Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ... NOTES. THE SPECTATOR CLUB. P. 2, 1. 37. This celebrated coffee-house stood at the south end of Bow Street, Covent Garden. In the preceding generation it was rather the rendezvous of wits than of politicians. Dryden made it his habitual resort, both winter and summer; and here probably he was seen by Pope, then a boy of twelve years, in the last year of his life, 1700. Child's was in St. Paul's Churchyard; it was much resorted to by the clergy, and persons of clerical politics. The St. James's stood at the end of Pall Mall, near to what is now 87 St. James's Street; it was an exclusively Whig house. The Grecian was in Devereux Court, Strand; it existed as a tavern till 1842. From it Isaac Bickerstaff in the Tatler undertakes to issue his disquisitions on points of learning. It was founded about 1652 by the Greek servant of an English merchant returned from the Levant, and was the first of English coffee-houses. Jonathans, in Change Alley, was frequented by stock-jobbers. (Wills' Sir Roger de Coverley.) P. 3, 1. 13. The character and ways of the 'Spectator' seem to be those of Addison himself, humorously exaggerated. 'With any mixture of strangers, ' says Pope (Spence's Anecdotes), 'and sometimes only with one, he seemed to preserve his dignity much, with a stiff sort of silence.' Distinguishing between his own powers in conversation and in writing, Addison is reported to have said, ' I have only ninepence in my pocket, but I can draw for a thousand pounds.' See Boswell's Johnson, iii. 302 (Oxford ed.). P. 4,1. 26. A small street off Aldersgate Street, City. No. 2. This number was written by Steele, but as it contains the original sketches of the characters and antecedents of the different members of the Spectator Club, it is always printed..
