You are probably aware that the house which stands opposite the Johnson's Head Tavern, is shown as the residence of the great moralist; and on comparing another engraving by Smith of the Doctor's study with the room now claimed to have been occupied by Johnson, the likeness is exact. Cobbett, too, who afterwards lived here, boasted in one of his publications that he was writing in the same room where Johnson compiled his Dictionary. At any rate it is an interesting question, and probably can be set at rest by some of your literary friends, especially as I have reason to believe that there is one gentleman still living who visited the Doctor in Bolt Court. Madame D'Arblay, I think, once said, that the author of the Pleasures of Memory arrived at the door at the same moment with herself during Johnson's last illness.
EDWIN LECHLADE.
Bishop Mossom.
—Robert Mossom, D.D., was prebendary of Knaresboro' in Yorkshire, 1662, and Bishop of Derry, 1666. In dedicating his Zion's Prospect (1651) to Henry (Pierrepont) Marquess of Dorchester and Earl of Kingston, towards the end he says, "Besides this, mine relation to your late deceased uncle;" then referring to the margin he has "Ds. T. G., Eques felicis memoriæ."
Zion's Prospect (a copy of which, with several of his other works, is in the library of the British Museum) has on the title-page, "By R. M., quondam è collo S. P. C."
His grandson, Robert Mossom, D.D. (son of Robert Mossom, LL.D., Master in the French Court of Chancery), was Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently Dean of Ossory from 1701 to 1747; he married Rebecca, daughter and coheir of Robert Mason of Dublin, and granddaughter, I believe, of Jonathan Alaud of Waterford. Dean Mossom was one of the oldest friends of Dean Swift; Sir Walter Scott has but one letter to him in Swift's Correspondence (2nd ed. Edin. 1824, vol. XIX. p. 275.). Are there any other letters that passed between them in existence?
Can any of your readers refer me to a pedigree of the Masons of Dublin, and also any pedigree that connects the Mossom with the Elaud family of Yorkshire?
What college was that of S. P. C.? and who was Sir T. G——, Knt.; and how was he related to Bishop Mossom?
T. C. M. M.
Inner Temple.