eet. Mr. Jesse, who has
collected so many excellent anecdotes, some even original, in his three
large volumes on "London's Celebrated Characters and Places," says that
the elder Mr. Disraeli, singularly enough, used in society to relate an
almost similar adventure as a youth. Eager for literary glory, but urged
towards the counter by his sober-minded relations, he enclosed some of
his best verses to the celebrated Dr. Johnson, and modestly solicited
from the terrible critic an opinion of their value. Having waited some
time in vain for a reply, the ambitious Jewish youth at last (December
13, 1784) resolved to face the lion in his den, and rapping tremblingly
(as his predecessor, Rogers), heard with dismay the knocker echo on the
metal. We may imagine the feelings of the young votary at the shrine of
learning, when the servant (probably Frank Barber), who slowly opened
the door, informed him that Dr. Johnson had breathed his last only a few
short hours before.

Mr. Timbs reminds us of another story of Dr. Johnson, which will not be
out of place here. It is an excellent illustration of the keen sagacity
and forethought of that great man's mind. One evening Dr. Johnson,
looking from his dim Bolt Court window, saw the slovenly lamp-lighter of
those days ascending a ladder (just as Hogarth has drawn him in the
"Rake's Progress"), and fill the little receptacle in the globular lamp
with detestable whale-oil. Just as he got down the ladder the dull light
wavered out. Skipping up the ladder again, the son of Prometheus lifted
the cover, thrust the torch he carried into the heated vapour rising
from the wick, and instantly the ready flame sprang restored to life.
"Ah," said the old seer, "one of these days the streets of London will
be lighted by smoke."

[Illustration: DR. JOHNSON'S HOUSE IN BOLT COURT (_see page 112_).]

Johnson's house (No. 8), according to Mr. Noble, was not destroyed by
fire in 1819, as Mr. Timbs and other writers assert. The house destroyed
was Bensley the printer's (next door to No. 8), the successor of
Johnson's friend, Allen, who in 1772 published Manning's Saxon, Gothic,
and Latin Dictionary, and died in 1780. In Bensley's destructive fire
all the plates and stock of Dallaway's "History of Sussex" were
consumed. Johnson's house, says Mr. Noble, was in 1858 purchased by the
Stationers' Company, and fitted up as a cheap school (six shillings a
quarter). In 1861 Mr. Foss, Master of the Company, initiat