaged me to stand in the front, those who have a mind to correspond with me, may direct their letters to The Spectator, at Mr. Buckley's [at the Dolphin] in Little Britain.-The Spectator, March 1, 1710-1711.

April, 1712.-Samuel Buckley of the Dolphin, Little Britain, printer of the first daily newspaper, The Daily Courant, and printer also, as it chanced, of The Spectator, was brought in custody to the bar of the House of Commons, and was sent to prison.-Lord Stanhope's Queen Anne, p. 563.

Hogarth's name is associated with Little Britain. A shop-bill for his sisters Mary and Anne "at the King's Arms, joining to the Little Britain Gate," is attributed to him, but is probably an Ireland forgery. Here was Samuel Johnson's first London lodging. He says in the Annals of his early years, under 1712, when he was in his third year :

This year, in Lent, I was taken to London, to be touched for the evil by Queen Anne. My mother was at Nicholson's, the famous bookseller in Little Britain.Croker's Boswell, Appendix, p. 812.

When Benjamin Franklin first came to London, a youth of eighteen, he lodged, along with Ralph, in Little Britain, and obtained employment "at Palmer's, then a famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close." They paid "three shillings and sixpence a week-as much as they could afford," and they stayed about a year.

While I lodged in Little Britain, I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop was at the next door. He had an immense collection of second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not then in use; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable terms, which I have now forgotten, I might take, read, and return any of the books. This I esteemed a great advantage, and made as much use of as I could.-Franklin's Autobiography, Bigelow's ed., vol. i. p. 156.

He wrote at this time to Sir Hans Sloane, "A line for me at the Golden Fan, Little Britain, will be attended to."

By the middle of the 18th century the book trade of Little Britain

was fast declining. In 1756 Maitland describes Little Britain as "very ruinous," the part from "the pump to Duck Lane [Duke Street] is well built, and though much inhabited formerly by booksellers, who dealt chiefly in old books, it is now much deserted and decayed."1 Edward Ballard, the last of the old race of booksellers inhabiting Little Britain, died there, January 2, 1796, at the age of eighty-eight, in the same house in which he was born.2 William Bowyer, the learned printer, was born, 1699, at the White Horse in Little Britain, where his father carried on the same trade.

Liverpool Street, BISHOPSGATE, runs from Bishopsgate Streeet nearly opposite Houndsditch, to Blomfield Street, London Wall. Th, north side occupies the grounds of Bethlehem Hospital. When that was removed and houses built it was called Old Bethlehem. The street was widened, in good part rebuilt, and named in 1829 Liverpool Street, in honour of the late minister, Lord Liverpool. Within the last few years the whole of the houses on the north side, and most of those on the south, have been cleared away by railway companies. On the north side is the vast terminus of the Great Eastern Railway, and Terminus Hotel, also the joint City Station of the North London and the London and North Western Railway. Opposite is the Bishopsgate Station of the Metropolitan Railway. Observe-facing the west end of the street, the Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary, Moorfields (corner of East Street, Finsbury Circus). Here Carl Maria Von Weber, the musical composer, was buried, June 21, 1826. His remains were afterwards removed to Dresden. [See Bethlehem Hospital.]

Lloyd's Court, ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS, from the west end of the church to Crown Street (now Charing Cross Road), Soho. The house of the mercurial Duke of Wharton stood between this court and Denmark Street. It was part of the old Hospital of St. Giles, and had been occupied by Alice, Duchess of Dudley (widow of the son of Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester), who died there in 1570.

Lloyd's Subscription Rooms, ROYAL EXCHANGE-first floor of the east end, entrance in the area near the east gate. The great centre for the collection and diffusion of intelligence concerning shipping, the place where merchants, shipowners and underwriters meet to carry on the business of marine insurance. "Lloyd's Coffee-house," to which the existing "Lloyd's" traces back its origin, was not one of the first of the coffee-houses opened in the City in the reign of Charles II. as convenient meeting-houses for merchants, sea-captains, and men of business, Hain's and Garraway's were places of repute at least as early as 1674-1675. Edward Lloyd is first heard of at his "Coffeehouse in Tower Street" in 1688. His business grew, and in 1692 he removed to the corner of Abchurch Lane in Lombard Street. This house became a resort of merchants and shipowners; periodical sales

1 Maitland, ed. 1756, p. 763.

2 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 405.