Ahead, there are two churches which
have ended up as traffic islands as, over the years, the widening of the roadway
has taken priority. Outside the first (St. Clement Danes) is a small
unflattering statue of Samuel Johnson, the writer and poet who led an
impoverished life for nine years while compiling his exhaustive 'A Dictionary of
the English Language' It was not the first dictionary to have been created —
about 150 were already in use — but Dr. Johnson's is regarded as the
definitive work.