The
garret, with its slanting roof, in which his amanuenses worked, and
his own study are still to be been. Johnson himself, in his "Life of
Milton," observes, "I cannot but remark a kind of respect, perhaps
unconsciously, paid to this great man by his biographers; every house
in which he resided is historically mentioned, as if it were an injury
to neglect naming any place that he honored by his presence."
Emboldened by this expression of opinion, Boswell one evening, in the
year 1779, ventured to ask Johnson the names of some of his
residences, and he obtained the following list, which he printed in
his "Life of Johnson:" (1) Exeter Street, off Catherine Street,
Strand, (2) Greenwich; (3) Woodstock Street, near Hanover Square; (4)
Castle Street, Cavendish Square, No. 6, (5) Strand; (6) Boswell Court;
(7) Strand again; (8) Bow Street; (9) Holborn; (10) Fetter Lane; (11)
Holborn again, (12) Gough Square; (18) Staple's Inn; (14) Gray's Inn;
(15) Inner Temple Lane, No. 1; (16) Johnson's Court, No. 7; (17) Bolt
Court, No. 8. In this last place he died in 1784.
[Illustration: JOHNSON'S HOUSE.]
In April, 1879, the corporation of the city of London were asked to
co-operate in this work, and to undertake the erection of suitable
memorial tablets within the city boundaries.
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