rs' Company, bought of Theophilus Cibber, in 1736-37,
one-third of a tenth share of the London _Daily Post_, an organ which
gradually grew into the _Public Advertiser_, that daring paper in which
the celebrated letters of Junius first appeared. Those letters, scathing
and full of Greek fire, brought down Lords and Commons, King's Bench and
Old Bailey, on Woodfall, and he was fined and imprisoned. Whether Burke,
Barre, Chatham, Horne Tooke, or Sir Philip Francis wrote them, will now
probably never be known. The stern writer in the iron mask went down
into the grave shrouded in his own mystery, and that grave no
inquisitive eyes will ever find. "I am the sole depository of my
secret," he wrote, "and it shall perish with me." The Junius Woodfall
died in 1805. William Woodfall, the younger brother, was born in 1745,
and educated at St. Paul's School. He was editor and printer of the
_Morning Chronicle_, and in 1790 had his office in Dorset Street,
Salisbury Square (Noble). "Memory" Woodfall, as William was generally
called, acquired fame by his extraordinary power of reporting from
memory the speeches he heard in the House of Commons. His practice
during a debate (says his friend Mr. Taylor, of the _Sun_) was to close
his eyes and lean with both hands upon his stick. He was so well
acquainted with the tone and manner of the several speakers that he
seldom changed his attitude but to catch the name of a new member. His
memory was as accurate as it was capacious, and, what was almost
miraculous, he could retain full recollection of any particular debate
for a full fortnight, and after many long nights of speaking. Woodfall
used to say he could put a speech away on a corner shelf of his mind for
future reference. This is an instance of power of memory scarcely
equalled by Fuller, who, it is said, could repeat the names of all the
shops down the Strand (at a time every shop had a sign) in regular and
correct sequence; and it even surpasses "Memory" Thompson, who used to
boast he could remember every shop from Ludgate Hill to the end of
Piccadilly. Yet, with all his sensitively retentive memory, Woodfall did
not care for slight interruptions during his writing. Dr. Johnson used
to write abridged reports of debates for the _Gentleman's Magazine_ from
memory, but, then, reports at that time were short and trivial. Woodfall
was also a most excellent dramatic critic--slow to censure, yet never
sparing just rebuke. At the theatre his e