ill 1822. His books fetched L2,000, and those with manuscript notes
were bought by Trinity College. It was said of Porson that he drank
everything he could lay his hands upon, even to embrocation and spirits
of wine intended for the lamp. Rogers describes him going back into the
dining-room after the people had gone, and drinking all that was left in
the glasses. He once undertook to learn by heart, in a week, a copy of
the _Morning Chronicle_, and he boasted he could repeat "Roderick
Random" from beginning to end.

Mr. Luard describes Porson as being, in personal appearance, tall; his
head very fine, with an expansive forehead, over which he plastered his
brown hair; he had a long, Roman nose (it ought to have been Greek), and
his eyes were remarkably keen and penetrating. In general he was very
careless as to his dress, especially when alone in his chamber, or when
reading hard; but "when in his gala costume, a smart blue coat, white
vest, black satin nether garments, and silk stockings, with a shirt
ruffled at the wrists, he looked quite the gentleman."

The street where, in 1261, many Jews were massacred, and where again, in
1264, 500 Jews were slain, was much affected by Nonconformists. There
was a Baptist chapel here in the Puritan times; and in Queen Anne's
reign the Presbyterians built a spacious church, in Meeting House Court,
in 1701. It is described as occupying an area of 2,600 square feet, and
being lit with six bow windows. The society, says Mr. Pike, had been
formed forty years before, by the son of the excellent Calamy, the
persecuted vicar of Aldermanbury, who is said to have died from grief at
the Fire of London. John Shower was one of the most celebrated ministers
of the Old Jewry Chapel. He wrote a protest against the Occasional
Conformity Bill, to which Swift (under the name of his friend Harley)
penned a bitter reply. He died in 1715. From 1691 to 1708 the assistant
lecturer was Timothy Rogers, son of an ejected Cumberland minister, of
whom an interesting story is told. Sir Richard Cradock, a High Church
justice, had arrested Mr. Rogers and all his flock, and was about to
send them to prison, when the justice's granddaughter, a wilful child of
seven, pitying the old preacher, threatened to drown herself if the poor
people were punished. The preacher blessed her, and they parted. Years
after this child, being in London, dreamed of a certain chapel,
preacher, and text, and the next day, going to the