On the right, opposite Gray's Inn Road, is Staple Inn, the picturesque gabled and timbered facade of which, dating from Elizabethan or early Stuart days (restored in 1886), is a unique survival of its kind in a London street. Staple Inn consists of two little quadrangles with houses dating mainly from the 18th century, with some earlier features. The Hall in the first court (apply to the porter; fee) dates from 1581 and contains some contemporary glass and a good timber ceiling (restored in 1923). The inn which seems to have been a hostel of the woolstaplers in the 14th century, was an Inn of Chancery from the reign of Henry V. until 1884, when it was sold to the Prudential Assurance Co. Dr. Johnson lived for a time in a house here (doubtfully said to be No. 2) in 1759-60, and here he is said to have written �Rasselas� in the evenings of a single week, to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral. Mr. Grewgious, in �Edwin Drood,� had chambers at No. 10, in the second court, which is adjoined by a small Dutch garden leading to Southampton Buildings.
