ugh Square; his "Rasselas"--that grave and wise Oriental story--he
had written in a few days, in Staple's Inn, to defray the expenses of
his mother's funeral. In Bolt Court he, however, produced his "Lives of
the Poets," a noble compendium of criticism, defaced only by the bitter
Tory depreciation of Milton, and injured by the insertion of many
worthless and the omission of several good poets.

It is pleasant to think of some of the events that happened while
Johnson lived in Bolt Court. Here he exerted himself with all the ardour
of his nature to soothe the last moments of that wretched man, Dr. Dodd,
who was hanged for forgery. From Bolt Court he made those frequent
excursions to the Thrales, at Streatham, where the rich brewer and his
brilliant wife gloried in the great London lion they had captured. To
Bolt Court came Johnson's friends Reynolds and Gibbon, and Garrick, and
Percy, and Langton; but poor Goldsmith had died before Johnson left
Johnson's Court. To Bolt Court he stalked home the night of his
memorable quarrel with Dr. Percy, no doubt regretting the violence and
boisterous rudeness with which he had attacked an amiable and gifted
man. From Bolt Court he walked to service at St. Clement's Church on the
day he rejoiced in comparing the animation of Fleet Street with the
desolation of the Hebrides. It was from Bolt Court Boswell drove Johnson
to dine with General Paoli, a drive memorable for the fact that on that
occasion Johnson uttered his first and only recorded pun.

Johnson was at Bolt Court when the Gordon Riots broke out, and he
describes them to Mrs. Thrale. Boswell gives a pleasant sketch of a
party at Bolt Court, when Mrs. Hall (a sister of Wesley) was there, and
Mr. Allen, a printer; Johnson produced his silver salvers, and it was "a
great day." It was on this occasion that the conversation fell on
apparitions, and Johnson, always superstitious to the last degree, told
the story of hearing his mother's voice call him one day at Oxford
(probably at a time when his brain was overworked). On this great
occasion also, Johnson, talked at by Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Williams at the
same moment, gaily quoted the line from the _Beggars' Opera_,--

"But two at a time there's no mortal can bear,"

and Boswell playfully compared the great man to Captain Macheath.
Imagine Mrs. Williams, old and peevish; Mrs. Hall, lean, lank, and
preachy; Johnson, rolling in his chair like Polyphemus at a debate;
Boswell, sto