Soame Jenyns also lived in Tilney Street, and died there in 1787. Forgotten nowadays, he was in his time a prolific writer, and his style was considered as a model of clearness and ease. His epigram on Johnson is generally supposed to have been the only ill-natured thing he ever produced; here it is:—
“Here lies Sam Johnson. Reader, have a care;
Tread lightly, lest you wake a sleeping bear.
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was; but self-sufficient, proud and vain;
Fond of, and overbearing in, dispute;
A Christian and a scholar—but a brute!”
What would Miss Jenkins and Miss Pinkerton have said?
GREAT STANHOPE STREET.
At least two Prime Ministers have lived in Great Stanhope Street—Lord Palmerston, from 1814 to 1843, before he went to Piccadilly; and Sir Robert Peel, for five years from 1820; while Lord Brougham is given as residing at No. 4, in 1834, in occupancy of which house he had been preceded, respectively, by Lords Mansfield and Exeter.