[1246] Mr. Duppa—­without however giving his authority—­says that this was Dr. Wheeler, mentioned ante, iii. 366.  The Birmingham Directory for the year 1770 shews that there were two tradesmen in the town of that name, one having the same Christian name, Benjamin, as Dr. Wheeler.

[1247] Boswell visited these works in 1776. Ante, ii. 459.

[1248] Burke in the House of Commons on Jan. 25, 1771, in a debate on Falkland’s Island, said of the Spanish Declaration:—­’It was made, I admit, on the true principles of trade and manufacture.  It puts me in mind of a Birmingham button which has passed through an hundred hands, and after all is not worth three-halfpence a dozen.’ Parl.  Hist. xvi. 1345.

[1249] Johnson and Boswell drove through the Park in 1776. Ante, ii. 451.

[1250] ’My friend the late Lord Grosvenor had a house at Salt Hill, where I usually spent a part of the summer, and thus became acquainted with that great and good man, Jacob Bryant.  Here the conversation turned one morning on a Greek criticism by Dr. Johnson in some volume lying on the table, which I ventured (for I was then young) to deem incorrect, and pointed it out to him.  I could not help thinking that he was somewhat of my opinion, but he was cautious and reserved.  “But, Sir,” said I, willing to overcome his scruples, “Dr. Johnson himself admitted that he was not a good Greek scholar.”  “Sir,” he replied, with a serious and impressive air, “it is not easy for us to say what such a man as Johnson would call a good Greek scholar.”  I hope that I profited by that lesson—­certainly I never forgot it.’  Gifford’s Works of Ford, vol. i. p. lxii.  Croker’s Boswell, p. 794.  ’So notorious is Mr. Bryant’s great fondness for studying and proving the truths of the creation according to Moses, that he told me himself, and with much quaint humour, a pleasantry of one of his friends in giving a character of him:—­“Bryant,” said he, “is a very good scholar, and knows all things whatever up to Noah, but not a single thing in the world beyond the Deluge."’ Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, iii. 229.

[1251] This is a work written by William Durand, Bishop of Mende, and printed on vellum, in folio, by Fust and Schoeffer, in Mentz, 1459.  It is the third book that is known to be printed with a date.  DUPPA.  It is perhaps the first book with a date printed in movable metal type. Brunei, ed. 1861, ii. 904.  See ante, ii. 397.

[1252] Dr. Johnson, in another column of his Diary, has put down, in a note, ’First printed book in Greek, Lascaris’s Grammar, 4to, Mediolani, 1476.’  The imprint of this book is, Mediolani Impressum per Magistrum Dionysium Paravisinum.  M.CCCC.LXXVI.  Die xxx Januarii.  The first book printed in the English language was the Historyes of Troye, printed in 1471.  DUPPA.  A copy of the Historyes of Troy is exhibited in the Bodleian Library with the following superscription:—­’Lefevre’s Recuyell of the historyes of Troye.  The first book printed in the English language.  Issued by Caxton at Bruges about 1474.’