Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
On page 31, either 1660 or 1669 is a possible typo.
On page 131, "The 4th Edward IV." is possibly a typo.
On page 154, "Dan Rowlandson" should possibly be "Dan Rawlinson".
On page 262, "Belvidere" is a possible typo for "Belvedere".
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON
WITH
ANECDOTES OF THE CLUBS, COFFEE-HOUSES
AND TAVERNS OF THE METROPOLIS
DURING THE 17TH, 18TH, AND 19TH CENTURIES.
BY JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A.
[Illustration]
IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. II.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1866.
PRINTED BY
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
CONTENTS.
Coffee-houses.
Page
EARLY COFFEE-HOUSES 1
GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE 6
JONATHAN'S COFFEE-HOUSE 11
RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE 14
NANDO'S COFFEE-HOUSE 18
DICK'S COFFEE-HOUSE 20
THE "LLOYD'S" OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II 21
LLOYD'S COFFEE-HOUSE 24
THE JERUSALEM COFFEE-HOUSE 30
BAKER'S COFFEE-HOUSE 30
COFFEE-HOUSES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 31
COFFEE-HOUSE SHARPERS IN 1776 42
DON SALTERO'S COFFEE-HOUSE 44
SALOOP-HOUSES 48
THE SMYRNA COFFEE-HOUSE 49
ST. JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE 50
THE BRITISH COFFEE-HOUSE 55
WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE 56
BUTTON'S COFFEE-HOUSE 64
DEAN SWIFT AT BUTTON'S 73
TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE 75
THE BEDFORD COFFEE-HOUSE, IN COVENT GARDEN 76
MACKLIN'S COFFEE-HOUSE ORATORY 82
TOM KING'S COFFEE-HOUSE 84
PIAZZA COFFEE-HOUSE 87
THE CHAPTER COFFEE-HOUSE 88
CHILD'S COFFEE-HOUSE 90
LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE 92
TURK'S HEAD COFFEE-HOUSE, IN CHANGE ALLEY 93
SQUIRE'S COFFEE-HOUSE 96
SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE-HOUSE 99
WILL'S AND SERLE'S COFFEE-HOUSES 104
THE GRECIAN COFFEE-HOUSE 105
GEORGE'S COFFEE-HOUSE 107
THE PERCY COFFEE-HOUSE 108
PEELE'S COFFEE-HOUSE 109
Taverns.
THE TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON 110
THE BEAR AT THE BRIDGE-FOOT 122
MERMAID TAVERNS 124
THE BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN 124
THREE CRANES IN THE VINTRY 128
LONDON STONE TAVERN 128
THE ROBIN HOOD 129
PONTACK'S, ABCHURCH LANE 130
POPE'S HEAD TAVERN 131
THE OLD SWAN, THAMES-STREET 132
COCK TAVERN, THREADNEEDLE-STREET 133
CROWN TAVERN, THREADNEEDLE-STREET 134
THE KING'S HEAD TAVERN, IN THE POULTRY 135
THE MITRE, IN WOOD-STREET 141
THE SALUTATION AND CAT TAVERN 142
"SALUTATION" TAVERNS 144
QUEEN'S ARMS, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD 145
DOLLY'S, PATERNOSTER ROW 146
ALDERSGATE TAVERNS 147
"THE MOURNING CROWN" 150
JERUSALEM TAVERNS, CLERKENWELL 150
WHITE HART TAVERN, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT 152
THE MITRE, IN FENCHURCH-STREET 154
THE KING'S HEAD, FENCHURCH-STREET 155
THE ELEPHANT, FENCHURCH-STREET 156
THE AFRICAN, ST. MICHAEL'S ALLEY 157
THE GRAVE MAURICE TAVERN 159
MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, SPITALFIELDS 160
GLOBE TAVERN, FLEET-STREET 161
THE DEVIL TAVERN 162
THE YOUNG DEVIL TAVERN 169
COCK TAVERN, FLEET-STREET 170
THE HERCULES' PILLARS TAVERNS 171
HOLE-IN-THE-WALL TAVERNS 173
THE MITRE, IN FLEET-STREET 175
SHIP TAVERN, TEMPLE BAR 177
THE PALSGRAVE HEAD, TEMPLE BAR 178
HEYCOCK'S, TEMPLE BAR 178
THE CROWN AND ANCHOR, STRAND 179
THE CANARY-HOUSE, IN THE STRAND 180
THE FOUNTAIN TAVERN 181
TAVERN LIFE OF SIR RICHARD STEELE 182
CLARE MARKET TAVERNS 184
THE CRAVEN HEAD, DRURY LANE 185
THE COCK TAVERN, IN BOW-STREET 187
THE QUEEN'S HEAD, BOW-STREET 188
THE SHAKSPEARE TAVERN 189
SHUTER, AND HIS TAVERN PLACES 191
THE ROSE TAVERN, COVENT GARDEN 192
EVANS'S, COVENT GARDEN 194
THE FLEECE, COVENT GARDEN 196
THE BEDFORD HEAD, COVENT GARDEN 197
THE SALUTATION, TAVISTOCK STREET 197
THE CONSTITUTION TAVERN, COVENT GARDEN 199
THE CIDER CELLAR 199
OFFLEY'S, HENRIETTA-STREET 201
THE RUMMER TAVERN 202
SPRING GARDEN TAVERNS 204
"HEAVEN" AND "HELL" TAVERNS, WESTMINSTER 206
"BELLAMY'S KITCHEN" 208
A COFFEE-HOUSE CANARY BIRD 210
STAR AND GARTER, PALL MALL 211
THATCHED HOUSE TAVERN 217
"THE RUNNING FOOTMAN," MAY FAIR 219
PICCADILLY INNS AND TAVERNS 221
ISLINGTON TAVERNS 224
COPENHAGEN HOUSE 229
TOPHAM, THE STRONG MAN, AND HIS TAVERNS 232
THE CASTLE TAVERN, HOLBORN 234
MARYLEBONE AND PADDINGTON TAVERNS 236
KENSINGTON AND BROMPTON TAVERNS 242
KNIGHTSBRIDGE TAVERNS 249
RANELAGH GARDENS 255
CREMORNE TAVERN AND GARDENS 257
THE MULBERRY GARDEN 258
PIMLICO TAVERNS 259
LAMBETH,--VAUXHALL TAVERNS AND GARDENS, ETC. 260
FREEMASONS' LODGES 263
WHITEBAIT TAVERNS 267
THE LONDON TAVERN 274
THE CLARENDON HOTEL 279
FREEMASONS' TAVERN, GREAT QUEEN-STREET 280
THE ALBION, ALDERSGATE-STREET 283
ST. JAMES'S HALL 284
THEATRICAL TAVERNS 285
APPENDIX.
BEEFSTEAK SOCIETY 286
WHITE'S CLUB 287
THE ROYAL ACADEMY CLUB 289
DESTRUCTION OF TAVERNS BY FIRE 290
THE TZAR OF MUSCOVY'S HEAD, TOWER-STREET 291
ROSE TAVERN, TOWER-STREET 292
THE NAG'S HEAD TAVERN, CHEAPSIDE 293
THE HUMMUMS, COVENT GARDEN 295
ORIGIN OF TAVERN SIGNS 296
INDEX TO THE FIRST VOLUME 305
INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME 313
[Illustration: "The Lion's Head," at Button's Coffee-House.]
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Coffee-houses.
EARLY COFFEE-HOUSES.
Coffee is thus mentioned by Bacon, in his _Sylva Sylvarum_:--"They
have in _Turkey_ a _drink_ called _Coffee_, made of a _Berry_ of the
same name, as Black as _Soot_, and of a _Strong Sent_, but not
_Aromatical_; which they take, beaten into Powder, in _Water_, as Hot
as they can _Drink_ it; and they take it, and sit at it in their
_Coffee Houses_, which are like our _Taverns_. The _Drink_ comforteth
the _Brain_, and _Heart_, and helpeth _Digestion_."
And in Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, part i., sec. 2, occurs,
"Turks in their coffee-houses, which much resemble our taverns." The
date is 1621, several years before coffee-houses were introduced into
England.
In 1650, Wood tells us, was opened at Oxford, the first coffee-house,
by Jacobs, a Jew, "at the Angel, in the parish of St. Peter in the
East; and there it was, by some who delighted in novelty, drank."
There was once an odd notion prevalent that coffee was unwholesome,
and would bring its drinkers to an untimely end. Yet, Voltaire,
Fontenelle, and Fourcroy, who were great coffee-drinkers, lived to a
good old age. Laugh at Madame de Sévigné, who foretold that coffee and
Racine would be forgotten together!
A manuscript note, written by Oldys, the celebrated antiquary, states
that "The use of coffee in England was first known in 1657. [It will
be seen, as above, that Oldys is incorrect.] Mr. Edwards, a Turkey
merchant, brought from Smyrna to London one Pasqua Rosee, a Ragusan
youth, who prepared this drink for him every morning. But the novelty
thereof drawing too much company to him, he allowed his said servant,
with another of his son-in-law, to sell it publicly, and they set up
the first coffee-house in London, in St. Michael's alley, in Cornhill.
The sign was Pasqua Rosee's own head." Oldys is slightly in error
here; Rosee commenced his coffee-house in 1652, and one Jacobs, a Jew,
as we have just seen, had established a similar undertaking at Oxford,
two years earlier. One of Rosee's original shop or hand-bills, the
only mode of advertising in those days, is as follows:--
"THE VERTUE OF THE COFFEE DRINK,
"_First made and publickly sold in England by Pasqua Rosee._
"The grain or berry called coffee, groweth upon little trees
only in the deserts of Arabia. It is brought from thence,
and drunk generally throughout all the Grand Seignour's
dominions. It is a simple, innocent thing, composed into a
drink, by being dried in an oven, and ground to powder, and
boiled up with spring water, and about half a pint of it to
be drunk fasting an hour before, and not eating an hour
after, and to be taken as hot as possibly can be endured;
the which will never fetch the skin off the mouth, or raise
any blisters by reason of that heat.
"The Turks' drink at meals and other times is usually water,
and their diet consists much of fruit; the crudities whereof
are very much corrected by this drink.
"The quality of this drink is cold and dry; and though it be
a drier, yet it neither heats nor inflames more than hot
posset. It so incloseth the orifice of the stomach, and
fortifies the heat within, that it is very good to help
digestion; and therefore of great use to be taken about
three or four o'clock afternoon, as well as in the morning.
It much quickens the spirits, and makes the heart lightsome;
it is good against sore eyes, and the better if you hold
your head over it and take in the steam that way. It
suppresseth fumes exceedingly, and therefore is good against
the head-ache, and will very much stop any defluxion of
rheums, that distil from the head upon the stomach, and so
prevent and help consumptions and the cough of the lungs.
"It is excellent to prevent and cure the dropsy, gout,[1]
and scurvy. It is known by experience to be better than any
other drying drink for people in years, or children that
have any running humours upon them, as the king's evil, &c.
It is a most excellent remedy against the spleen,
hypochondriac winds, and the like. It will prevent
drowsiness, and make one fit for business, if one have
occasion to watch, and therefore you are not to drink of it
after supper, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will
hinder sleep for three or four hours.
"It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally
drunk, that they are not troubled with the stone, gout,
dropsy, or scurvy, and that their skins are exceeding clear
and white. It is neither laxative nor restringent.
"_Made and sold in St. Michael's-alley, in Cornhill, by
Pasqua Rosee, at the sign of his own head._"
The new beverage had its opponents, as well as its advocates. The
following extracts from _An invective against Coffee_, published about
the same period, informs us that Rosee's partner, the servant of Mr.
Edwards's son-in-law, was a coachman; while it controverts the
statement that hot coffee will not scald the mouth, and ridicules the
broken English of the Ragusan:--
"A BROADSIDE AGAINST COFFEE.
"A coachman was the first (here) coffee made,
And ever since the rest drive on the trade:
'_Me no good Engalash!_' and sure enough,
He played the quack to salve his Stygian stuff;
'_Ver boon for de stomach, de cough, de phthisick._'
And I believe him, for it looks like physic.
Coffee a crust is charred into a coal,
The smell and taste of the mock china bowl;
Where huff and puff, they labour out their lungs,
Lest, Dives-like, they should bewail their tongues.
And yet they tell ye that it will not burn,
Though on the jury blisters you return;
Whose furious heat does make the water rise,
And still through the alembics of your eyes.
Dread and desire, you fall to 't snap by snap,
As hungry dogs do scalding porridge lap.
But to cure drunkards it has got great fame;
Posset or porridge, will 't not do the same?
Confusion hurries all into one scene,
Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean.
And now, alas! the drench has credit got,
And he's no gentleman that drinks it not;
That such a dwarf should rise to such a stature!
But custom is but a remove from nature.
A little dish and a large coffee-house,
What is it but a mountain and a mouse?"
Notwithstanding this opposition, coffee soon became a favourite drink,
and the shops, where it was sold, places of general resort.
There appears to have been a great anxiety that the Coffee-house,
while open to all ranks, should be conducted under such restraints as
might prevent the better class of customers from being annoyed.
Accordingly, the following regulations, printed on large sheets of
paper, were hung up in conspicuous positions on the walls:--
"_Enter, Sirs, freely, but first, if you please,
Peruse our civil orders, which are these._
First, gentry, tradesmen, all are welcome hither,
And may without affront sit down together:
Pre-eminence of place none here should mind,
But take the next fit seat that he can find:
Nor need any, if finer persons come,
Rise up for to assign to them his room;
To limit men's expense, we think not fair,
But let him forfeit twelve-pence that shall swear:
He that shall any quarrel here begin,
Shall give each man a dish t' atone the sin;
And so shall he, whose compliments extend
So far to drink in coffee to his friend;
Let noise of loud disputes be quite forborne,
Nor maudlin lovers here in corners mourn,
But all be brisk and talk, but not too much;
On sacred things, let none presume to touch,
Nor profane Scripture, nor saucily wrong
Affairs of state with an irreverent tongue:
Let mirth be innocent, and each man see
That all his jests without reflection be;
To keep the house more quiet and from blame,
We banish hence cards, dice, and every game;
Nor can allow of wagers, that exceed
Five shillings, which ofttimes do troubles breed;
Let all that's lost or forfeited be spent
In such good liquor as the house doth vent.
And customers endeavour, to their powers,
For to observe still, seasonable hours.
Lastly, let each man what he calls for pay,
And so you're welcome to come every day."
In a print of the period, five persons are shown in a coffee-house,
one smoking, evidently, from their dresses, of different ranks of
life; they are seated at a table, on which are small basins without
saucers, and tobacco-pipes, while a waiter is serving the coffee.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] In the French colonies, where Coffee is more used than in the
English, Gout is scarcely known.
GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
This noted Coffee-house, situated in Change-alley, Cornhill, has a
threefold celebrity: tea was first sold in England here; it was a
place of great resort in the time of the South Sea Bubble; and has
since been a place of great mercantile transactions. The original
proprietor was Thomas Garway, tobacconist and coffee-man, the first
who retailed tea, recommending for the cure of all disorders; the
following is the substance of his shop bill:--"Tea in England hath
been sold in the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten pounds the
pound weight, and in respect of its former scarceness and dearness,
it hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and
entertainments, and presents made thereof to princes and grandees till
the year 1651." The said Thomas Garway did purchase a quantity
thereof, and first publicly sold the said tea in leaf and drink, made
according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and
travellers into those Eastern countries; and upon knowledge and
experience of the said Garway's continued care and industry in
obtaining the best tea, and making drink thereof, very many noblemen,
physicians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality, have ever since sent
to him for the said leaf, and daily resort to his house in
Exchange-alley, aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof; and to the end
that all persons of eminence and quality, gentlemen, and others, who
have occasion for tea in leaf, may be supplied, these are to give
notice that the said Thomas Garway hath tea to sell from "sixteen to
fifty shillings per pound." (See the document entire in Ellis's
_Letters_, series iv. 58.)
Ogilby, the compiler of the _Britannia_, had his standing lottery of
books at Mr. Garway's Coffee-house from April 7, 1673, till wholly
drawn off. And, in the _Journey through England_, 1722, Garraway's,
Robins's, and Joe's, are described as the three celebrated
Coffee-houses: in the first, the People of Quality, who have business
in the City, and the most considerable and wealthy citizens, frequent.
In the second the Foreign Banquiers, and often even Foreign Ministers.
And in the third, the Buyers and Sellers of Stock.
Wines were sold at Garraway's in 1673, "by the candle," that is, by
auction, while an inch of candle burns. In _The Tatler_, No. 147, we
read: "Upon my coming home last night, I found a very handsome present
of French wine left for me, as a taste of 216 hogsheads, which are to
be put to sale at 20_l._ a hogshead, at Garraway's Coffee-house, in
Exchange-alley," &c. The sale by candle is not, however, by
candle-light, but during the day. At the commencement of the sale,
when the auctioneer has read a description of the property, and the
conditions on which it is to be disposed of, a piece of candle,
usually an inch long, is lighted, and he who is the last bidder at the
time the light goes out is declared the purchaser.
Swift, in his "Ballad on the South Sea Scheme," 1721, did not forget
Garraway's:--
"There is a gulf, where thousands fell,
Here all the bold adventurers came,
A narrow sound, though deep as hell,
'Change alley is the dreadful name.
"Subscribers here by thousands float,
And jostle one another down,
Each paddling in his leaky boat,
And here they fish for gold and drown.
"Now buried in the depths below,
Now mounted up to heaven again,
They reel and stagger to and fro,
At their wits' end, like drunken men.
"Meantime secure on Garway cliffs,
A savage race, by shipwrecks fed,
Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs,
And strip the bodies of the dead."
Dr. Radcliffe, who was a rash speculator in the South Sea Scheme, was
usually planted at a table at Garraway's about Exchange time, to watch
the turn of the market; and here he was seated when the footman of his
powerful rival, Dr. Edward Hannes, came into Garraway's and inquired,
by way of a puff, if Dr. H. was there. Dr. Radcliffe, who was
surrounded with several apothecaries and chirurgeons that flocked
about him, cried out, "Dr. Hannes was not there," and desired to know
"who wanted him?" the fellow's reply was, "such a lord and such a
lord;" but he was taken up with the dry rebuke, "No, no, friend, you
are mistaken; the Doctor wants those lords." One of Radcliffe's
ventures was five thousand guineas upon one South Sea project. When he
was told at Garraway's that 'twas all lost, "Why," said he, "'tis but
going up five thousand pair of stairs more." "This answer," says Tom
Brown, "deserved a statue."
As a Coffee-house, and one of the oldest class, which has withstood,
by the well-acquired fame of its proprietors, the ravages of time, and
the changes that economy and new generations produce, none can be
compared to Garraway's. This name must be familiar with most people in
and out of the City; and, notwithstanding our disposition to make
allowance for the want of knowledge some of our neighbours of the
West-end profess in relation to men and things east of Temple Bar, it
must be supposed that the noble personage who said, when asked by a
merchant to pay him a visit in one of these places, "that he willingly
would, if his friend could tell him where to change horses," had
forgotten this establishment, which fostered so great a quantity of
dishonoured paper, when in other City coffee-houses it had gone
begging at 1_s._ and 2_s._ in the pound.[2]
Garraway's has long been famous as a sandwich and drinking room, for
sherry, pale ale, and punch. Tea and coffee are still served. It is
said that the sandwich-maker is occupied two hours in cutting and
arranging the sandwiches before the day's consumption commences. The
sale-room is an old fashioned first-floor apartment, with a small
rostrum for the seller, and a few commonly grained settles for the
buyers. Here sales of drugs, mahogany, and timber are periodically
held. Twenty or thirty property and other sales sometimes take place
in a day. The walls and windows of the lower room are covered with
sale placards, which are unsentimental evidences of the mutability of
human affairs.
"In 1840 and 1841, when the tea speculation was at its height, and
prices were fluctuating 6_d._ and 8_d._ per pound, on the arrival of
every mail, Garraway's was frequented every night by a host of the
smaller fry of dealers, when there was more excitement than ever
occurred on 'Change when the most important intelligence arrived.
Champagne and anchovy toasts were the order of the night; and every
one came, ate and drank, and went, as he pleased without the least
question concerning the score, yet the bills were discharged; and this
plan continued for several months."--_The City._
Here, likewise, we find this redeeming picture:--"The members of the
little _coterie_, who take the dark corner under the clock, have for
years visited this house; they number two or three old, steady
merchants, a solicitor, and a gentleman who almost devotes the whole
of his time and talents to philanthropic objects,--for instance, the
getting up of a Ball for Shipwrecked Mariners and their families; or
the organization of a Dinner for the benefit of the Distressed
Needlewomen of the Metropolis; they are a very quiet party, and enjoy
the privilege of their _séance_, uninterrupted by visitors."
We may here mention a tavern of the South Sea time, where the "Globe
_permits_" fraud was very successful. These were nothing more than
square pieces of card on which was a wax seal of the sign of the Globe
Tavern, situated in the neighbourhood of Change-alley, with the
inscription, "Sail-cloth Permits." The possessors enjoyed no other
advantage from them than permission to subscribe at some future time
to a new sail-cloth manufactory projected by one who was known to be a
man of fortune, but who was afterwards involved in the peculation and
punishment of the South Sea Directors. These Permits sold for as much
as sixty guineas in the Alley.
FOOTNOTE:
[2] _The City_, 2nd edition.
JONATHAN'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
This is another Change-alley Coffee-house, which is described in the
_Tatler_, No. 38, as "the general mart of stock-jobbers;" and the
_Spectator_, No. 1, tells us that he "sometimes passes for a Jew in
the assembly of stock-jobbers at Jonathan's." This was the rendezvous,
where gambling of all sorts was carried on; notwithstanding a formal
prohibition against the assemblage of the jobbers, issued by the City
of London, which prohibition continued unrepealed until 1825.
In the _Anatomy of Exchange Alley_, 1719, we read:--"The centre of the
jobbing is in the kingdom of Exchange-alley and its adjacencies. The
limits are easily surrounded in about a minute and a half: viz.
stepping out of Jonathan's into the Alley, you turn your face full
south; moving on a few paces, and then turning due east, you advance
to Garraway's; from thence going out at the other door, you go on
still east into Birchin-lane; and then halting a little at the
Sword-blade Bank, to do much mischief in fewest words, you immediately
face to the north, enter Cornhill, visit two or three petty provinces
there in your way west; and thus having boxed your compass, and sailed
round the whole stock-jobbing globe, you turn into Jonathan's again;
and so, as most of the great follies of life oblige us to do, you end
just where you began."
Mrs. Centlivre, in her comedy of _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_, has a
scene from Jonathan's at the above period: while the stock-jobbers are
talking, the coffee-boys are crying "Fresh coffee, gentlemen, fresh
coffee! Bohea tea, gentlemen!"
Here is another picture of Jonathan's, during the South Sea mania;
though not by an eye-witness, it groups, from various authorities, the
life of the place and the time:--"At a table a few yards off sat a
couple of men engaged in the discussion of a newly-started scheme.
Plunging his hand impatiently under the deep silver-buttoned flap of
his frock-coat of cinnamon cloth and drawing out a paper, the more
business-looking of the pair commenced eagerly to read out figures
intended to convince the listener, who took a jewelled snuff-box from
the deep pocket of the green brocade waistcoat which overflapped his
thigh, and, tapping the lid, enjoyed a pinch of perfumed Turkish as he
leaned back lazily in his chair. Somewhat further off, standing in the
middle of the room, was a keen-eyed lawyer, counting on his fingers
the probable results of a certain speculation in human hair, to which
a fresh-coloured farmer from St. Albans, on whose boots the mud of the
cattle market was not dry, listened with a face of stolid avarice,
clutching the stag-horn handle of his thonged whip as vigorously as if
it were the wealth he coveted. There strode a Nonconformist divine,
with S. S. S. in every line of his face, greedy for the gold that
perisheth; here a bishop, whose truer place was Garraway's, edged his
cassock through the crowd; sturdy ship-captains, whose manners smack
of blustering breezes, and who hailed their acquaintance as if through
a speaking-trumpet in a storm--booksellers' hacks from Grub-street,
who were wont to borrow ink-bottles and just one sheet of paper at the
bar of the Black Swan in St. Martin's-lane, and whose tarnished lace,
when not altogether torn away, showed a suspicious coppery redness
underneath--Jews of every grade, from the thriving promoter of a
company for importing ashes from Spain or extracting stearine from
sunflower seeds to the seller of sailor slops from Wapping-in-the-Wose,
come to look for a skipper who had bilked him--a sprinkling of
well-to-do merchants--and a host of those flashy hangers-on to the
skirts of commerce, who brighten up in days of maniacal speculation,
and are always ready to dispose of shares in some unopened mine or
some untried invention--passed and repassed with continuous change and
murmur before the squire's eyes during the quarter of an hour that he
sat there."--_Pictures of the Periods, by W. F. Collier LL.D._
RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE.
The Rainbow, in Fleet-street, appears to have been the second
Coffee-house opened in the metropolis.
"The first Coffee-house in London," says Aubrey (MS. in the Bodleian
Library), "was in St. Michael's-alley, in Cornhill, opposite to the
church, which was set up by one ---- Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a
Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it), in or about the yeare 1652.
'Twas about four yeares before any other was sett up, and that was by
Mr. Farr." This was the Rainbow.
Another account states that one Edwards, a Turkey merchant, on his
return from the East, brought with him a Ragusian Greek servant, named
Pasqua Rosee, who prepared coffee every morning for his master, and
with the coachman above named set up the first Coffee-house in St.
Michael's-alley; but they soon quarrelled and separated, the coachman
establishing himself in St. Michael's churchyard.--(See pp. 2 and 4,
_ante._)
Aubrey wrote the above in 1680, and Mr. Farr had then become a person
of consequence. In his _Lives_, Aubrey notes:--"When coffee first came
in, Sir Henry Blount was a great upholder of it, and hath ever since
been a great frequenter of coffee-houses, especially Mr. Farre's, at
the Rainbowe, by Inner Temple Gate."
Farr was originally a barber. His success as a coffee-man appears to
have annoyed his neighbours; and at the inquest at St. Dunstan's, Dec.
21st, 1657, among the presentments of nuisances were the
following:--"We present James Farr, barber, for making and selling of
a drink called coffee, whereby in making the same he annoyeth his
neighbours by evill smells; and for keeping of fire for the most part
night and day, whereby his chimney and chamber hath been set on fire,
to the great danger and affrightment of his neighbours." However, Farr
was not ousted; he probably promised reform, or amended the alleged
annoyance: he remained at the Rainbow, and rose to be a person of
eminence and repute in the parish. He issued a token, date 1666--an
arched rainbow based on clouds, doubtless, from the Great Fire--to
indicate that with him all was yet safe, and the Rainbow still
radiant. There is one of his tokens in the Beaufoy collection, at
Guildhall, and so far as is known to Mr. Burn, the rainbow does not
occur on any other tradesman's token. The house was let off into
tenements: books were printed here at this very time "for Samuel
Speed, at the sign of the Rainbow, near the Inner Temple Gate, in
Fleet-street." The Phoenix Fire Office was established here about
1682. Hatton, in 1708, evidently attributed Farr's nuisance to the
_coffee itself_ saying: "Who would have thought London would ever have
had three thousand such nuisances, and that coffee would have been (as
now) so much drank by the best of quality, and physicians?" The
nuisance was in Farr's chimney and carelessness, not in the coffee.
Yet, in our statute-book anno 1660 (12 Car. II. c. 24), a duty of
4_d._ was laid upon every gallon of coffee made and sold. A statute of
1663 directs that all Coffee-houses should be licensed at the Quarter
Sessions. And in 1675, Charles II. issued a proclamation to shut up
the Coffee-houses, charged with being seminaries of sedition; but in a
few days he suspended this proclamation by a second.
The _Spectator_, No. 16, notices some gay frequenters of the
Rainbow:--"I have received a letter desiring me to be very satirical
upon the little muff that is now in fashion; another informs me of a
pair of silver garters buckled below the knee, that have been lately
seen at the Rainbow Coffee-house in Fleet-street."
Mr. Moncrieff, the dramatist, used to tell that about 1780, this house
was kept by his grandfather, Alexander Moncrieff, when it retained its
original title of "The Rainbow Coffee-house." The old Coffee-room had
a lofty bay-window, at the south end, looking into the Temple: and the
room was separated from the kitchen only by a glazed partition: in the
bay was the table for the elders. The house has long been a tavern;
all the old rooms have been swept away, and a large and lofty
dining-room erected in their place.
In a paper read to the British Archæological Association, by Mr. E. B.
Price, we find coffee and canary thus brought into interesting
comparison, illustrated by the exhibition of one of Farr's Rainbow
tokens; and another inscribed "At the Canary House in the Strand,
1_d_., 1665," bearing also the word "Canary" in the monogram. Having
noticed the prosecution of Farr, and his triumph over his
fellow-parishioners, Mr. Price says:--"The opposition to coffee
continued; people viewed it with distrust, and even with alarm: and we
can sympathize with them in their alarm: when we consider that they
entertained a notion that coffee would eventually put an end to the
species; that the _genus homo_ would some day or other be utterly
extinguished. With our knowledge of the beneficial effect of this
article on the community, and its almost universal adoption in the
present day, we may smile, and wonder while we smile, at the bare
possibility of such a notion ever having prevailed. That it did so, we
have ample evidence in the "Women's Petition against Coffee," in the
year 1674, cited by D'Israeli, _Curiosities of Literature_, vol. iv.,
and in which they complain that coffee "made men as unfruitful as the
deserts whence that unhappy berry is said to be brought: that the
offspring of our mighty ancestors would dwindle into a succession of
apes and pigmies," etc. The same authority gives us an extract from a
very amusing poem of 1663, in which the writer wonders that any man
should prefer Coffee to Canary, terming them English apes, and proudly
referring them to the days of Beaumont and Fletcher and Ben Jonson.
_They_, says he,
"Drank pure nectar as the gods drink too
Sublimed with rich _Canary_; say, shall then
These less than coffee's self, these coffee-men,
These sons of nothing, that can hardly make
Their broth for laughing how the jest does take,
Yet grin, and give ye for the vine's pure blood
A loathsome potion--not yet understood,
Syrup of soot, or essence of old shoes,
Dasht with diurnals or the book of news?"
One of the weaknesses of "rare Ben" was his _penchant_ for Canary. And
it would seem that the Mermaid, in Bread-street, was the house in
which he enjoyed it most:
"But that which most doth take my muse and me,
Is a pure cup of rich _Canary wine_,
Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine."
Granger states that Charles I. raised Ben's pension from 100 marks to
100 pounds, and added a tierce of canary, which salary and its
appendage, he says, have ever since been continued to poets laureate.
Reverting to the Rainbow (says Mr. Price), "it has been frequently
remarked by 'tavern-goers,' that many of our snuggest and most
comfortable taverns are hidden from vulgar gaze, and unapproachable
except through courts, blind alleys, or but half-lighted passages." Of
this description was the house in question. But few of its many
nightly, or rather midnightly patrons and frequenters, knew aught of
it beyond its famed "stewed cheeses," and its "stout," with the
various "et ceteras" of good cheer. They little dreamed, and perhaps
as little cared to know, that, more than two centuries back, the
Rainbow flourished as a bookseller's shop; as appears by the
title-page of Trussell's _History of England_, which states it to be
"printed by M. D., for Ephraim Dawson, and are to bee sold in Fleet
Street, at the signe of the Rainbowe, neere the Inner-Temple Gate,
1636."
NANDO'S COFFEE-HOUSE
Was the house at the east corner of Inner Temple-lane, No. 17,
Fleet-street, and next-door to the shop of Bernard Lintot, the
bookseller; though it has been by some confused with Groom's house,
No. 16. Nando's was the favourite haunt of Lord Thurlow, before he
dashed into law practice. At this Coffee-house a large attendance of
professional loungers was attracted by the fame of the punch and the
charms of the landlady, which, with the small wits, were duly admired
by and at the bar. One evening, the famous cause of Douglas _v._. the
Duke of Hamilton was the topic of discussion, when Thurlow being
present, it was suggested, half in earnest, to appoint him junior
counsel, which was done. This employment brought him acquainted with
the Duchess of Queensberry, who saw at once the value of a man like
Thurlow, and recommended Lord Bute to secure him by a silk gown.
The house, formerly Nando's, has been for many years a hair-dresser's.
It is inscribed "Formerly the palace of Henry VIII. and Cardinal
Wolsey." The structure is of the time of James I., and has an enriched
ceiling inscribed P (triple plumed).
This was the office in which the Council for the Management of the
Duchy of Cornwall Estates held their sittings; for in the Calendar of
State Papers, edited by Mrs. Green, is the following entry, of the
time of Charles, created Prince of Wales four years after the death of
Henry:--"1619, Feb. 25; Prince's _Council Chamber, Fleet-street_.
--Council of the Prince of Wales to the Keepers of Brancepeth, Raby,
and Barnard Castles: The trees blown down are only to be used for
mending the pales, and no wood to be cut for firewood, nor browse for
the deer."
DICK'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
This old Coffee-house, No. 8, Fleet-street (south side, near Temple
Bar), was originally "Richard's," named from Richard Torner, or
Turner, to whom the house was let in 1680. The Coffee-room retains
its olden paneling, and the staircase its original balusters.
The interior of Dick's Coffee-house is engraved as a frontispiece to a
drama, called _The Coffee-house_, performed at Drury-lane Theatre in
1737. The piece met with great opposition on its representation, owing
to its being stated that the characters were intended for a particular
family (that of Mrs. Yarrow and her daughter), who kept Dick's, the
coffee-house which the artist had inadvertently selected as the
frontispiece.
It appears that the landlady and her daughter were the reigning toast
of the Templars, who then frequented Dick's; and took the matter up so
strongly that they united to condemn the farce on the night of its
production; they succeeded, and even extended their resentment to
every thing suspected to be this author's (the Rev. James Miller) for
a considerable time after.
Richard's, as it was then called, was frequented by Cowper, when he
lived in the Temple. In his own account of his insanity, Cowper tells
us: "At breakfast I read the newspaper, and in it a letter, which, the
further I perused it, the more closely engaged my attention. I cannot
now recollect the purport of it; but before I had finished it, it
appeared demonstratively true to me that it was a libel or satire upon
me. The author appeared to be acquainted with my purpose of
self-destruction, and to have written that letter on purpose to secure
and hasten the execution of it. My mind, probably, at this time began
to be disordered; however it was, I was certainly given to a strong
delusion. I said within myself, 'Your cruelty shall be gratified; you
shall have your revenge,' and flinging down the paper in a fit of
strong passion, I rushed hastily out of the room; directing my way
towards the fields, where I intended to find some house to die in; or,
if not, determined to poison myself in a ditch, where I could meet
with one sufficiently retired."
It is worth while to revert to the earlier tenancy of the
Coffee-house, which was, wholly or in part, the original printing
office of Richard Tottel, law-printer to Edward VI., Queens Mary and
Elizabeth; the premises were attached to No. 7, Fleet-street, which
bore the sign of "The Hand and Starre," where Tottel lived, and
published the law and other works he printed. No. 7 was subsequently
occupied by Jaggard and Joel Stephens, eminent law-printers, temp.
Geo. I.-III.; and at the present day the house is most appropriately
occupied by Messrs. Butterworth, who follow the occupation Tottel did
in the days of Edward VI., being law-publishers to Queen Victoria; and
they possess the original leases, from the earliest grant, in the
reign of Henry VIII., the period of their own purchase.
THE "LLOYD'S" OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II.
During the reign of Charles II., Coffee-houses grew into such favour,
that they quickly spread over the metropolis, and were the usual
meeting-places of the roving cavaliers, who seldom visited home but to
sleep. The following song, from Jordan's _Triumphs of London_, 1675,
affords a very curious picture of the manners of the times, and the
sort of conversation then usually met with in a well-frequented house
of the sort,--the "Lloyd's" of the seventeenth century:--
"You that delight in wit and mirth,
And love to hear such news
That come from all parts of the earth,
Turks, Dutch, and Danes, and Jews:
I'll send ye to the rendezvous,
Where it is smoaking new;
Go hear it at a coffee-house,
It cannot but be true.
"There battails and sea-fights are fought,
And bloudy plots displaid;
They know more things than e'er was thought,
Or ever was bewray'd:
No money in the minting-house
Is half so bright and new;
And coming from the _Coffee-House_,
It cannot but be true.
"Before the navies fell to work,
They knew who should be winner;
They there can tell ye what the Turk
Last Sunday had to dinner.
Who last did cut Du Ruiter's[3] corns,
Amongst his jovial crew;
Or who first gave the devil horns,
Which cannot but be true.
"A fisherman did boldly tell,
And strongly did avouch,
He caught a shole of mackerell,
They parley'd all in Dutch;
And cry'd out _Yaw, yaw, yaw, mine hare_,
And as the draught they drew,
They stunk for fear that Monk[4] was there:
This sounds as if 'twere true.
"There's nothing done in all the world,
From monarch to the mouse;
But every day or night 'tis hurl'd
Into the coffee-house:
What Lilly[5] what Booker[6] cou'd
By art not bring about,
At Coffee-house you'll find a brood,
Can quickly find it out.
"They know who shall in times to come,
Be either made or undone,
From great St. Peter's-street in Rome,
To Turnbal-street[7] in London.
"They know all that is good or hurt,
To damn ye or to save ye;
There is the college and the court,
The country, camp, and navy.
So great an university,
I think there ne'er was any;
In which you may a scholar be,
For spending of a penny.
"Here men do talk of everything,
With large and liberal lungs,
Like women at a gossiping,
With double tire of tongues,
They'll give a broadside presently,
'Soon as you are in view:
With stories that you'll wonder at,
Which they will swear are true.
"You shall know there what fashions are,
How perriwigs are curl'd;
And for a penny you shall hear
All novels in the world;
Both old and young, and great and small,
And rich and poor you'll see;
Therefore let's to the Coffee all,
Come all away with me."
FOOTNOTES:
[3] The Dutch admiral who, in June, 1667, dashed into the Downs with a
fleet of eighty sail, and many fire-ships, blocked up the mouths of
the Medway and Thames, destroyed the fortifications at Sheerness, cut
away the paltry defences of booms and chains drawn across the rivers,
and got to Chatham, on the one side, and nearly to Gravesend on the
other; the king having spent in debauchery the money voted by
Parliament for the proper support of the English navy.
[4] General Monk and Prince Rupert were at this time commanders of the
English fleet.
[5] Lilly was the celebrated astrologer of the Protectorate, who
earned great fame at that time by predicting, in June, 1645, "if now
we fight, a victory stealeth upon us:" a lucky guess, signally
verified in the King's defeat at Naseby. Lilly thenceforth always saw
the stars favourable to the Puritans.
[6] This man was originally a fishing-tackle-maker in Tower-street,
during the reign of Charles I.; but turning enthusiast, he went about
prognosticating "the downfall of the King and Popery;" and as he and
his predictions were all on the popular side, he became a great man
with the superstitious "godly brethren" of that day.
[7] Turnbal, or Turnbull-street as it is still called, had been for a
century previous of infamous repute. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play,
the _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, one of the ladies who is
undergoing penance at the barber's, has her character sufficiently
pointed out to the audience, in her declaration, that she had been
"stolen from her friends in Turnbal-street."
LLOYD'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
Lloyd's is one of the earliest establishments of the kind; it is
referred to in a poem printed in the year 1700, called the _Wealthy
Shopkeeper, or Charitable Christian_:
"Now to Lloyd's coffee-house he never fails,
To read the letters, and attend the sales."
In 1710, Steele (_Tatler_, No. 246,) dates from Lloyd's his Petition
on Coffee-house Orators and Newsvendors. And Addison, in _Spectator_,
April 23, 1711, relates this droll incident:--"About a week since
there happened to me a very odd accident, by reason of which one of
these my papers of minutes which I had accidentally dropped at Lloyd's
Coffee-house, where the auctions are usually kept. Before I missed it,
there were a cluster of people who had found it, and were diverting
themselves with it at one end of the coffee-house. It had raised so
much laughter among them before I observed what they were about, that
I had not the courage to own it. The boy of the coffee-house, when
they had done with it, carried it about in his hand, asking everybody
if they had dropped a written paper; but nobody challenging it, he was
ordered by those merry gentlemen who had before perused it, to get up
into the auction-pulpit, and read it to the whole room, that if
anybody would own it, they might. The boy accordingly mounted the
pulpit, and with a very audible voice read what proved to be minutes,
which made the whole coffee-house very merry; some of them concluded
it was written by a madman, and others by somebody that had been
taking notes out of the _Spectator_. After it was read, and the boy
was coming out of the pulpit, the Spectator reached his arm out, and
desired the boy to give it him; which was done according. This drew
the whole eyes of the company upon the Spectator; but after casting a
cursory glance over it, he shook his head twice or thrice at the
reading of it, twisted it into a kind of match, and lighted his pipe
with it. 'My profound silence,' says the Spectator, 'together with the
steadiness of my countenance, and the gravity of my behaviour during
the whole transaction, raised a very loud laugh on all sides of me;
but as I had escaped all suspicion of being the author, I was very
well satisfied, and applying myself to my pipe and the _Postman_, took
no further notice of anything that passed about me.'"
Nothing is positively known of the original Lloyd; but in 1750, there
was issued an Irregular Ode, entitled _A Summer's Farewell to the
Gulph of Venice, in the Southwell Frigate_, Captain Manly, jun.,
commanding, stated to be "printed for Lloyd, well-known for obliging
the public with the Freshest and Most Authentic Ship News, and sold by
A. More, near St. Paul's, and at the Pamphlet Shops in London and
Westminster, MDCCL."
In the _Gentleman's Magazine_, for 1740, we read:--"11 March, 1740,
Mr. Baker, Master of Lloyd's Coffee-house, in Lombard-street, waited
on Sir Robert Walpole with the news of Admiral Vernon's taking
Portobello. This was the first account received thereof, and proving
true, Sir Robert was pleased to order him a handsome present."
Lloyd's is, perhaps, the oldest collective establishment in the City.
It was first under the management of a single individual, who started
it as a room where the underwriters and insurers of ships' cargoes
could meet for refreshment and conversation. The Coffee-house was
originally in Lombard-street, at the corner of Abchurch-lane;
subsequently in Pope's-head-alley, where it was called "New Lloyd's
Coffee-house;" but on February 14th, 1774, it was removed to the
north-west corner of the Royal Exchange, where it remained until the
destruction of that building by fire.
In rebuilding the Exchange, a fine suite of apartments was provided
for Lloyd's "Subscription Rooms," which are the rendezvous of the most
eminent merchants, ship-owners, underwriters, insurance, stock, and
exchange brokers. Here is obtained the earliest news of the arrival
and sailing of vessels, losses at sea, captures, recaptures,
engagements, and other shipping intelligence; and proprietors of ships
and freights are insured by the underwriters. The rooms are in the
Venetian style, with Roman enrichments. They are--1. The Subscribers'
or Underwriters', the Merchants', and the Captains' Room. At the
entrance of the room are exhibited the Shipping Lists, received from
Lloyd's agents at home and abroad, and affording particulars of
departures or arrivals of vessels, wrecks, salvage, or sale of
property saved, etc. To the right and left are "Lloyd's Books," two
enormous ledgers: right hand, ships "spoken with," or arrived at their
destined ports; left hand: records of wrecks, fires, or severe
collisions, written in a fine Roman hand, in "double lines." To assist
the underwriters in their calculations, at the end of the room is an
Anemometer, which registers the state of the wind day and night;
attached is a rain-gauge.
The life of the underwriter is one of great anxiety and speculation.
"Among the old stagers of the room, there is often strong antipathy to
the insurance of certain ships. In the case of one vessel it was
strangely followed out. She was a steady trader, named after one of
the most venerable members of the room; and it was a curious
coincidence that he invariably refused to 'write her' for 'a single
line.' Often he was joked upon the subject, and pressed to 'do a
little' for his namesake; but he as often declined, shaking his head
in a doubtful manner. One morning the subscribers were reading the
'double lines,' or the losses, and among them was this identical ship,
which had gone to pieces, and become a total wreck."--_The City_, _2nd
edit._, 1848.
The Merchants' Room is superintended by a master, who can speak
several languages: here are duplicate copies of the books in the
underwriters' room, and files of English and foreign newspapers.
The Captains' Room is a kind of coffee-room, where merchants and
ship-owners meet captains, and sales of ships, etc. take place.