d, from 1764 to 1768, and had its card, conversation, and
coffee-rooms, where assembled Dr. Johnson, Carrick, Murphy, Goldsmith,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Foote, and other men of talent: the tables and
books of the club were not many years since preserved in the house, the
first floor of which was then occupied by Mr. Webster, the medallist.

_Button's_, "over against" Tom's, was the receiving-house for
contributions to _The Guardian_, in a lion-head box, the aperture for
which remains in the wall to mark the place. Button had been servant to
Lady Warwick, whom Addison married; and the house was frequented by
Pope, Steele, Swift, Arbuthnot, and Addison. The lion's head for a
letter-box, "the best head in England," was set up in imitation of
the celebrated lion at Venice: it was removed from Button's to the
Shakspeare's Head, under the arcade in Covent Garden; and in 1751, was
placed in the Bedford, next door. This lion's head is now treasured as a
relic by the Bedford family.

* * * * *

LORD BYRON AND "MY GRANDMOTHER'S REVIEW."

At the close of the first canto of _Don Juan_, its noble author, by way
of propitiating the reader for the morality of his poem, says:--

"The public approbation I expect,
And beg they'll take my word about the moral,
Which I with their amusement will connect,
As children cutting teeth receive a coral;
Meantime, they'll doubtless please to recollect
My epical pretensions to the laurel;
For fear some prudish reader should grow skittish,
I've bribed my Grandmother's Review--the British.

I sent it in a letter to the editor,
Who thank'd me duly by return of post--
I'm for a handsome article his creditor;
Yet if my gentle muse he please to roast,
And break a promise after having made it her,
Denying the receipt of what it cost,
And smear his page with gall instead of honey,
All I can say is--that he had the money."

_Canto I. st._ ccix. ccx.

Now, "the British" was a certain staid and grave high-church review, the
editor of which received the poet's imputation of bribery as a serious
accusation; and, accordingly, in his next number after the publication
of _Don Juan_, there appeared a postscript, in which the receipt of any
bribe was stoutly denied, and the idea of such connivance altogether
repudiated; the editor adding that he should continue to exercise his
own judgment as to the mer