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A Famous Argument and a Family Home Restored Kenneth Bowe Society member Kenneth Bowe recalls a famous argument during Samuel Johnson’s visit to James Boswell’s family home which has just been given a new lease of life by the Landmark Trust SAMUEL Johnson had been given ample warning, but still the inevitable happened. On the return leg of his tour of Scotland, Johnson was to stay with James Boswell’s father, Lord Auchinleck, at the new family home in Ayrshire. The 66 year-old peer was as sanguine a Whig and Presbyterian as his famous guest was Tory and Anglican and Boswell guessed, rightly, that conflict between the two was more than likely. Alexander Boswell, 8th Laird of Auchinleck, who received his non-hereditary peerage in recognition of his appointment as a Judge of the Court of Session, Scotland’s supreme civil court, already had an unfavourable notion of Johnson, based, says his son, ‘on his supposed political tenets which were so discordant to his own.’ and referred to him as ‘a Jacobite fellow’. 'Knowing all this,' wrote Boswell, 'I should not have ventured to bring them together, had not my father, out of kindness to me, desired me to invite Dr Johnson to his house. I was very anxious that all should be well and begged of my friend to avoid three topics as to which they differed very widely: Whiggism, Presbyterianism and Sir John Pringle.' Pringle was revered by both Boswell and his father but was considered by Johnson to be slightly mad. Johnson promised courteously: 'I shall certainly not to talk on subjects which I am told are disagreeable to a gentleman under whose roof I am; especially I shall not do so to your father’. Things were not, though, to turn out as Boswell might have hoped. At the time of Samuel Johnson’s visit, James Boswell’s family home, Auchinleck House, the third building on an estate granted to his forebears in the 14th century, had only recently been completed, having been built between 1755 and 1762 as a villa to which Lord Auchinleck could retreat when the Edinburgh courts were out of session. The two companions, having travelled down from Kilmarnock by post-chaise, arrived at Auchinleck – just in time for dinner - on Tuesday, November 2 1773 and for a while things went smoothly. On the first day it rained and Lord Auchinleck showed Dr Johnson his library, which, typical in Scotland in the eighteenth century, was on the first floor of the house. The peer had been an antiquarian and classicist in his student days and his interests were reflected among his books. Johnson discovered in the library William Baxter’s Anacreon for which he had long searched in vain. The two men therefore had ‘much matter for conversation’ without touching on the ‘fatal topics of difference’. It rained again the following day, but Johnson ‘furnished with variety of books’ appeared quite happy, but when some neighbours called to see Lord Auchinleck he appeared irritated when one asked him how he liked the Highlands. 'How, sir, can you ask me what obliges me to speak unfavourably of a country where I have seen hospitality entertained?' Johnson replied. 'Who can like the Highlands? I like the inhabitants very well.' By Thursday November 2nd the rain had stopped and Boswell was able at last to show his companion something of the family estate. In A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland Johnson pays tribute to Lord Auchinleck for finding time to make improvements to his patrimony. He wrote, 'He has built a house of hewn stone, very stately and durable and has advanced the value of his lands with great tenderness to his tenants.' Johnson was particularly taken by the ‘sullen dignity’ of the ruins of the old castle at Auchinleck. Boswell disagreed with Johnson over the derivation of the name Auchinleck. The latter, in his account of the Scottish trip, claimed it signified a ‘stony field’, but by then, he suggests, had no claim to its denomination, pointing out that the land was then level and fertile ‘but like all the western side of Scotland incommoded by very frequent rain’. Johnson wrote further, 'It was, with the rest of the country, generally naked, till the present possessor finding, by the growth of some stately trees near his old castle, that the ground was favourable enough to timber, adorned it very diligently with annual plantations.' Boswell reckons that Johnson is mistaken and notes in his journal of the Scottish tour, ‘Auchinleck does not signify a "stony field", as he has said, but a "field of flag stones"; and this place has a number of rocks, which abound in strata of that kind.' Towards the end of Johnson’s stay came his famous confrontation with Lord Auchinleck in the library where he had earlier appeared so content. 'I cannot be certain whether it was on this day, or a former, that Dr Johnson and my father came in collision,' wrote Boswell in his journal entry for Saturday November 6th. "If I recollect right, the contest began while my father was shewing him his collection of medals and Oliver Cromwell’s coin unfortunately introduced Charles the First and Toryism.' The two men became ‘exceedingly warm and violent’ and poor Boswell was much distressed at such an altercation between the two men he revered, yet dared not interfere. But when he came to recall the scene in A Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides he declined to exhibit his ‘honoured father’ and ‘respected friend’ as ‘intellectual gladiators for the entertainment of the publick’ "Yet I think I may, without impropriety, mention one circumstance, as an instance of my father’s address," Boswell wrote. 'Dr Johnson challenged him… to point out any theological works of merit written by Presbyterian ministers in Scotland. My father, whose studies did not lie much in that way, owned to me afterwards that he was somewhat at a loss to answer, but that luckily he recollected having read in catalogues the title of Durham On the Galatians; upon which he boldly said "Pray, sir, have you read Mr Durham’s excellent commentary on the Galatians?" "No, sir", said Dr Johnson. By this lucky thought my father kept him at bay, and for some time enjoyed his triumph; but his antagonist soon made a retort, which I forbear to mention’. In the course of the altercation, the taboo topics of Whiggism and Presbyterianism, Toryism and Episcopacy were ‘terribly buffeted’, but Boswell reports that his ‘worthy hereditary friend’, Sir John Pringle, had happily escaped without a bruise. Notwithstanding the altercation that had passed, Lord Auchinleck- who later bestowed the name Ursa Major on Johnson - was afterwards very civil to his guest and on Monday, November 8th ‘politely attended him’ to the post-chaise which was to convey Johnson and Boswell to Edinburgh. In 1782, less than 10 years after Samuel Johnson’s visit to Auchinleck the old law lord with whom he had so violently quarrelled died of kidney failure and James Boswell, by then 41 years of age, succeeded to the estate as ninth laird. Following his death in 1795 Auchinleck, today regarded as one of the most important houses in Scotland, passed through succeeding generations until entering into a long period of decline early in the 20th century from which it has only just been rescued and given a completely new lease of life. A major restoration by The Landmark Trust has not only saved the house but – particularly interesting to students of both Johnson and Boswell - has meant that people can actually live in it and make use of the library in which the famous Johnson –Auchinleck confrontation took place in 1773. The Landmark Trust is a charity with two purposes, firstly to rescue worthwhile buildings from neglect and secondly to promote the enjoyment of such places by letting them for holidays. Before taking on Auchinleck House in the closing months of the last century it had already in the 35 years since its foundation by Sir John Smith saved some 200 buildings of historic or architectural importance. Auchinleck was in a sorry state when the charity took it over. After James Boswell’s death in 1795 it had passed to his son, Alexander, who became an English MP and a baronet and died in a duel in 1822; it then went to his 15 year-old son, Sir James, and subsequently to Sir James’s eldest daughter Julia, but as she and her husband died childless it passed to her sister, Emily, and her son. Emily had married the fifth Lord Talbot de Malahide and their only child, James Boswell, was the last direct male descendant of Samuel Johnson’s biographer. In 1905 the Talbot family moved to Malahide in Ireland and dispersed Auchinleck’s contents, eventually selling the house to a distant branch of the family, the Douglas-Boswells, in the 1920s. From the mid 1960s the house was uninhabited. Lead had been stripped by thieves from the roof and for 12 years water poured down behind the linings of the outside walls, accumulating in the basement and badly damaging the plasterwork and panelling. Dry rot set in and in 1986 the then owner decided to sell the house, with 35 acres of land, to the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, which made the house water tight but then struggled to find a role for it in the face of development proposals for the rest of the site. In 1999 the house was transferred to the Landmark Trust (Auchinleck) Ltd and soon a major programme of restoration - the biggest ever undertaken by the Landmark Trust - was under way. For the whole of 2000 and the first half of 2001 the building was swathed in scaffolding, but by the following year the doors opened to the first guests. Those staying there today – and you can do so for anything from three days to three weeks – see it much as Samuel Johnson would have done during his stay in 1773. From outside Auchinleck is impressive - indeed it was described by Frederick Pottle, ‘father’ of Boswellian studies at Yale, as ‘an exquisite piece of neo-classicism in the Adam style’ An 18th century Duchess of Northumberland who visited the house soon after its erection complained, however, that the pediment on the east elevation was ‘terribly loaded with Ornaments of Trumpets & Maces and the Deuce knows what’. But inside, the house is wonderfully compact and ‘liveable in’. To the left of the entrance is the house’s one staircase, used by both family and servants. Half way up the stairs in Boswell’s time hung a portrait of the Corsican hero, General Pasquale Paoli, with whom he frequently stayed when in London. Beyond the stairwell is the morning room which James Boswell and his father used as a study. The room now contains a cabinet which once belonged to the diarist and a collection of family memorabilia on loan from the Auchinleck Boswell Society. To the right of the entrance hall, beyond a small antechamber, is the dining room containing an elaborate alcove, a rare survival from the18th century and now restored. Now, as then, Auchinleck’s west-facing library dominates the first floor and contains a collection of books relating to Johnson and Boswell, including complete runs of the latter’s journal and correspondence donated by the Yale Editions of the Boswell Papers. Sadly, though, the original furniture, both from the library and elsewhere in the house, was dispersed many years ago. Today’s furnishings have, wherever possible, been carefully chosen by the Landmark Trust to evoke 18th century Auchinleck.
References Boswell, J, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D Dent, London 1 Boswell, J, The Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, OUP, Oxford 1924 Johnson, S, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, OUP, Oxford 1924 Stanford, C, Auchinleck House (guidebook)Landmark Trust
The Landmark Trust can be contacted at Shottesbrooke, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 3SW. Tel: 01628 825920; fax 01628 825417; Website www.landmarktrust.co.uk Top of
'Argument'.
Why a hatred for Sir John Pringle? Philip Spinks Kenneth Bowe makes mention, in his recent article, of Johnson’s opinion that
Sir John Pringle (who Johnson had been warned against mentioning in the presence
of Lord Auchinlek was, ‘slightly mad. Certainly Boswell reports Johnson, whilst
in conversation with Boswell and Dr Richard Brockelsby, as saying, ‘…. There
must have been a degree of madness about him.’ We only learn from annotated
editions of The Life that Sir John Pringle was the subject of the
discussion on the penuriousness of a ‘respectable gentleman’ in later life but
can we be sure that Johnson also knew who was being spoken about? If not, then
he would be commenting on penurious old men per se. We do know that
Johnson had formed a very erroneous opinion of Sir John.’Johnson ‘…strongly
disapproved [of Pringle] on both political and religious grounds.’ (Politics and
religion aside, it would seem that Pringle was a very likeable fellow and among
his circle of friends, including Boswell’s major and minor, was Benjamin
Franklin who became an intimate friend, travelling companion and correspondent.) Sir John Pringle (1702-82) had a distinguished medical career. He had made his name in military medicine, being appointed in 1742 as Surgeon General of the British Expeditionary Force in Silesia during the War of Austrian Succession. (1740-48). His work there, and the later (1752) publication of Observations on the Diseases of the Army (which remained essential reading for military surgeons into the twentieth century), earned him the accolade of ‘the founder of modern military medicine’. Later he was to become physician to the Duke of Cumberland (1749), to the Queen (1761) and in 1774 was Gazetted as Physician in Ordinary to the King. Additionally he was a Fellow of the Royal College Physicians and President of the Royal Society from 1772-78. So why should Johnson hold such a deep dislike of Pringle? Johnson disliked others for their religious or political opinions but would join their company. With Auchinlek he was charm itself until the famous argument broke out.(it was not Johnson who introduced the coin after all) and with Wilkes he made great efforts to be conciliatory. Did Johnson harbour the private conviction that Pringle was worth disliking? During his time campaigning in Germany, very shortly before the Battle of Dettingen (27 June NS), Pringle had brokered, with the Duc de Noailles (the enemy French commander) an agreement that ‘…the military hospitals on both sides should be considered neutral, immune sanctuaries for the sick and wounded, and should be mutually protected’. This act, which was to become known as The Dettingen Agreement, further declared that ‘…medical personnel were to be non-combatant and that wounded enemy soldiers were to receive medical treatment and be returned after they recovered from their injuries.’ The Dettingen Agreement and Pringle’s concepts were to pave the way for the formation of the Red Cross over one hundred years later. Johnson detested war: although he never experienced military action himself he was fully conscious of the plight of the common soldier and sections of his Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting The Falkland Islands provide stark evidence of what war was (and is) really like for those involved directly. Any chance of ameliorating the wounded soldiers’ condition, would, we would expect, gain warm praise from Johnson. But did it? At the time of Dettingen (1742) Johnson was working with Cave at the Gentleman’s Magazine and would have been fully aware of the details of the campaign in Germany. Reports of the battle were published in the magazine. Although the magazine makes no mention of The Dettingen Agreement, it is highly probable that anyone keeping abreast of the news of the war would have been aware of it. One writer make comment upon the medical care of the wounded after Dettingen: ‘…the French loss was some 4,800, double that of George’s [the Second ] army, but, having no supplies for his troops, the King had to hasten to Hanau, leaving his wounded to the care of the French.’ But another writer, commenting on the treatment of the British wounded said scathingly ‘.. we pleased ourselves with a victory at Dettingen, where we left our wounded men to the care of our enemies…’: this writer was Samuel Johnson. Even though the article was written in 1756, thirteen years after the events he describes, there is bitterness in Johnson’s words. Did Johnson view the Dettingen Agreement as an abnegation of responsibility on Pringle’s part? Did Johnson privately declare Pringle to be a man with no honour who had forsaken his charges to an unknown (and untested) fate? In Johnson’s eyes, had the British fighting man been deserted by the very people who should care for them at the direction of Sir John Pringle? Top of 'Sir
John Pringle'.
The Whitehalls of Pipe Ridware
Martha is a member of the society . This article arises from her studies of the local history of Pipe Ridware. Four household account books, kept by the women of the Whitehall family between 1705 and 1725, survive in the Hatherton Collection at Stafford Record Office. John Whitehall purchased the manor of Pipe Ridware about 1677. Plot described him as ‘a most intelligent bee-master’. His half-timbered house, illustrated by Stebbing Shaw, was torn down in the nineteenth century, but his bee-boles survive in the walled garden of the present farmhouse. His son and heir, James, died in 1704, leaving two small daughters, Frances (b.1699) and Anne (b. 1700), already motherless, orphaned. They were raised by their two aunts, Frances (b. 1668) and Bridget (b. 1670), James’s younger sisters, at Pipe Ridware. Neither sister ever married. The first account book, kept by Bridget and Frances, details the money they laid out on behalf of the ‘orphants’. Items include the purchase of ingredients to worm the children, sugar candy and treacle, mittens, gloves and muffs, shoes, clogs and pattens, pocket money for Christmas and Valentines, and more types of cloth, ribbon, edging, tape and lace than can be easily imagined. Among their entertainments were music, cards, visits to friends and relations
and reading. There is a small series of entries relating to book purchases which
may be of interest to Johnson Society members as it is certain that at least
some of these books were purchased at Michael Johnson’s new bookshop in
Lichfield.
In 1717 when young Anne and Frances Whitehall went into Michael Johnson’s shop to pay their book bill, young Samuel was seven years old and had just started Lichfield Grammar School. One can imagine him skulking behind the counter of his father’s shop, and looking with interest at these two teenage girls from the country. The previous summer Frances and Anne both had smallpox and their Aunt Bridget
died, perhaps of the same disease. Aunt Frances was left to raise the ‘orphants
‘ on her own. She died in 1768 and was buried at Pipe Ridware with her sister.
There is a monument to them which says of Frances that, There is no evidence of her doctoring in the account books, but they only record what was spent on her nieces. They do not detail her personal expenditure.
In 1718 Aunt Frances made an agreement with the two girls that, they shall have the laying out of their Money to buy all things Necessary for them...... during the time of their Minority... ... I regret to say that after this time no more books were purchased. Instead the money is spent on snuff and cosmetics, tipped to the servants and lost at cards, spent on 'brocaded lutestring', 'morocho leather shoes', and wagon-loads of clothing. There are also frequent instances of charity to tenants, neighbours and money, 'given to a poor man'. The pace of their social life increases with frequent visits to friends and relations in Stafford, Cannock and Shrewsbury. Anne married Sir Thomas Parker. Her older sister Frances married Fisher Littleton of Pillaton Hall near Penkridge, and in this way, Pipe Ridware passed to the Littleton family. It is touching to note that Frances Littleton had two little daughters of her own, names Frances and Anne, and the two women's names seem to have passed down in the family for many more generations. Top of 'The
Whitehalls'.
The Origins of the Johnson Supper
This year’s supper marked the centenary of this unique Johnsonian celebration. Alongside this year’s menu card was a souvenir reproduction of ‘ye bille of fayre’ for the very first Johnson supper held on 18 September 1903. This tradition predates the formation of the Johnson Society in 1910 and was originally devised as part of a programme of birthday celebrations in the city by the Johnson House Committee of the Corporation of Lichfield. The Corporation extended an invitation to "citizens and others interested in perpetuating the memory of Samuel Johnson in his native city" to participate in the Johnson Birthday celebrations. The proposed programme of events for 1903 was to include free admission to the Birthplace and a wreath laying ceremony on the Johnson statue in the Market Square. The tradition of a Johnson address was also established at this time but as a separate event from the evening supper. After the lecture at the Guildhall, gentlemen were invited to attend a celebratory supper at Dr Johnson’s local hostelry, the Three Crowns Inn. The organisers sought to carry out the supper according to the traditions of Dr Johnson’s time and the sawdust-strewn floor, dim candlelight and the period attire of the serving staff all contrived to recreate an eighteenth century atmosphere in which "learning, wit and conviviality could flourish". The event’s popularity was bolstered by the Bicentenary celebrations in 1909 and the renewed interest in Johnson amongst Lichfeldians led to the formation of the Johnson Society the following year. Since 1910 the Society has taken over responsibility for running the Supper, though there remains a strong civic input. These arrangements reflected the growing prestige of the event as it was felt that Johnsonian enthusiasts could help attract eminent speakers for the event. The Johnson Society and Lichfield City Council continue to work in partnership to promote the annual Johnson Birthday celebrations. The wreath laying ceremony and short service on the Market Square and special events at the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum are organised by the City Council. The Society, meanwhile, centres its focus on the Johnson Supper, the highlight of its annual events programme. A version of this paper was delivered at the A.G.M. of the Johnson Society of Lichfield on 22nd March 2006Mr Greene’s Museum of Curiosities by Annette French
During the eighteenth century Lichfield was a wealthy and important town, regarded by Daniel Defoe as the best town in Staffordshire for "good conversation and good company". The rebuilding of the city after the Civil War established Lichfield as a desirable residential area for the wealthy and leisured classes, and as a fashionable town with popular shops and entertainments. Lichfield prospered from its central location on the busy coaching routes, which brought a steady stream of visitors to the city. Local residents and visitors to Lichfield in the eighteenth century would have been overwhelmed with choice of social and cultural activities including dinners, concerts, balls, theatrical performances, assemblies, music festivals and sports such as bowling and archery. Lichfield’s famous ale and range of public houses also supported a vibrant visitor economy. Lichfield’s reputation for learning and intellectual excellence during the eighteenth century was boosted by its status as a social hub for some of the leading writers and thinkers of the day. Richard Greene, founder of a celebrated collection of curiosities in Lichfield, was a key facilitator for the city’s spirit of innovation, experiment and intellectual debate. His private collection of antiquities, built up from the 1740s, was opened to the public as Lichfield’s first museum. As well as being a valuable resource for local communities it also attracted wider fame and brought its founder national recognition. Richard Greene’s museum benefited from Lichfield’s vibrant visitor economy but attracted a wide audience base. His museum "merited and attracted the notice of the antiquary and curious of every denomination". Greene capitalised on Lichfield’s proud status as the leading social and cultural centre of the West Midlands. He described his museum in 1777 as "a choice collection of curiosities in a Midland County, very distant from the Metropolis". His object was clear, to assert Lichfield’s right to be recognized as an important provincial player. Lichfield would have its own museum, not as an object of metropolitan curiosity, but as a symbolic demonstration of the city’s contribution to the cultural life of the nation.
There were other museums of curiosities in England at the time, such as the Tradescant collection of rarities (which first went on public display in 1634 at a museum called The Ark based in Lambeth). The collections were later acquired by Elias Ashmole (himself a native of Lichfield) who established the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford in 1683. The Ashmolean holds the official status of being Britain’s first public museum. The founding collections of the British Museum were bequeathed to the nation by Hans Sloane (a physician, naturalist and private collector) in 1753, and opened to the public as The British Museum in 1759. The first museums marked the emergence of the private collection into the public domain. They originate in the Cabinets of Curiosities, which became fashionable in the 16th century and reached the peak of their popularity in the 17th century. These early collections were universal in scope and featured a wide range of objects (both man-made and natural) from all parts of the world. They showcased the rare, the exotic and the unusual and were ordered into tightly packed displays occupying cases or entire rooms. These collections were carefully assembled and displayed to represent a microcosm of the entire universe. Selection and display of specimens and exhibits was often dictated by a desire to engender awe and wonder in the viewer. They were the personal (and often idiosyncratic collections) of individual owners and served as a status symbol for those who could afford to create and maintain them. The development of the early museums arose out of these personal cabinet collections. With the age of enlightenment collecting began to take on a more educational purpose and a responsibility to provide new opportunities for the interchange of ideas. Richard Greene’s Museum of Curiosities in Lichfield provided inspiration and edification to a wide range of people. It was especially well placed to serve the research interests of Lichfield’s intellectual elite. Medical apparatus, anatomical specimens, scientific instruments and geological collections were all available for study and inspection at Greene’s museum. It was an especially valuable resource for the scientific community including Erasmus Darwin and his network of Lunar Society friends and acquaintances. In turn, Greene’s museum benefited from the endorsement of the Lunar circle. Members were regular visitors to the museum and also provided active support in the form of donations related to their various scientific interests. The connection helped to validate Greene’s museum in terms of its intellectual kudos and also kept it up to date. Greene was an active collector and he collected and exhibited examples of contemporary design and innovation such as pieces produced by "the ingenious Mr. Wedgewood (sic) of Etruria".
Greene’s connection with Lichfield was well established; he had been born in the city in 1716 and was probably educated at the Grammar School. He served an apprenticeship as an apothecary-surgeon in Shrewsbury and moved back to his birthplace in the early 1740s where he set up business from his house in Market Street. He made his living as a surgeon and apothecary in the city and earned great professional respect. He was a man of civic distinction and served as sheriff of the city in 1758 and as a bailiff in 1785 and 1790. Greene’s museum, which was based at his house, is thought to have opened sometime in the 1740s, at around the same time as he set up his medical business. At first the museum was probably a means to give him a competitive edge, as he used his personal collection of curios and antiques to draw attention to his office. His "show-shop and many-coloured windows" may have attracted attention to his retail trade in drugs and medicines. Greene’s collection was already established enough by 1768 for his older brother, Joseph to suggest printing a catalogue of his curiosities. Greene’s interest in antiques was a genuine passion, not just a sophisticated sales tactic. He was a keen antiquary and lifelong collector. Both Richard and his brother Joseph, who was the headmaster of Stratford upon Avon Grammar School, shared a passion for collecting. The two brothers were both active local historians, each undertaking a civic responsibility to record, preserve and commemorate the histories of their town of residence. Richard’s museum became a natural repository for historic items of Lichfieldian interest, including archaeological finds unearthed in and around the city. He was a local authority on the history of Lichfield and undertook his own research based on the manuscripts and records, which came into his possession. His notes and transcripts on the history of Lichfield were utilized by the city’s official historians and Greene was an important source of information for later publications such as Stebbing Shaw’s History of Staffordshire (1798) and Thomas Harwood’s History of Lichfield (1806). The exact location of Greene’s museum was at his house at no 12 Market Street, Lichfield. The building is no longer standing and was previously the site of Garratt’s Bakeries, which was demolished to make way for the City Arcade built in 1963. Today there is a commemorative plaque on the wall just outside the City Arcade to mark the site of Greene’s museum. The plaque was erected in 1936 and marked official civic recognition for Greene as it was instigated by a sub-committee of the City Corporation.
During the late 1760s Sadler Street was renamed as Market Street however Greene continued to refer to his museum in Sadler Street. Perhaps like Dr Johnson, he couldn’t come to terms with the new name. In a letter to Hester Thrale, dated 11 July 1770, Johnson wrote "I am not wholly unaffected by the revolutions of Sadler Street; nor can forbear to mourn a little when old names vanish away, and new come into their place". Both Johnson and Greene knew it as Sadler Street, the name having a long established identity since 1487 through its association with the local saddlemaking and leather goods trade. There seems to be some confusion as to whether the museum was relocated during Greene’s lifetime to a new location in the Cathedral Close. However the museum catalogues, which were printed at the private press he set up at his museum, all cite a location in Sadler Street. As the third edition went to print in 1786, just seven years before Greene’s death in 1793 it seems unlikely that the museum moved during Greene’s lifetime. The lack of consensus seems to arise from the mix up of Greene’s original museum with its later reincarnation by Greene’s grandson, Dr Richard Wright. Some of Greene’s original museum collection was later acquired by Wright and incorporated into a new Museum of Antiquities and Natural Curiosities. Dr Wright’s museum was housed in the Bishop’s Registry Office, a building that used to stand near the south door of the Cathedral. It was pulled down in 1819 but is visible in Snape’s map of the city, published in 1781. The museum was then moved into storage at Wright’s house and finally dispersed at auction following Wright’s death in 1821. Some efforts have been made to trace the subsequent history of the fragmented collection and it has been possible to identify isolated exhibits from Greene’s original holdings. Most have been lost to Lichfield however some items have remained in the city, such as the scold’s bridle housed in the city gaol at Lichfield Guildhall.
The interior of Greene’s museum can be recreated from the comprehensive contents listings printed in Greene’s catalogues. Contemporary engravings also provide strong visual evidence of the museum displays and its contents. A general précis of the contents is contained in a handbill for Greene’s museum, dated 22nd January 1782. Greene offers a brief description of some of the rarities in his establishment and reveals an extensive range of exhibits from natural history specimens to ethnographic material.
The central exhibit was a large musical altar-clock, one of the prize pieces in the collection. It was an early addition to the museum and featured in an article for the Universal magazine in 1748. The clock has survived and is now part of the collection at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath. Greene’s museum was open for six days a week, closed on Sundays. Greene was not always on hand to provide guided tours of his private collection. Whilst on a stopover visit to Lichfield in October 1779 James Boswell was disappointed that Greene was unavailable to accompany him on a round of visits to Lichfield friends. Greene was otherwise engaged on business in Lichfield, in attendance to the Bishop of Sodor and Man, who was suffering "very ill of the gout’. Greene’s catalogues of his collection, which ran to at least three editions, were intended to provide a "plain and sufficient Guide, when the inevitable avocations of Business prevent my personal Attendance". Given my own experience of guided tours at the Johnson Birthplace Museum I can sympathize with Greene’s admission that the publication of his museum guidebook might at least "supercede, in some measure, the necessity of a daily Enumeration of his rarities". Luckily for Greene he at least had the excuse of urgent medical attention to attend to! The museum was open to the public free of charge, but its enterprising owner offered the catalogue of his rarities at the price of one shilling. Greene’s published catalogues, the first in 1773, the second in 1782 and the third in 1786 were all dedicated to Sir Ashton Lever. He was a direct inspiration to Richard Greene and was an important and generous benefactor to the Lichfield Museum. Lever was a kindred collecting spirit, famous for his important natural history collections. His museum of curiosities was one of the great attractions of London and amongst its many visitors were distinguished admirers such as Caption Cook. Richard Greene thought that Lever’s museum exceeded every private collection in its kingdom by "its magnitude… curiosity, value and disposition". Greene’s flattering dedications are testimony to their shared interests and close friendship. The first edition, published in 1773, was dedicated to Lever, "from whose noble repository some of the most curious of the rarities had been drawn". Lever’s collections provided Greene with ready access to new material for his own displays. In a letter to his friend, the Rev John Taylor at Ashbourne, dated 4 May 1774, Johnson relates how Greene had paid a recent visit to London and was on his way back to Lichfield "loaded with Sir Ashton Lever’s Superfluities". The same day, Johnson writes to Elizabeth Aston in Lichfield to inform her, "Mr. Green comes home loaded with curiosities, and will be able to give his friends new entertainment". Samuel Johnson did not only encourage Greene’s museum venture by word of mouth, he was a benefactor himself and visited several times. Unfortunately the catalogues do not match the donor to individual items except in a few cases. Nonetheless the first and second editions feature appendixed lists of benefactors amongst which Samuel Johnson features. Johnson lent an axe and lance to Greene for the museum collection. Amongst the other items Johnson had presented to Greene were the inkstand used in the compilation of his Dictionary and a vase, with a handwritten inscription by Greene, as "Sacred to the memory of Dr Johnson". Greene was favoured with numerous benefactors and he was adept at publicising their support and contributions in his catalogues. Donors were acknowledged prominently at the museum itself, there was a board on the staircase which featured the names of contributors marked in gold letters. This served as a public form of gratitude for past favours and a polite hint for future donors. Whilst on return visits to Lichfield Dr Johnson took his closest friends on outings to Greene’s museum. In July 1774 the museum was visited and admired by Dr Johnson in the company of the Thrale family. Two years later Johnson made a return visit with his friend James Boswell. Boswell wrote: Boswell found Greene an accommodating host and he maintained his acquaintance with the museum proprietor. Johnson appeared to regard Greene as a reticent conversationalist. Following a visit by Greene to his house in London, Samuel Johnson wrote to Hester Thrale that Greene had ‘paid a visit from Lichfield and having nothing to say, said nothing and went away".
In his biography of Johnson, Boswell repeated Richard Greene’s claim that he was a relation of Samuel Johnson. The precise relationship is not known although one suggestion has been made that they were first cousins. Even the eminent genealogist of Johnson’s early life, Aleyn Lyell Reade, was unable to substantiate the claim and it remains an enigma. Greene was only seven years younger than Johnson and the two were probably friends in early youth, as they certainly were in advanced life. The name of Richard Greene does have some resonance with Johnsonians, for he is connected with the Johnson family memorial stone at St Michael’s Church. On the 2nd December 1784 Johnson wrote to Greene in Lichfield with his final instructions to place a large memorial stone, "deep, massy, and hard" near the family grave with a Latin epitaph of his own composition to his father Michael, his mother Sarah, and his brother Nathaniel. Johnson begged Greene to make "all possible hast" in carrying out his instructions and was anxious that the work should be undertaken while he was still alive. Johnson died on the 18th December and his final wish was not carried out until the following year. A receipt for the gravestone in St Michael’s Church dated 1st July 1785 survives in the Johnson Birthplace collection, part of a gift of papers donated in 1919 previously in the possession of William Greene, grandson of Richard Green. The original stone was removed during repaving work at the church in the late 1790s but in 1884 a replacement stone was restored to its original position in the centre of the nave and Johnson’s inscription was re-engraved using the same wording as on the earlier stone. The replacement tombstone, relaid on the 100th anniversary of Johnson’s death in December 1884, turned out to be the highlight of the centenary commemorations in Lichfield that year! | That Samuel Johnson entrusted Richard Greene with his last piece of composition is testimony to the regard in which he held his old Lichfield friend. As unofficial historian for the city, Greene was recognized as a man dedicated to the preservation of local memory and tradition. Johnson’s final wish was left in safe hands.
Richard Greene hasn’t made it to the shortlist of famous Lichfieldians during the eighteenth century, alongside the prestigious list of usual suspects: Johnson, Garrick, Darwin and Seward. In 1935 William Bennett, the author of a brochure of Greene and his museum, complained that Greene’s legacy had been overshadowed by that of Lichfield’s most famous son. Bennett wrote: Richard Greene’s legacy to the city deserves to be rescued from the footnotes of the Johnson story. He made a valuable contribution to local and regional cultural life: as a keen local historian, a regular holder of civic office and as an important facilitator and friend to Lichfield’s intellectual communities. The popularity of his museum of curiosities is testimony to Greene’s ability to promote Lichfield’s achievements in science, industry, art and culture. Through his policy of contemporary collecting Greene supported the dissemination of new ideas and innovations to a wider public. He was an ambassador for the city and its achievements. Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary describes a museum as a "repository of learned curiosities". He may even have been thinking of Greene’s museum when he arrived at this definition. Greene’s collection is representative of a more modern understanding of the word "museum". By catering for a wide range of audiences not just the learned few, Greene’s museum "enabled people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment". These three functions were ably illustrated by Mr Greene’s Museum of Curiosities.
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The Johnson Society, The Birthplace Museum, Breadmarket
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