[1] Two other residences of Smith’s, less definitely associated
with his books or etchings, are recorded. The first is No. 8 Popham
Terrace, near the Barley Mow Tavern, in Frog Lane, Islington. His
sojourn here is mentioned, without dates, by Lewis in his _History
of Islington_ (1842). Frog Lane is now Popham Road, of which Popham
Terrace appears to have been part. In 1809, Smith was living at No.
4 The Polygon, Somers Town.
[2] Thomas Lowe had taken Marylebone Gardens in 1763, at a rent
of £170. Fresh from his triumphs as a tenor at Vauxhall, he made
concerts the principal entertainment. In 1768 he compounded with
his creditors.
[3] This theatre at Richmond was built two years before Smith’s
birth, and was opened in May 1765, by Mr. Love, who spoke a
prologue by Garrick. Love was the stage name of James Dance, who,
as a son of George Dance, R.A., the City Architect, adopted it that
he might not “disgrace his family,” a proceeding on which Genest
comments: “Shall we never have done with this miserable cant?
Foote, with much humour, makes Papillion say, in _The Lyar_: ‘As to
Player, whatever might happen to me, I was determined not to bring
a disgrace upon my family; and so I resolved to turn footman.’”
_The Devil to Pay_, by Charles Coffey, was adapted from a play by
Jevon called _The Devil of a Wife_, first produced at Drury Lane in
1731, when Love played “Jobson” and Mrs. Love “Nell.”
[4] “A convivial glass-grinder, then residing at No. 6, in Earl
Street, Seven Dials, and who had, for upwards of fifty years,
worn a green velvet cap,” is Smith’s note on his uncle. In his
_Nollekens_ he says: “In the British Museum there is a brass medal
of Vittore Pisano, a painter of Verona, executed by himself … his
cap, which is an upright one with many folds, reminded me of that
sort usually worn, when I was a boy, by the old glass-grinders of
the Seven Dials.”
[5] Dr. William Hunter (1718-83) was elder brother of the
celebrated Dr. John Hunter, to whom in 1768 he gave up his house
in Jermyn Street, taking possession of the one he had built for
himself in Windmill Street. In 1764 he had been appointed Physician
Extraordinary to the Queen. He became a foundation member of the
Royal Academy, as Professor of Anatomy. It is related that half an
hour before his death he exclaimed: “Had I a pen, and were I able
to write, I would describe how easy and pleasant a thing it is to
die.”
[6] Now rebuilt as No. 38.
[7] Strype’s edition of Stow, 1720, contains many such plates. John
Kip, the engraver, was born in Amsterdam. He died at Westminster in
1722.
[8] In the miscellaneous pages of his _Nollekens_, Smith reports
Elizabeth Carter, of “Epictetus” fame, as saying to a Covent
Garden fruiterer, named Twigg (jocularly known as the “Twig of the
Garden”): “I recollect, Sir, when Mr. Garrick acted, hackney chairs
were then so numerous that they stood all round the Piazzas, down
Southampton Street, and extended more than half-way along Maiden
Lane, so much were they in requisition at that time.”
[9] Voltaire first came to London in May 1726, after his
confinement in the Bastille, landing at Greenwich on a cloudless
night. His first impressions of London are quoted by Mr. Archibald
Ballantyne in his interesting _Voltaire’s Visit to England_. After
being the guest of Bolingbroke, Voltaire returned to Paris in a
state of indecision, but, again crossing the Channel, he settled
at Wandsworth, where he found a friend and host in Sir Everard
Falkener. He met Pope, and improved his English by attending the
theatres. Chetwood says: “I furnished him every evening with the
play of the night (at Drury Lane), which he took with him into the
orchestra (his accustomed seat): in four or five months he not only
conversed in elegant English, but wrote it with exact propriety.”
Voltaire became a well-known figure in London, and wrote his
_Henriade_ in his London lodging at the sign of the “White Peruke,”
Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, next door to the Bedford Head.
[10] _Notes of Proceedings and Occurrences during the British
Embassy to Pekin_, 1816. Geo. Thos. Staunton, 1824. Printed for
Private Circulation.
[11] Pliny the Younger, in writing to his friend, Baebius Macer,
on the habits and life of his uncle, C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny
the elder), says: “A shorthand writer constantly attended him, …
who, in the winter, wore a particular sort of warm gloves, that
the sharpness of the weather might not occasion any interruption
to my uncle’s studies; and for the same reason, when in Rome, he
was always carried in a chair. I recollect his once taking me to
task for walking. ‘You need not,’ he said, ‘lose these hours.’ For
he thought every hour gone that was not given to study” (_Letters
of Pliny the Younger_, bk. iii. letter 5, p. 82. Bohn’s Classical
Library).
[12] The Catalogue of this exhibition is entitled: “A Catalogue
of the Paintings, Sculptures, Architecture, Models, Drawings,
Engravings, etc., now exhibiting under the Patronage of the Society
for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, at their
Great Room in the Strand, London.” It credits Mr. Nathaniel Smith,
St. Martin’s Lane, with the following:--