DR. JOHNSON'S RESIDENCE, IN BOLT COURT.

_(For the Mirror)_


It perhaps is not generally known, that the residence of the great
"leviathan of literature," situate in Bolt-court, Fleet-street, was
consumed by the fire which destroyed Messrs. Bensley's premises a few
years ago; and that there are now no ostensible traces of the doctor's
city retreat, save the site. The only vestige of the house is a piece of
grotesquely carved wood, which ornamented the centre of the doorway, and
which is now in possession of a gentleman in the neighbourhood. Part of
the new printing-office, belonging to Messrs. Mills and Co., occupies a
portion of the site, and the remainder forms a receptacle for coals. As
if learning loved to linger amidst the forsaken haunts of departed
genius, the place is still the scene of those efforts in propagating
knowledge, without which it would be a sealed book. When looking upon the
scene which has been consecrated by the presence and labours, the joys
and sorrows, of such a man, how interesting are our reflections, marred
as they may be by mournful impressions of "the mutability of human
affairs." We feel a romantic regret that the genius of Johnson could not
bestow an imperishability upon the spot; and preserve it from the
casualties and decay of fire, and storm, and time. Here the unfortunate
Savage has held his intellectual "_noctes_" and enlivened the old
moralist with his mad philosophy. It was from this mansion that "the
Bastard" roused the doctor on the memorable night (or morn) when they set
out on one of those frolicsome perambulations, which genius, in its
weakness and misgivings, sometimes indulges, and which was worthy of the