aturally turns
upon the newest publications, but their criticisms are somewhat
singular. When they say a _good_ book they do not mean to praise the
style or sentiment, but the quick and extensive sale of it. That book is
best which sells most."

In 1770 Chatterton, in one of those apparently hopeful letters he wrote
home while in reality his proud heart was breaking, says:--"I am quite
familiar at the 'Chapter Coffee House,' and know all the geniuses
there." He desires a friend to send him whatever he has published, to be
left at the "Chapter." So, again, writing from the King's Bench, he says
a gentleman whom he met at the "Chapter" had promised to introduce him
as a travelling tutor to the young Duke of Northumberland; "but, alas! I
spoke no tongue but my own."

Perhaps that very day Chatterton came, half starved, and listened with
eager ears to great authors talking. Oliver Goldsmith dined there, with
Lloyd, that reckless friend of still more reckless Churchill, and some
Grub Street cronies, and had to pay for the lot, Lloyd having quite
forgotten the important fact that he was moneyless. Goldsmith's
favourite seat at the "Chapter" became a seat of honour, and was pointed
out to visitors. Leather tokens of the coffee-house are still in
existence.

Mrs. Gaskell has sketched the "Chapter" in 1848, with its low
heavy-beamed ceilings, wainscoted rooms, and its broad, dark, shallow
staircase. She describes it as formerly frequented by university men,
country clergymen, and country booksellers, who, friendless in London,
liked to hear the literary chat. Few persons slept there, and in a long,
low, dingy room upstairs the periodical meetings of the trade were held.
"The high, narrow windows looked into the gloomy Row." Nothing of motion
or of change could be seen in the grim, dark houses opposite, so near
and close, although the whole width of the Row was between. The mighty
roar of London ran round like the sound of an unseen ocean, yet every
footfall on the pavement below might be heard distinctly in that
unfrequented street.

The frequenters of the "Chapter Coffee House" (1797-1805) have been
carefully described by Sir Richard Phillips. Alexander Stevens, editor
of the "Annual Biography and Obituary," was one of the choice spirits
who met nightly in the "Wittinagemot," as it was called, or the
north-east corner box in the coffee-room. The neighbours, who dropped in
directly the morning papers arrived, and before the