Wine Office Court
   "SIR" said Dr Johnson "If you wish to have a just notion
of the magnitude of this great City you must not be
satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares but
must survey the innumerable little lanes and
courts......................
   This Court takes its name from the Excise Office
which was here up to 1665. VOLTAIRE came, and, says
tradition, CONGREVE and POPE. Dr JOHNSON lived
in Gough Square (End of the Court on the left) and finished
his Great dictionary there in 1755. OLIVER GOLDSMITH
lived at No. 6, where he partly wrote 'The Vicar of Wakefield'
and Johnson saved him from eviction by selling the
book for him....................
   Here came Johnson's friends. REYNOLDS, GIBBON,
GARRICK, Dr BURNEY, BOSWELL and others of his circle.
   In the 19th C. came CARLYLE, MACAULAY, TENNYSON,
DICKENS, (who mentions the Court in 'A Tale of Two Cities')
 FORSTER, HOOD, THACKERAY, CRUIKSHANK, LEECH, and
WILKIE COLLINS. More recently came MARK TWAIN,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, CONAN DOYLE, BEERBOHM
CHESTERTON, DOBSON, LE GALEIENE, SYMMONS YEATS-
and a host of others in search of Dr Johnson, or "The Cheese".