Seen in London

Last month, while walking across Paddington Street, we noticed a plaque:

(In 1793 the author of "Memoires d'Outre-Tombe"/Chateaubriand/1768-1849/Lived as an emigre in a garret close to this site and began his literary career. He returned in 1822 as French Ambassador and resided in Portland Place.)

Chateaubriand writes of his residence there in Book X, Chapter VI of his memoirs:

My friends found me a room better suited to my sinking fortunes (one is not always at the peak of prosperity); they placed my in the neighborhood of Marylebone Street, in a garret with a window looking out on a cemetery; every night the watchman's rattle told me that someone had just stolen bodies.

 The editors note that Paddington Street's Garden, opposite the plaque, served as the cemetery of St. George's Church from 1731 through 1857. I suspect that the resurrection men were not nearly as active there as Chateaubriand suggests.