1780 The Gordon Riots in London 149 



In the summer of this year the meetings of the Club must 

 have been held amid somewhat exciting scenes. It was the 

 time of the protestant riots led by Lord George Gordon, 

 when London was for a short while in the hands of an 

 infuriated mob. Samuel Johnson in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, 

 written on Qth June, has given a vivid picture of what he 

 himself witnessed. 



" An exact journal of a week's defiance of government I cannot 

 give you. On Tuesday night they pulled down Fielding's house and 

 burnt his goods in the street. They had gutted on Monday Sir 

 George Savile's house, but the building was saved. On Tuesday 

 evening, leaving Fielding's ruins, they went to Newgate to demand 

 their companions, who had been seized, demolishing the chapel. 

 The keeper could not release them but by the mayor's permission, 

 which he went to ask ; at his return he found all the prisoners 

 released and Newgate in a blaze. 



On Wednesday I walked with Dr. Scott to look at Newgate, 

 and found it in ruins, with the fire still glowing. As I went by, 

 the Protestants were plundering the Sessions-house at the Old-Bailey. 

 There were not, I believe, a hundred ; but they did their work at 

 leisure, in full security, without sentinels, without trepidation, as 

 men lawfully employed, in full day. Such is the cowardice of a 

 commercial place. On Wednesday they broke open the Fleet, and 

 the Kings-Bench, and the Marshalsea, and Wood -Street Compter, 

 and Clerkenwell Bridewell, and released all the prisoners. 



At night they set fire to the Fleet, and to the Kings-Bench, 

 and I know not how many other places ; and one might see the 

 glare of conflagration fill the sky from many parts. The sight was 

 dreadful. Some people were threatened : Mr. Strachan advised me 

 to take care of myself. Such a time of terrour you have been happy 

 in not seeing. 



June 1 2th. All danger here is apparently over ; but a little 

 agitation still continues. We frighten one another with 70,000 Scots, 

 to come hither with the Dukes of Gordon and Argyll, and eat us 

 and hang us, or drown us, but we are all at quiet." 1 



Of this turmoil outside there is no trace in the records 

 of the Royal Philosophers. They dined together at " The 

 Mitre " in their usual numbers, and entertained their guests 

 as of old. On the evening of the 8th June fourteen members 

 and three visitors formed the company. One of the latter 

 appears on the dinner list as " Dr. Scott. " Though there 



1 Boswell's Life of Johnson (Birkbeck Hill's Edit.), vol. iii. p. 429. 



