Piccadilly, a picture attributed to Hogarth, for 150 guineas; it was
described A Conversation over a Bowl of Punch, at _Old_ Slaughter's
Coffee-house, in St. Martin's-lane, and the figures were said to be
portraits of the painter, Doctor Monsey, and the landlord, _Old_
Slaughter. But this picture, as J. T. Smith shows, was painted by
Highmore, for his father's godfather, Nathaniel Oldham, and one of the
artist's patrons; "it is neither a scene at Old Slaughter's, nor are
the portraits rightly described in the sale catalogue, but a scene at
Oldham's house, at Ealing, with an old schoolmaster, a farmer, the
artist Highmore, and Oldham himself."
FOOTNOTE:
[26] Rawle was one of his Majesty's accoutrement makers; and after his
death, his effects were sold by Hutchins, in King-street, Covent
Garden. Among the lots were a helmet, a sword, and several letters, of
Oliver Cromwell; also the doublet in which Cromwell dissolved the Long
Parliament. Another singular lot was a large black wig, with long
flowing curls, stated to have been worn by King Charles II.: it was
bought by Suett, the actor, who was a great collector of wigs. He
continued to act in this wig for many years, in _Tom Thumb_, and other
pieces, till it was burnt when the theatre at Birmingham was destroyed
by fire. Next morning, Suett, meeting Mrs. Booth, the mother of the
lively actress S. Booth, exclaimed, "Mrs. Booth, my wig's gone!"
WILL'S AND SERLE'S COFFEE-HOUSES.
At the corner of Serle-street and Portugal-street, most invitingly
facing the passage to Lincoln's Inn New-square, was Will's, of old
repute, and thus described in the _Epicure's Almanack_, 1815: "This
is, indubitably, a house of the first class, which dresses very
desirable turtle and venison, and broaches many a pipe of mature port,
double voyaged Madeira, and princely claret; wherewithal to wash down
the dust of making law-books, and take out the inky blots from rotten
parchment bonds; or if we must quote and parodize Will's, 'hath a
sweet oblivious antidote which clears the cranium of that perilous
stuff that clouds the cerebellum.'" The Coffee-house has some time
being given up.
Serle's Coffee-house is one of those mentioned in No. 49, of the
_Spectator_: "I do not know that I meet in any of my walks, objects
which move both my spleen and laughter so effectually as those young
fellows at the Grecian, Squire's, Serle's, and all other Coffee-houses
adjacent to the Law, who rise for no other purpose but to publish
their laziness."
THE GRECIAN COFFEE-HOUSE,
Devereux-court, Strand, (closed in 1843,) was named from Constantine,
of Threadneedle-street, the _Grecian_ who kept it. In the _Tatler_
announcement, all accounts of learning are to be "under the title of
the Grecian;" and, in the _Tatler_, No. 6: "While other parts of the
town are amused with the present actions, [Marlborough's,] we
generally spend the evening at this table [at the Grecian], in
inquiries into antiquity, and think anything new, which gives us new
knowledge. Thus, we are making a very pleasant entertainment to
ourselves in putting the actions of Homer's Iliad into an exact
journal."
The _Spectator's_ face was very well-known at the Grecian, a
Coffee-house "adjacent to the law." Occasionally, it was the scene of
learned discussion. Thus Dr. King relates that one evening, two
gentlemen, who were constant companions, were disputing here,
concerning the accent of a Greek word. This dispute was carried to
such a length, that the two friends thought proper to determine it
with their swords: for this purpose they stepped into Devereux-court,
where one of them (Dr. King thinks his name was Fitzgerald) was run
through the body, and died on the spot.
The Grecian was Foote's morning lounge. It was handy, too, for the
young Templar, Goldsmith, and often did it echo with Oliver's
boisterous mirth; for "it had become the favourite resort of the Irish
and Lancashire Templars, whom he delighted in collecting around him,
in entertaining with a cordial and unostentatious hospitality, and in
occasionally amusing with his flute, or with whist, neither of which
he played very well!" Here Goldsmith occasionally wound up his
"Shoemaker's Holiday" with supper.
It was at the Grecian that Fleetwood Shephard told this memorable
story to Dr. Tancred Robinson, who gave Richardson permission to
repeat it. "The Earl of Dorset was in Little Britain, beating about
for books to his taste: there was _Paradise Lost_. He was surprised
with some passages he struck upon, dipping here and there and bought
it; the bookseller begged him to speak in its favour, if he liked it,
for they lay on his hands as waste paper. Jesus!--Shephard was
present. My Lord took it home, read it, and sent it to Dryden, who in
a short time returned it. 'This man,' says Dryden, 'cuts us all out,
and the ancients too!'"
The Grecian was also frequented by Fellows of the Royal Society.
Thoresby, in his _Diary_, tells us, 22 May, 1712, that "having bought
each a pair of black silk stockings in Westminster Hall, they returned
by water, and then walked, to meet his friend, Dr. Sloane, the
Secretary of the Royal Society, at the Grecian Coffee-house, by the
Temple." And, on June 12th, same year, "Thoresby attended the Royal
Society, where were present, the President, Sir Isaac Newton, both the
Secretaries, the two Professors from Oxford, Dr. Halley and Kell, with
others, whose company we after enjoyed at the Grecian Coffee-house."
In Devereux-court, also, was Tom's Coffee-house, much resorted to by
men of letters; among whom were Dr. Birch, who wrote the History of
the Royal Society; also Akenside, the poet; and there is in print a
letter of Pope's, addressed to Fortescue, his "counsel learned in the
law," at this coffee-house.
GEORGE'S COFFEE-HOUSE,
No. 213, Strand, near Temple Bar, was a noted resort in the last and
present century. When it was a coffee-house, one day, there came in
Sir James Lowther, who after changing a piece of silver with the
coffee-woman, and paying twopence for his dish of coffee, was helped
into his chariot, for he was very lame and infirm, and went home: some
little time afterwards, he returned to the same coffee-house, on
purpose to acquaint the woman who kept it, that she had given him a
bad half-penny, and demanded another in exchange for it. Sir James had
about 40,000_l._ per annum, and was at a loss whom to appoint his
heir.
Shenstone, who found
"The warmest welcome at an inn,"
found George's to be economical. "What do you think," he writes, "must
be my expense, who love to pry into everything of the kind? Why, truly
one shilling. My company goes to George's Coffee-house, where, for
that small subscription I read all pamphlets under a three shillings'
dimension; and indeed, any larger would not be fit for coffee-house
perusal." Shenstone relates that Lord Orford was at George's, when
the mob that were carrying his Lordship in effigy, came into the box
where he was, to beg money of him, amongst others: this story Horace
Walpole contradicts, adding that he supposes Shenstone thought that
after Lord Orford quitted his place, he went to the coffee-house to
learn news.
Arthur Murphy frequented George's, "where the town wits met every
evening." Lloyd, the law-student, sings:--
"By law let others toil to gain renown!
Florio's a gentleman, a man o' the town.
He nor courts clients, or the law regarding,
Hurries from Nando's down to Covent Garden,
Yet, he's a scholar; mark him in the pit,
With critic catcall sound the stops of wit!
Supreme at George's, he harangues the throng,
Censor of style, from tragedy to song."
THE PERCY COFFEE-HOUSE,
Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, no longer exists; but it will be kept
in recollection for its having given name to one of the most popular
publications, of its class, in our time, namely, the _Percy
Anecdotes_, "by Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the Benedictine
Monastery of Mont Benger," in 44 parts, commencing in 1820. So said
the title pages, but the names and the locality were _supposé_. Reuben
Percy was Thomas Byerley, who died in 1824; he was the brother of Sir
John Byerley, and the first editor of the _Mirror_, commenced by John
Limbird, in 1822. Sholto Percy was Joseph Clinton Robertson, who died
in 1852; he was the projector of the _Mechanics' Magazine_, which he
edited from its commencement to his death. The name of the collection
of Anecdotes was not taken, as at the time supposed, from the
popularity of the _Percy Reliques_, but from the Percy Coffee-house,
where Byerley and Robertson were accustomed to meet to talk over their
joint work. The _idea_ was, however, claimed by Sir Richard Phillips,
who stoutly maintained that it originated in a suggestion made by him
to Dr. Tilloch and Mr. Mayne, to cut the anecdotes from the many
years' files of the _Star_ newspaper, of which Dr. Tilloch was the
editor, and Mr. Byerley assistant editor; and to the latter
overhearing the suggestion, Sir Richard contested, might the _Percy
Anecdotes_ be traced. They were very successful, and a large sum was
realized by the work.
PEELE'S COFFEE-HOUSE,
Nos. 177 and 178, Fleet-street, east corner of Fetter-lane, was one of
the Coffee-houses of the Johnsonian period; and here was long
preserved a portrait of Dr. Johnson, on the key-stone of a
chimney-piece, stated to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Peele's was noted for files of newspapers from these dates: _Gazette_,
1759; _Times_, 1780; _Morning Chronicle_, 1773; _Morning Post_, 1773;
_Morning Herald_, 1784; _Morning Advertiser_, 1794; and the evening
papers from their commencement. The house is now a tavern.
Taverns.
THE TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON.
The changes in the manners and customs of our metropolis may be
agreeably gathered from such glimpses as we gain of the history of
"houses of entertainment" in the long lapse of centuries. Their
records present innumerable pictures in little of society and modes,
the interest of which is increased by distance. They show us how the
tavern was the great focus of news long before the newspaper fully
supplied the intellectual want. Much of the business of early times
was transacted in taverns, and it is to some extent in the present
day. According to the age, the tavern reflects the manners, the social
tastes, customs, and recreations; and there, in days when travelling
was difficult and costly, and not unattended with danger, the
traveller told his wondrous tale to many an eager listener; and the
man who rarely strayed beyond his own parish, was thus made acquainted
with the life of the world. Then, the old tavern combined, with much
of the comfort of an English home, its luxuries, without the
forethought of providing either. Its come-and-go life presented many a
useful lesson to the man who looked beyond the cheer of the moment.
The master, or taverner, was mostly a person of substance, often of
ready wit and cheerful manners--to render his public home attractive.
The "win-hous," or tavern, is enumerated among the houses of
entertainment in the time of the Saxons; and no doubt existed in
England much earlier. The peg-tankard, a specimen of which we see in
the Ashmolean Collection at Oxford, originated with the Saxons; the
pegs inside denoted how deep each guest was to drink: hence arose the
saying, "he is a peg too low," when a man was out of spirits. The
Danes were even more convivial in their habits than the Saxons, and
may be presumed to have multiplied the number of "guest houses," as
the early taverns were called. The Norman followers of the Conqueror
soon fell into the good cheer of their predecessors in England.
Although wine was made at this period in great abundance from
vineyards in various parts of England, the trade of the taverns was
principally supplied from France. The traffic for Bordeaux and the
neighbouring provinces is said to have commenced about 1154, through
the marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor of Aquitaine. The Normans were
the great carriers, and Guienne the place whence most of our wines
were brought; and which are described in this reign to have been sold
in the ships and in the wine-cellars near the public place of cookery,
on the banks of the Thames. We are now speaking of the customs of
seven centuries since; of which the public wine-cellar, known to our
time as _the Shades_, adjoining old London Bridge, was unquestionably
a relic.
The earliest dealers in wines were of two descriptions: the
_vintners_, or importers; and the _taverners_, who kept taverns for
them, and sold the wine by retail to such as came to the tavern to
drink it, or fetched it to their own homes.
In a document of the reign of Edward II., we find mentioned a
tenement called Pin Tavern, situated in the Vintry, where the Bordeaux
merchants _craned_ their wines out of lighters, and other vessels on
the Thames; and here was the famous old tavern with the sign of the
_Three Cranes_. Chaucer makes the apprentice of this period loving
better the tavern than the shop:--
"A prentis whilom dwelt in our citee,--
At ev'ry bridale would he sing and hoppe;
He loved bet' the _tavern_ than the shoppe,
For when ther any riding was in Chepe,
Out of the shoppe thider would he lepe;
And til that he had all the sight ysein
And dancid wil, he wold not com agen."
Thus, the idle City apprentice was a great tavern haunter, which was
forbidden in his indenture; and to this day, the apprentice's
indenture enacts that he shall not "haunt taverns."
In a play of 1608, the apprentices of old Hobson, a rich citizen, in
1560, frequent the _Rose and Crown_, in the Poultry, and the _Dagger_,
in Cheapside.
"_Enter Hobson, Two Prentices, and a Boy._
"1 PREN. Prithee, fellow Goodman, set forth the ware, and
looke to the shop a little. I'll but drink a cup of wine
with a customer, at the Rose and Crown in the Poultry, and
come again presently.
"2 PREN. I must needs step to the _Dagger in Cheape_, to
send a letter into the country unto my father. Stay, boy,
you are the youngest prentice; look you to the shop."
In the reign of Richard II., it was ordained by statute that "the
wines of Gascoine, of Osey, and of Spain," as well as Rhenish wines,
should not be sold above sixpence the gallon; and the taverners of
this period frequently became very rich, and filled the highest civic
offices, as sheriffs and mayors. The fraternity of vintners and
taverners, anciently the Merchant Wine Tonners of Gascoyne, became the
Craft of Vintners, incorporated by Henry VI. as the Vintners' Company.
The curious old ballad of London Lyckpenny, written in the reign of
Henry V., by Lydgate, a monk of Bury, confirms the statement of the
prices in the reign of Richard II. He comes to Cornhill, when the
wine-drawer of the Pope's Head tavern, standing without the
street-door, it being the custom of drawers thus to waylay passengers,
takes the man by the hand, and says,--"Will you drink a pint of wine?"
whereunto the countryman answers, "A penny spend I may," and so drank
his wine. "For bread nothing did he pay"--for that was given in. This
is Stow's account: the ballad makes the taverner, not the drawer,
invite the countryman; and the latter, instead of getting bread for
nothing, complains of having to go away hungry:--
"The taverner took me by the sleeve,
'Sir,' saith he, 'will you our wine assay?'
I answered, 'That cannot much me grieve,
A penny can do no more than it may;'
I drank a pint, and for it did pay;
Yet, sore a-hungered from thence I yede,
And, wanting money, I could not speed," etc.
There was no eating at taverns at this time, beyond a crust to relish
the wine; and he who wished to dine before he drank, had to go to the
cook's.
The furnishing of the Boar's Head, in Eastcheap, with sack, in Henry
IV., is an anachronism of Shakspeare's; for the vintners kept neither
sacks, muscadels, malmseys, bastards, alicants, nor any other wines
but white and claret, until 1543. All the other sweet wines before
that time, were sold at the apothecaries' shops for no other use but
for medicine.
Taking it as the picture of a tavern a century later, we see the
alterations which had taken place. The single drawer or taverner of
Lydgate's day is now changed to a troop of waiters, besides the under
skinker, or tapster. Eating was no longer confined to the cook's row,
for we find in Falstaff's bill "a capon 2_s._ 2_d._; sack, two
gallons, 5_s._ 8_d._; anchovies and sack, after supper, 2_s._ 6_d._;
bread, one halfpenny." And there were evidently _different rooms_[27]
for the guests, as Francis[28] bids a brother waiter "Look down in the
Pomgranite;" for which purpose they had windows, or loopholes,
affording a view from the upper to the lower apartments. The custom of
naming the principal rooms in taverns and hotels is usual to the
present day.
Taverns and wine-bibbing had greatly increased in the reign of Edward
VI., when it was enacted by statute that no more than 8_d._ a gallon
should be taken for any French wines, and the consumption limited in
private houses to ten gallons each person yearly; that there should
not be "any more or great number of taverns in London of such tavernes
or wine sellers by retaile, above the number of fouretye tavernes or
wyne sellers," being less than two, upon an average to each parish.
Nor did this number much increase afterwards; for in a return made to
the Vintners' Company, late in Elizabeth's reign, there were only one
hundred and sixty-eight taverns in the whole city and suburbs.
It seems to have been the fashion among old ballad-mongers, street
chroniclers, and journalists, to sing the praises of the taverns in
rough-shod verse, and that lively rhyme which, in our day, is termed
"patter." Here are a few specimens, of various periods.
In a black-letter poem of Queen Elizabeth's reign, entitled _Newes
from Bartholomew Fayre_, there is this curious enumeration:
"There hath been great sale and utterance of Wine,
Besides Beere, and Ale, and Ipocras fine,
In every country, region, and nation,
But chiefly in Billingsgate, at the _Salutation_;
And the _Bore's Head_, near London Stone;
The _Swan_ at Dowgate, a tavern well knowne;
The _Miter_ in Cheape, and then the _Bull Head_;
And many like places that make noses red;
The _Bore's Head_ in Old Fish-street; _Three Cranes_ in the Vintry;
And now, of late, St. Martins in the Sentree;
The _Windmill_ in Lothbury; the _Ship_ at th' Exchange;
_King's Head_ in New Fish-street, where roysterers do range;
The _Mermaid_ in Cornhill; _Red Lion_ in the Strand;
_Three Tuns_ in Newgate Market; Old Fish-street at the _Swan_."
This enumeration omits the Mourning Bush, adjoining Aldersgate,
containing divers large rooms and lodgings, and shown in Aggas's plan
of London, in 1560. There are also omitted The Pope's Head, The London
Stone, The Dagger, The Rose and Crown, etc. Several of the above
_Signs_ have been continued to our time in the very places mentioned;
but nearly all the original buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire
of 1666; and the few which escaped have been re-built, or so altered,
that their former appearance has altogether vanished.
The following list of taverns is given by Thomas Heywood, the author
of the fine old play of _A Woman killed with Kindness_. Heywood, who
wrote in 1608, is telling us what particular houses are frequented by
particular classes of people:--
"The Gentry to the King's Head,
The nobles to the Crown,
The Knights unto the Golden Fleece,
And to the Plough the Clown.
The churchman to the Mitre,
The shepherd to the Star,
The gardener hies him to the Rose,
To the Drum the man of war;
To the Feathers, ladies you; the Globe
The seaman doth not scorn;
The usurer to the Devil, and
The townsman to the Horn.
The huntsman to the White Hart,
To the Ship the merchants go,
But you who do the Muses love,
The sign called River Po.
The banquerout to the World's End,
The fool to the Fortune Pie,
Unto the Mouth the oyster-wife,
The fiddler to the Pie.
The punk unto the Cockatrice,
The Drunkard to the Vine,
The beggar to the Bush, then meet,
And with Duke Humphrey dine."
In the _British Apollo_ of 1710, is the following doggrel:--
"I'm amused at the signs,
As I pass through the town,
To see the odd mixture--
A Magpie and Crown,
The Whale and the Crow,
The Razor and the Hen,
The Leg and Seven Stars,
The Axe and the Bottle,
The Tun and the Lute,
The Eagle and Child,
The Shovel and Boot."
In _Look about You_, 1600, we read that "the drawers kept sugar folded
up in paper, ready for those who called for _sack_;" and we further
find in another old tract, that the custom existed of bringing two
cups of _silver_ in case the wine should be wanted diluted; and this
was done by rose-water and sugar, generally about a pennyworth. A
sharper in the _Bellman of London_, described as having decoyed a
countryman to a tavern, "calls for two pintes of sundry wines, the
drawer setting the wine with _two cups_, as the custome is, the
sharper tastes of one pinte, no matter which, and finds fault with the
wine, saying, ''tis too hard, but rose-water and sugar would send it
downe merrily'--and for that purpose takes up one of the cups, telling
the stranger he is well acquainted with the boy at the barre, and can
have two-pennyworth of rose-water for a penny of him; and so steps
from his seate: the stranger suspects no harme, because the fawne
guest leaves his cloake at the end of the table behind him,--but the
other takes good care not to return, and it is then found that he
hath stolen ground, and out-leaped the stranger more feet than he can
recover in haste, for the cup is leaped with him, for which the
wood-cock, that is taken in the springe, must pay fifty shillings, or
three pounds, and hath nothing but an old threadbare cloake not worth
two groats to make amends for his losses."
Bishop Earle, who wrote in the first half of the seventeenth century,
has left this "character" of a tavern of his time. "A tavern is a
degree, or (if you will) a pair of stairs above an alehouse, where men
are drunk with more credit and apology. If the vintner's nose be at
the door, it is a sign sufficient, but the absence of this is supplied
by the ivy-bush. It is a broacher of more news than hogsheads, and
more jests than news, which are sucked up here by some spungy brain,
and from thence squeezed into a comedy. Men come here to make merry,
but indeed make a noise, and this music above is answered with a
clinking below. The drawers are the civilest people in it, men of good
bringing up, and howsoever we esteem them, none can boast more justly
of their high calling. 'Tis the best theatre of natures, where they
are truly acted, not played, and the business as in the rest of the
world up and down, to wit, from the bottom of the cellar to the great
chamber. A melancholy man would find here matter to work upon, to see
heads, as brittle as glasses, and often broken; men come hither to
quarrel, and come here to be made friends; and if Plutarch will lend
me his simile, it is even Telephus's sword that makes wounds, and
cures them. It is the common consumption of the afternoon, and the
murderer or the maker away of a rainy day. It is the torrid zone that
scorches the face, and tobacco the gunpowder that blows it up. Much
harm would be done if the charitable vintner had not water ready for
the flames. A house of sin you may call it, but not a house of
darkness, for the candles are never out; and it is like those
countries far in the north, where it is as clear at midnight as at
mid-day. After a long sitting it becomes like a street in a dashing
shower, where the spouts are flushing above, and the conduits running
below, etc. To give you the total reckoning of it, it is the busy
man's recreation, the idle man's business, the melancholy man's
sanctuary, the stranger's welcome, the inns-of-court man's
entertainment, the scholar's kindness, and the citizen's courtesy. It
is the study of sparkling wits, and a cup of comedy their book, whence
we leave them."
The conjunction of vintner and victualler had now become common, and
would require other accommodation than those mentioned by the Bishop,
as is shown in Massinger's _New Way to pay Old Debts_, where Justice
Greedy makes Tapwell's keeping no victuals in his house as an excuse
for pulling down his sign: