12 s. ix. OCT. 29, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 351 DR. JOHNSON AND THE REV. GEORGE BUTT. In Birkbeck Hill's edition of Boswell's ' Life of Johnson ' there is a note, quoted from Hawkins's ' Life ' and repeated in the ' Johnsonian Miscellanies,' as follows : There dwelt at Lichfield a gentleman of the name of Butt, the father of the reverend Mr. Butt, now a King's Chaplain, to whose house on holidays and in school -vacations Johnson was ever-welcome. The children hi the family, perhaps offended with the rudeness of his be- haviour, would frequently call him the great boy, which the father, once overhearing, said, " You call him the great boy, but take my word for it, he will one day prove a great man." Birkbeck Hill's note says, " A Rev. Mr. Butt attended Johnson's funeral," and his name duly appears in the list of those who were present (' Letters,' ii., p. 434). In no case of these few mentions of him is there any indication of his Christian name, but he was, of course, the Rev. George Butt, son of Dr. Carey Butt (who prophesied Johnson's fame). For the life of George ButM1741-1795), born at Lichfield, see the
- D.N.B.' and sources there quoted, but
the following note on the foregoing is to be found in his ' Poems,' in two volumes (1793), now somewhat scarce : After very early childhood, I never was but once in the company of this truly great man, who then very kindly and politely reminded me of the virtues of my father and maternal grand- father. Among Butt's poems is one entitled ' A Dialogue between the Earl of Chesterfield and Mr. Garrick in the Elys.ian Shades,' dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and of this Dr. Johnson is the subject. It begins with a fanciful description by the shade of Garrick of the admiration bestowed upon Johnson by Shakespeare ; Garrick praises Johnson and is strongly opposed by Chester- field, who is ultimately converted to Garrick's view, the poem closing with the entry of Johnson into Elysium. Though Butt disagreed with the great Doctor's estimate of Gray's ' Odes,' Lyttelton's
- Monody,' and other works, yet he was
full of admiration for him, as the above dialogue will prove to those who care to read it, and Butt's own delightful personality is shown in a note thereto : It was natural I should wish to attend Dr. Johnson's funeral ; and agreeably to old usage, of which no one is a greater admirer than myself, I devoted the day preceding the funeral, and sat up the greater part of the preceding night, to compose this elegiac dialogue, as a votive offering to his grave : and if my father early predicted i the fame of Dr. Johnson, I trust that the son will not be considered as a cold or slavish spectator of it. RUSSELL MARKLAND. SIGNS OF OLD LONDON (see references at 11 S. xii. 84, 218). Perhaps I may be permitted, after an interval of some six I years, to renew my contributions under this heading with the following notes : The earliest contemporary list of London signs known to me was drawn up about | the year 1430 and is contained among the records of the Worshipful Company of Brewers. Unfortunately it has not been printed. An alphabetical list of London taverns, chiefly of sixteenth-century date, forms the subject of an appendix to the second ! volume of the ' History of the Wine Trade j in England,' by Andre L. Simon. For seventeenth-century signs see ' The Carrier's Cosmography,' 1637, by John Taylor, the so-called "water poet," reprinted in Arber's ' Old English Garland,' i. pp. 223-44, also in ' Social England Illus- trated,' pp. 339-62. Another list of taverns compiled by Taylor in the year previous was printed by me at 11 S. i. 190. Several lists of signs appeared in the ! earlier volumes of the Annual Record | of the London Topographical Society, I from the pen of Mr. F. G. Hilton Price. [ See particularly the lengthy enumeration. i of signs of the Cheapside neighbourhood I in vol. iv. , running to no fewer than eighty- five pages. A MS. list of taverns of 1690-8 is referred to at 8 S. xi. 204, as being in I the possession of a correspondent signing ! himself W. I. R. V. A list of coffee-houses of 1702-14 forms the subject of an appendix to John Ash- I ton's ' Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne.' Sorne 470 houses are enumerated. A long and valuable list of eighteenth - j century inns and taverns is given by John Lane in his large volume of ' Masonic Records.' In the St. Martin's Public Library, ! Charing Cross, is an extensive collection ' of newspaper cuttings relating to London signs and arranged in alphabetical order, but not very easy of access. I commenced making a list of the signs mentioned, however briefly, in the successive volumes of ' N. & Q.' some years ago, but did ! not succeed in carrying it further than pre- ! cisely half-way through the fourth series.
