_Johnson's House, Bolt Court._--Can any of your readers inform me
whether the house in which Dr. Johnson resided, and in which he died,
situate in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, is yet in existence? You are
probably aware that an engraving of it appeared in the _Graphic
Illustrations_ edited by Mr. Croker, and prefixed to this engraving was
an announcement that it was destroyed by fire.
There is reason, however, to believe that this is a mistake, and that
the house so destroyed by fire belonged not to Johnson, but to Johnson's
friend, Allen the printer.
You are probably aware that the house which stands opposite the
Johnson's Head Tavern, is shown as the residence of the great moralist;
and on comparing another engraving by Smith of the Doctor's study with
the room now claimed to have been occupied by Johnson, the likeness is
exact. Cobbett, too, who afterwards lived here, boasted in one of his
publications that he was writing in the same room where Johnson compiled
his _Dictionary_. At any rate it is an interesting question, and
probably can be set at rest by some of your literary friends, especially
as I have reason to believe that there is one gentleman still living who
visited the Doctor in Bolt Court. Madame D'Arblay, I think, once said,
that the author of the _Pleasures of Memory_ arrived at the door at the
same moment with herself during Johnson's last illness.