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
Samuel Butler (schoolmaster) father, he named one of the roads laid out, Bishop Street, in honour of the grandfather. Butler's life has been written by his grandson Samuel Butler, author of "Erewhon" ("Life and Letters of Dr Samuel Butler", 1896); see also Baker's "History of St John's College, Cambridge" (ed. JEB Mayor, 1869); Sandys, "Hist. Class. Schol." (ed. 1908), vol. iii. p. 398. Butler collected some Greek manuscripts (e.g. Minuscule 202). Samuel Butler (schoolmaster) Samuel Butler FRS (30 January 1774 – 4 December 1839) was an English classical scholar and schoolmaster of Shrewsbury, and Bishop of Lichfield. His grandson was Samuel Butler (1835–1902),