THE PERCY COFFEE-HOUSE,

"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 thatLord 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."

"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."

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, thePercy 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 weresupposé. Reuben Percy was Thomas Byerley, who died in 1824; he was the brother of Sir John Byerley, and the first editor of theMirror, commenced by John Limbird, in 1822. Sholto Percy was Joseph ClintonRobertson, who died in 1852; he was the projector of theMechanics' 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 thePercy Reliques, but from the Percy Coffee-house, where Byerley and Robertson were accustomed to meet to talk over their joint work. Theideawas, 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 theStarnewspaper, of which Dr. Tilloch was the editor, and Mr. Byerley assistant editor; and to the latter overhearing the suggestion, Sir Richard contested, might thePercy Anecdotesbe traced. They were very successful, and a large sum was realized by the work.

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.

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 asthe Shades, adjoining old London Bridge, was unquestionably a relic.

The earliest dealers in wines were of two descriptions: thevintners, or importers; and thetaverners, 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 findmentioned a tenement called Pin Tavern, situated in the Vintry, where the Bordeaux merchantscranedtheir wines out of lighters, and other vessels on the Thames; and here was the famous old tavern with the sign of theThree 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' thetavernthan 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 yseinAnd dancid wil, he wold not com agen."

"A prentis whilom dwelt in our citee,—

At ev'ry bridale would he sing and hoppe;

He loved bet' thetavernthan 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 theRose and Crown, in the Poultry, and theDagger, in Cheapside.

"Enter Hobson, Two Prentices, and a Boy."1Pren. 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."2Pren. I must needs step to theDagger in Cheape, to send a letter into the country unto my father. Stay, boy, you are the youngest prentice; look you to the shop."

"Enter Hobson, Two Prentices, and a Boy.

"1Pren. 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.

"2Pren. I must needs step to theDagger 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 civicoffices, 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.

"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 winesbefore 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 2s.2d.; sack, two gallons, 5s.8d.; anchovies and sack, after supper, 2s.6d.; bread, one halfpenny." And there were evidentlydifferent 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 8d.a gallon should be taken for anyFrench 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, entitledNewes 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 theSalutation;And theBore's Head, near London Stone;TheSwanat Dowgate, a tavern well knowne;TheMiterin Cheape, and then theBull Head;And many like places that make noses red;TheBore's Headin Old Fish-street;Three Cranesin the Vintry;And now, of late, St. Martins in the Sentree;TheWindmillin Lothbury; theShipat th' Exchange;King's Headin New Fish-street, where roysterers do range;TheMermaidin Cornhill;Red Lionin the Strand;Three Tunsin Newgate Market; Old Fish-street at theSwan."

"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 theSalutation;

And theBore's Head, near London Stone;

TheSwanat Dowgate, a tavern well knowne;

TheMiterin Cheape, and then theBull Head;

And many like places that make noses red;

TheBore's Headin Old Fish-street;Three Cranesin the Vintry;

And now, of late, St. Martins in the Sentree;

TheWindmillin Lothbury; theShipat th' Exchange;

King's Headin New Fish-street, where roysterers do range;

TheMermaidin Cornhill;Red Lionin the Strand;

Three Tunsin Newgate Market; Old Fish-street at theSwan."

This enumeration omits the Mourning Bush, adjoiningAldersgate, 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 aboveSignshave 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 ofA 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 GlobeThe seaman doth not scorn;The usurer to the Devil, andThe 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."

"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 theBritish Apolloof 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."

"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."

InLook about You, 1600, we read that "the drawers kept sugar folded up in paper, ready for those who called forsack;" and we further find in another old tract, that the custom existed of bringing two cups ofsilverin case the wine should be wanted diluted; and this was done by rose-water and sugar, generally about a pennyworth. A sharper in theBellman of London, described as having decoyed a countryman to a tavern, "calls for two pintes of sundry wines, the drawer setting the wine withtwo 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 carenot 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 scorchesthe 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'sNew 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:

"Thou never hadst in thy house to stay men's stomachs,A piece of Suffolk cheese, or gammon of bacon,Or any esculent as the learned call it,For their emolument, butsheer drink only.For which gross fault I here do damn thy licence,Forbidding thee henceforth to tap or draw;For instantly I will in mine own person,Command the constable to pull down thy sign,And do't before I eat."

"Thou never hadst in thy house to stay men's stomachs,

A piece of Suffolk cheese, or gammon of bacon,

Or any esculent as the learned call it,

For their emolument, butsheer drink only.

For which gross fault I here do damn thy licence,

Forbidding thee henceforth to tap or draw;

For instantly I will in mine own person,

Command the constable to pull down thy sign,

And do't before I eat."

And the decayed vinter, who afterwards applies to Wellborn for payment of his tavern score, answers, on his inquiring who he is:

"A decay'd vintner, Sir;That might have thriv'd, but that your worship broke meWith trusting you with muscadine and eggs,Andfive-pound suppers, with your after-drinkings,When you lodged upon the Bankside."

"A decay'd vintner, Sir;

That might have thriv'd, but that your worship broke me

With trusting you with muscadine and eggs,

Andfive-pound suppers, with your after-drinkings,

When you lodged upon the Bankside."

Dekker tells us, near this time, of regular ordinaries of three kinds: 1st. An ordinary of the longest reckoning, whither most of your courtly gallants do resort: 2nd. A twelvepenny ordinary, frequented by the justice of the peace, a young Knight; and a threepenny ordinary, to which your London usurer, your stale bachelor, and your thrifty attorney, doth resort. Then Dekker tells us of a custom, especially in the City, to send presents of wine from one room to another, as a complimentary mark of friendship. "Inquire," directs he, "what gallants sup in the next room; and if they be of your acquaintance, do not, after the City fashion, send them in a pottle of wine and your name." Then, we read of Master Brook sending to the Castle Inn at Windsor, a morning draught of sack.

Ned Ward, in theLondon Spy, 1709, describes several famous taverns, and among them the Rose, anciently, the Rose and Crown, as famous for good wine. "There was no parting," he says, "without a glass; so we went into the Rose Tavern in the Poultry, where the wine, according to its merit, had justly gained a reputation; and there, in a snug room, warmed with brash and faggot, over a quart of good claret, we laughed over our night's adventure."

"From hence, pursuant to my friend's inclination, we adjourned to the sign of the Angel, in Fenchurch-street, where the vintner, like a double-dealing citizen, condescended as well to draw carmen's comfort as the consolatory juice of the vine.

"Having at the King's Head well freighted the hold of our vessels with excellent food and delicious wine, at a small expense, we scribbled the following lines with chalk upon the wall." (See page98.)

The tapster was a male vendor, not "a woman who had the care of the tap," as Tyrwhitt states. In the 17th century ballad,The Times, occurs:

"The bar-boyes and the tapstersLeave drawing of their beere,And running forth in haste they cry,'See, where Mull'd Sack comes here!'"

"The bar-boyes and the tapsters

Leave drawing of their beere,

And running forth in haste they cry,

'See, where Mull'd Sack comes here!'"

The ancient drawers and tapsters were now superseded by the barmaid, and a number of waiters: Ward describes the barmaid as "all ribbon, lace, and feathers, and making such a noise with her bell and her tongue together, that had half-a-dozen paper-mills been at work within three yards of her, they'd have signified no more to her clamorous voice than so many lutes to a drum, which alarmed two or three nimble fellows aloft, who shot themselves downstairs with as much celerity as a mountebank's mercury upon a rope from the top of a church-steeple, every one charged with a mouthful of coming, coming, coming." The barmaid (generally the vintner's daughter) is described as "bred at the dancing-school, becoming a bar well, stepping a minuet finely, playing sweetly on the virginals, 'John come kiss me now, now, now,' and as proud as she was handsome."

Tom Brown sketches a flirting barmaid of the same time, "as a fine lady that stood pulling a rope, and screaming like a peacock against rainy weather, pinned up by herself in a little pew, all people bowing to her as they passed by, as if she was a goddess set up to beworshipped, armed with the chalk and sponge, (which are the principal badges that belong to that honourable station you beheld her in,) was thebarmaid."

Of the nimbleness of the waiters, Ward says in another place—"That the chief use he saw in the Monument was, for the improvement of vintners' boys and drawers, who came every week to exercise their supporters, and learn the tavern trip, by running up to the balcony and down again."

Owen Swan, at the Black Swan tavern, Bartholomew Lane, is thus apostrophized by Tom Brown for the goodness of his wine:—

"Thee,Owen, since the God of wine has madeThee steward of the gay carousing trade,Whose art decaying nature still supplies,Warms the faint pulse, and sparkles in our eyes.Be bountiful like him, bring t'otherflask,Were the stairs wider we would have thecask.This pow'r we from the God of wine derive,Draw such as this, and I'll pronounce thou'lt live."

"Thee,Owen, since the God of wine has made

Thee steward of the gay carousing trade,

Whose art decaying nature still supplies,

Warms the faint pulse, and sparkles in our eyes.

Be bountiful like him, bring t'otherflask,

Were the stairs wider we would have thecask.

This pow'r we from the God of wine derive,

Draw such as this, and I'll pronounce thou'lt live."

This celebrated tavern, situated in Southwark, on the west side of the foot of London Bridge, opposite the end of St. Olave's or Tooley-street, was a house of considerable antiquity. We read in the accounts of the Steward of Sir John Howard, March 6th, 1463-4 (Edward IV.), "Item, payd for red wyn at the Bere in Southwerke, iijd." Garrard, in a letter to Lord Strafford, dated 1633intimates that "all back-doors to taverns on the Thames are commanded to be shut up, only the Bear at Bridge Foot is exempted, by reason of the passage to Greenwich," which Mr. Burn suspects to have been "the avenue or way called Bear Alley."

The Cavaliers' Ballad on the funeral pageant of Admiral Deane, killed June 2nd, 1653, while passing by water to Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster, has the following allusion:—

"From Greenwich towards the Bear at Bridge foot,He was wafted with wind that had water to't,But I think they brought the devil to boot,Which nobody can deny."

"From Greenwich towards the Bear at Bridge foot,

He was wafted with wind that had water to't,

But I think they brought the devil to boot,

Which nobody can deny."

Pepys was told by a waterman, going through the bridge, 24th Feb. 1666-7, that the mistress of the Beare Tavern, at the Bridge foot, "did lately fling herself into the Thames, and drown herself."

The Bear must have been a characterless house, for among its gallantries was the following, told by Wycherley to Major Pack, "just for the oddness of the thing." It was this: "There was a house at the Bridge Foot where persons of better condition used to resort for pleasure and privacy. The liquor the ladies and their lovers used to drink at these meetings was canary; and among other compliments the gentlemen paid their mistresses, this it seems was always one, to take hold of the bottom of their smocks, and pouring the wine through that filter, feast their imaginations with the thought of what gave the zesto, and so drink a health to the toast."

The Bear Tavern was taken down in December, 1761, when the labourers found gold and silver coins, of the time of Elizabeth, to a considerable value. The wall that enclosed the tavern was not cleared away until 1764,when the ground was cleared and levelled quite up to Pepper Alley stairs. There is a Token of the Bear Tavern, in the Beaufoy cabinet, which, with other rare Southwark tokens, was found under the floors in taking down St. Olave's Grammar School in 1839.

The celebrated Mermaid, in Bread-street, with the history of "the Mermaid Club," has been described in Vol. I. pp.8-10; its interest centres in this famous company of Wits.

There was another Mermaid, in Cheapside, next to Paul's Gate, and still another in Cornhill. Of the latter we find in Burn's Beaufoy Catalogue, that the vintner, buried in St. Peter's, Cornhill, in 1606, "gave forty shillings yearly to the parson for preaching four sermons every year, so long as the lease of the Mermaid, in Cornhill, (the tavern so called,) should endure. He also gave to the poor of the said parish thirteen penny loaves every Sunday, during the aforesaid lease." There are tokens of both these taverns in the Beaufoy Collection.

This celebrated Shakspearean tavern was situated in Great Eastcheap, and is first mentioned in the time of Richard II.; the scene of the revels of Falstaff andHenry V., when Prince of Wales, in Shakspeare's Henry IV., Part 2. Stow relates a riot in "the cooks' dwellings" here on St. John's eve, 1410, by Princes John and Thomas. The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, but was rebuilt in two years, as attested by a boar's head cut in stone, with the initials of the landlord, I. T., and the date 1668, above the first-floor window. This sign-stone is now in the Guildhall library. The house stood between Small-alley and St. Michael's-lane, and in the rear looked upon St. Michael's churchyard, where was buried adrawer, or waiter, at the tavern, d. 1720: in the church was interred John Rhodoway, "Vintner at the Bore's Head," 1623.

Maitland, in 1739, mentions the Boar's Head, as "the chief tavern in London" under the sign. Goldsmith (Essays), Boswell (Life of Dr. Johnson), and Washington Irving (Sketch-book), have idealized the house as the identical place which Falstaff frequented, forgetting its destruction in the Great Fire. The site of the Boar's Head is very nearly that of the statue of King William IV.

In 1834, Mr. Kempe, F.S.A., exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries a carved oak figure of Sir John Falstaff, in the costume of the 16th century; it had supported an ornamental bracket over one side of the door of the Boar's Head, a figure of Prince Henry sustaining that on the other. The Falstaff was the property of one Shelton, a brazier, whose ancestors had lived in the shop he then occupied in Great Eastcheap, since the Great Fire. He well remembered the last Shakspearean grand dinner-party at the Boar's Head, about 1784: at an earlier party, Mr. Wilberforce was present. A boar's head, with tusks, which had been suspended in aroom of the tavern, perhaps the Half-Moon or Pomegranate, (see Henry IV. act ii. sc. 4,) at the Great Fire, fell down with the ruins of the house, and was conveyed to Whitechapel Mount, where, many years after, it was recovered, and identified with its former locality. At a public house, No. 12, Miles-lane, was long preserved a tobacco-box, with a painting of the original Boar's Head Tavern on the lid.[29]

In High-street, Southwark, in the rear of Nos. 25 and 26, was formerly theBoar's Head Inn, part of Sir John Falstolf's benefaction to Magdalen College, Oxford. Sir John was one of the bravest generals in the French wars, under the fourth, fifth, and sixth Henries; but he is not the Falstaff of Shakspeare. In theReliquiæ Hearnianæ, edited by Dr. Bliss, is the following entry relative to this bequest:—

"1721. June 2.—The reason why they cannot give so good an account of the benefaction of Sir John Fastolf to Magd. Coll. is, because he gave it to the founder, and left it to his management, so that 'tis suppos'd 'twas swallow'd up in his own estate that he settled it upon the college. However, the college knows this, that theBoar's Headin Southwark, which was then an inn, and still retains the name, tho' divided into several tenements (which bring the college about 150l.per ann.), was part of Sir John's gift."

The above property was for many years sublet to the family of the author of the present Work, at the rent of 150l.per annum; the cellar, finely vaulted, and excellent for wine, extended beneath the entire court, consisting of two rows of tenements, and two end houses, with galleries, the entrance being from the High-street. The premises were taken down for the New LondonBridge approaches. There was also a noted Boar's Head in Old Fish-street.

Can he forget who has read Goldsmith's nineteenth Essay, his reverie at the Boar's Head?—when, having confabulated with the landlord till long after "the watchman had gone twelve," and suffused in the potency of his wine a mutation in his ideas, of the person of the host into that of Dame Quickly, mistress of the tavern in the days of Sir John, is promptly effected, and the liquor they were drinking seemed shortly converted into sack and sugar. Mrs. Quickly's recital of the history of herself and Doll Tearsheet, whose frailties in the flesh caused their being both sent to the house of correction, charged with having allowed the famed Boar's Head to become a low brothel; her speedy departure to the world of Spirits; and Falstaff's impertinences as affecting Madame Proserpine; are followed by an enumeration of persons who had held tenancy of the house since her time. The last hostess of note was, according to Goldsmith's account, Jane Rouse, who, having unfortunately quarrelled with one of her neighbours, a woman of high repute in the parish for sanctity, but as jealous as Chaucer's Wife of Bath, was by her accused of witchcraft, taken from her own bar, condemned, and executed accordingly!—These were times, indeed, when women could not scold in safety. These and other prudential apophthegms on the part of Dame Quickly, seem to have dissolved Goldsmith's stupor of ideality; on his awaking, the landlord is really the landlord, and not the hostess of a former day, when "Falstaff was in fact an agreeable old fellow, forgetting age, and showing the way to be young at sixty-five. Age, care, wisdom, reflection, begone! I give you to the winds. Let's havet'other bottle. Here's to the memory of Shakspeare, Falstaff, and all the merry men of Eastcheap."[30]

This was one of Ben Jonson's taverns, and has already been incidentally mentioned. Strype describes it as situate in "New Queen-street, commonly called the Three Cranes in the Vintry, a good open street, especially that part next Cheapside, which is best built and inhabited. At the lowest end of the street, next the Thames, is a pair of stairs, the usual place for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to take water at, to go to Westminster Hall, for the new Lord Mayor to be sworn before the Barons of the Exchequer. This place, with the Three Cranes, is now of some account for the costermongers, where they have their warehouse for their fruit." In Scott'sKenilworthwe hear much of this Tavern.

This tavern, situated in Cannon-street, near the Stone, is stated, but not correctly, to have been the oldest in London. Here was formed a society, afterwards the famous Robin Hood, of which the history was published in 1716, where it is stated to have originated in a meeting of the editor's grandfather with the great Sir Hugh Myddelton, of New River memory. King Charles II. was introduced to the society, disguised, by Sir Hugh,and the King liked it so well, that he came thrice afterwards. "He had," continues the narrative, "a piece of black silk over his left cheek, which almost covered it; and his eyebrows, which were quite black, he had, by some artifice or other, converted to a light brown, or rather flaxen colour; and had otherwise disguised himself so effectually in his apparel and his looks, that nobody knew him but Sir Hugh, by whom he was introduced." This is very circumstantial, but is very doubtful; since Sir Hugh Myddelton died when Charles was in his tenth year.

Mr. Akerman describes a Token of the Robin Hood Tavern:—"IOHNTHOMLINSON AT THE. An archer fitting an arrow to his bow; a small figure behind, holding an arrow.—℞.IN CHISWELL STREET, 1667. In the centre,HIS HALFE PENNY, andI. S. T." Mr. Akerman continues:

"It is easy to perceive what is intended by the representation on the obverse of this token. Though 'Little John,' we are told, stood upwards of six good English feet without his shoes, he is here depicted to suit the popular humour—a dwarf in size, compared with his friend and leader, the bold outlaw. The proximity of Chiswell-street to Finsbury-fields may have led to the adoption of the sign, which was doubtless at a time when archery was considered an elegant as well as an indispensable accomplishment of an English gentleman. It is far from obsolete now, as several low public-houses and beer-shops in the vicinity of London testify. Oneof them exhibits Robin Hood and his companion dressed in the most approved style of 'Astley's,' and underneath the group is the following irresistible invitation to slake your thirst:—

"Ye archers bold and yeomen good,Stop and drink with Robin Hood:If Robin Hood is not at home,Stop and drink with little John.

"Ye archers bold and yeomen good,

Stop and drink with Robin Hood:

If Robin Hood is not at home,

Stop and drink with little John.

"Our London readers could doubtless supply the variorum copies of this elegant distich, which, as this is an age for 'Family Shakspeares,' modernized Chaucers, and new versions of 'Robin Hood's Garland,' we recommend to the notice of the next editor of the ballads in praise of the Sherwood freebooter."

After the destruction of the White Bear Tavern, in the Great Fire of 1666, the proximity of the site for all purposes of business, induced M. Pontack, the son of the President of Bordeaux, owner of a famous claret district, to establish a tavern, with all the novelties of French cookery, with his father's head as a sign, whence it was popularly called "Pontack's Head." The dinners were from four or five shillings a head "to a guinea, or what sum you pleased."

Swift frequented the tavern, and writes to Stella:—"Pontack told us, although his wine was so good, he sold it cheaper than others; he took but seven shillingsa flask. Are not these pretty rates?" In theHind and Panther Transversed, we read of drawers:—

"Sure these honest fellows have no knackOf putting off stum'd claret for Pontack."

"Sure these honest fellows have no knack

Of putting off stum'd claret for Pontack."

The Fellows of the Royal Society dined at Pontack's until 1746, when they removed to the Devil Tavern. There is a Token of the White Bear in the Beaufoy collection; and Mr. Burn tells us, fromMetamorphoses of the Town, a rare tract, 1731, of Pontack's "guinea ordinary," "ragout of fatted snails," and "chickens not two hours from the shell." In January, 1735, Mrs. Susannah Austin, who lately kept Pontack's, and had acquired a considerable fortune, was married to William Pepys, banker, in Lombard-street.

This noted tavern, which gave name to Pope's Head Alley, leading from Cornhill to Lombard-street, is mentioned as early as the 4th Edward IV. (1464) in the account of a wager between an Alicant goldsmith and an English goldsmith; the Alicant stranger contending in the tavern that "Englishmen were not so cunning in workmanship of goldsmithry as Alicant strangers;" when work was produced by both, and the Englishman gained the wager. The tavern was left in 1615, by Sir William Craven to the Merchant Tailors' Company. Pepys refers to "the fine painted room" here in 1668-9. In the tavern, April 14, 1718, Quin, the actor, killed inself-defence, his fellow-comedian, Bowen, a clever but hot-headed Irishman, who was jealous of Quin's reputation: in a moment of great anger, he sent for Quin to the tavern, and as soon as he had entered the room, Bowen placed his back against the door, drew his sword, and bade Quin draw his. Quin, having mildly remonstrated to no purpose, drew in his own defence, and endeavoured to disarm his antagonist. Bowen received a wound, of which he died in three days, having acknowledged his folly and madness, when the loss of blood had reduced him to reason. Quin was tried and acquitted. (Cunningham, abridged.) The Pope's Head Tavern was in existence in 1756.

Was more than five hundred years ago a house for public entertainment: for, in 1323, 16 Edw. II., Rose Wrytell bequeathed "the tenement of olde tyme called the Swanne on the Hope in Thames-street," in the parish of St. Mary-at-hill, to maintain a priest at the altar of St. Edmund, King and Martyr, "for her soul, and the souls of her husband, her father, and mother:" and the purposes of her bequest were established; for, in the parish book, in 1499, is entered a disbursement of fourpence, "for a cresset to Rose Wrytell's chantry." Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, in 1440, in her public penance for witchcraft and treason, landed at Old Swan, bearing a large taper, her feet bare, etc.

Stow, in 1598, mentions the Old Swan as a great brew-house. Taylor, the Water-poet, advertised theprofessor and author of the Barmoodo and Vtopian tongues, dwelling "at the Old Swanne, neare London Bridge, who will teach them at are willing to learne, with agility and facility."

In the scurrilous Cavalier ballad of Admiral Deane's Funeral, by water, from Greenwich to Westminster, in June, 1653, it is said:—

"The Old Swan, as he passed by,Said she would sing him a dirge, lye down and die:Wilt thou sing to a bit of a body? quoth I,Which nobody can deny."

"The Old Swan, as he passed by,

Said she would sing him a dirge, lye down and die:

Wilt thou sing to a bit of a body? quoth I,

Which nobody can deny."

The Old Swan Tavern and its landing-stairs were destroyed in the Great Fire; but rebuilt. Its Token, in the Beaufoy Collection, is one of the rarest, of large size.

This noted house, which faced the north gate of the old Royal Exchange, was long celebrated for the excellence of its soups, which were served at an economical price, in silver. One of its proprietors was, it is believed, John Ellis, an eccentric character, and a writer of some reputation, who died in 1791. Eight stanzas addressed to him in praise of the tavern, commenced thus:—

"When to Ellis I write, I in verse must indite,Come Phœbus, and give me a knock,For on Fryday at eight, all behind 'the 'Change gate,'Master Ellis will be at 'The Cock.'"

"When to Ellis I write, I in verse must indite,

Come Phœbus, and give me a knock,

For on Fryday at eight, all behind 'the 'Change gate,'

Master Ellis will be at 'The Cock.'"

After comparing it to other houses, the Pope's Head,the King's Arms, the Black Swan, and the Fountain, and declaring the Cock the best, it ends:

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