of Dr. Robert James of the Fever Powder (3 vols. folio), for which Johnson, besides contributing several of the articles, prepared the judicious dedication 'To Dr. Mead,' which, according to Boswell, was so excellently calculated to conciliate the patronage of that very eminent man'; there is also another book in which-to use old Thomas Heywood's figure—he had certainly, if not 'an entire hand, at least a main finger,' the Brumoy's 'Greek Theatre' of Mrs. Charlotte Lenox, whose translation of Sully's 'Memoirs ' is included in the collection. Among biographies, there is the Gustavus Adolphus' of Philip Stanhope's tutor, Dr. Walter Harte-that melancholy failure, to escape the expected overpowering success of which its too-sanguine author sought the retirement of the country; among histories, there is Macaulay's England' (2 vols.), which reads like an anachronism. But it is, of course, the forgotten performance of the egregious lady once known as the celebrated female historian.' And it must, moreover, have been a presentation copy, for Johnson, who frankly admitted that he had never taken the trouble to read the book, would hardly have bought it, even if he had not detested the writer. She rouged; and she was a red Republican; and "A never could abide carnations.' Theology, as may perhaps be anticipated, is largely represented by other books besides Clarke's 'Sermons'; and there is a goodly array of authorities upon the Doctor's hobby of chemistry, a taste which had lasted from his life of Boerhaave in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' down to the days of that laboratory at Streatham, in which he terrified the Thrale family circle by the temerity of his experiments. There are naturally numerous works on language and etymology; there is also an abundance of Greek and Latin folios and quartos, including the 'Macrobius' he had quoted with such excellent effect upon his first arrival at Pembroke College. There are many books by authors whose names are familiar in the pages of Boswell: Reynolds' 'Discourses,' Grainger's 'Tibullus,' Hoole's Ariosto,' Nichols' 'Anecdotes of Bowyer,' Carter's 'Epictetus,' etc. But, upon the whole, it must be presumed, as Boswell suggests, that it was a desire to possess a relic of Dr. Johnson, rather than a desire to possess the books themselves, which prompted the majority of the purchasers. In any case, the sum realized, £247 95., does not appear to have been regarded by the late owner's contemporaries as an unusually unsatisfactory amount. Why the sale itself attracted so little public attention is not easy to explain. Beyond a trivial epigram in the 'Public Advertiser,' where it was announced once, it seems to have been wholly ignored by the press. In the 'Gentleman's Magazine' there is no mention of it, nor is it noticed in any way by Johnson's favourite news-sheet, the 'London Chronicle.' THE TWO PAYNES. WHERE are the bookshops of old time? Mr. Andrew Lang and Mr. Edmund Gosse have each written a ballade of bygone cities. Why should there not be a ballade of bygone bookshops ? CURLL, by the Fleet-Ditch nymphs caress'd; LINTOT, of Folios rubric-press'd; OSBORNE, that stood in JOHNSON's way; MILLAR and KNAPTON,-where are they? So might it run,-were playthings still the mode! Meanwhile, it is more easy to name than to localize those old rallying-places of the Curious. Where, for example, was the establishment of 'honest Tom Payne,' to whom belongs the distinction of being among the first of the secondhand booksellers who issued Catalogues? He began his career in Round-Court, Strand (now effaced by the Charing Cross Hospital), at the 'Horace's Head' of Olive Payne, his brother, who, in 1736, issued a folio edition of Capt. Charles Johnson's once-famous Lives of the Highwaymen and Pyrates.' Then Thomas Payne set up in the same place on his own account, putting forth in February, 1740, his first printed list of Books in Divinity, History, Classicks, Medicine, Voyages, Natural History, etc.,' further described as in excellent condition, and mostly gilt and lettered.' But from 1750 to 1790 he dwelt at the Mews-Gate'; and for the Mews Gate, as well as for the Mews itself, which occupied the ground at present covered by Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, the picturesque topographer may seek in vain. Luckily some of Thomas Payne's early Catalogues are more explicit in their indications, for they give his full address as 'in Castle Street, next the Upper Mews-Gate, near St. Martin's Church.' It is clear, therefore, that it is not at the Union Club end of the Square that we must look for the site, but at the bottom of the new Charing Cross Road. Here, for forty years, in a little shop shaped like an L, Thomas Payne, assisted by his factotum, Edward Noble,' dispensed his wares; and here— 1 Another of Thomas Payne's assistants, from 1789 to 1797, was John Hatchard, the founder of the well-known II. |