a line, and noted in the margin the first letter of the word under which
it was to occur. He then delivered these books to his clerks, who
transcribed each sentence on a separate slip of paper and arranged the
same under the word referred to. By these means he collected the several
words, and their different significations, and when the whole
arrangement was alphabetically formed, he gave the definitions of their
meanings, and collected their etymologies from Skinner, and other
writers on the subject." To these accounts, Hawkins adds his usual
carping, pompous testimony. "Dr. Johnson," he says, "who, before this
time, together with his wife, had lived in obscurity, lodging at
different houses in the courts and alleys in and about the Strand and
Fleet Street, had, for the purpose of carrying on this arduous work, and
being near the printers employed in it, taken a handsome house in Gough
Square, and fitted up a room in it with books and other accommodations
for amanuenses, who, to the number of five or six, he kept constantly
under his eye. An interleaved copy of "Bailey's Dictionary," in folio,
he made the repository of the several articles, and these he collected
by incessantly reading the best authors in our language, in the practice
whereof his method was to score with a black-lead pencil the words by
him selected. The books he used for this purpose were what he had in his
own collection, a copious but a miserably ragged one, and all such as he
could borrow; which latter, if ever they came back to those that lent
them, were so defaced as to be scarce worth owning, and yet some of his
friends were glad to receive and entertain them as curiosities."

"Mr. Burney," says Boswell, "during a visit to the capital, had an
interview with Johnson in Gough Square, where he dined and drank tea
with him, and was introduced to the acquaintance of Mrs. Williams. After
dinner Mr. Johnson proposed to Mr. Burney to go up with him into his
garret, which being accepted, he found there about five or six Greek
folios, a poor writing-desk, and a chair and a half. Johnson, giving to
his guest the entire seat, balanced himself on one with only three legs
and one arm. Here he gave Mr. Burney Mrs. Williams's history, and showed
him some notes on Shakespeare already printed, to prove that he was in
earnest. Upon Mr. Burney's opening the first volume at the _Merchant of
Venice_ he observed to him that he seemed to be more severe on Warburton
tha