Lichfield on the main routes from London to the north-west and Birmingham to the north-east. It also became a centre of great intellectual activity, being the home of many famous people including Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward; this prompted Johnson's remark that Lichfield was "a city of philosophers". In the 1720s Daniel Defoe described Lichfield as 'a fine, neat, well-built, and indifferent large city', the principal town in the region after Chester. During the late 18th and early 19th century much of the medieval city was rebuilt with the red-brick Georgian style buildings still to be seen
William Powell (English actor) William Powell (English actor) William Powell (1735–1769) was an English actor. He was born in Hereford, and educated at Hereford grammar school and at Christ's Hospital in London. Sir Robert Ladbrooke, a distille and then president of Christ's Hospital, took him on as apprentice in his counting-house. Powell, however, was interest in amateur theatricals: Ladbrooke suppressed a club in Doctors' Commons of which Powell had become a member. For a while Powell remained in Ladbrooke's office. Charles Holland however, introduced him to David Garrick, who wanted to travel and sought a substitute actor. Carefully coached by Garrick, Powell made his