bears the following inscription carved in a tablet over the door:
Here in this house
Samuel Johnson
was the guest,
Edmund Hector
was the host.
Of this host this guest has written:
'Hector is likewise an old friend, the only
companion of my childhood that passed
through the school with me; we have
always loved one another'
This stone, by leave of the owner of the house,
William Scholefield, Esq., M.P., was put up by the
members of 'Our Shakespere Club' of
Birmingham. A.D. 1865."
He married Mrs. Porter in Birmingham, whose fortune of £800 enabled him to set up a school near Lichfield. That experience would make another good subject for painter or sculptor. The picture of himself and his three scholars, including little Davy Garrick, would show well with all the other painted passages of his life. How many stately tomes would we not give in exchange for the conversations between him and his illustrious pupil which decided them to go up together and try their fortunes in London? Indeed there is hardly a life ever lived in England that would present more passages of varied interest and instruction than that of Samuel Johnson. And Lichfield, to its credit, holds the dignity of his birth as the first of its crown jewels. Many
