Spring 2012 Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly 143 Pp. 41-42, Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy. In the original issue of the work in parts, Blake’s pl. 1 was included in part 5, dated July 1788 on the printed back wrapper. The pl. is listed on the front wrapper as “7. aged figures, gardening.” Blake’s pl. 2 was issued in part 3, dated May 1788, and is listed on the front wrapper as “7. democritus, finished.” Pp. 45-49, Darwin, Botanic Garden, 1st ed. of Part 1, 1791. For a copy that includes Blake’s pl. 6 of 1795, see the final entry on Darwin under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above. P. 101, Flaxman, Compositions from the Works Days and Theogony of Hesiod, 1817. The complete set of prepublication proofs at the Bodleian Library, unseen at the time of writing, has now been listed on the Bodleian’s online cat. (, accessed 1 Nov. 2011). These are described as “37 proofs, of which 27 are before letters,” call number Arch. AA b.15, Aleph system number 013996444. Corrigendum In my 2010 review I noted “a Small Etching” attributed to Blake, “representing Sampson destroying the Lion,” offered by A. E. Evans and Son in an 1845 cat. (Blake 44.4 [spring 2011]: 129). This is almost certainly the impression of “Samson and the Lion,” an etching by Welby Sherman, inscribed “WS / 1827” and acquired by the British Museum in 1847, accession no. 1847,0318.122. According to Campbell Dodgson, “The Engravings of George Richmond, R.A., and Welby Sherman,” Print Collector’s Quarterly 17.4 (Oct. 1930): 361, the museum’s impression was “bought as ‘an etching by Blake.’” Dodgson was keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum, 1912-32. M I N u t E P A R t I C u L A R IN his manuscript “Life of Blake” (c. 1832), Frederick ta- tham writes that during the 1790s William and Catherine Blake resided in Hercules Buildings in a pretty clean House of 8 or 10 Rooms & at first kept a servant, but finding (as M.rs Blake declared & as every one else knows) the more service the more Inconvenience, she like all sensible women, who are possessed of industry & health & only moderate means, re- linquished this incessant tax upon domestic comfort, did all the Work herself, kept the House clean, & herself tidy, besides printing all Blakes numerous Engravings, which was a task alone sufficient for any industrious Woman, but however as there is no state, or scheme, or plan, without its accompany- ing Evil Blake had reason to regret his having left no one in possession of his House during his & M.rs Blakes absense for one day paying some friendly visit, some Thieves entered it & carried away Plate to the Value of 60 Pounds & clothes to the amount of 40 more.1 However, as this note will demonstrate, by the end of January 1791 William and Catherine may have been all too aware that leaving a servant in charge of 13 Hercules Buildings was no sure security against burglary. Rate book entries for 13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth, re- veal that by early March 1791 the Blakes had moved from their former residence at 28 Poland Street, Soho, to their new house.2 In the second edition of Blake Records (2004), G. E. Bentley, Jr., suggests that the Blakes may have moved to 13 Hercules Buildings as early as “the autumn of 1790” or at least “before the end of 1790.”3 A short paragraph that appeared in the Evening Mail on Wednesday 26 January 1791 suggests a slightly later date for the move. The Evening Mail reports: A few days since the house of Mr CLAY of Hercules Build- ings, Lambeth, was stripped of every article of furniture in it during his absence. His house-keeper who had lived with him three years is the thief and had hired a cart to remove the 1. Quoted in G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Records, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale university Press, 2004) [hereafter BR(2)] 676. Bentley suggests a date of Sept. 1795 for the robbery (676fn). On the night of 7 June 1793 Blake’s neighbor Philip Astley “of the Royal Saloon, in Hercules Buildings” was burgled and robbed of “cash, plate, watches, &c. &c. to the amount of 800 l.” (World 2 Sept. 1793: 3, col. c). 2. Blake is first recorded as payer of the poor rates for 13 Hercules Buildings on 9 Mar. 1791 (see BR[2] 744fn). 3. BR(2) 744 and fn (see also 742-43fn). “Mr CLAY of Hercules Buildings” By Angus Whitehead 144 Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly Spring 2012 goods, which were to have been sold the next day, had not this good Lady saved him the trouble of doing so.4 “Mr CLAY of Hercules Buildings” can be identified as the Blakes’ predecessor as ratepayer and resident at 13 Hercules Buildings, William Clay.5 The short article in the Evening Mail indicates that Clay’s housekeeper and his furniture still occu- pied 13 Hercules Buildings during the last week of January 1791. If William and Catherine Blake were unable to move into the house until the end of January, their move from 28 Poland Street to 13 Hercules Buildings can be dated between 24 January 1791, the earliest date we can assume Clay vacated the premises after being robbed by his housekeeper,6 and 9 March 1791, when Blake is first recorded as ratepayer for the property.7 4. Evening Mail 26 Jan. 1791: 2, col. b. The article was reprinted ver- batim in the “News in Brief ” section of the Times on Friday 28 Jan. (3, col. c). 5. “Wm Clay” is recorded as ratepayer for 13 Hercules Buildings in rate book entries for the second, third, and fourth quarters of 1790 (see BR[2] 744fn). No other Clay is listed among the ratepayers for the twenty-three other residences in Hercules Buildings in 1790. 6. I.e., “a few days” before the report appeared in the Evening Mail. 7. The fact that, according to the Evening Mail, Clay’s furniture was “to have been sold the next day” suggests that about 24 Jan. Clay was in the process of vacating 13 Hercules Buildings in anticipation of the Blakes’ moving in. N E W S L E t t E R Blake Goes Online Only Last year at this time we announced that our content would be online in order to optimize the many advantages of pub- lishing on the web—illustrations in color and more of them, looser restrictions on the length of issues, searchability, and greater sustainability due to lower production and mailing costs. After one transitional year of publishing online and printed issues in parallel, we are now phasing out the printed version. thus this spring issue is the last that will appear in print. With the upcoming summer 2012 issue (vol. 46, no. 1) Blake will be published online only. We are investigating the possi- bilities for print on demand, whereby copies of an issue or an article would be produced as needed by a third-party vendor, from whom you would order directly rather than as part of your subscription. If print on demand proves feasible, we’ll let you know. Individual subscribers will receive renewal reminders for vol. 46 as usual. Back issues of the quarterly beginning with the first issue (1967) will gradually appear as part of the William Blake Ar- chive and be freely available there. Preparation is well under way for a first installment. the most recent volumes of the quarterly from the last five years, however, will continue to be available only to subscrib- ers on the Blake site . mr. wily blake you blue-eyed devil you knew all along that the tyger washes itself in the blood of the lamb By Paul Miner denouement