232 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 123. 



POET REFERBED TO BY BACOX. 



(Vol. iv., p. 257.) 



The poet referred to by Bacon is not the author 

 of the Mirror for Magistrates, but Ariosto, whose 

 Orlando Furioso was then popular in the recent 

 translation of Sir John Harrington. The allegory 

 will be found at the close of the thirty-fourth and 

 commencement of the thirty-fifth books : 

 " Further, the Duke did in that place behold, 

 That when the threads were spent that had been spun, 

 Their names in brass, in silver, or in gold. 

 Were wrote, and so into great heaps were done ; 

 From which a man that seemed wondrous old. 

 With whole loads of those names away did run, 

 And turn'd again as fast, the way he went, 

 Nor ever weary was, nor ever spent. 



" A heap of names within his cloak he bore, 

 And In the river did them all unlade ; 

 Or, to say truth, away he cast them all 

 Into the stream which Lethe we do call. ° 



" He hurl'd therein full many a precious name, 

 Where millions soon into the bottom sank, 

 Hardly in evory thousand one was found, 

 That was not in the gulf quite lost and drown'd. 



" Yet all about great store of birds there flew 

 As vultures, carrion crows, and chatt'ring pyes, 

 And many more of sundry kind and hue. 

 Making lewd harmony with their loud cries ; 

 These when the careless wretch the treasure threw 

 Into that stream, did all they could devise. 

 What with their talons some, and some with beak, 

 To save some names, but find themselves too weak. 



■" Only two swans sustain'd so great a poise. 

 In spite of him that sought them all to drown, 

 These two do still take up the names they list, 

 And bare them safe away, and never misst. 



" They caught them ere they to the stream arriv'd. 

 Then went they, with the names they had recover'd, 

 Up to a hill, that stood the water nigh. 

 On which a stately church was builded high. 



" This place is sacred to immortal Fame, 

 And evermore a nymph stood at the gate 



And took the names 



Then all about the church she hang'd the same 

 Before the sacred image, in such rate 

 As they might then well be assur'd for ever. 

 Spite of that wretch, in safety to persever. 



•' But as the swans that there still flying are. 

 With written names, unto that sacred port. 

 So here Historians learn'd, and Poets rare, 

 Preserve them in clear fame and good report." 



S. W. Singer. 



JOHNSON S HOUSE, BOLT COURT. 



(Vol. v., p. 176.) 



A correspondent discussing the question of 

 the site, or of the continued existence, of the 

 house in Bolt Court in which Johnson lived and 



died, mentions that one person now living called 

 there during the last illness of our sublime mo- 

 ralist. I believe he refers to Mr. Rogers. 



The fact is that there is also a lady, an inha- 

 bitant of Piccadilly, Viscountess Keith, who not 

 only grew from childhood to the age of twenty in 

 the constant association of the Doctor, but who is 

 also mentioned by Madame D'Arblay as having 

 been a visitor at Bolt Court in 1784. Whether 

 the noble lady referred to, at the extraordinary 

 age she has reached (she was the eldest Miss 

 Tbrale), could solve from memory your friend's 

 doubts as to this classical locality, I know not. 



M.A. 



I am in a position to assure Mb. Edwin Lech- 

 lade that Dr. Johnson's house was burnt down 

 in 1819, the premises having been long previously 

 occupied by the most eminent English printer of 

 his own or any other time, Mr. Thomas Bensley, 

 to whose energy the world is indebted for the 

 perfection of the printing machine. 



The house of Johnson's friend, Mr. Allen the 

 printer, was not destroyed by the disastrous fire 

 which reduced to ashes the Doctor's residence; 

 indeed only one corner of it was injured; and, 

 with that exception, it stands as it was built shortly 

 after the Great Fire of London. 



Mr. Allen's house stands at the head of Bolt 

 Court; Dr. Johnson's stood to its left. On the 

 site of the latter was erected, after the before- 

 mentioned fire, a spacious printing-office, and both 

 are now in the occupation of Mr. Tyler. 



The Gentleman! s Magazine (1819, part i., 

 p. 575.), in giving an account of this fire, says in a 

 note : 



" It may be interesting to some of our readers to 

 know that the house in Bolt Court, formerly the resi- 

 dence of Dr. Johnson, formed part of Mr. Bensley's 

 office, and is now entirely destroyed. A view of it is 

 preserved in the European Magazine for 1810." 



The European Magazine (1810, vol. Ivii. pp. 

 353-4.) contains, besides the view above-men- 

 tioned, an article to which your correspondent 

 may be referred, in confirmation of the fact that 

 the house occupied by Dr. Johnson was the one 

 I have referred to, and was not exactly opposite the 

 " Dr. Johnson tavern." The view, I am told by 

 one who well recollects the old house, and Is a 

 great lover of Johnsoniana, is a correct represent- 

 ation of it. 



Timper ley's Dictionary of Printers and Print- 

 ing, also, in relating the occurrence of the fire of 

 Messrs. Bensley's premises, states that a part of it 

 was formerly the residence of Dr. Johnson. 



Tee Bee. 



In answer to the Query of Edwin Lechlade, 

 being in a pos tion to give you unquestionable 

 information, I will, to quote your correspondent's 

 words, let the question be set at rest. Of the 



