chofe for their refidence Little Britain and Alderfgate-street; for in thofe early periods not one had crept fo far as the Black Horfe without Newgate. When their best patrons, the bookfellers, I fay, had fo fnugly feated themfelves, they thought it was literally bigh time for them to look about; they therefore chofe for their altitudes the houfes of the ftreet I am celebrating, which, from its vicinity to the different preffes, from its being the centre of a great number of convenient alleys, courts, and back-ways, by which a man who had any turn towards topography might get to, or escape from, his publisher's fhop without expofing his perfon to more hazard than that of once croffing the high street; for it will be obferved by every one who confiders, mathematically, the ancient plan of this part of the town, by drawing a triangle from the extreme points of building, that it was fimilar to a large cobweb; Grub-ftreet was the middle, the other treets, like the principal lines, were interfected and bound together by a number of courts, paffages, lanes, alleys, yards, &c. &c. fo as to render it a very compact whole.

Stow.

There was ftill another reason for the fociety of Grubs chufing this street, and that was founded upon the fame principle which, perhaps, operated on the establishment of the College in Warwick-lane, because there had, during the time of the great Earl, on the very fpot, been a prodigious flaughter of, and many experiments made on, the carcaffes of animals, fome of which were of infinite advantage to the bodies of the poor. And "there is (once faid Mr. Burke) fomething in the very atmosphere of a place which has formerly been the feat of science, or the scene of noble actions, which conveys a kind of infpiration to the mind, and frequently leads it to imi tation." So, near this fpot, lived and died many men, eminent for their learning and genius; fuch as, Richard and John Gowrie, Thomas Hawley, the fkilful Robert Glover, William Bolone, Sir John Writhofley, &c. whofe monuments were destroyed with the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, by the accidental fire that befel it in the year 1545* and in Grub-street alfo lived and died the famous and laborious John Foxt. Here he com

:

piled

† A fair marble monument was fet up (fays Stow) over the body of John Fox, the famous English Martyrologist, at the end of the fouth wall of the chancel, with this infcription:

"CHRISTO S. S.

"JOHANNI FOXo, Ecclefiæ Anglicane Martyrologo Fideliffimo, Antiqui"tatis Hiftorica Indagatori fagaciffimo, Evangelicæ Veritatis propungatori "acerimo Thaumaturgo admirabile: qui Martyres Marianos, tanquam "Phenices ex cineribus redivivos præftitit. Patri fuo omni Pietatis "Officio imprimis Calendo, Samuel Foxus illius primogenitus hoc "Monumentum pofuit, non fine Lachrimis.

"Obiit Die 18 Menfis April 1587.

"Jam Septuagenarius.

"Vita Vitæ mortalis eft, Spes Vitæ immortalis.”

This infeription is moftly in Fuller's Church Hiftory; who alfo remarks, that Mr. Fox was fo large a reliever of the poor, that it is no wonder he left no legacies at his death; and further adds, "that whereas there paffeth, upon good authority, a tradition that he foretold the ruin of the Invincible Armada in 1588, the story is true in itself, though he furvived not to fee the accomplishment of his own prediction."

It is by no means fingular to afcribe to men of fuperior eminence the property of looking into futurity. To produce inftances of this propenfity on the part of the public, would tire, without informing, the reader. But, in this refpect, when fuch immenfe preparations were, on the fide of the English, made to repel an invasion, which had been threatened long before the death of Fox, furely, when he confidered our fituation, and the courage of our countrymen upon their own element, he muit believe, that it did not require a fupernatural genius, or very fuperior intelligence, to forefee that the Spaniards would, nay must, be beaten. Providence in a high degree certainly favoured our naval exertions. But I take it, that the ftorm which difperfed the fleet of our enemies was not, in his prospective view, taken into the confideration

of

piled and printed thofe great volumes, the acts and monuments of the Church of Rome, and the Martyrdoms of thofe that were burned to death under Queen Mary for religion. Here, it is laid, alfo lived John Speed, the Hiftorian, who was buried in Cripplegate Church July the 28th, 1629. Another inhabitant of this district was Mr. Richard Smith, a very learned antiquarian, who left a moft noble collection of books and manufcripts: he was an Attorney, and fome time Secondary of the Poultry Compter. And although the laft I fhall mention, certainly the greateft, John Milton, who was buried in the chancel of the faid church 1674.

We have thus feen that in this, which is, or rather has been, the molt claffical ftreet in the town; for it must be obferved, that the fraternity which once were the highest order of its inhabitants have, like the Jefuits abroad, been difperfed to every part of the Ifland; thofe geniufes who have been fo much ridiculed by vain and idle authors, who feem to confider gravity, whether of head or countenance, as properties of little value, either to their proprietors or the public; who have been disposed to treat lightly the most weighty matters, though entombed in the moit weighty volumes; who have scarcely allowed any in this street, but thofe whom I have briefly noticed, to have been men

of learning and talents, though there were, perhaps, a hundred others who thought that they had equal, if not superior, claims. How the demons of envy and malignity came to hover over this quarter of the town it is impoffible now to fay; or why, except for the reason before given, this learned fociety, like another that fhall be nameless, was fo much the object of attack from the light-armed troops quartered in the weft, that even the Barbican, strong as that fortress once was, proved no defence against their paper pellets? why its members, who feem to have been, if they had been fuffered to purfue their studies in peace, inoffenfive men, were fo "beaten with brains?" is equally infcrutable. The first steps that were taken toward that acme of perfection to which general literature has arrived, it is well known, were by travellers who fet out from the Almonry, Westminster, and the Black Friars. The firft loungers of any eminence, who were fuppofed to have been formerly the protectors, and best friends, of the Grub-street writers, were initiated into their art at the booksellers' fhops in Little Britain, &c.; and the first editions of thofe ingenious and celebrated works, Jack the Giant Killer, Reynard the Fox, the Wife Men of Gotham †, Tom Hicathrift, and a hundred others, are

of the Martyrologift. However, if his prophecy added any thing to the confidence and comfort of the metropolis, it was unquestionably not without its use; and one laments that he did not live to fee the completion of it, in order to have received thofe praises which his neighbours would have thought due to his fagacity.

* I fhould extremely doubt whether thofe beautiful prints of Mr. John Overton, with all their " rich invention, proper expreffion, correct defign, divine attitudes, and artful contraft," with which the celebrated pieces of the Grub-treet authors were embellished, would be so much valued in this age as they were by his cotemporaries.

+ Swift is an author that now one may fafely cenfure; therefore I shall boldly tell him, that, in my apprehenfion, he seems totally mistaken in his critique of this learned piece of antiquity.

Let him take to himself what merit he pleafes for the fagacity of his difcovery of the political tendency of the true history of Reynard the Fox, though in that I as much believe as I do in Nixon that he is alfo mistaken, that it is prophetic, and obliquely glanced at election events which have since been verified. But to say, that the Wife Men of Gotham, cum appendice, is a comparison betwixt the ignorance of the ancients and the learning of the moderns, is what no man can bear: it certainly is no fuch thing. But having stated what it is not, I do not conceive myself bound to fay what it is. It certainly is neither pleasant nor polite to glance either at individuals or bodies; therefore I fhall referve my obfervations until the work is again reviewed by an author of as much genius as him I have quoted, giving him, at parting, a hint, that I have made a discovery, that he has been more obliged to the Grub-freet writers than the world is aware of; for if it had not been for the Giant Killer and Tom Thumb, it is believed we should never have heard either of the Brobidnagians or Lilliputians.

SOME ACCOUNT OF DR. LETTSOM's FOUNTAIN COTTAGE, CAMBERWELL GROVE, SURRY.

[WITH A VIEW.]

European Magazine.

Drawn & Engravd by Rawle.

Dr Lettsom's, Fountain Cottage, Camberwell Grove, Surry.

Published by J.Asperne. Successor to M Sewell, at the Bible Crown & Constitution, Cornhill, July 1-1803.