Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/394

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. viz. OCT. 23, 1920.

paid 21. rate. He also tenanted a house of 20Z. rent in Dutchy Lane at the back of his Strand -facing house.

In Rocque's ' Survey ' of 1745 Dutchy Lane is the second turning southwards west of Somerset House ; the -first, which im- mediately faced Catherine Street, led to the Somerset water-gate. Consequently, Ton- son's house was not strictly opposite Catherine Street.

The same Rate-book further shows that the eighth house eastwards from Tonson's was occupied by Robert Powney for which he paid ll. 16s. Sd. rate, he being assessed at 55Z. This locates Powney's stationery busi- ness as facing Catherine Street or possibly a little more eastwards between the water- gate passage and Somerset House.

Similar entries are repeated till 1742 in which year there occur important alterations in the list of occupants. Tonson's two houses are empty, and Millar's name appears for the first time, not as successor to Tonson, but as lessee of a house rented at 60Z. midway between Powney and Tonson, there being three houses eastward from Millar to Powney, and three houses westward from Millar to Tonson's empty house. It is noteworthy moreover that the Rate -book for 1742 was signed, in addition to the Rector and Churchwardens, by Robert Powney as representative of the inhabitants. Powney's signature is that of a well-educated man, the letters are better formed, bolder and blacker than those of the other signa- tories, leaving an impression on the mind that he affixed his name at his own dwelling, using for the purpose his own superfine ink and one of those excellent pens that earned the heartfelt gratitude of a great writer. Powney's was the first but not the last house of business in the Strand that Fielding immortalized.

In the ledger for 1743 Tonson's name re-appears, but on the opposite or north side of the Strand : he had taken premises rented at 120Z., with rates at 4Z. situate probably between Catherine Street and Exeter Exchange.

The Rate-books afford no evidence re- specting the signs displayed by the occupants.

Whether the advent of a pushing Scotch- man and the rapidly rising reputation of Dodsley in Pall Mall impelled Tonson "the third " to make himself more prominent in the public eye is matter for surmise, but this new evidence of leasing a more expen- sive house suggests that Mr. Straus in his excellent 'Life of Rebort Dodsley,' 1910,

was scarcely justified, when speaking of th& year 1736 (p. 40), in saying :

" Jacob Tonson the second died in 1735, Jacob> Tonson the first died in 1736. His great-nephew the third Jacob, carried on the business in Cathe~ rine Street, Strand, but the magic of the name he bore was gone."

'D.N.B.' in the article on 'Andrew Millar ' perpetuates Larwood's mistake, but the late Mr. G. A. Aitken in the article on 'Tonson,' though giving no date, was well aware that the owners of the Shakespeare's- Head had removqd from the south side to- the north side of the Strand.

It appears curious that occupants of shops at this point of the Strand emphasized their proximity to Catherine Street, a^ thoroughfare of no particular note in itself, and now fore-shortened in the laying out of segmental-shaped Aldwych. It might be- opined that "situated a few doors from Somerset House " were a more arresting direction. But at the material dates Somer- set House was an old building and privately owned, and not Chambers 's classic structure where business is transacted which affects every person throughout the land. More- over, a large proportion of those who sought diversion at Drury Lane Theatre and at Covent Garden Theatre and coffee-houses perforce passed through Catherine Street.

That the dry bones of the Rate-books may be galvanized into life permit me to quote the words of Mr. Grosley who wrote of the London of 1765. The shops in the Strand

" are all enclosed with great glass doors ; all adorned on the outside with ancient pieces of architecture ; all brilliant and gay, as well on account of the things sold in them as in the exact order in which they are kept ; so that they make a most splendid show, greatly superior to any- thing of the kind in Paris."

I have to thank the custodians of the Records at the Westminster Town Hall for their courteous assistance.

J. PAUL DE CASTRO.

AMONG THE SHAKESPEARE ARCHIVES.

(See t nte, p. 301.) DOCTOR BENTLEY OF NEW PLACE.

IN the last years of King Henry VIII. and the first of King Edward VI. a gentleman of distinction resided in Shakespeare's future home in Stratford. Doctor Thomas Bentley may or may not have been a connexion of