London teems with statues and memorials to famous men and
women, but sometimes one can happen across one that commemorates an animal, one
such being the life-sized bronze of “Hodge” in Gough Square, which is just
north of Fleet Street.
The statue of Dr Johnson’s cat “Hodge”
17 Gough Square was the home of Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84).
Johnson was no great lover of men but was extremely fond of his cats, of which
he had several. Hodge’s claim to fame was that he got a mention in James
Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson”.
Boswell, who did not like cats, thought he would please
Johnson, during a visit to Gough Square, by remarking that Hodge was “a fine
cat”. Johnson replied that he had had other cats whom he preferred but then
thought that Hodge was giving him a less than friendly look. He therefore tried
to make it up to him by saying: “but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat
indeed”.
The statue, which is on a plinth of Portland stone in Gough
Square (pedestrianised) shows Hodge sitting on top of a copy of Dr Johnson’s
famous “Dictionary of the English Language”.
Also on the dictionary is an empty oyster shell, which
reflects the fact that oysters were Hodge’s favourite food – they were
considerably cheaper in the 18th century than they are now and were
regarded as the food of poor people rather than the rich. Johnson bought
Hodge’s oysters in person, because he thought it demeaning to his manservant to
ask him to fetch the cat’s food.
The statue (by John Bickley) dates only from 1997 and it
serves a double purpose, which is symbolised by the dictionary. Inscribed on
the plinth is a Latin phrase which translates as “He refined and corrected”,
the “he” being Major Byron Caws, who worked with H W Fowler on the “Concise
Oxford Dictionary”, first published in 1911.
The statue was erected by Major Caws’s grandson and thus commemorates two
lexicographers as well as the “very fine cat” of the older one.
© John Welford
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