iter, who over his half-pint of Lisbon grew
sarcastic and lively. Also a grumbling man named Dobson, who between
asthmatic paroxysms vented his spleen on all sides. Dobson was an author
and paradox-monger, but so devoid of principle that he was deserted by
all his friends, and would have died from want, if Dr. Garthshore had
not placed him as a patient in an empty fever hospital. Robinson, "the
king of booksellers," and his sensible brother John were also
frequenters of the "Chapter," as well as Joseph Johnson, the friend of
Priestley, Paine, Cowper, and Fuseli, from St. Paul's Churchyard.
Phillips, the speculative bookseller, then commencing his _Monthly
Magazine_, came to the "Chapter" to look out for recruits, and with his
pockets well lined with guineas to enlist them. He used to describe all
the odd characters at this coffee-house, from the glutton in politics,
who waited at daylight for the morning papers, to the moping and
disconsolate bachelor, who sat till the fire was raked out by the sleepy
waiter at half-past twelve at night. These strange figures succeeded
each other regularly, like the figures in a magic lantern.

Alexander Chalmers, editor of many works, enlivened the Wittinagemot by
many sallies of wit and humour. He took great pains not to be mistaken
for a namesake of his, who, he used to say, carried "the leaden mace."
Other _habitues_ were the two Parrys, of the _Courier_ and _Jacobite_
papers, and Captain Skinner, a man of elegant manners, who represented
England in the absurd procession of all nations, devised by that German
revolutionary fanatic, Anacharsis Clootz, in Paris in 1793. Baker, an
ex-Spitalfields manufacturer, a great talker and eater, joined the
coterie regularly, till he shot himself at his lodgings in Kirby Street.
It was discovered that his only meal in the day had been the nightly
supper at the "Chapter," at the fixed price of a shilling, with a
supplementary pint of porter. When the shilling could no longer be found
for the supper, he killed himself.

Among other members of these pleasant coteries were Lowndes, the
electrician; Dr. Busby, the musician; Cooke, the well-bred writer of
conversation; and Macfarlane, the author of "The History of George
III.," who was eventually killed by a blow from the pole of a coach
during an election procession of Sir Francis Burdett at Brentford.
Another celebrity was a young man named Wilson, called Langton, from his
stories of the _haut ton_.