Lichfield is a beautiful historic cathedral city which is famous for being the birth place of Samuel Johnson and Erasmus Darwin.
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson was born in 1709 in the cathedral city of Lichfield, Staffordshire. His father was a bookseller whose house is now the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum. From his earliest days, Johnson’s life was blighted by ill health and poverty forced him to leave Pembroke College, Oxford without a degree. In 1735 he married Elizabeth Porter, a widow more than twenty years his senior.
In 1737 Johnson moved to London with his friend David Garrick, the actor, and tried to earn a living as a journalist, writing for The Gentleman’s Magazine. Johnson was commissioned by a syndicate of booksellers to write the first comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language in 1746. He rented 17 Gough Square and with the help of his six amanuenses compiled the Dictionary in the garret. It was published in 1755.
Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum
The Museum (to which entry is FREE) stands in the centre of the historic city of Lichfield, which remained close to Johnson's heart throughout his life. The writer, best known for his Dictionary of the English Language, 1755, spent the first 27 years of his life in the large, imposing house which overlooks Market Square, and he returned frequently until shortly before his death in 1784.
The building, now Grade 1 listed, contains a varied mix of displays, reconstructed rooms and audio-visual media which take the visitor through the colourful life and major achievements of Lichfield's most famous son, from troubled childhood, through literary obscurity and financial poverty, to world renown and success.
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin 1731-1802, English physician and poet. During most of his life he practiced medicine in Lichfield and cultivated a botanical garden. He was a prominent member of the Lichfield literary group, which included Anna Seward and Thomas Day. In a long poem, The Botanic Garden (1789-91), Darwin expounded the botanical system of Linnaeus His Zoonomia (1794-96), explaining organic life according to evolutionary principles, anticipates later theories. He was the grandfather of Charles Darwin and of Francis Galton.
Visitors can enter Darwin House from the front on Beacon Street through the green gates at the right hand side of the House, or by The Close through a passage way opposite the cathedral which will bring you through the Herb Garden to the gate and door at the rear of the House, where you will be welcomed by a member of our volunteer staff.
From April 1st, 2007:
Monday - Closed
Tuesday to Sunday: noon to 5.00pm, last admission to the house 4.15pm Admission: £2.50, £2.00 Concessions Take a moment to look round the maturing herb garden at the rear, and enjoy the recognisable culinary smells of this secluded spot in this ancient part of the City. All public parts of the building have wheelchair and comfort access for less mobile people.
Elizabeth I
visit to Lichfield
Elizabeth I visited Lichfield in 1575, arriving from Kenilworth on 27 July. She appears to have stayed elsewhere and to have returned to Lichfield on 30 July; she left for Chartley, in Stowe, on 3 August. She was evidently received in the market place and entertained in the guildhall. In preparation for her visit the guildhall was painted and repaired. In addition work was carried out on the road leading into the city from the south.
There is a gap of three days in the record and she is known to have been in Lichfield on the 30th (this is recorded on English Heritage's display at Kenilworth Castle). In light of the Knollys letter it is most believable that a large part of that time was spent at Middleton Hall. Wollaton is certainly a red herring because Elizabeth never visited Nottingham nor anywhere north of Stafford, where she went after leaving Lichfield.
