Mr. Bentley resided at the corner of the avenue leading to the house formerly the Old Crown Tavern, Leadenhall-street, not far from the East-India House.
The house and character of this eccentric individual are so well described in a poem published in the European Magazine, for January 1801, that we shall transcribe it:
"Who but has seen (if he can see at all)
'Twixt Aldgate's well-known pump and Leadenhall,
A curious hard-ware shop, in general full
Of wares, from Birmingham and Pontipool?
Begrim'd with dirt, behold its ample front,
With thirty years collected filth upon't.
See festoon'd cobwebs pendent o'er the door,
While boxes, bales, and trunks, are strew'd around the floor.