JOHNSON RELICS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4463, 13 August 1941, Page 2

JOHNSON RELICS

SAVED FROM AIR RAIDS. Mrs- Rowell, the custodian of Dr Johnson’s house in Gough Square, which was damaged by fire in a raid on London, described to the Daily Telegraph how the greater part of the Johnsonian relics escaped harm. In the first week of the war, she said, she and her daughter removed the valuable prints, the paintings and the first editions, and stored them in waterproof wrapping in a large trunk in the basement. Forced by the fire to leave her cottage, which is the lodge of the house, on the Sunday night, she returned at 5 o’clock the next morning and retrieved the trunk. It had begun to fill with water. It is now in a place of safety. Although the four walls of the house are still standing, Mrs Rowell said the interior and most of the historic furniture were badly burned. “We hope the house can be rebuilt,” she added. “One idea I have have is to appeal to every American who has ever visited it to give a sum, however small.”